The Waning of Personal Responsibility; Jeremiah 31:27-30

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say:
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
     and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.”

Jer 31:27-30 (NRSV)

 

A recent article published by the Knight Ridder Newspapers  proclaimed, “Personal Responsibility Waning, Experts Say.”  And then proceeded to bemoan the fact that not only do we no longer claim responsibility for our actions, we blame our faults on society. Among the other reasons cited were:  the rise of self-absorption (it’s all about me and my needs), the increased emphasis on entitlements instead of responsibility, and the rise of celebrity worship.  The article can be accessed at the following link:  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/_bc_responsibility_wa .

Once upon a time, society was responsible in God’s eyes for the sins of the individual.  When one sinned, the whole group was disciplined.  In Scripture, this is most often seen during the wanderings of Israel in the desert.  The actions of a few resulted in retribution upon the many.  Abraham, negotiating with God for the few righteous persons to be found in Sodom and Gomorrah s a good example of this.  In fact, the second of the 10 commandments teaches us that “I the Lord, your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquities of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me” (Ex 20:5).  This probably led to the expression about one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch. 

As time went on, Jeremiah and others revealed a better understanding of God’s wrath.  In essence, what he stated was that all of us are responsible for our own actions.  This meant, and still does, that we each bear responsibility for the wrongs we commit.  In other words. “If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time.”  It was an addition of personal responsibility to the societal responsibility that was outlined earlier in God’s relationship with Israel. 

I believe, that many of these woes can be directly attributed to a loss of balance in society.  We have shifted our focus from personal responsibility to group responsibility with the exclusion of any personal awareness of  how our actions impact every other person on the planet.  We have lost all focus on God’s words that say, “I am a jealous God… and will punish children for the iniquities of the parent.”   And we have further ignored the warning “…all shall die for their own sins…”  Personal responsibility will not be reclaimed until we reclaim societal responsibility.  And societal responsibility will not be reclaimed until we are willing to acknowledge that what happens to one of us matters to all of God’s children.  May we recognize this need before it is too late.