Today’s Scripture Reading (June 20,
2013): Amos 3
In sport,
hands lifted up seems to have a double meaning. For the athlete, it often means
I didn’t do it. But for the referee in charge of the game it often identifies
the main suspect of the crime. Often I wonder if athletes could just learn to
ignore the result of the illegal action if fewer penalties would get called.
Probably the answer is no – but all of this hand raising just seems to make the
refs job too easy. But it is not just in the arena of sports that we play the
anti-blame game. We often appear to want to escape the responsibility we bear
for our own actions. And sometimes we even ask God to play that role in our
lives. We come to God with our apologies hoping that somehow we can escape the
consequences for what it is that we have done. But it doesn’t really work that
way. Forgiveness does not always mean that there is not a price to be paid for
our deeds – that somehow miraculously consequences can be waived. Sometimes we
still have to pay the bill that we have run up with our own behavior.
The Law of
Moses specifically states that the shepherd is responsible for the sheep under
his care. The only way that the law is ever overturned and the shepherd is
considered blameless is if what happened to the sheep is obviously beyond the
shepherd’s ability to protect or beyond the shepherd’s capability to control–
for instance, in the case of a lion attack. No master would ever blame the
shepherd for the loss of sheep because of a lion – obviously a lion trumps
whatever actions could have been taken by the shepherd. So after a lion attack
it, was the shepherd’s responsibility to collect whatever small remains that
could be found to prove the existence of an attack – and the shepherd’s
innocence in the loss of sheep.
God is
speaking through Amos about the future of Israel and God is telling them that
he is the innocent shepherd. This is a hard allusion for those of us who hold
to the idea that God is in control of everything because God seems to be saying
that what is about to happen to Israel is outside of his ability to protect and
his ability to control. He will rescue the remnant of the attack, but the remnant
will be proof of his innocence just as it is for the shepherd on the hill. What
is about to happen is totally the responsibility of the people who have chosen
their own paths.
I am
convinced that God could be in control, he could be omnipotent, but in his
relationship with humankind he has chosen to give up that power – and hand it
over to us. And the result of that decision is that fate no longer reigns over
our lives. We are the ones that have the control to shape our lives in its most
important aspects. And when we crash and burn, there is really no one left to
blame – but us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 4
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