Here’s the link to Matthew Chapter 18.
Usually, I have a verse or two to focus on, but this time, even after two weeks, nothing really jumped out at me.
The chapter spends most of its time discussing sin. I don’t have a problem seeing myself as sinful, but when the topic turns to the amount of sin in the world, I tend to get discouraged. Focusing on the state of the world brings the inevitable conclusion that there is more work to be done than can possibly be comprehended.
I understand logically that I am not expected to solve the problems of the world. But I would at least like to think I am doing my own little part. But its hard, in the face of so much, to discern the best path to making that contribution.
I maintain another blog. A couple days ago I posted Creative Alternatives, which is a recap of a discussion with some friends on the subject of health care reform.
Its long, but if you read all the way to the last comment, you will find a rather uncomfortable conclusion. The problem with health care delivery in this country, at some level, is not systemic. It has to do with insurance executives, trial lawyers, politicians, pharmaceutical executives, doctors, regulators, lobbyists, and even patients behaving poorly.
They all, in their own fashion, contribute to the problem by being sinful, by caring about profits, power, bonuses or themselves more than their fellow man.
Jesus says this in verse 7.
“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!”
I wonder, how different would our health care system be, and how different would our country in general be, if people in power actually connected our woes to their own personal sinfulness?
Washington assumes we can’t change our personal selves. Our sinful nature is a given, and whatever we plan must counteract it.
Why can’t we put our sinfulness in play as something to be addressed within the process? We might never eradicate it, but we certainly could suppress it to the extent that our national lives would benefit.
Is it even thinkable that someone from Washington might ask us to change our behavior, instead of insisting that changing systems will somehow be an all powerful panacea?