Читать книгу Liberating the Will of Australia - Geoffrey Burn - Страница 15

The previous section introduced the theological concept of bound willing and the gift of God in releasing people from that binding. This will be an underlying theme throughout the whole book. In this section we will look at the book of Ezekiel from the Bible, which was written about a period in Israel’s history in the sixth century BCE. Ezekiel sees Israel at the time as a nation that was continuing to sin in ways that are shaped by the past. It will be argued here that either they could not see this or they refused to acknowledge it. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God calls the nation to repent, which it does not do. Even so, the generosity of God overflows in the promise to restore the nation to the land of Israel in the future. Part of the reason for including this study is to help us shift from thinking about individuals and individual responsibility to being able to think in terms of the nation as an entity, which is more than just a collection of individuals, and also to begin to think about problems that have stretched over multiple generations.

Throughout the twentieth century, the dominant reading of Ezekiel was to see it as a crucial point along the trajectory from a “primitive” notion of corporate responsibility to a “modern” one of individual responsibility.50 The key text for this interpretive move is Ezekiel 18, where Ezekiel uses an image from the laws for individuals as an analogy in order to be able to speak of the national situation in Israel at the time. This text will be discussed in more detail below, but first it is necessary to consider the ideological stance which underlies the misleading interpretation of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 18 is not part of a trajectory towards individual responsibility. The prophet is speaking to a community in crisis. He is responding to a community complaining that their fathers (i.e., the previous generations) had sinned, and it is they (i.e., the present generation) who are being punished. That is, the purpose of Ezekiel 18 “is to demonstrate the collective responsibility of the contemporary house of Israel for the national disaster which she is suffering.”51 Paul Joyce argues convincingly that, “although a single man is considered in each of the three test-cases [Ezekiel 18:5–18], it is the cause of the nation’s predicament which is being explored; the proverb blames the sins of previous generations for the sufferings of the present, and accordingly the individuals of the test-cases represent a generation . . . the possibility of Yahweh judging individuals in isolation from their contemporaries is not considered. This is because the question at issue is a different one, namely, ‘Why is this inevitably communal national crisis happening?’”52

Joel Kaminsky rightly criticizes the way of thinking that sees Ezekiel on the trajectory from communal to individual conceptions of identity and responsibility, noting that this way of thinking reflects a modern bias towards privileging the individual over the communal, which has been adopted in biblical interpretation in the political project of wanting to construct a trajectory from what is construed as the messiness of the communal, law-based religion of Israel to the purity of the individual, grace-filled Christianity. Besides the problematic ideological position of such an argument, Kaminsky notes that the idea of communal responsibility is present in the books of the Old Testament that many scholars believe were written late, such as Daniel 6:25 and Esther 9:7–10, and so no such trajectory exists in the Old Testament.53

The centrality of the corporate as well as the individual continues to be present in the New Testament and so it was not something that was superseded with the coming of Jesus. For example, God addresses the “angel” of each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Here God is speaking to the spirit of each church as a corporate body, not to individuals. As a second example, Paul also writes to churches, as well as speaking to particular individuals. His image of being incorporated into Christ, being “in Christ,” is central to his way of thinking and he even talks of all having died in the death of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14–15), something Westerners find it hard to understand. A third example is that whole households were baptized (e.g., Acts 10:33, 48; 16:15; 16:33). As a final example, Matthew sees the work of Jesus as being about the renewal of the community of Israel. Stephen Barton writes that the central preoccupation of Matthew is “the revelation of the divine presence (kingdom of heaven) in the coming of Jesus as messiah, in fulfillment of scripture, to call Israel to repentance and through a renewed Israel to bring God’s blessings on the nations of the world.”54

Thinking corporately is innate to many other cultures. For example: the identity of people as being part of a village is central to notions of justice in Bougainville;55 Vincent Donovan gives the example of a whole tribe of Masai converting to Christianity, because it was impossible for the tribe to be split;56 and there is an African saying, “I am because we are, and because we are therefore I am.”57 All of these point to the fact that it is possible to conceive of the world very differently. That is not to say that these worldviews are perfect, but they provide encouragement for reconsidering the nature of corporate entities.58 In fact, biblically, corporate entities are part of the created order.59

