Daily Prophets
Day 151
“And I said,”God, they say about me that I speak in allegories only.” Thus said God, for causing your guilt to be remembered and your sins revealed-all of your misdeeds-because you have brought your guilt to be remembered, you will be held responsible. This shall not remain as it is; exalt the low and abase the high.”(Ezekiel 21:5,29,31).
We have to remember that Ezekiel is giving the people a history lesson-Jerusalem has fallen and the Temple is destroyed. I believe this to be an example of both survivors guilt and Ezekiel’s distress regarding the way his fellow priests went along with the mendacity of the kings and the wealthy as well as his own guilt in being part of the power structure that helped to lead people away from God instead of bringing them closer.
He begins by saying the people don’t listen to him, they think he speaks in allegory and/or riddles. He is giving both an excuse for his lack of effectiveness and a lament for what this brings about within the people and the land. Ezekiel is very aware of his role as a priest, I believe, and he knows and is guilty for himself and his fellow priests for their disregard for God and their participation in ‘looking good while doing not good’.
We see this today in our clergy and in our leaders. While no one is perfect, the role of the Clergy, in my opinion, is to speak truth to the people, to power and to lead/provide a path to a higher state of living and being. Every clergy person gets the honor of helping another human being live a little better by bringing them into and helping them grow in their connection to God/Higher Power/Higher Consciousness-whatever one wants to call the Creative Force of the Universe. When we fail to do this, the failure reverberates throughout the world, when we are part of the solution, the solution becomes the new basis for living lives compatible with being a partner with God. Unfortunately, we seem to be falling back to the days prior to the destruction of Jerusalem with the mendacity of so many clergy members. Rather than preach the word of God as God speaks, they want to preach their words and say it is God. They are the false prophets of today.
It is not just clergy, however. Leaders of many kinds and stripes do this. As God says above, in the second verse, our continued actions in opposition to what God truly wants brings about the remembrance of past deeds and the things we have been hiding. We promote the idea that because we are ‘right’, we alone speak the words of God, we are the righteous ones, etc, that we can do whatever we want and it is okay. Ezekiel and God are telling us we are engaging in erroneous thinking and terrible actions. We all know people who, whatever their political/social position, believe they can do whatever they want because they are proponents of a ‘righteous cause’. Be it progressives who have disdain for people they see as ignorant-anyone who doesn’t agree with them or conservatives who have disdain for anyone who wants to have/share power-or believes in all people having the same privileges.
We cause them to be revealed. We are the people who, in our self-deception, believe whatever we do is good and whatever ‘they’ do isn’t. Our actions grow in mendacity, cruelty and they cause us to debase ourselves further and further. Which, in turn, causes our destruction and, unfortunately, the destruction of innocents as well as us guilty ones! So, we have to begin to see how the crown may need to come off of the people we have allowed to lead us to ruin and destruction. We need to take action and remove the crowns we have put on people who are engaging in saying one thing and doing another, people who are unwilling to leave their self-deception and spreading of mendacity, and place them on the people who, everyday, work to improve their authentic connection with God and make themselves one grain of sand better each day.
In recovery, we know that we can no longer be nor follow false prophets and false people. We are engaging in a process which I call “Spiritual Sobriety” every day. In recovery, we know the destruction we have caused by our being chameleons and leading others to ruin as well. We are constantly listening with our souls to the words that come from God/Higher Power so we don’t stray from the path of decency, truth and justice. We are aware of receiving God’s mercy because we turned after God allowed us to experience the consequences of our mendacity and we are grateful to experience the mercy of God’s forgiveness and yours.
I know the pain of Ezekiel and I know the mendacity he speaks of. I have caused destruction through my own self-deceptions and I have been ruined by the mendacity and lies of people. The ruin I have caused, I continually realize and make amends-the people who have worked to destroy me, they are still defending themselves. I work hard to be clear and concise, I know at times I take leaps in thinking and speaking because I can’t keep up with the thoughts and words of God as they come to me. I also get angry for and with God and I am sorry to people who don’t understand my anger. I pray for the people who still need to live in their mendacious ways and I pray for the people who are harmed by them. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark