Sentinels and Responsibility

Monday, May, 12, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 106:1-18 (morning) 106:19-48 (evening)
Ezekiel 33:1-11
1 John 1:1-10
Matthew 9:27-34

In our gospel reading from Matthew today, Jesus touches the eyes of two blind men, and their eyes are opened. They can see. A person who is mute is brought to Jesus, and Jesus casts out the demon that has bound his speech.

But the religious authorities are not impressed. They have their traditional, comfortable beliefs and interests. They know blindness and muteness are judgments God serves upon sinners. To them, this touching-and-demon-business is blasphemy. "By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons," they say. They'll do whatever they can to discredit Jesus and defend their orthodoxies.

The obvious irony is that these authorities are actually blind and mute. They see and hear, but do not understand the goodness and truth that is presented to them. The implication is that because they have seen and rejected, they are under some form of judgment. How culpable are these religious authorities for their failure to understand what they see?

In the first reading from Ezekiel, the prophet outlines a clear statement of responsibility and culpability. If some disaster is approaching, a disaster that can be prevented by prompt action, and a sentinel who recognizes the approaching trouble does not speak a word of warning, the sentinel is responsible not only for his own failure to speak but also for the resulting consequences. The people who fail to act because they did not receive the warning are freed of any guilt.

But if a sentinel sees approaching trouble and speaks a warning, anyone who fails to act to avert the disaster will be held responsible and culpable.

The great question of culpability in the Watergate investigations was "What did you know and when did you know it?" The follow-up question is always, "When you learned, what did you do?"

I can imagine Ezekiel's voice speaking in our generation. Sentinels have spoken to us of impending disaster and they have told us what we can do to avoid them. The scientific consensus is compelling about the looming disasters of global climate change and the link to human contribution to these changes appears powerful. But so many business and political authorities are not impressed. It would be costly to their power and orthodoxies to respond.

Sentinels have told us that ours is the first generation with the resources and technology to end extreme poverty worldwide. An international body has endorsed a map to that healing, the Millennium Development Goals. Now that we know, we are responsible.

In his great book of South Africa, "Ah, the Beloved Country," author Alan Paton tells of a character who has been a sentinel among his people. He is killed in a senseless act of violent burglary. His father, a man of traditional sensibilities who was mostly unfamiliar and unsympathetic with his son's work, reads at the dead son's desk the writing that he was apparently preparing at the time of his death. It is a speech for some unknown future occasion.

In the speech, the son recognizes that there were reasons why our ancestors could have set in motion unjust and tragic policies and practices, when they were trying to tame a hostile land, doing the best they could with what they knew. But now that we know the unjust and tragic consequences of the racial and economic exploitations of the black and colored people of South Africa, it is no longer acceptable to continue as before, his words cry out mutely from the page. In the book's moving conclusion, the father's eyes are opened to something he was previously blind to, the suffering and poverty of the native village adjacent to his own property. And though he himself is under financial threat, he acts with creative compassion to bring new hope and life to those he has hitherto ignored.

There are so many things that sentinels have shown us. We now know the dishonest way our nation was manipulated into an unjust war. We now know that practices of torture were authorized and rationalized by our leaders. The evidence is before our eyes and compelling. We are now responsible. Will we see and respond, or will we be like the religious authorities of Jesus' and curse the messenger?

We know that our medical system does not work for a profound and growing percentage of our people. We can see other countries that have found better ways. We are now responsible.

The people who witnessed Jesus' healing of the blind and the mute were not bad people. They were just stuck in their own comforts and their own opinions, and what Jesus was doing was inconsistent with their worldview. When faced with his reality, they would not see. They are responsible for their failure to see and to respond.

How will we respond to the voice of the sentinels in our day? The answer to that question will be our judgment.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas