Responsibility -PEnt 14A

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody were members of a group.

 There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to do it.

 Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody would have done it, but Nobody did it.

 Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job.

 Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody realized that Anybody wouldn’t do it.

The past few weeks we have witnessed Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody risking their lives to save others. We have seen people using their own boats to rescue the stranded, people dropping whatever they were doing to volunteer at shelters, others offering their homes and resources. The best.

The past few weeks we have also witnessed Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody price gauging oil and water, looting property, and in the midst of stress and crisis pushing, shoving, even pulling guns. The worst.

In times like these -well at anytime- is there not a code of moral responsibility, social responsibility, legal responsibility, collective responsibility?

As human beings are we not bound by duty and obligation particularly at a time of chaos?

We are not Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, or Nobody.  We are Christians, believers.  We are children of God. People who have experienced God’s grace.  People who belong to a community.  We live in the light, wrapped in Jesus Christ. We have chosen to live intentionally loving God and loving neighbour.

As part of this community, God’s family, we have a response – a duty and an obligation- to address current crisis in the world. Yet, it is not just in crisis, but, in our everyday lives that because of our chosen commitments, beliefs, and belonging to Christian community we held to certain responsibilities.

Thankfully we are not left completely out on a limb to figure out what our responsibilities are. Our readings this morning are super focused on this very thing. Three ways of:  How to be responsible.

First - What we say.

Specifically, Ezekiel is “the mortal” God is giving instruction to in the Hebrew scripture reading. Ezekiel’s book, however, veers to the responsibility of individuals. This is different from past prophets who spoke to the people as a collective; as a whole, the people were asked to turn to God, or follow the law, or seek a Messiah.  Here the mortal (Ezekiel, or you, or me), is asked that upon hearing the Word of the Lord, we are to go give warning to others.  We are to verbally confront wicked ways.  We are to ask people to turn from actions that are not about loving God, loving neighbour.  We are not to sit back and be Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, or Nobody, assuming someone else will speak truth, requesting corrective behaviour of those acting inappropriately. 

I don’t have too much trouble standing here and making suggestions on how we should live our lives.  I don’t have too much trouble preaching how we should face the world. Speaking corrective truth, inside is very different from speaking it outside these walls.  For goodness sake, I have trouble telling the scary looking person whose dog poops on the church lawn, to clean it up --- easier to walk by, and ignore; clean it up later. Well what if the actions to correct were bigger than picking up dog poop?

Being responsible is hearing the Word of God and then giving it as a warning to others.

Asking, teaching, preaching, casually speaking, telling a person to turn from their ways.  Perhaps that means speaking to a person who spouts racism on Facebook, or tells demeaning jokes of women or those deemed the other; maybe it is inviting someone to church and community to help them turn from self-destructive tendencies; maybe it is addressing purposeless living and warning to re-direct and focus one’s life. Maybe it is as bold as to say, “you need God in your life.”

Second – Responsibility is: What we do.

Specific instruction comes to us in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Some of the passage is moral responsibility as written in the Law of Moses, and reminds the recipients of the letter of the legal responsibilities around the collective responsibility they made in their covenant with God.

There are legal consequences for adultery, murder, and stealing. Paul commends the people to remember their collective responsibility -duty and obligation- to be a people who is recognized for the love they have one for another and for God. Paul also explains responsibility in a moral sense where each person is to intentionally live honorably, and to avoid squandering time in frivolity, bickering, jealousy, or sleeping around. And as if this were all easy, responsibility for Paul includes making no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If one looks up the word responsibility in the dictionary, one will find the self-explanatory synonyms: duty, obligation, liability.  One also finds the words, burden and restraint.  Paul is telling Christ followers that living as Christ’s light in the world means bearing burdens (of others and the world) and having restraint in action.  Being responsible, is choosing to consume less, waste less; be present more, sacrifice more.

Third – Responsibility is Community living.

Specifically, Jesus addresses the community of disciples, the church community, by highlighting through an example, what it means to be a responsible community of faith. Jesus draws out further synonyms, also found in the dictionary, for responsibility: authority, power, and trust.  Not necessarily words we would immediately think to interchange with responsibility. Authority, power, and trust. I read this week that:  “Responsibility for correction, discipline, and forgiveness belongs to the community.”(Augsburg -Sundays and Season 2017) And to practice these Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody would have to employ authority and trust.

This is Jesus’s comment on responsibility. I think we can understand the thought and authority in the system presented in the Gospel of Matthew.  If a sister or brother commits a wrong against you, go to that person, point out the fault.  This takes trust--- have a conversation, try to work it.  If you can not work it out, have another come with you, as extra ears, as a mediator, as support.  If the issue still can’t be resolved go before the church community – seeking resolve, resolution. And then, well, if they ignore the church treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. 

Perfect.  This sounds reasonable and responsible. Done.  After doing my do diligence, I can say good riddance to the one deemed troublesome.

 But, Jesus isn’t done, apparently there is more to responsibility…

As the phrase, “treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector,” sinks in; Jesus is not talking about treating them with the gut reaction that comes to mind, or as the society around us would…

As the phrase wiggles into our hearts there is ……an audible sigh….  a whispered, “damn.” At the realization that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Responsibility for our neighbour is not finished, it is only beginning.

Because there is a little bit of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody in all of us, sections of the Bible have been dedicated specifically for those of us who find responsibility difficult. As children of the light, those who have put on Jesus Christ, we are encouraged to join our voices on earth; when we do God is in our midst.

And to address responsibility we have been given the words to say together; to pray collectively and words that we can pray in our own moral struggle to be responsible.

The section of Psalm 119 that we read this morning is really a Prayer for Responsibility.  The first line

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, is so important the Psalmist repeats it 8x, throughout the psalm. The word rendered “teach” has an idea behind it of throwing, casting, hurling; and once being taught with this onslaught of teaching, one turns and teaches – as if truth was being thrown, scattered, and planted.

Responsibility as a theme stretched through the Biblical narrative, and continues to be of vital importance for life today.  What does being a responsible human being mean?  In addition, what added responsibilities are there as those who profess to walk in Christ’s light? 

Responsibility is what we say – telling the wicked to turn from their ways; what we do- living the Law and embodying restraint; community living – where grace has us eat with tax collectors and sinners. Responsibility is never done, it is only beginning.

For courage to be responsible – for the direction we should go- we pray the words of the Psalmist:
Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes

    and I will observe it to the end.

 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
    and observe it with my whole heart.

 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
    for I delight in it.
Turn my heart to your decrees,
    and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
    give me life in your ways.