Bring it on Leviticus

I have finished the book of Exodus and have begun Leviticus this past week. The book of Exodus is so full of miraculous and bloody events, by the end of the book I had begun to wonder why all the blood was necessary. And all of the tiny little rules. It occurred to me that, yes, this bloody book is overwhelming, these stories are incredible and atrocious at once, but they were not meant to be taken alone. Moses wrote both Genesis and Exodus, they are books in a series written by the same person who has a personal history with God. These books are an extension of the experience of Moses and the  Israelites with God in their time of adolescence as a people, and as such I ought to read and consider Exodus within the context of the history described in Genesis. The tones of the two books are quite different, but I think subtext is the same: God loves you and will do anything to bring His people to Him should they choose to follow. It helps me to think of God as The Father in these two books, trying to rear a people from spiritual infancy to spiritual adulthood, from instant gratification and assurance to people who will follow Him based on faith and love rather than assurance and reward.

This thinking came to a head for me in Exodus 31-34 when Moses goes up Mount Sinai to receive the word of God and the Tablets of the Covenant. In this story, God is gently giving His word to his beloved grumbling people through His messenger Moses and all the while they are creating golden idols below to worship. Moses comes down from the mountain and sees the idolatry, one of the most hurtful sins to God and gets so upset he smashes the tablets. Moses then has the sons of Levi slaughter 3000 of their brothers, friends and neighbours in an afternoon, after having talked God out of eliminating all of the Israelites by His "wrath burning hot against them". Moses ascends the mountain again and inscribes a second set of tablets from the Lord. So, after I had read about the plagues of Egypt, the swallowing of Egypt by the Red Sea as they pursued the Israelites, all in all thousands of deaths to prove the omnipotence of God, here is a slaughter of God's own children. Three thousand in an afternoon in a relatively small nation would be a horrific loss and an incredibly bloody event. I couldn't wrap my head around why God should want this to happen. Thinking back to the story of Noah in the book of Genesis, again the Lord was heartbroken at what his people were doing and how they were living. He was angry and had decided to wipe out the human race, but Noah gave him hope. So he spared Noah and sent down the floods with the promise of a rainbow never to wipe out the human race again. In his faithfulness, perhaps God is frustrated in Exodus. Will His people NEVER learn? He has to stay true to the promise of the rainbow, but what can be done to show the Israelites the error of their ways? How can they be shown what a loss it is to God to have His people turn away from Him? Perhaps the deaths of 3000 brothers and neighbours would begin to convey the depth of loss He feels. I see a Father at a loss for what to do with a petulant teenager that will not listen and will not see reason. And still He keeps His promise and still He is faithful in protecting human free will.

Exodus 34, Moses goes back up the mountain with new tablets to again receive the word and covenant of the Lord. Here, Moses talks of God being merciful, forgiving and slow to anger; all the evidence of exodus speaks to the contrary… or does it? Is God really so bloodthirsty, or are the sins of the Israelites and the Egyptians so grave? Perhaps it seems that God is vengeful only because the idolatry and denial of God were grave. God explains in a more human way how grave idolatry is to Moses in the new covenant; he describes himself as jealous, (I think) so that the Israelites will finally understand what he means. Jealousy is a human way of describing the tragedy of putting something before God.

Exodus 37 Bezalel made the ark of the covenant. This is interesting that it is called an Ark also. The covenant the Lord made with Noah was also through an Ark carrying “redemption” of humans and all creatures, separating the holy people of Noah from the sinful world because of the hope, love and trust the Lord had in Noah. This is analogous to what is happening with Moses. The Lord cannot wipe out the rest of the people because of the promise of the rainbow, but he can separate his children from the sinful masses with a new ark and hope that the world will follow their lead.

Leviticus 1-4, this book was written by Moses after the laws were given to him once the Lord descended upon the tabernacle in smoke and fire and the glory of the Lord was in the tabernacle. There are so many rules about how to make burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings. Because we, as Christians, don’t offer sacrifices of flesh and blood to God, all of these rules seem a bit much. However, these rules in Leviticus are nothing short of miraculous. The Lord is sending down ways in which the people can participate in their own salvation and in the salvation of their loved ones. God is giving the Israelites opportunities to recognize their sins against Him and repent, was to be closer to God. The beauty of these laws is that God knows his grumbling children and knows they will use their free will to sin against Him; He accepts this and like a loving father allows them to turn back toward Him through significant acts on the physical plane. I imagine that knowing all of the rules and, on top of the time it takes to know the rules, sacrificing bulls, pigeons and sheep to atone for sins may be God’s way of helping human beings understand how He is hurt each time one of His children sins against Him. The loss of property, security and food for a human being may be God’s way of saying, “the loss of this animal is a small fraction of the loss I feel when you turn away”. Again, this is God gently urging us back to Him.