Not only does the corporate remain important in the Bible, but so does corporate responsibility. For example: Jesus castigates the lawyers of his time as a group and holds them responsible for the sins of their forebears (Luke 11:45–54); Jesus laments over Jerusalem as a corporate entity (Matthew 23:37 || Luke 11:34); and Jesus says that Jerusalem will be destroyed because it “did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (Luke 19:41–44). Furthermore, the Second Movement will show how the church in Corinth could not see how they had been shaped by the past and so they, as a community, had not truly understood the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, all through the Bible, we see the importance of thinking in terms of corporate entities, not just individuals, and understanding that such groups can be held responsible as a group for failures. Having seen this, we can return to the book of Ezekiel, confident that Ezekiel is indeed addressing communities of people and holding them corporately responsible for their sin, knowing that this is not some sort of ancient failure to understand the primacy of the individual, but part of the way that world is under God.

Ezekiel gives one of the most robust responses in the Bible to the claim by a group of people that they are guiltless: they say that their present problems are the result of the sins of people in the past and not themselves. Ezekiel is addressing the generation of people who were alive at the time of the defeat of Judah by the Babylonians.60 Both Ezekiel and his readers regard the crisis as a punishment for sin. What is contested is who sinned.61 The people to whom Ezekiel is speaking quote the parable, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ezekiel 18:2). That is, they claim that their present predicament is the result of the sins of their forebears, not their own sin; they prefer to think of themselves as being unjustly punished rather than admitting their guilt (18:19), even to the point of claiming that it is God who is unjust rather than them (18:25, 29).62 Ezekiel claims that they are being punished for their own sins.

In order to be able to understand how Ezekiel deals with the people’s complaint in chapter 18, it is important to see that Ezekiel is consistent throughout the whole book in listing the sins of the present generation, that the way that they are sinning is the same as their forebears, and that it is the whole nation that is being addressed, although the leaders are also singled out for their culpability for the state of the nation. Right at the beginning of Ezekiel, God makes it clear that it is the present generation of people that are sinning, that they are sinning in the same ways as their ancestors, and that it is the nation as a whole which is being addressed:

He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” (2:3–4)

They are described as a “rebellious house” (2:5, 6, 7, 8; cf. 3:7). At various places, Ezekiel lists catalogues of the sins of the present generation. For example, in 5:5–11, the people have rebelled against God’s ordinances and statutes and defiled the temple “with all your detestable things and with all your abominations” (5:8). Jerusalem and the temple area are filled with the worship of things which are not God (ch. 8). The land is “full of bloodshed and the city full of perversity” (9:9). People “devise iniquity” and give “wicked counsel” (11:2; cf. 13:1–9) and “have killed many in this city, and filled its streets with the slain” (11:6). In 16:1–34, the people are pictured as having taken the gifts of God and used them to create idolatrous images and shrines and to give offerings to other gods, places of idolatrous worship have proliferated, they have killed their children and offered them to other gods, and they have consorted with other nations. In 22:1–16, there is a catalogue of wrongs: fathers and mothers are being treated with contempt, aliens face extortion, and the orphan and widow are wronged in law (22:7–8); there are lewd religious practices and distorted sexual relationships (22:8–11); the economic system is broken with bribes and extortion (22:12); and there is violence and death (22:13). The leaders are castigated for their part in perpetuating this culture (22:23–30; cf. ch. 34). It is clear that it is the present generation that is being judged for their sin (e.g., 7:3–4, 8, 9, 19). They are a “rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house” (12:2–3). In chapter 20, Ezekiel argues that there has been a consistent pattern and history of rebellion in the people of Israel from the time it was brought out of Egypt, which is being continued by the people of the present day. He finishes by saying:

Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your ancestors and go astray after their detestable things? When you offer your gifts and make your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. (20:30–31; cf. 22:2–4).

