Brueggemann on Ezekiel, Occupy, and Good Shepherding

I just came across an excellent piece by Walter Brueggemann over at Huffington Post.

As part of HuffPo's On Scripture series, Brueggemann explicates Ezekiel 34 in connection with the recent Occupy movement. The passage is a scathing condemnation of oppression, especially that of leaders ("shepherds") who fleece their flocks. The clear reading of the passage opposes leaders who exploit their position for imbalanced gain of any kind. Ezekiel takes a dim view of the 1%.


Ezekiel takes the long view though, recognizing that the abundance of abusive and mutton-hungry shepherds points (ironically) to a servant-leader, a "good" shepherd, a priest-king that will pasture the nations well, for the flourishing and feeding of humanity.

Brueggemann recognizes the potent messianic hope that the early church hailed in Jesus' declaration that he is the "good shepherd." He finishes by drawing the principles that society can learn from such an example of sacrificial leadership:

"...the news of Ezekiel is that because of God's resolve, mediated for Christians through Jesus, the Son and regent of God, it need not be so. As Israel need not have poor self-serving kings, so a democratic society need not suffer poor outcomes from an exploitative oligarchy. The promissory nature of Ezekiel's oracles articulates what good leadership looks like -- in government, in corporations, all through the private sector. That rule consists in,

-Seeking the lost,
-Bring back the strayed,
-Binding up the injured,
-Strengthening the weak,
-Feeding the hungry.

"In a word, good leadership consists in the restoration of the common good so that all members of the community, strong and weak, rich and poor, may live together in a common shalom of shared resources. The text is a powerful reminder of what might be; it is at the same time a summons to a political will for leadership that is not occupied, through ideological cant, with feathering its own nest. It is not enough to recite, in pious tones, the 23rd Psalm about "The Lord is my shepherd." What is envisioned (and required) is the formation of a different leadership that has in purview all members of the community. Ezekiel knew that is the only way to have a future that does not replicate the failed past. It is still, among us, the only way!"

It is still the only way. May the lies of the many fleecing shepherds be silenced and swallowed by the peace, the security, the truth of the Good one.

Read the full piece at HuffPo. 


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