  

Perhaps also guiding His people to practice things in a particular way will allow them freedom in the end. To be dependent on God for everything is freedom. Strictly defined practice is a way to add significance to things, that his people may learn the value of His grace. Like asking a petulant teenager to get a job to pay for half of his own car to know the value of it. The Israelites here are perhaps an adolescent people, they so quickly forgot the commandments against idolatry when Moses was up the mountain, they are adolescent perhaps in that they need instant gratification and reassurance rather than being content to know the value of practice for the practice.

In Leviticus 10, Moses explains why the priests must eat of the sin offering in his anger that it was accidentally burnt. The priests take on the sins of the people in eating the sin offering and make atonement on their behalf. I thought this was interesting in that my initial impression was that the aim of the eating of the offerings was to sustain the priests physically, but it is also to help people atone for sins and turn back toward God.

Oh my, that was a long one.

May we turn toward the glory of God through thought and action, May He receive us as his loving children and May we feel the warmth of forgiveness and fullness of community as we journey toward Him together. Amen.

Exodus begins....

I must admit, I am surprising even myself with my adherence to the daily bible readings. It has been nearly a month and I am still going strong. Not all of my resolutions go so well… dare I say I have graduated from doggy-paddling through Genesis to the front-crawl in Exodus? I have had a full week of Exodus, the triumphs of God over the magic of the Egyptians with the culmination of the building of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was especially exciting for me as when I was a kid one of my and my sister’s favourite movies was “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”. It had everything: Angels, Turks, Nazis, melting faces and archaeology. It is still one of my favourites, I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good show!

Exodus starts with Moses and Aaron bringing the plagues of the Lord to Egypt. God differentiates here between Israel and Egypt with who is affected by the plagues. Importantly, God hardens Pharaoh’s heart against letting his own chosen people out of Egypt. The scripture points out again and again how God hardens Pharaoh’s heart; at times Pharaoh seems ready to give in and strike a bargain, but suddenly thinks better of it and changes his mind as God hardens his heart. This did bother me a little, I couldn’t figure out why God was causing so much strife when he is all powerful and could push Pharaoh to agree with Moses and have his people peacefully leave Egypt to worship in the wilderness. The answer to this question and the other of why God would want to sacrifice so many Egyptian lives in the closing of the path through the Red Sea, I found in Exodus 8:15-16. “For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” Is this to prove a point to God, to the Egyptians or to the tribes of Israel? Both, I think. All are witnessing God’s power, all are involved in the delivering and experiencing of the plagues.  Exodus 10:2 explains that God wants Moses to take his son and his grandson into Pharaoh to hear Moses witness how harshly God has dealt with Pharaoh. Perhaps this is allegorical as well for the lord to want Israel to pass on the story of His power and wrath from generation to generation. Here we are engaging with the story of God’s power and wrath via the internet 3000 years later.

Exodus 19:16-25, the Lord descends to Mount Sinai in a cloud of smoke and fire with a trumpet blast. The Lord also lead the Israelites out of Egypt with a pillar of smoke and fire. This is perhaps the first form of incarnation, the Lord must inhabit matter and exist within the laws of thermodynamics to be present to his people in the world. Rather than sending down plagues or messengers of thunder, hail and frogs, the Lord is descending to Earth to govern his people from a cloud of smoke and fire; temperature and molecules convey His word to humans. Can we extrapolate this to other matter? Can we as Christians then see the word of God in a candle or bird? Does this hinge on idolatry, or can we rely on these signs as the love and word of God manifest in our world?

In Exodus 24-27 there are exhaustive instructions for the building of Holy things and places of worship. It is very interesting to me that God specified that there should be a separation for the people of the Holy from the Most Holy. The Ark of the covenant is to be hidden from the rest of the tabernacle by carefully specified curtains. Is this again so that the Israelites will not become to accustomed to this most holy Ark? Is it to preserve is exoticism, to keep it from seeming an everyday object, to keep it as regarded as the utmost sacred gift from God? They say familiarity breeds contempt, is this why it is hidden?