In chapter 18, Ezekiel addresses the people’s claim that they are being punished for the sins of their ancestors. He asks:

What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?” (18:2)

Ezekiel claims that God is just because the proverb is not true: God only punishes the guilty party. Ezekiel makes his case by giving three examples (18:5–18), which seem to be reflecting on Deuteronomy 24:16.63 It is important to note that Ezekiel is arguing by analogy: he is using legal language (i.e., for relationships between human beings) for the examples, and raising them to speak about relationships between human beings and God.64 Ezekiel is speaking to the whole community, not just to individuals. Paul Joyce notes that the “sour grapes” proverb (18:2) is a complaint of the present generation and that he addresses the people collectively as the “House of Israel” (18:25, 29, 30, 31)65 and there are other uses of the plural form of address in the same chapter (18:2, 3, 19, 32);66 although the legal examples that Ezekiel uses are about individuals from different generations, Ezekiel is speaking to the community as a whole. That is, when Ezekiel uses the legal metaphor to speak of the relationship between God and people, the individuality is about generations, not about persons.

The people claim to be in the third category: their fathers have sinned, and they are innocent (18:14–18). Ezekiel, however, says that the present generation is sinful; they are suffering the punishment of God for their own sin, for God only punishes the guilty.67 Of course, Ezekiel must show that the present generation really is guilty, which he does do, as was shown above. In a cheeky move, Ezekiel uses a generational parable back against the people when he says, “See, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother . . .” (16:44–45). That is, there is a generational proverb which is true of the people, and it is that they are continuing to behave like those who were before them.

In summary, in the initial encounter of Ezekiel with God, God pronounces the guilt of the present generation. Ezekiel consistently makes the important point that they are not only sinning, but also sinning in the same way as previous generations. God sees Israel as a corporate entity, with a continuity of existence through time that is more extensive than any particular generation, and which has a consistent history of sin; moreover, the present generation is continuing to sin in the same way as its forebears. That is, Ezekiel was prophesying to a nation whose actions showed that their will had been bound by their past and present actions.

Because the sins of the people are so obvious to the reader of Ezekiel, it is easy to assume that they were equally obvious to those living at the time. What if, however, the belief that they were being unfairly treated (18:25, 29) because of the sins of their ancestors (18:2) was genuine? That is, what if they could not see that the way that they were living was a deep anathema to God? What if they weren’t just being obdurate but rather genuinely could not see that there were any problems (12:2–3)? If this is the case, then we see that the bound will of Israel has blinded it to being able to see what is good.

This reading of Ezekiel should make us wary about any assertions that a line can simply be drawn under the past, claiming that it was the previous generations who did wrong, for subsequent generations, it seems, may continue to sin in the same way as past generations. In fact, the statistics and stories of continuing disadvantage of the First Peoples in Australia would, I suggest, mean that Australia is in a similar position to the people who were being addressed by Ezekiel.

Ezekiel goes further than his interlocutors and speaks of the dynamics of God’s relationship with people: it is possible both for righteous people to fall out of favor with God by their sin and also for sinful people to come back into favor through repentance (18:19–29). That is, there is no accounting, where the good is weighed against the bad, but it is the current relationship that matters. This heightens the sense of the responsibility of the present generation, because they could have repented and averted the present disaster, but they did not. However, this is also a passage of hope: the people could be fatally deflated because they are the generation which is being punished after a long period of God’s forbearance (see ch. 20), but Ezekiel promises the possibility of redemption if the people do repent. God desires that the people repent (18:23, 32).68 Ezekiel finishes his argument in chapter 18 with the call to corporate repentance: “the final words of the chapter (vv. 30b–32) focus on the challenge to repentance. ‘Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’ (v. 31); ‘Turn and live’ (v. 32). These words make explicit the challenge to repentance which is clearly implied in vv. 21–24 and 26–28.”69

Note that “the call to repentance is addressed to the community as a whole, and it is the restoration of the whole people of God for which Ezekiel presses.”70 Even more than that, Ezekiel has a vision of the restoration of the nation (e.g., chs. 36 and 37); God’s generosity goes beyond the dynamics of the responsibility of repentance.

Ezekiel says that the problems of the past that are continuing into the present can be addressed by the repentance of the nation. In doing so, the present generation can do more than repent of its own sins; it is breaking the pattern of bound willing that has been inherited from the past. The nature of repentance will be explored further in the Second Movement, Loosing. In particular, we will look at what must be done in Australia to repent of the present continuation of the sins of the past. But before we can do that, we need to understand the way in which Australia’s will has become bound, which is the purpose of the next section.