June 4, 2025
Who doesn’t love a good proverb, a pithy saying that speaks truth in a memorable way? Sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child. Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And my father’s favorite – Spare the rod and spoil the child!
Proverbs succeed, and last, when they succinctly and memorably make an observation that helps us make sense of everyday experience. It takes a village to raise a child is a popular proverb these days because it briefly and clearly makes the point we have generally come to accept. It takes more than just loving parents to produce good people and good citizens. The entire community must help.
The prophet Ezekiel is writing to the exiles in Babylon. Like us, making sense of their situation was important to them. Thus, they had adopted the old proverb that The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. It was their way of expressing their belief that they were being punished for previous generations’ sins. ‘If only the Israelites 25, 50 or 100 years before had not turned their back on God, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. God is surely punishing us for our ancestors’ sins!’
The prophet, however, strongly disagrees. He says that we are all responsible for our own sins and that God does not punish us for what previous generations have done. Yes, our lives are hard now. We wish our ancestors had been more faithful to God. But the hardship we are experiencing is simply the natural consequences of their poor choices. God is not punishing us for what they have done.
This is good news. Our parents and grandparents may have made horrible choices. Those choices may be negatively impacting our lives today. But whatever is happening to us now is not divine punishment for what someone else did. God’s punishment does not transcend generations.
Also, the prophet points out that God does not keep a scorecard of the wickedness or righteousness we accumulate in a lifetime. Life is not a baseball game, in which the team with the most runs wins the game. Life is not a scale, with good deeds on one side and sins on the other. God does not judge us on our past conduct, but on the choices we make about the orientation of our lives here and now. Jesus says as much to the sinful woman who washes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. Though her sins were many, Jesus sends her away in peace (Luke 7:36-50). The rich young man, by contrast, has kept the commandments all his life. But when Jesus asks him to reorient his life around Jesus’ message of love, the man walks away. (Luke 18:18-25).
Our parents may have had an effect on us, but you and I still have choices to make. God is not apathetic. God cares about our choices. We can choose to turn away from God, compounding the poor decisions our ancestors made, or we can choose to follow Jesus’ example and live lives of self-giving love. Our parents may have eaten sour grapes, but we are the ones who decide whether or not our teeth are set on edge. May we all choose wisely.
God’s peace to all,
Pastor Ken.