To “sit on the fence” means we are neither “here” nor “there”. It means the lines that distinguish issues become blurred. It means distinctions merge or disappear. Controversies that challenge or threaten us fade into the distance.
It’s quite tempting to “sit on the fence”. Life can appear a lot easier when things are ignored or avoided. In fact there is something quite “comforting” about going through life blissfully out of touch or sublimely unaware!
Taking this to a new and more troubling level, to “sit on the fence” can lead to a state of “indifference”.
Indifference kicks in when lines distinguishing such fundamental matters as generousity and greed, compassion and cruelty, good and evil, loose their edge or even disappear.
“Indifference” takes root when there is no coherent awareness of what is right or what is wrong.
Ellie Wiesel, a Jewish holocaust survivor, claims “indifference” shields people from reality. Here the things that ought to be important become things of no consequence. They are, according to Ellie Wiesel, “reduced to an abstraction”.
Now Ellie Wiesel knows what he is talking about. For, he experienced the horror of Hitler’s concentration camps. And this took place while most of the world looked the other way.
Our reading from the Book of Zephaniah today presents a people who were neither “here” nor “there”. The ancient Israelites neither affirmed nor denied their God – they just didn’t want to know! They sat on the fence, they buried their heads in the sand. And they did this because it suited them.
But you can’t fool God. As much as Israel tried to shut things out, Zephaniah reminds us that reality ultimately catches up with us. Zephaniah nudges us with the truth that we actually live with the consequences of our actions. And we will, one day, confront the results of distancing ourselves from God – or even shutting the doors of our lives to God.
This is a timely reminder. God is a God of grace and mercy. But this is not an excuse to withdraw. It’s not a license to do nothing!
John Barr