Daily Prophets
Day 156
“God says: I am going to take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to…and bring them to their own land. I will make them a single nation in the land..Never again shall they be two nations…Nor should they defile themselves by their fetishes…I will cleanse them. I will make a covenant of wholeness, welcoming and peace with them and it shall be forever. I will place my holiness in them forever. I will dwell with them…(Ezekiel 37:21-23,26-28)
Ezekiel is continuing his prophecy of hope and goodness in our future. He begins the chapter by saying that God tells him the dry bones he is seeing represent the hopelessness of the people and God will breath air into them and then spirit into them and the verses above will be the result.
The prophet is giving us a futuristic look and prayer in his words. Yet, I believe these words of prophecy have happened for many of us. No, I am not saying all of us are moving to Israel, nor am I saying that we are a people that agrees and gets along with each other. What I am saying is every time we recite the Shema, every time we acknowledge the Mezuzah, every time we “walk in God’s ways” we are being part of the people Israel. I know Israel is more than a religion, it is an idea, a way of being that is open and welcoming to all. The idea and way of being is that The Ineffable One always wants our return and wants us to live well. God is involved and cares about our living and our growth. We have reached a critical mass, I believe, in this journey which is why the authoritarians and the reactionaries are fighting so hard to keep control all across the world.
The path we choose to take hinges on the words of Ezekiel above, I believe. When we join together, when we can hear each other and celebrate our differences and find compromise/different ways of being that are acceptable, when we live in ways that are human and humane, when we commit to a life that is compatible with being created in the Image of God, we will achieve the Oneness that Ezekiel is speaking of. We will do this because we have chosen God over idolatry, we have chosen decency over our fetishes and we have allowed ourselves to be cleansed and we continue to do T’Shuvah to keep our side of the street clean. We need to say Hineni once and for all! We need to commit to letting go our facades, our masks, our false egos and our need to be in charge and surrender our falseness to God so we can be authentic and kind to self and another(s). I believe we are near the tipping point of turning it over to God because I believe the middle path is growing stronger each and every day. The people on the extremes are wearing thinner each day-hence, a centrist was elected President of the United States last November.
When we as individuals appreciate the life that is in us, the breaths we take and the spirit that motivates us, we can fully and truly enter into the covenant that God is offering us. Too many of us want to pick and choose, negotiate and renegotiate, agree only to break the covenant ‘in secret’. Here, Ezekiel is telling us that God is offering us the whole deal, the covenant of peace, wholeness and welcoming, allowing for our errors, desiring our return, knowing our weaknesses, God wants us with all of our warts and all of our beauty!
The prophet is reiterating the promise, the truth that God dwells in us, around us, among us and God puts holiness inside of us. What a scary statement. I am surrounded by God, I am imbued with God’s spirit and can use the power of God’s spirit to help and heal or destroy and be selfish. When I see another human being, I have to see God because of this prophecy, when I look in the mirror, I have to see the Image of God that I get to do my part today to grow my covenant with God and another(s). Looking at the Holiness Code, I realize that growing my spirit, my holiness and my unique contribution is not that difficult as long as I am willing to surrender to God’s ways, God’s path and God’s love.
In recovery, this is our story. We were dead and God revived us through hearing a call, through another human being, through love and hope, through community and through kindness. We have seen and continue to see the coming together of our beings, the goodness of another person(s), the miracle of returning and being accepted, and the joy of connection. We grow our spirit each and every day through service, community, prayer, kindness, love, justice, amends, change and truth. In recovery, we live our gratitude for being revived, our being welcomed back by God, our growing more whole each day and finding more and more peace within us.
I continue to experience the welcoming of and by God. I see these verses as a call to never stay stuck. Staying in the same place because it is ‘safe’ can dry up our bones quickly. Fear of “them” and bureaucracy can dry us up also. The Pandemic and my feeling exiled from my former place, I realize, are wake-up calls to me to exercise my spirit and let go of my fears that block me and remember God is calling me and get to live God’s holiness daily. Surrendering to God is the path and I am experiencing God’s love even when I don’t realize it. I am committing to being more aware of God’s call, God’s love and God’s joy to and for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark