focus on making things better, not just less awful

Monday November 21st, Ezekiel 34: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? This is the part of the text that is not included in the revised common lectionary. I also feel it is one of the most graphic depictions of the issue and therefore include it in these meditations and in the reading for Sunday. I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin; as such I have studied at least to some degree the social interaction of cattle. They do not impress me as being smart. They will trample and relieve themselves in the water hole so long as they can get a drink of clean water. Concern for the future, or for others, is non-existent. I have witnessed the larger stronger calves with a budding horn take a running start and knock the younger weaker calves flat on the ground in order to get more food now, or perhaps just to keep the weaker one from getting their fair share. I confess that one time it roused in me such anger that in using a stick to control the situation our family ended up with veal in the freezer. I sometimes wonder if God also gets angry at our trampling of the weak and hungry just to get more of what we already have too much of. We can excuse the cattle as being dumb animals, but what excuse do we have when humanity does the same? It is not a new problem; Ezekiel witnessed the same 2500 years ago. On an individual basis we seem to be able to grasps the idea that we are social beings and decisions and behavior within a family affect others in that family, but do we carry that same wisdom into the world, into the market place, and into the church? When moving headquarters off shore for tax purposes, when moving jobs overseas for economic purposes, when shopping in the big store rather than the locally owned for convenience, are we not doing the same as those cattle? Are we not feeding our own desires without awareness, or a care, or how it affects others or in the long run, the society in which we live? How we live in the world is not just about “us” with a small “u”, it is about “US” in the most plural of all views, Gods view. And although I regret the veal situation, sometimes anger, and the resultant positive action associated with it, is the proper catalysts for change.