When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him. – Numbers 7:89

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 31, 2012): Numbers 7

There are a number of places that I admit I just feel out of place. I have always felt like the odd man out at a party. I think that part of the problem is that I often just do not know what to do. As long as there is some sort of program, I can fill in the appropriate responses. But when that purpose disappears, the anxiety inside of me begins to grow. I feel the same way at the pastoral gatherings that I attend. Often I just do not seem to fit in - what is important to other pastors is seldom what is important to me. I am currently struggling with a ministerial leadership position. It is not that I do not desire to help out or to make a difference. But my struggle is that there is a very real difference between what I feel is important and what the other ministers seem to need at their meetings. And all the discrepancy does is drive in the feeling that I really do not belong.

I have a suspicion that it is a feeling that a lot of people experience. We go through life living as outsiders in the places that surround us. Some of us have the ability to pretend we belong better than the rest of us, but we all find ourselves in places where we feel that we just do not belong. And when we feel that way, there is no greater experience than being invited into that place by someone we know belongs. To have them stand beside us and validate us in that place, in spite of all the insecurity we are suffering through inside.

It is interesting that one of the effects of the law being passed down from God was that the law excluded Moses from the presence of God. The task of ministering in the presence of God would now be the task of Aaron and all of his descendants. And yet, God still invites Moses into a place that where he no longer belonged. In spite of all of his insecurities, God still invited him into his presence – a place where God and Moses could talk.

Maybe a greater mystery is that God also invites us into the same place. For the one that dedicates himself to the mysteries of his grace, the invitation stands. And we get to talk to him as a man speaks to a friend – we speak to him face to face, in spite of the fact that it is a place where we know we really do not belong.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 8

… the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. – Numbers 6:25

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 30, 2012): Numbers 6

A few days ago I spent a day at the Calgary Zoo with my family. It was a great day. As it started, the day was filled with sunshine. And as the summer sun tends to do, it quickly became a very warm day. But the morning sun quickly turned into afternoon cloud. And the temperature began to drop (and it actually became a very comfortable afternoon.) But then the afternoon clouds turned into an afternoon thunderstorm. And the rain was cold and wet and a bit uncomfortable. But summer thunderstorms do not tend to last long and soon the rain stopped and the clouds moved on leaving the sun to shine down on us once more. And the afternoon temperature rose and we continued our excursion continued.

The day had been filled with various forms of weather (luckily I could not add snow or hail to my list), but the reality was that at no time did I really have to look up at the sky to figure out what was going on. I knew what was going on in the sky by what was happening on the ground. When the sun was shining I could feel the heat. And when it disappeared, the absence of the heat was immediately noticeable. But at the same time, I did have to recognize what the sun was – and I had to take notice of what was happening all around me.

It is not an accident that this blessing takes on the language of the sun. The idea of the blessing is that God’s presence shining upon you should be a noticeable event. God’s blessing should never leave us guessing. But we have to be able to understand our times and our culture – and be need to be willing to understand our God.

So let me echo the blessing for you and in your life. I hope that God’s face will shine upon you. That God’s presence would be noticeable and obvious in your life. May you understand your own surroundings and everything that God is already doing all around you. Because he is at work all around you – no matter what you may believe about him.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 7

He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged. – Numbers 5:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 29, 2012): Numbers 5

I used to be amused by the commercials that promised the lowest prices, and if they did not have the lowest price that they would refund the difference plus twenty percent. Part of the amusing part was that at one point it seemed to be the standard advertising practice – everyone was making the same promise. And logic said that they all could not be right. One had to have the lowest price.

I think it was the advent of loss leaders, products actually sold at a loss just to get you into the store, that curtailed the promise. You can still find the promise (an online catalogue from a major department store still carries the promise), but it no longer seems to take center stage in many corporate advertising schemes. The logic behind the scheme is that it is actually a fairly safe proposition. Most of us stop shopping after we have bought the item, and so we rarely ever take advantage of the promise.

But what we miss is that the promise is actually encoded into Mosaic Law. If you make a promise (like promising that your product is the lowest price) and you fail to follow through on the promise, then you are responsible for making up the difference (making full restitution) and while you are at it, giving the one wronged one fifth extra as an admission that you were at fault. The idea is that we are to take what we promise very seriously.

As Christians, I wonder if we take this instruction lighter than we should. Often we seem to think that we are covered by grace and the sacrifice of Jesus; that restitution is just no longer necessary. But the demands of grace are always greater than the demands of the law. Our word in the age of grace is much more important than it ever was under the Law of Moses. And the demands for restitution in even more important now than it ever was.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 6

Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting. – Numbers 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 28, 2012): Numbers 4

I am getting old. It is not just that I am a grandfather now. (I never thought that Grandpa Mullen would be me – that was the role that DeVerne Mullen played in my family and then one that my father took over when Grandpa died.) But some things just seem to be harder to do. All night sessions used to be something that could be easily accomplished, but now they seem to take a little more out of me. Travel days used to be easy, now they seem make me a little more tired. The problem is that I really do not feel all that old – and yet there are all of these signs.

