We are Accountable

The Lord also said to me: "Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are going astray, and he will not seek the lost or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves.

"Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock!

May a sword strike his arm and his right eye!

May his arm wither away and his right eye go completely blind!" Zechariah 11:15-17

Ooh! Tough words! The Lord doesn't like the shepherds who are in name only. Jesus had His own tussles with the Pharisees, Scribes and Saducees. He at one time called them whitewashed sepulchres full od dead man's bones. The bones would be of the sheep they devoured. 

Today we are still accountable for the leading we do. We are accountable for the sheep we lead. How do we lead them? Are they pawns? Do we see them as a means to and end? Or do we walk the path as priest?

We ar accountable for the land we live in. Adam and Eve were give charge of caring for the garden in which they lived. Today I heard an aboriginal man explain how the Kimalori aborigines see the earth. They believe that it is divided up into sections and each section has a law that governs it. They respect that law. They are frustrated by a white man who sees the land as his right to extract all he wants from it, without respecting the giver. It was a real eye opener.

I have had a desire on my heart to care for a section of our local river that passes by my office. I went paddling along it one Saturday and saw it littered with trash, this should not be so. I wanted to clean it up but did not know where to begin. Today I discovered a group of aboriginals who are doing just that and I am joining them, they are going further and planting new trees along the banks.

We are accountable for our gifts, all of them. Amen!