The myriad instructions in Exodus for building the tabernacle, etc. speak to me in a few different ways. The first is that each word was recorded for millennia because God said it. Each word of God, no matter the subject or context, is so precious to us as His children that the quantity of cubits and colours of yarn have been honored as sacred for thousands of generations. If a man had said it, likely it would have been summarized in the recording, if a woman had said it, it may not have been recorded at all. In Exodus 19:15 the Lord instructs Moses to speak to the people to be ready for the 3^rd day and not to go near a woman. This, I believe is a call for celibacy, a sexual fast for 3 days before they are to hear the word of God passed down as commandments. But what stands out for me here is that the “people” are instructed not to go near a woman, meaning women are considered apart from people. Women are not included in the group intended to receive God’s word. A powerful implication.

The next is that our traditions at St. Andrew’s-Wesley of the beautiful hangings of Mae Runions’ creation may stem directly from these passages. There are instructions for adornment of the tabernacle with cherubims in hanging cloth, but masterfully embroidered cherubims. The beauty of her hangings in the church are her gift of God’s love coming through her fingertips in service to her brothers and sisters in Christ; this is infused with yet more depth when one reckons back to the inclusion of hangings with needlework and cherubims skillfully worked in God’s instructions for his people in the wild to build their first Holy place and learn to worship. 

Joseph

It has been just over two weeks since my resolution, and I have finished the book of Genesis! It was uplifting and a little surreal to move into Exodus; there was both a sigh of relief that this was going to be an easier resolution than I had originally thought and a feeling of steeling myself against premature exuberance... there is still a lot of scripture left!

My week of reading took me through the story of Joseph as he comes to power in Egypt and then mourns the loss of is father Jacob. An amazing story of forgiveness, openness and the importance of family. Joseph starts out interpreting dreams in jail, predicting the fates of Pharaoh's cupbearer and his baker. His successful predictions lead him to interpret Pharaoh's dreams (the seven skinny cows devouring seven plump cows on the banks of the Nile) to mean that Egypt will face seven years of famine following seven years of prosperity. What is amazing to me in this story is that Joseph has no idea what lies ahead, he just trusts and offers his God-given gift to the most powerful man in Egypt (this could be a dangerous thing). This reminded me of the conversation we had at our last gathering about the humility of accepting our God-given gifts and talents and using them in earnest as an offering to Him with gratitude. Joseph does not shy away from his dream-interpreting talent (this just made me think of the parable of talents - we must use them) and with this gift he saves the nation of Egypt from starvation during the famine. God gives us gifts to know, do and understand things in the world so that we (or He through us) can help people thrive on the Earth. Hiding our talents and abilities with over-grown modesty closes our eyes and our fellows eyes to the messages and love of God as it is manifest in our world through our bodies, minds and communities.

I love how emotionally charged this story is and how the men express their anguish, stress and joy. Joseph keeps crying on everyone's necks and weeps so loud that the entire house of Pharaoh can hear him. For this human response to the emotional roller-coaster he was on, my NIV study bible classifies him as overly emotional. I'm not sure that's quite fair. When the brothers are distressed during the back and forth of the grain between Egypt and Jacob's lands and the reappearing silver they rip their clothes. This got me thinking about what would happen in our lives if we ripped our clothes when our circumstances seemed dire. The brothers ripped their clothes (a significant act, I think, in a desert place during a time of famine and scarcity) because they thought their lives and the lives of their siblings were in jeopardy. What would I rip my shirt over? A missed deadline? A car break-down? Losing my wallet on the bus? My nephew getting the flu? The more I think about this expression of distress by the sons of Israel, the more I realize I am overwhelmed by much smaller things than they on a daily basis. Perhaps some shirt-ripping perspective could be useful. I might just start asking myself "Is this worth ripping my shirt over?"; sometimes yes, sometimes no.

After the death of Jacob, the sons are designated as the seeds of the 12 tribes of Israel. With their blessings they are to move forward in life as God's chosen people. Joseph's brothers have a momentary panic, however, worrying that Joseph will want to punish them for selling him into slavery as a boy. They invent a story that one of Jacob's dying directives was that Joseph forgive his brothers. Joseph replies open-heartedly that he has already forgiven them; that God was using them and him in his design to save Egypt from the famine and to lead to the prosperity of the tribes of Israel. In one fell swoop Joseph's willingness to give himself over completely to God's will and to God's love (forgiveness) keeps the peace for generations to come between the tribes in the nation of Israel. I can imagine that without that forgiveness, there would have been bloodshed and the Old Testament may have been a very different book.

In the beginning of Exodus Moses doubts his own suitability for the job of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. When Moses balks, God gives him tools (the miracles of the staff, disappearing leprosy on his hand and the water-turned-blood on the sand) and a helper (his brother). Moses is also scolded for questioning God, but in the end God ensures Moses that he will not be alone; that God will speak and work through him and that he can and will answer the groan of the enslaved Israelites. This lesson is one that I'm glad to have here with me as I head to my place of work tomorrow; there is a daunting road ahead and so much work to do, but I am not alone. God is working through me; and I will endeavour to do his will. God comes to us with tools and helpers, although they may not be recognizable as such and they many not still our fears. It is our job then, to step out into the world and know that He is there with us.