We mentioned that the task of the Levites was one that was measured out from the very beginning. And so the Levites were to be counted from the age of one month. The exception to the rule seems to be Kohathite branch of the tribe. For them, the clan was only to be counted between the ages of thirty and fifty. The reason was that these were the men responsible for the moving of the tabernacle – it was a task that needed strength and endurance – as well as the wisdom and patience to follow God in the task. And it was between these ages that the men were considered to be in their physical prime and capable to accomplish the task.

And that is just the reality of life. It is a reality that God understands. We all get older, and we all have to face the fact that there are things that we will not always be able to do. But that does not mean that we lose purpose – just that our purpose will change. Inside of the Jewish Community the older members were important. But they also had to realize that there were some things that they just could not physically do any more. And the community worked best when the community accomplished the things that they were able to do. And that is the task of all of us – including me.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 5

Count the Levites by their families and clans. Count every male a month old or more. – Numbers 3:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 27, 2012): Numbers 3

There is an unspoken argument going on inside of the walls of the church. It is an unspoken argument because it is basically just one that we are having with ourselves. There is no one that is actually standing on the other side of the fight - just us. We are the ones occupying both positions. It is a battle largely between what it is that we say and what it is that we do. And the battleground is over our children.

On one side of the battle stand our words. We say that our kids are not the church of the future, that they are, in fact, the church of today. The meaning behind the words that we speak is that our children are the current church. What that means is that we are prepared to program for our kids – but more than that, it also means that we are prepared to train our kids to lead the church. We are ready to move them into positions of responsibility. And at an early age, to design church as they think it should be.

But that is not always what our behavior says. Our behavior says that we want to have things done our way. I have had conversations with retired adults that were not sure that the next generation was mature enough yet to take over their leadership roles in the church. It was not that they did not want them to take over, but that the desire to give leadership away was not enough to overrule the fear that the next generation would do things differently. And so the battle that we have with ourselves continues.

As Israel moved toward nationhood, they also had a plan for leadership. Hidden inside of the census instructions were the seeds of that plan. For every tribe the instruction was to count the male members over the age of twenty-five. The idea was that by that time they would be ready to learn their duty and be prepared to move into a position of leadership by the time they hit thirty. And the only exception was the tribe of Levi. For the Levites, the ones responsible for ministry inside of the tabernacle (the church) they started counting the men at the age of one month. Entrance into ministry was to be immediate.

We begin the training process for ministry immediately. Even according to Mosaic Law, our children are the church of today. It has always been that way.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 4

Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. – Numbers 1:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 26, 2012): Numbers 1 & 2

Counting has become a bit of a hot topic inside of the church. The argument seems to be both whether to count and who to count. The idea seems to be that a focus on numbers is destructive to the spiritual emphasis of the church. Our purpose is not about numbers, it is about bringing people into a closer relationship with the one who created us. It is that element that is important. And the argument often continues that God was never concerned about numbers.

And, to a point, that is a true statement. But it was also true that God was concerned about numbers. As Israel prepares to move and take their first steps as a nation, one of the first things that God instructs them to do is to count the people. Counting was a logistic necessity for the continuation of the community. Every number needed support. Every number was a mouth to feed, a person who needed both a job and a purpose. Every number represented half of a marriage, and the possibility of children. Every number represented a problem – and it also represented a future citizen of the Promised Land.

The numbers were part of the story, but they were not the entire story. The truth was that sometimes the numbers meant something – they had a purpose. But other times they did not. Numbers were forbidden whenever the community of God began to rely on them rather than on God. And even in the original instruction from God was the reminder that every number had a name.

Numbers continue to be part of our story. From the mundane elements of how many bulletins we need to print to the how many seats we need and parking spots that will be required, all in some way come back to the counting of numbers. But it is only part of the story, and we also need to be reminded that every number comes with a name attached. And the name is also important. But at the same time we should never put our faith in the numbers. Our faith is in God and he sees beyond the numbers.

And as far as I am concerned, if someone is important enough to have a name, they are important enough to be counted - and important enough to experience God working through them.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 3

In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it, the one whose land it was. – Leviticus 27:24

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 25, 2012): Leviticus 27

The other night I watched “Another Earth.” Essentially it is the journey of a young girl charged with vehicular manslaughter back from the edge. She had been brought there by a momentary mistake. It was not something that she did on purpose. It was a mistake that she wished that she could take back, but that was impossible. It is these moments that we all struggle with – it is the what ifs and whys of life. And most of us have them lurking somewhere in our past. They are the things that we regret; often the things that we never thought would happen to us. But they did. And they are the things that we need a second chance to recover from, if any one would only give us the chance – but often no one does.

Maybe that is why I love the idea of the year of Jubilee. It seemed to be a galactic reset button – a second chance. It did not come around often, but it did come around. It was the moment when what had been lost could be restored. A time when what belonged to the family and had been sold could be returned. It was almost a fantasy world; one that could not exist – but somehow it did.

