But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel. – Joshua 7:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 3, 2019): Joshua 7

Philosopher William James argued that “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.” Maybe that is one of the biggest lessons that I learned from playing sports. There is nothing more terrifying, and I know this first hand, than making a mistake and realizing that unless you can turn a situation around, it is not just you that you are letting down; it is the group of people who are walking with you that are going to suffer because of the actions you have taken. And sports are just games. Life is, well, life.

And yet we often take a more individualistic path to life. Fundamentally, we believe that life is about me. I do what is best for me so that I can get ahead of you. We often, at least privately, celebrate the struggles of others because it gives us an advantage in the struggle. In life, it often seems that there is no such thing as a team. It is just me. Governments lobby against having to fund things like social assistance and medical care, programs that care of the least of these, the weakest links who live among us, often complaining about the drain that these programs place on our fiscal structures. And often the question that we ask is, how does this affect me?

When Jakelin Caal Maquin, a seven-year-old girl, died after being taken into custody with 162 other migrants at a remote southern border crossing in the United States in December 2018, for a lot of people the impact was minimal because it had nothing to do with me. For many Americans, it did not seem to matter that there was a level of cover-up involved in the incident, or that the death took place on American soil. What mattered was that they weren’t involved.

We seem to miss the radical statement at the beginning of the story of Achan’s sin. There is no doubt about who is “guilty in action” in this story. The man’s name is Achan. His neighbors could all stand up point straight at Achan and say “we did not do it, he did it. This story is just not about us; it is about him. The story is all about Achan and his sin.” But what is amazing is that God does not seem to see it that way. Achan sins, and the anger of God burns against all of Israel. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and in this case, Israel was only as strong as Achan. And Israel was going to have to pay the penalty for the sin of one man named Achan. In fact, Israel was being declared to be guilty because of the sins of this same man.

Whether we want to agree with him or not, William James is right, at the very least in the eyes of God. “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.” Life is not the story of me; it is the story of us. And even nations are increasingly dependent on each other. None of us are great in isolation. We are great when we stand together. And to insist that life is about me would seem to be to stand against the understanding of God. We really do need each other, and none of us are any stronger, or any richer, than the weakest who walk among of us. Welcome to the story of us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 8