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
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