Reckoning
I truly believe everything we do has consequences.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life. Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind. - Genesis 9:3-6
In today's reading it seems like God is telling us we will experience retribution for our actions, specifically if we kill another.
The blood we shed will cause our blood to be shed.
But you can argue that is a consequence of the action, rather than God's punishment.
The laws of physics tell us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so it makes sense the same is true for human actions against other humans.
It is our reckoning then, that what we do to each other shall come back upon us, like karma.
One of the interesting things about this reading is that there can be no end to violence if each death results in the death of the murderer. It will go on forever, until all are dead, or until someone refuses to take a life in retribution for the crime.
Perhaps that is the reckoning God is talking about. We will be doomed if we choose to keep the pattern going. We only gain life by refusing to do what we feel compelled to do, to get even.
There is another interesting thing about this reading, and it can be puzzling. God tells us not to eat the blood with the flesh.
Isn't that what we do symbolically as Christians in the Eucharist?
No wonder people thought we were strange and evil in the early church.
Maybe we need a better way of explaining what we believe and how we worship, so people can come to Christ and be one, abandoning the pattern of retribution and finding forgiveness.
More to come...