Less Finger Pointing - More Dialogue
A Saturday Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:
If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
--Isaiah 58:9,10.
What strikes me about this passage from Isaiah is the wonderful phrase, "the pointing of the finger." It's easy to do. I see finger pointing every day-"You never clean up your room!" or "Why don't you listen to me?" The contemporary emphasis is on our self-determinative nature in which our only moral imperative is to actualize myself. What if, however, the only way to know myself is through God? After all, God is the one who created self-awareness. So, before we use our index finger to take the speck out of someone else's eye, we would be better served to have the responsibility of removing the two-by-four from our own eye. "Responsibility" in this context names the fact that we often fall back on ourselves as individual authorities who make decisions that often have no mutual consensus. We do this in the modern world, we do this in politics, we do this often as we fall into competitive relationships (rather than mutual ones) in which pointed fingers quickly turn into swinging fists.
Isaiah is right-the finger pointing must stop because we need the more profound context of God who reminds us of our responsibility to situate what we think we know so well into dialogue with others who think they too know so well. Hard work, I know. But well worth it. If God becomes our large context of knowing, not only will the finger-pointing stop but also our deep listening will begin--and perhaps, even my room will get cleaned up.
Let us pray,Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
--Isaiah 58:9,10.
What strikes me about this passage from Isaiah is the wonderful phrase, "the pointing of the finger." It's easy to do. I see finger pointing every day-"You never clean up your room!" or "Why don't you listen to me?" The contemporary emphasis is on our self-determinative nature in which our only moral imperative is to actualize myself. What if, however, the only way to know myself is through God? After all, God is the one who created self-awareness. So, before we use our index finger to take the speck out of someone else's eye, we would be better served to have the responsibility of removing the two-by-four from our own eye. "Responsibility" in this context names the fact that we often fall back on ourselves as individual authorities who make decisions that often have no mutual consensus. We do this in the modern world, we do this in politics, we do this often as we fall into competitive relationships (rather than mutual ones) in which pointed fingers quickly turn into swinging fists.
Isaiah is right-the finger pointing must stop because we need the more profound context of God who reminds us of our responsibility to situate what we think we know so well into dialogue with others who think they too know so well. Hard work, I know. But well worth it. If God becomes our large context of knowing, not only will the finger-pointing stop but also our deep listening will begin--and perhaps, even my room will get cleaned up.
Let us pray,Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
posted by Don+ @ 12:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home