Daily Prophets
Day 150
“Now say to the House of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: If you defile yourselves as your fathers did and go astray after their detestable things…I will not respond to you. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm I will bring you out of the peoples and gather you… I will bring you into the bond of the covenant… you will remember your ways and actions which defiled you and your will loathe for the evils you committed. When I do not deal with you in accordance to your evil ways and corrupt acts, you will know I am God.”(Ezekiel 20: 30,31,34,37,43,44).
This chapter of Ezekiel portrays his speaking to certain elders of Israel who came to him to ask what God wanted/was saying. This is, of course, a recognition of Ezekiel’s status as a prophet. We have another recounting of our history of forgetting God, breaking the covenant, and following the ways of our heart/mind and not staying loyal to God, who brought us out of Egypt, etc.
God is telling Ezekiel in the first verse above to let the elders know that the false sacrifices and offerings that were happening at the Temple prior to its destruction were never accepted. Rather, the priests, the royals, the people in power fooled themselves into believing that God would be placated with empty rituals. In this verse, God is putting this self-deceptive way of being to rest, hopefully. Yet, how often are we still guilty of believing we can do the detestable actions of our ancestors as well as new ones we think up and believe we can assuage God and another(s)? We are so deeply committed to the lies we tell ourselves and mendacity as the way to be in the world that these words of the prophet and God seem like hyperbole and unnecessary!
God’s response to our willful blindness is to, once again, save us from ourselves as well as from Babylon, with an “outstretched arm and strong hand”. Yet, even this is not enough, as God has learned. People forget the miracle of salvation pretty quickly. My wife, Harriet Rossetto, says: “gratitude lasts 72 hours”. This is how long it took the Israelites to begin complaining after being taken out of Egypt. God also is going to bring us into the bond of the covenant. We will undergo a bonding experience with God and, hopefully, this bonding experience will imprint the covenant on our hearts, in our minds and unlock the power of our spirit. Without this imprinting, without this bonding, we will repeat our detestable actions, as I am reading Ezekiel. While this was written 2500 years ago, by some accounts, it is as real and continues to happen over and over again. Because so many refuse to become bonded with God, because we reject the imprint of our moments with God, we continue to contribute to our own demise, as nations, as a world and as individuals.
After the bonding experience, after acceptance of the covenant with God, we have to do T’Shuvah for our past actions, as the last verses above teach us. We have to do our inventory and regret our past errors. We also get to be grateful that, for most of us, God does not keep score nor go ‘tit for tat’ with us. Rather, God’s mercy is overflowing and God’s mercy is shown through the same strong hand and outstretched arm that was spoken about earlier. What I am understanding, again, is that mercy, forgiveness are attributes of God’s strength, and ours as well, even though we deceive ourselves to think of these attributes as weakness. Isn’t it time for us to let the fog lift, the self-deception leave and be part of the Oneness of God, the oneness of humanity?
In recovery, we have experienced the bonding with the covenant with God and we carry the imprint of this experience with us daily. We acknowledge God’s ability to “restore us to sanity” and turning “our will and our lives over the care of God…” are two actions we take daily, sometimes many times a day. When we acknowledge the gifts God and life has given us, when we are able to see obligations as “get to” rather than ‘have to’, we are living from this imprint. In recovery, we are constantly searching our inner life to root out the small things that lead us to doing the detestable things that separate us from God, our soul and our authenticity. In recovery, we continue to respond to God’s call, be of service to another(s) and help them to be bonded with the covenant and with God.
I have also experienced this bonding and I have done detestable things. While many of us want to live in either/or; if you do one bad thing, you are bad; Ezekiel is letting us know that we live in a both/and world. While I have been characterized by some for my less than stellar behaviors, by my traits that are most out of proper measure, this chapter reminds me that T’Shuvah is what God wants and accepts. I also am reminded that while God accepts everyone’s T’Shuvah-people often don’t. I realize they are afraid to do as God and the prophet are suggesting; look at their own detestable actions and repent. Doing this means we have to see our imperfections, correct our actions and allow the imprint of this bonding experience to heal and grow our imperfections to serve us, God and another(s). I also accept and embrace the teaching of mercy and forgiveness that Ezekiel is imparting to us. I no longer resent nor am angry at the people who want to define me by my last ‘bad’ action. I no longer feel hurt by these actions, God’s message of mercy and forgiveness allow me to do both with these people because I ‘get to’ as a member of this new covenant with God. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark