What's Behind Us

Here's a PDF of the full talk. Here's a Discussion Guide.

Those of us around my age and younger didn't have any say in making the world the way it is now. We're just inheriting a world that's got a lot of problems. In that way, we're actually quite a lot like the Israelites who lived after the Exile. As Sheila talked about last week, they had to watch their whole universe destroyed - because of choices their parents made - and they had to live with the consequences. We want to say, "That's not fair!" So did those exiled Israelites. They had developed a saying about it, that Ezekiel comments on in chapter 18 of his book (where we'll be today - go ahead and turn there). The word of the day was:

The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.

You know that reaction we have to sour right? When we eat something sour, we pucker. Our faces naturally contort. It's cause and effect. So that makes this proverb interesting. What they meant by saying this was that their parents had sinned. Their parents had eaten something sour. And now we are paying for it. Our faces are puckering. This proverb was a complaint. It was a way of saying, "Hey! This isn't fair! I didn't create this world. I just have to live in it." What's really under this issue is a question of inheritance. For us today, inheritance is all about money. But the ancient world didn't use cash. They really didn't use money very much. You inherited assets - land, livestock. Buildings. And all of this was wrapped up in your father's name. Your father passed on his name to you and your siblings. And you got everything that name entailed. Your father's reputation - good or bad. His debts. His successes and failures. And in that sense, we're not terribly different from the ancient Israelites. We become our parents - for good and for bad. Each of us has looked at our parents and said, "I never want to be like that," only later to find ourselves repeating that action, saying or habit. That seems inevitable. And when it's just a silly saying or mannerism, it's no big deal. We can just laugh it off. But not everything our parents have done is so harmless. Sometimes what our parents pass down to us is frightening. Sometimes our inheritance is sour. I wonder what Name you've inherited from your parents. I hope it's good. I hope you think of yourself as Capable. Or Powerful. I hope the name you've received is Love. Faithful. Safe. But for so many of us - even those of us who've come from great families - we have other names too.

Ashamed. Not Good Enough. Abused. Workaholic. Crazy. Absent. Cheater.

These are our inheritance. Our broken homes are no different that our broken world - we've been handed a world, a life, a family, an identity. And it's not always pretty. It's not usually pretty. It's hurtful, scary. And just like the Israelites living in the Exile, we want to say, Not fair! I didn't choose this! I didn't ask for this Name, this Inheritance. I didn't make this broken world. I'm suffering the consequences of a lot of choices that were made for me. Not fair! And God's response to them (and to us) is, You're right. That's not fair. Life's not fair. And here's the bad news: Life's not going to be fair. So get over it. So what's the Good News?

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