Their faces had the same appearance as those I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight ahead. - Ezekiel 10:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 31, 2017) Ezekiel 10

Political revolutions often promise to be the winds of change. They will blow through London, Washington, Paris, or Ottawa and sweep away the garbage that has accumulated under previous administrations. They will be a breath of fresh air, and as a result, new ideas will arise. Often there is a promise that under the new government, a bipartisan focus will emerge out of partisan politics.

But the reality is that these things are rarely accomplished. In politics, there are often too many human-built obstacles to deflect the winds of change. We soon begin to realize that it is not a wind of change that we need. What is required is a tornado or hurricane of the revolution that is needed to bring the necessary adjustments, a wind strong enough to blow away all of the protective structures that we have built along with the garbage so that we can begin to rebuild something new. But politicians are rarely willing to blow everything up. And even if they were willing, the unfortunate truth is that we would likely just rebuild the same structures after the wind had left.  After all, it is what we know, and the politicians who would be in charge of the rebuilding process are also part of the system and often part of what must be dispensed.

Cherubim are often personified as the wind. But in this case, these celestial beings might be better described as a hurricane of change. Ezekiel says that they cherubim “went straight ahead.” They were undeterred by the human-made barriers. They had been sent from the throne room of God, and their purpose was to be undeterred. Nothing was going to stop them. They were the change that would sweep away the chaff along with any of the other structures – including the walls and the temple of Jerusalem. They were the unyielding purpose of God. Even the most precious possessions of the human race would be forever changed by their path.

Sometimes God’s purpose appears in the wind of the cherubim. Sometimes it comes in the fire which also has an unyielding quality and destroys everything in its path. Sometimes it speaks in a whisper, but wherever God focusses his vision, the cherubim move in straight lines, and change, even to the most precious things of life, is always the result.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 11

Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple. – Ezekiel 9:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 30, 2017): Ezekiel 9

The failure last week of the repeal of Obamacare was sad, not just because the health care system in the United States needs serious help, but because of the mentality of those entrusted with the power to make the change. At least from the outside looking in, there seems to have been no attempt to arrive at a bipartisan solution to the problem. In fact, the reverse was evident. There were splits within the splits. And every voice seemed to be saying the same thing – “unless I get what I want, I will vote against this bill.” There is frustration with the Freedom Caucus, which is a politically far-right meeting of the minds, which were part of this problem. The Freedom Caucus was at odds with other conservatives. And to get the votes of some of the Freedom Caucus members, they had to adjust the bill, and those adjustments meant that they lost other conservative members who had been planning on voting yes. The result is that something that needs to be fixed is going to be left to implode. And, as President Trump predicts, that is not going to be pretty.

My dream in all politics is that we could build more centrist alliances, rather than the ones that seem to exist on the extreme edges of the political system. These alliances would be bipartisan and might be the places where the hard discussions might be able to start. Hard conversations, and there is little doubt that Health Care is a hard conversation, need a place to start – a place where the dream can begin to build into a reality.

Ezekiel’s vision is a violent one. However, the violence probably goes hand in hand with the importance of the issue. It was not that some people had acted inappropriately; that they offered hate instead of love, selfishness instead of generosity, or that they had insisted on the easy response rather than working toward the right answer. The problem with the system was that there were people who were doing wrong who held no regret for their actions. All that had been left were people who were pointing their fingers at other people. The problem did not exist within them and the things that they had done – it was always that someone else was the cause. Detestable acts had been committed, but no one was willing to take responsibility for those acts.

Again, this is just a vision of Ezekiel, but in this vision God takes action against those who refused to take responsibility and grieve the wrong that had been committed. This violent response began in the temple, the place that should have been the heart of right action within the community. If the priest did not grieve the sin committed, then who else would? So, in Ezekiel’s vision, the killing began “with the old men who were in front of the temple.”

 

Maybe the political and religious leaders of our day need to spend a little more time with Spiderman (yes, the comic book superhero.) Stan Lee places the moral of his superhero story in the mouth of Spiderman’s Uncle Ben (actually, the original phrase in the Spiderman is unattributed.) “With great power, there must also come – great responsibility.” Ezekiel would seem to agree. And for Ezekiel, the penalty starts with those who have failed at their responsibility. 

What would happen to the health care system in the United States if, rather than waiting for Obamacare to implode, those with the responsibility for repairing the systems (the President and his cabinet as well as the members of congress and the senate and all of their families) were barred from using health care (doctor’s appointments, specialists, hospital care, x-rays and testing) until the job was completed. My suspicion is that we might have a workable solution within a few days. But the problem is that none of the people responsible for the health care system are going to have to pay the price when the system implodes. They have great power, but it would seem almost no responsibility. According to God, that is an untenable situation. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 10

He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. – Ezekiel 8:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 29, 2017) Ezekiel 8

As a culture, we have a negative reaction to the concept of jealousy. B. C. Forbes. The Scottish financial writer and the founder of Forbes magazine even called jealousy a “mental cancer.” Saint Augustine argued that anyone who was jealous was also “incapable of love.” So it is a little surprising to have the word applied to God. However, jealousy is applied to God in several places, including in this passage. So the only question that we can ask is this – when we speak of jealousy as a characteristic, is the jealousy of God the same as the jealousy that we experience as part of the human race? And the answer to the question is a qualified no.

The jealousy that we have an adverse reaction to is the illogical emotion that causes so much damage in our lives. This jealousy is closely related to lack of trust. And Forbes and Augustine are both right, this kind of jealousy is a cancer and it prohibits the experience of love. This green-eyed monster reacts with too little evidence and causes damage to relationships that could be healthy if it were not for the jealousy. This kind of jealousy is always self-directed and selfish in nature.

God’s jealousy is different. For starters, it is never based on a lack of trust, nor is it selfish in nature. God’s jealousy is always in defense of his creation, and it builds on a covenant that he has made with his people. Because of this covenant, God and his message are to be carried to the world. God’s words to Abraham at the beginning of the story were that all of the earth would be blessed through God’s blessing of Abraham. God loves the world that he has created, and desired to be a blessing, but the path of this blessing was always supposed to be through a group of people.

But the people rejected God, and therefore the blessing that was meant for the world was never given. And this is what aroused God’s jealousy. The people of Israel and the world that he loved were suffering and, for God, there was no other possible response. It was not a selfish jealousy, but rather one borne out of love for his creation.

So God gives Ezekiel a vision. He takes him to the temple gate and shows him the image in the temple that had caused God to be jealous – and Israel to lose the power that should have been theirs. We don’t know what the idol was that provoked this reaction from God, most experts believe that it was an image of Baal, but it doesn’t really matter. Any image would cause God to be jealous and for his blessing to cease to flow to his creation.

There is still a people that God wants to use to bless the world. I believe that this people is still Israel, but that the Christian church, the adopted children of Abraham, have been added to the fight. But that can only happen if we put our idols away and allow God to bless us. Any other response will do nothing but arouse the jealousy of God one more time.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 9