I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. – Ezra 9:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 21, 2017): Ezra 9

Actress Priyanka Chopra once commented “Black, brown, white, yellow – why are we always talking about colors? I’m a girl. I believe in a global community.” I agree, although as a white male my opinion on this matter often doesn’t count. I am viewed as a part of some elite, even though that is not the experience that I carry through life. I am convinced that the idea of community is essential. My whiteness is irrelevant. Our world is filled with beautiful color that enhances everything that we do. We exist in a global and color-filled community.

The existence of a global community is one reason why protectionism bothers me. The world in which walls meant something died when we invented planes and rockets with the capability to fly over the walls. We need to understand all struggles are global problems that require all of us to solve. There can be no real success at solving the problems of environmental care, poverty, racism or many others unless we are willing to partake in the global community and recognize that our membership in the human race requires that we go beyond our national borders. Success requires community. Of course, the flip side is also true. Failure is never limited to the individual; when one fails, we all have failed.

Ezra sets the example for us in this. He has just entered the scene, and he is told of the failure of the community. There is no indication that any of this failure is his. There is no cause to believe that Ezra’s theology had, in the past, been misguided. He has moved from exile back to Judah with the intention of making a difference. And yet he refuses to chastise the people for their shortcomings. His prayer does not say that their, the people’s, sins are higher than their heads. He says “our sins.” Even though he had nothing to do with what had happened, before God, he places himself in the middle of the community and repents of the communities shortcomings.

And not only does Ezra repent of the sins of the community, he feels for the community. The words “ashamed” and “disgraced” speak of a two-pronged process. First, Ezra understood and felt the shame of the sin. But it was not enough to stop there. Next, Ezra felt the physical discomfort and pain that the shame brought with it. He could have avoided that pain by reminding himself that he was blameless of the wrongdoing. But as a leader of the community, he refused to do that.

Shame is an emotion that usually brings change. And that change is, in part, because of the pain that we feel as a result of our shame – what this passage calls disgrace. As a member of the global community, we must allow ourselves to feel the disgrace, because only then will we have the reason to find the answer. As long as we don’t feel the pain, it will forever be someone else’s problem – and global repentance and change will never take place.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezra 10