May we trust our gifts and carry them into the world as blessings for our brethren, may we be buoyed by the knowledge that God comes with us as we carry our gifts, and may the forgiveness we practice in our families spill into the world as salt and light. Amen

Doggie-paddling through Genesis

I have begun my daily bible readings and am doggie-paddling through the book of Genesis. Trying to pluck the goods from the begets and begats, I have been awed by a few passages that have really resonated with me. The first passage is that of Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man in our image after our likeness". OUR? I had always thought God was alone at the moment man was created and never imagined that it could have been a communal offering (of sorts). The US and OUR I have discovered refers to other heavenly beings and that God perhaps included the efforts and opinions of angels and the like to create earthlings as we are.

Genesis 2:19 talks about God bringing all of the creations of the earth to Adam "to see what he would call them". The loving and tender nature of the father in this passage amazed me. Much like a human parent would bring something lovely, intriguing or fun to their child to teach them and bring them joy, God brought Adam all of the creatures of the earth and they named them what Adam thought they should be called. Once they were named they moved on to the next. It sounds like so much fun! It dawned on me that God works in my life much the same way. Situations are brought about to gently (and sometimes not so gently depending on how long it has taken me to learn) show me what life is about or how the world works or who I am. God shows me the lessons I am to learn by bringing them to me, but it is up to me to see them and name them and work to move into the next with grace, humour and wonder.

This love and faithfulness of God to his children was again hit home for me in the story of Noah and the rainbow. I have often wondered throughout my life why God hasn't just picked up the Etch-a-Sketch world and shaken it clean to start anew; IT'S BECAUSE HE PROMISED! He did that once, he wiped the slate clean with a flood and then promised to never do it again; promised to protect us and allow us to flourish however falteringly on the earth. I am here not only because God created me, but also because he promised with a rainbow (very fitting) to let me live regardless of how I live. I may falter but his love and faithfulness for me does not. This made me think about the value of a promise in my own life. How often do I break promises? Back out of loosely-made agreements? What does this mean for the Salt and Light that I am in the world?

Lastly, I just can't believe that Esau gave away his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew instead of just pulling rank as the older brother and taking it the way my own sister would have done. Tisk tisk.

May the tenderness of the Lord lift us, His faithfulness sustain us and may our ordinary and holy pilgrimage be taken with the spirit of rejoicing. Amen.

A New Year

2010 was the most amazing year for me. I was baptized in May and married in August; both are sacred covenants I made with God and both are gifts of beauty and depth beyond my wildest imagination. I have never felt so fulfilled, loved and safe, the life I have been blessed with is nothing short of miraculous. This fact is not lost on me, the main features of my prayer life are gratitude and praise for the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. Looking back on this incredible time in my life, I realized that I had been given a gift that ought to be enjoyed through works, service and action rather than appreciated from a cushy seat. I have striven to live a life of love and service for the past nearly 6 years and am so grateful that now I have found a true spiritual thread to bind the labour of my hands to the love of God in my heart. Service and works provide me with a tangible way to strengthen my relationship with God in this world, but without knowing the history of God with His children will I be truly seeking and following His will for me? I have to admit that because of the nearly 14 years I have spent in university, literature searches and theoretical underpinnings of current knowledge and operational paradigms  are important to the way that I think about my role here as a human being. Feeling too long like a fish out of water when it comes to scripture and theological debate, I've decided to embark on a journey through the Old and the New Testaments this year. How can I know God's will for me? How can I know how best to serve Him? How can I know Him and grow closer to Him? I believe that the Lord sent Jesus Christ to Earth to show us how to live a life that will answer these questions. How can I come to know Jesus and live a life in service to Him and the Body of Christ here on Earth? I need to know the history of God and His chosen people, the lessons and stories humanity has learned along the way, the context within which Christ was born, lived, taught and died and to know the origins of the traditions and sacraments of this beautiful, vivid and life-giving faith that has shown me true love (in more than one respect).

So I begin, rather timidly, to read the Bible and to gather up my courage and my words to ask questions, marvel in the grace of God and learn about the Holy Trinity that I love passionately. I jump in to the Living Water without pretense, without protection and with all intentions of stripping myself to the vulnerable quick that sits at the ready to learn and absorb without ego. A tall order for a freshman, but I must remember that I don't swim alone.