Leviticus done!

I have finished the book of Leviticus! I had imagined a slog through laws and specificities that don't apply in our day and age; I was pleasantly surprised to be very wrong about that! The book of Leviticus was an interesting journey through cultural norms, spiritual truths and human tendencies. I had to keep in mind that Leviticus is the word of God delivered to a people who have gone astray and who need strict guidance to mend their ways. Each law and rule was delivered to them in love, in the hopes that they as a people could redeem themselves and turn toward God their Father and live in prosperity and peace with Him. At times (what with all the stoning, burning and death penalties) it was difficult to keep this perspective as a 21st century lefty Canadian, but it was a good lesson in trying to read between the lines of what is clean and what is unclean, why women are worth only half as many shekels as men are and the laws for selling land and keeping Jubilee years. In the middle of the book I had an epiphany of sorts... these laws may only be oppressive to me because I already enjoy a blessed life of peace, prosperity and freedom (standing on the shoulders of toiling giants of years, centuries and millenia past). Perhaps, the cultural and societal norms of the day were far more oppressive than the laws that God is setting out for his people. Although they are regimented and complicated, they may be less harsh than the norms that prevailed at the time. This, in light of Leviticus 12 in which God specifies rules and purification rites around menstruation and child birth, may even be seen as emanicpatory in a number of ways. God describes women as being unclean during menstruation and for a period after childbirth. After the time of uncleanness, a woman can make offerings and purify herself and thus enter back into community and society actively. It occurred to me that perhaps in the people of Canaan and Egypt, this wasn't necessarily possible for common women. If women are seen as unclean in general, and thus second-class citizens, the opportunity that God brings to them to purify themselves and re-enter society and community and centers of worship in a full and meaningful way is revolutionary! I would have loved to have had a biblical anthropologist/sociologist (I'm sure they must exist!) to chat to while I was reading this book. Even the passage in Leviticus 27 that values women as half as much as men is revolutionary if at the time of the passing down of the laws women were valued as one tenth of a man.

Leviticus 13 is all about leprosy, quarantine and banishment of lepers from the camp. This is a public health pronouncement, but is there some internalized phobia as well? Does God not want his exemplary people to be associated with disease this early in their adolescence? People fear disease, so God gives instructions about how to tell serious disease apart from the normal human condition. Does God allow for the banishment of lepers because he knows his grumbling people; that they may not endure with Him if they are forced to live with what they fear in their spiritual adolescence?

Lev 14 talks about the purification of a leprous person after they have been declared clean. They have to shave and bathe and make their way slowly back into their homes in various stages of shaving and bathing and living outside their tent and making sacrifices. This long process may be the result of God knowing the fear of illness that human beings carry. To have a man who once was leprous thrust back into the family tent after being declared clean may be a difficult adjustment for the extended family to make. I suppose that tents held entire extended families and that in bringing a previously suspected leprous person back into that environment quickly may trigger dissent in the family unit. God, understanding the human mind and tendencies to fear, alienate, fight, instate hierarchy and harm the weak may have given instructions for a longer process so that the human mind and soul might have time to recognize the need and humanity in the suspected leprous person (rather than just the suspected leprosy) before he is reintroduced into the family. People are always unclean until the evening. I like the idea of a new day beginning in the evening and as each new day begins, so there is a new beginning for a person who has sinned. Each day we turn toward the Lord we have a chance at a clean slate.

Interestingly there is a guilt offering required for the cleansing of a leprous person. This makes me wonder about the cultural perceptions of leprosy at the time. Was there a stigma of guilt around a person that has leprosy? This law again may be seen as oppressive or emanicpatory. In Vancouver, a person with leprosy is not seen as guilty. However, addicts and homeless often are. If these people were given a path by God, an act they could perform that would, in the minds and hearts of all surrounding them, free them of the stigma of guilt, imagine what that would do for social programs in this country. If everyone believed that people were homeless or addicted because of circumstance not because of personal fault, and if the afflicted could show that through the sacrifice of a bird, would we not have more social housing? More mental health services? The sacrifice of a bird for a guilt offering by the leper is perhaps another way that God brings the pseudo-marginalized and stigmatized back to the community.

The Day of Atonement held particular power for me. I am a huge fan of second chances and new life through God. Aaron laying his hands on the head of the goat and confessing all the sins and transgressions of the Israelites, transferring them to the animal and sending them away from the community was reminiscent of the baptism of a nation. At my own baptism, I felt the redemptive and transformative power of God change me, change my heart and align my spirit with His will; I can only imagine how powerful it would be to experience, as a nation, that transformative love and the grace of a second chance at a joyful life of service to God.

Lev 26 God speaks to the people of Israel about the rewards for obedience. He promises bounty of the field and vine, harvests in an order to sustain the people and avoid any hunger. He promises that they will live a peaceful existence, vanquishing their enemies and having lots of children. He promises to make his dwelling among them and live with them. Disobedience, He promises panic, wasting disease, fever and heartache. Their enemies will eat their harvests and their enemies will vanquish them, God will turn His face away from Israel. He promises an increasingly horrible existence (eating the flesh of their own sons and daughters and living as slaves in their enemies land, while their own land lies desolate and enjoys its Sabbath). He promises that they will perish among the nations for three verses and then finishes with a promise of redemption through confession and atonement. Through amends the Lord will remember his covenants with Jacob and Isaac and Abraham and not utterly destroy Israel. God closing the book of laws with another reminder of the power of His love, His faithfulness to the covenant He made with the patriarchs of Israel and his undying forgiveness if it is sought through free will is such a beautiful thing. He spends the book directing, proscribing, warning, chastening and He ends with a reminder that it is all done in endless love for His children and that He knows they will falter, He knows they will turn away at times and sin, and He wants us to know that he will always provide a way back to Holy.

Through the revolutionary and transformative love of God, may we seek to emancipate our brothers and sisters here on earth, may help our hurting people rather than judge them, may we witness the redemptive power of God through our acts and thoughts and may we always find the Christ-lit path back to holy in the most unlikely places. Amen.