But the other side of the year of Jubilee was that it was a reset button that never really worked. We could not get past our greed – our need for more. The idea of a reset button never really seemed fair. Yes, we all needed the reset button, but some of us needed it more. Those with power are usually the ones that need the reset the least – and sometimes they are the ones that have found another way to push that button. And so they found the excuses and loopholes that would forever keep the reset out of the hands of those that needed it the most.

Grace is the extension of the reset button to the people around us. And the beauty of grace is that we do not have to wait fifty years for it to be extended. We can do it now. But the problem is that we have to put away our greed to be able to do it. And those with power have to be the ones to extend it to those without. Because those who need a reset button are always those without power.

Today, be the reset button in someone’s lives. In some way, allow them to start over with you. Because it is you that has the power.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 1 & 2

I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. – Leviticus 26:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 24, 2012): Leviticus 26

Sometimes, in the middle of the chaos that surrounds us when we live in houses with small children, we forget the purpose of raising the children. Often the purpose seems to become just making it through the day, or getting the child to eat the green vegetables that we have placed on their plates. But that was never the reason behind the why we bother. All of the struggles that we go through as we raise our children are for only one purpose – so that one day our children will be able to make decisions that will set them up well for life. We know that the day is coming when we will no longer be able to stand beside them and force them to follow the rules that we have set out for them. On that day, the decisions of life will be all theirs.

The discipline of God serves the same purpose. The Idea is that the God, who loves us, wants us to be able to make good decisions. And just like our children, we do not always understand the connection between the directions of God and our ability to live good lives – but also like our children, just because we do not see the connection does not mean that the connections does not exist.

As God speaks his message of discipline in this passage, he adds the phrase “I will break down your stubborn pride.” For God, and often for us as parents, pride becomes the real problem. Pride stops us from being able to learn. It says that we already know the best way. For us to be able to learn – and for our children to be able to learn – pride has to be broken.

And that is exactly what God decides to do. He will break the pride, not so that we are put into our place, but because we need to have the capability to learn. Because learning is essential to being able to live and enjoy life as God intended that we should.

   

Tomorrow’s  Scripture Reading: Leviticus 27

But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. – Leviticus 25:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 23, 2012): Leviticus 25

One of the essential ideas of life that we seem to have lost is the idea of margin. The belief behind the idea of margin is that we all need empty space in every area if our lives if we are to remain healthy. In everything that we do, we need to find margin. I hope that as you read these words that you have allowed for some empty space around the edges. The reality is that margin in what we read helps us to comprehend the meaning of words and sentence structure – it makes the words on the page easier to read.

Margin in our time helps us to live healthy lives. We need down time when we can simply unplug from everything, but without margin downtime is essentially impossible. And as the stress of life goes up, the need for unplugged play time goes up as well. And if we do not have the capacity to increase our play, the crash that is waiting for us is just around the corner.

Honoring God with our finances means finding margin in them. It is not just about the tithe, but margin means that when things get tough financially, we have saved enough to make it through. The essential concept is that we use only a portion of the money that we have to live, the rest we either give for the work of God or we put it away for the future. It is all part of God’s plan for us. But the truth is that very few of us have been able to build margin into our lives in the important areas of time management and finances. I have friends that are working two or three jobs and working every day of the week to keep up their standard of living. And that is a scary situation because I can already see the crash coming.

The Sabbath is really all about margin. It is about building days and even years into our routine where recovery can happen. I love the idea of Sabbath year. And I believe that not only would the land be healthier if we could celebrate it, but that our own lives would be healthier as well. But I also know that the Sabbath year has almost never been celebrated voluntarily. Whenever it was celebrated, it was because disaster hit – the crash had finally come. And the reason why it has not been celebrated is because we have forgotten to be a people of margin.

My hope and my prayer is that we can slowly start to rebuild margin back into our lives. I do not think we can do it quickly, but for both our spiritual and our physical health, that margin is more essential than we can ever imagine.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 26

“Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. – Leviticus 24:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 22, 2012): Leviticus 24

I have said that I realize that one of my weaknesses is in the area of mystery. I would say that I have a more logical – and probably more businesslike – mind. For me, a lot of even what we do in our spiritual lives has a logical aspect to it. In a lot of my pastoral counseling, I seem to lean heavily on common sense. It seems so clear to me that there is a way that is logical in the way that we are supposed to live our lives.

And yet, I have to readily admit that the logical does not sum up everything in life. Especially in the realm of the spiritual, we have to leave room for the mysterious. We are not to ultimately be a people of logic – even though I am very comfortable in that realm. We are to be a people of faith. And faith has the corner on the market when it comes to mystery.

Mystery is the reason why we struggle with things like forgiveness. Forgiveness would seem to go against logic. When someone hurts us, the logical thing is to hurt them back, even if the only reason is so that they do not hurt us again. In the same way, Jesus instruction that we should turn the other cheek or go the extra mile seem to be instructions that just invite people to take advantage of us. And yet, Jesus mysteriously seems to lead us to believe that this is the path to victory. We try to rephrase the instructions in a more positive light, but the truth is that these and other teachings of Jesus are filled with mystery. It is also true that in the end, it would seem that mystery wins.

In a kingdom that is based faith, the worst thing that can happen is anti-faith. A reluctance to live by faith spreads through a community like a wild fire. Before you know it, faith is weak and the community begins to die. And that has been the story of a number of churches and faith groups. The first thing to go was faith, but the physical demise was soon to follow.

 We have no idea what the situation of the sin was that Moses had to face, but it was some sort of anti-faith. The sin was blaspheming the name of God, which literally means causing dirt to be thrown on the name of God, or causing God to cease to be the object of our faith. And for a fledgling nation, that would be the death knell of the community. And that is the reason why it had to be dealt with so severely – and why we need to take seriously anything in our midst that causes us to leave the confines of the faith – and of mystery.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 25

Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.” – Leviticus 23:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 21, 2012): Leviticus 23

We have somehow come to the conclusion that we do not value losing. But the truth is that we learn much more through losing then we do from winning. Losing is not only not bad, it is a necessary element of our own growth. But the motto of our culture is that everyone is a winner. I ran across a child recently that had a gold medal around his neck. I congratulated him on proficiency, but his reaction was more about boredom. “It was the worst medal you could get – and everyone got one. We are all gold medal winners, but in this competition if you wanted to really achieve something, you needed to win a Double Gold Medal – or better yet, a Platinum Medal.”

The marvel of the situation with this athlete was not that he felt valued because of his Gold Medal, but rather that the gold had lost its lustre. It just was not important anymore. His reaction to his medal was proof that the medal itself was unimportant. In competition, what matters is the value we place on the medal that we have won. In ancient Greece, the competitors competed for a simple wreath of leaves – but because of the value they placed on the wreath they would have competed as hard for it as if it was made of gold – or platinum.

   

There is an old adage that if everything is important, than nothing is important. I think the adage works for our modern view of competition. If everyone is a winner, then in reality no one is winner. And that is the danger that our culture seems to be running into. Yes, we are creating a society that is without losers – but the reality is that what we are really creating is a culture where there are no winners.

When God instructs Moses about the offerings, his instructions are that it should be the first fruits of the harvest that are given to God. It is not just a part of the harvest, and it is especially not just the left overs of what we have – it is the first. First seems to mean something.

In regards to the offering, first means that we have made a commitment to God long before the harvest became a reality. And it is really that commitment that God is looking for – one that can only e symbolized by the first – and a first that has not been watered down by making everything the first.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 24

“Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the Lord. – Leviticus 22:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 20. 2012): Leviticus 22

I recently read a report about the management of funds by a number of major non-profit organizations. The conclusion of the report was a little surprising – a number of major charitable organizations had been found guilty of mismanagement of funds. Well, at least they appear to be guilty of mismanagement – and that was part of the problem. The criterion of the mismanagement was curiously missing from the report. The report was loaded with innuendo, but there were very few facts to back up the allegations. The most the reader could say was that the money had not been spent as someone thought that it should have been.

In the non-profit world, we all seem to walk a fine line. I think for most of us, we take the responsibilities that we have to our donors very seriously. I know that for the non-profit that I am connected with we try to go beyond the requirements of the law as we work with the donated money. But there is also a problem. Almost every donor comes with their own list of priorities. And often the priorities are contradictory.

Moses was given God’s priorities and was told to adhere to them. The sacred offerings were to be used for God’s purpose. They were not to be used in any way that could be misunderstood, and the offerings were not given to the priests to use as they saw fit. The offering needed to be directed in a specific way.

A few years ago I was confronted with some donors that felt that the lion’s share of the donations should be earmarked for overseas mission. The group even decided that anything that was spent locally should be termed as administrative cost. But the church’s mission has never been that narrow. And the narrowness of the vision cannot be supported biblically. In fact, as far as the bible is concerned the beginning of our mission is right where we live. For the church, we use our donations to make this world a better place. And by the world we mean our corner of it, and a few corners far away from us as well.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 23

Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.’ – Leviticus 21:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 19, 2012): Leviticus 21

In James Michener’s book The Covenant, written about the interactions between the different cultures in South Africa from prehistory until the 1970’s, there is a scene regarding a would be priest. He found himself in the undesirable position of knowing, in spite of how much the man desired to be in the priesthood, that he would forever excluded from it. The problem was that the man had a physical deformity, in this case a lazy eye, and the deformity was enough to exclude him from ever being a man of the cloth. I have to admit, when I first read the story in Michener’s book I was a little surprised, and shocked, by the sub plot. I mean, why would a God who judges the heart of men care about the outward appearance of a man?

But the answer is found in this verse in Leviticus – and the instruction proceeds from the very mouth of God. Any man with a defect is automatically disqualified from the most intimate duties of the priesthood. The defect takes precedence over both the lineage and the gifting of the man. And the question that we need to ask is – why?

And the answer is actually found in the nature of the sacrifice that was to be brought into the presence of God. The sacrifice that was to be presented to the priest had to be perfect. Any defect in the sacrifice meant that it was unfit for presentation at the altar - and if the sacrifice had to be perfect, why not the one who was offering it?

Maybe it is best understood as modeling the idea of giving only our best to God. Good enough just is not good enough. God deserved the best of our efforts, and he deserves the best of the people ministering for him. In other words, he deserves us in the places where we can give him our best.

Understanding our gifting is not just something we do to feed our own ego. It is something that we do so that we can offer only our very best to God – without defect because he is the one that gifted and called us into a position. And there we have a chance to  make our world a better place.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 22

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. – Leviticus 20:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 18, 2012): Leviticus 20

I have never been much of a disciplinarian. It is one of many failings. My desire has always been that those around me would follow me not because they are scared of me, but rather because they respect me – even love me. It is not that I want to manipulate the people around me. I have always just wanted to work with people who are on the same page as I am. I get that some people may disagree with me, but I have never found that forced obedience to my vision has ever been a plan that had the possibility of working.

Therefore, I have never been much of a believer in rules. The idea of a rule seems to work against the idea of working together. Rules seem to force people to conform to an idea, rather than accepting a concept because they believe in it. Part of the problem is that the regulations often seem to become a substitute for a changed heart. The idea seems to be that we can use behavior modification to change the way people act. But in that belief, we are only contenting ourselves with the treatment of the symptoms. But that does not seem to be in line with Biblical teachings. The Bible seems to be more concerned with hitting at the core of our problems.

God tell Israel to consecrate themselves and be holy – not to act holy. The people of God should be set apart because God himself is holy and set apart. I know that the reason behind our rules is because the Christian community is to be holy, but rules have also failed miserably. They have produced a Christian culture that somehow believes that going through the motions is enough. But I am not sure that God would agree.

Everything in life depends on the person that we are. Sure, we can follow rules and pretend we are something different, but sooner or later who we really are will slip through our defenses. The lifelong journey that God has called us to is about who it is that God has called us to be. God`s promise is that he will circumcise our hearts – he will begin the process of returning us to the people we were designed to be in the first place.

Be holy because your God is holy. It is not something that we will ever be able to do in and of ourselves. But it is something that God wants to work inside of each one of us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 21

Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. – Leviticus 19:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 17, 2012): Leviticus 19

We seem to have a tendency to desire to separate what is secular and of the world and what is sacred. Some of the early heresies of the church made the most of this predisposition. I recently heard a sermon preached where the speaker spoke of the separation. He said that the thing that we fear the most that the preacher might tell us is that our Sunday faith needs to be lived out in our weekday work. We want the heresy to be true. We want a clear dividing line between the faith – and we want to constrict our faithful behavior to the Weekend Worship Service. Maybe he is right.

Some cults try to continue the heresy. Their belief is that there is a difference between the believer and the non-believer. And that because there is a spiritual difference between the people, there is also a different set of expectations. The spiritual laws, even the most basic ones like “do not bear false witness against your neighbor” (do not lie), only really apply to those who are like you spiritually. To anyone else it is quite alright to lie and bear contempt. The reason seems to be that because they are not spiritually like you, they are not real people. And spiritual laws are meant only for real people.

But it is a difference that the Bible never speaks about. The biblical truth is that we are to treat the other with respect, regardless of their spiritual reality. The biblical idea is that we are all the children of God; we are all heirs to the promise of God. The problem is that we sometimes just do not recognize that simple fact.

God has given us a mission. We are to live out our faith in the work that we do every day. We are to live out our faith in the relationships that we have with people every day – both those we share a faith with and those that hold to a different belief system. In living out our faith, we speak of the existence of our God – and of the love that he holds for everyone we come into contact with – no matter what it may be that they believe.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 20

Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. – Leviticus 18:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 16, 2012): Leviticus 18

I like to hear good imitators at their craft. The ones who really know what they are doing can be fun to watch. And I also agree that imitation is often the best form of flattery. Every once in a while I catch someone in my circle of influence imitating something that I have done – and I am flattered. Even roasts can be an indication of the love and respect that people have for each other. But it is not always that way.

Sometimes imitations can be mean. It is the Junior High element emerging from our lives. We pick on one trait and use it to bring someone down. The truth is that none of us are perfect, and there are traits about us that we would rather no one ever mention. I have more than my fair share of things about me that I do not want people to imitate – or even mention. And these are the times that imitation becomes painful parodies of life.

Molech was a parody of God. He focused on the sacrificial system of Jehovah. One of the problems with Molech is that he often offered nothing, but charged a immense price for the privilege of serving him. Rabbinical writings describe the actions associated with the Molechian sacrifice. The idol itself was hollow and provided seven compartments. The first was the place that the people would place flour in imitation of the grain sacrifice demanded by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the second to sixth compartments were placed turtle-doves, a lamb, a ram, a calf and an ox – again all parodies of a sacrifice that could be offered in tabernacle. And the seventh compartment was for a young child. Often when the child was brought for sacrifice the priests of Molech would heat the brass idol until it was burning hot. The hands of Molech were extended, and the child was placed into the waiting, burning hands of the idol. And the priest would beat the drums so that the father could not hear the cries of the child and relent of the sacrifice.

In later times, Molech became synonymous with the worship of Satan. It is thought that often when people sacrificed to Molech, they believed that they were sacrificing to the God of Israel. But God plainly speaks to Moses that such a belief was a profane insult to God. It threw dirt on the name of God and it could not be tolerated.

And yet Molech tortured Israel for centuries with even kings sacrificed their sons and heirs into his waiting arms. Today we often seem to be more likely to sacrifice our children to the god of convenience, but it is still a sacrifice of something that should precious to us – and it is a sacrifice that profanes the very name of God. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 19


Note: The VantagePoint Sermon "More Than an Altar Call" from "The Essential James Part II" series is now available on the VantagePoint Website - you can find the link here. http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Essential_James_Part_II___More_Than_an_Altar_Call.htm

They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come. – Leviticus 17:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 15, 2012): Leviticus 17

In 1979, Bob Dylan released his studio album “Slow Train Coming.” The album contained what would become Dylan’s last hit single. The track was called “Gotta Serve Somebody.” The song would peak at number 24 on the Billboard Top 100. And maybe what is most surprising is that song seemed to have a definite Christian twist. The lyric of the chorus gave the central message of the song.

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

No matter how you feel about Dylan’s Christian period, the song underlined a human truth. We will serve something. It is just the way that human nature operates. Often it is simply our own needs that get served. We do what it is that we want to do. But maybe the surprising thing is that we often do not get what it is that we want. Our worship is often wasted. People who just want to serve the pleasures of the world seldom seem to be content People who serve money seldom have money. It seems that to obtain either one of those things requires that we chase after something else. But whatever it is that we serve has a drastic effect on who it is that we are.

The gods of the ancient times usually fulfilled a specific desire or need. Each god had his own niche. If what you wanted was what that god was thought to have control over, then that was the god to whom you would dedicate your worship. The goat god was worshipped in Egypt as the god that would provide fertility – both for the people and for the flocks. And fertility was an important factor in ancient times – and little understood. The problem with the God of Israel is that he seemed to be a general practitioner. And Israel was always tempted by the specifics.

But fertility and life were not available from the goat god – he was just someone to serve. The problem was that the goat god had nothing to do with either life or fertility. That was the area of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To worship the goat god was just a waste of worship. And that was an insult to the real God –and the road to death instead of life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 18

The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. – Leviticus 16:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 14, 2012): Leviticus 16

A few years ago I was caught out on a golf course at the beginning of an intense thunderstorm. We had seen the storm in the distance as we made our way through the back nine of the course, but on the sixteenth hole all in a sudden it seemed that the storm was upon us and lightning was everywhere. And we knew that the prudent thing was to make our way to the clubhouse as quickly as possible. But that meant traversing the dangers of a golf course in the midst of that kind of a storm. One of my friends walked up beside me and asked if I was preaching the next day. It just so happened that I was and so his response was – then I am going to stick close to you because God will not let the lightning hit you. It was a bit of good natured fun, but it might also have hidden a dangerous belief – that maybe we know the mind of God and that we have some sort of power over him.

If there was a coroner’s report on the death of Aaron’s sons the cause of death might have been listed as offering of strange fire before the Lord. But the truth is that the problem was a lot deeper than just that. It was not just the act of offering fire that was not of God inside the tabernacle, it was the pride of presumption that because they were the priests that they had a measure of control over God and could do whatever it was that they wanted to do in the tabernacle. They seem to have believed that they formed a privileged class inside of the nation of Israel. And they would pay the price for the false belief.

So God responds to Aaron by putting limits on his access to God.  There could be no room for pride here. He would be allowed into the Most Holy Place only when the tabernacle was set to be moved (and at that time God would remove his presence from that place) and on the Day of Atonement when he would enter the Holy of Holies and make sacrifices for the sin of the  nation of Israel. At all other times he would have no more rights to the place of God than the average citizen of Israel. There would be no room for pride or presumption.

Of course, when Jesus dies on the cross, the Scripture says that the curtain that divided the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn. In that moment, all of us were given access to the Most Holy Place of God. But there would still be no room for pride or presumption. With God the rule seems to be everyone or no one – there are very few in betweens. And the danger is that if we forget that, we begin to act like the sons of Aaron, believing that our position with God gives us a measure of control. And to that belief, God responds by bring death – both physical and emotional/spiritual.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 17

You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them. – Leviticus 15:31

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 13, 2012): Leviticus 15

We live in the middle of a paradox. Through our struggles with modernity I think that we have forgotten that. We have tried to make the gospel make sense – we almost take pride in the logic of the message. But in depending on the logic of the gospel message, we also lose the mystery. And the loss of the mystery is dangerous. In the darkest moments of our lives, it is not the logic of the gospel that we need; we need the mystery. What we need is for God to miraculously step into our situation, an action that is filled with mystery.

And the law of God is written the same way. Some of the laws do have a logical bent to them. Some of the food laws are important because there is a health benefit – or a health danger – that could be involved in the food we eat. And in our health conscious society we understand that. Some of the sexual laws are clearly based on health issues. We think that the sexual bias of the Bible somehow limits our freedom, but in the back of our minds I think we also realize that there are a lot of sexually transmitted diseases that could be wiped off the face of the earth if we would just follow the sexual laws that are found in the writings of Moses – even just for one generation. Sabbath Day laws (laws that say that we should take a day off in honor of God) are not curtailing our freedom, but rather responding to our very real need of a day off to remain physically healthy. One of the radical elements of the Sabbath regulations inside of the Mosaic Law is that they extended even to the slave. The idea was that everyone needs that day away from work.

But some of the laws were a bit of a mystery. The cleanliness laws did not see cleanliness as a freedom from germs the way that we might view it. They were a bit of a mystery. And the idea seemed to be that a mysterious God had chosen to live among them – that he was a holy God (holy really simply means ‘set apart’) and that because a holy God was living in their midst, they would need to be a holy people. And one of the ways that the nations would recognize that they were Holy was by being set apart in their practices – in being ceremonially clean.

It is maybe something that we need to recover in our circumstances. Again, as a response to modernity we find it easy to follow the logic of God, but maybe by following the logic we demote the rituals and actions that are filled with the mystery that we need. A mystery that we will require in the dark moments when logic no longer makes any sense.

    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 16

... the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed. – Leviticus 14:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 12, 2012): Leviticus 14

There is a great scene in Henry Harland’s novel (written in 1900) “The Cardinal’s Snuff Box” where the protagonist of the story (Peter) is confronted with the sickness of his servant (an older lady called Marietta). And at the beginning of the sickness, Marietta simply denies that she is sick. She just wants to keep pushing through the sickness to get the job done. Maybe in the back of her mind is the thought that she just cannot afford to be sick – that she needs to keep at the job and keep making the money that needs in order to live. There is also a feeling that she if she stops, she might be replaced. And that was a chance that she just could not afford to take.

But finally, Peter finds her in the kitchen hard at work and he has to give her an order. And it comes in the form of a question – do you want to please me? And there is nothing more that the Marietta wants to do than please her employer. And so Peter tells her, the only way for you to please me is if you will go to bed and begin the process of getting better. She finally complies with the wish and Peter sends for the doctor.

The illness is serious, but not grave. But as Marietta lies in bed she begins to consider her own mortality. She asks the doctor to send for the priest – in her mind she is preparing to make her final confession. The doctor comes to Peter with these instructions – “She is no worse—she is, if anything, rather better. Her malady is taking its natural course. But people of her class always fancy they are going to die, if they are ill enough to stay in bed. It is the panic of ignorance.”

Maybe we all suffer under the panic of ignorance when we are sick. It is then that our mind allows us to ask the question – is this the end? What do I have to show for the years that I have spent on this earth? And in most of our cases, the road to recovery is dependent on our ability to understand our own capacity to get well. It was a fact that the doctor in Harland’s novel understood well.

Leprosy in the ancient world was incurable. So it was almost ridiculous to have a ritual for the cleansing from it. And the ritual had to be powerful enough for the patients to really believe that they are clean. So God orders the priests to use powerful symbols in order to illustrate the cleansing process.

The cleansing process started with two birds – cleansing always starts with a sacrifice. But the sacrifice was not the end of the process. It continued on with the presence of three other symbols. The first was cedar wood. Cedar in the ancient world was considered to be relatively indestructible. Its value was that it was not normally subject to disease. The scarlet yarn was simply in an indicator that death was still present. The participant had been cleansed from an awful disease, but death was universal and still in the future. And finally hyssop was present in the cleansing ritual. The disease would often create a powerful negative smell as the flesh began to rot. Hyssop was a strong smell that reminded people of God and of his ability to cleanse in the first place. It was the smell of God that permeated the tabernacle. And when the ritual was completed, God’s plan was that we would understand that we really can be cleansed and can be well.

But the process cannot even start until the person recognized both his need for cleansing and God’s ability to cleanse. The truth is that God cannot heal us from a brokenness that we either will not admit or that we do not believe that he has power over.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 15

When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. – Leviticus 13:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 11, 2012): Leviticus 13

I really like the movie “A Knight’s Tale.” No, it is not a believable movie based on historical fact - Chaucer is a little out of time for the events in the movie, and the rise of the protagonist is ultimately unrealistic, but realism was never high on my list when evaluating a movie. I think the reason why the movie ranks high with me is because of the belief at the center of the movie that it is possible to change our future – to change our stars.

Maybe one of the tasks of a pastor that we do not always excel at is the task of removing people from the community in order to keep the community healthy. I think it is one of the weaknesses of our faith. We always want to look forward with grace and love; we believe that real change is possible. The idea that the stars can change is important, because we have all stood in a place where we have needed those stars to change. And yet, I also realize that sometimes exclusion is necessary. Sometimes there exists a poison inside of people that can destroy the entire community – and sometimes the possessors of the poison just have no real desire to do anything about that poison.

I think possibly that was why the task of exclusion was left up to priests in the Mosaic Law. The thought had to be that they would be the ones most likely to react with grace, and the slowest to react with exclusion. I am also not sure that it always worked the way it was supposed to, but I think that was the plan.

Leprosy was a horrible disease –and in ancient times it was also a disease without cure. Exclusion was necessary because if the patient was not excluded, the disease would destroy the community. But there were also strict rules that needed to be followed, as well as ways of checking up on the patient – and in all of this it was the priest’s responsibility to exclude or include at each point.

Leprosy is no longer a problem in the modern world – it is cured by a simple pill. But there are still poisons and diseases that need to be dealt with – and an unteachable spirit that needs to be disciplined is one of them. And if the poison cannot be dealt with any other way, than exclusion is the only response possible so that the community can thrive. But in our case, exclusion is avoidable by an honest evaluation of our own attitudes – and often just by asking ourselves one question. Do we believe that, with God’s help, the people around us can change their stars? As long as the answer is yes, then grace is still extended and God is still working in our midst.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 14

If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding. – Leviticus 12:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 10, 2012): Leviticus 12

One of the hardest things to teach our children and anyone else around us is that life makes no attempt to be fair. Even our attempt at describing an original sin is not really fair. Why should i be punished for something that someone else has done? And yet in almost every arena of life the reality of that single fact shines true. If we want, there will always be someone else that we can blame for the things that have happened in our lives. We never really have to take responsibility. Except that I cannot think of an unhealthier way to live.

And so, according to the law, a child’s life begins in sin. It begins as a reminder of the things that happened back in the original garden, generations before conception. Childbirth becomes a constant reminder of the sin penalty that we live under. And the sin penalty makes no attempt to be – fair.

And even in the rituals of purification, fairness seems to take a backseat – it is not fair. The time given for the purification of a mother after giving birth to a daughter is twice as long as the time given for a male child. But it would probably be proper to recognize the times for a woman’s cleansing after giving birth to a daughter is really the norm. The time of purification for a male child is simply cut short by ritual of circumcision. Circumcision becomes an act of grace, and yes, it is an unfair grace – but grace is usually unfair.

We never really get all the bad that we deserve. God’s grace always seems to intervene long before we get to that point. Sometimes we describe the Old Testament as being dominated by the law and the New Testament being dominated by grace. But what we often miss in our description is that grace is also present in the Old Testament. It was present from the very beginning of creation, and even codified into the Law of Moses. 

 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 13

Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: - Leviticus 11:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 9, 2012): Leviticus 11

There is an age when children begin to assert their own independence – and it happens long before the teenage years. By the time a child has reached the ancient age of two, they are already beginning to see themselves as the lord’s of their own lives. It is then that they first really begin to question whether or not the things that we want them to do are really the best for them. It is a time of testing for the parent.

The search for independence often starts with a single word – why? It is a word that kids learn to use early and often. And frequently the adults in their lives do not possess the answer – at least not in a form that a two year old can understand. The simple two year old question of “why is the sky blue” becomes a bit of a problem. We can tell the child that it is blue because of the process of scattering that happens when the diffuse sky radiation enters our atmosphere and hits the small particles and pollutants in the air – and that depending on which of the rainbow of colors are scattered is the real reason why the sky is blue and also why it sometimes changes color – or we can just tell them that God made it that way (which is a little closer to a two year olds understanding.) But often our answer to the one word question of ‘why’ comes down to another one word response – because.

As unfulfilling as the answer might be for both the parties, ‘because’ might be one of the better answers that we can give.  For one thing, often that is just the way life works. Often we do not have complete understanding of the whys of our own behavior. And yet, whether we understand or not there is the societal expectation that we will obey. Getting ahead in life often seems to come down to being able to live within the boundaries of the society, regardless of whether or not we understand all of the implications of our own whys.

It is a task that God set us up for early in our existence as a race. In the garden was one tree, the fruit of which we were not supposed to eat. The ‘whys’ really did not play a role. It was simply a rule of God – the only appropriate response was ‘because God said so.’ And as we venture into the dietary laws of the nation of Israel we run into the same response. Yes, the dietary laws set the nation apart from other people groups, a difference which would play a very important role in the nation’s developments, and there were some health benefits in finding animals that fit within certain characteristics, but the best answer for the food laws is still ‘because God said so.’

The next time you run into a persistent why, remember that both ‘because’ and the fuller ‘because God said so’ are viable answers. And both answers are a part of the reality of the life and society in which we have learned to function.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 12

So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. – Leviticus 10:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 8, 2012): Leviticus 10

Our actions carry with them their own consequences. I think sometimes we come running to God because we want to get away from the consequences, but God has never told us that that was an option. He has promised us his grace and strength to get through the tough times and he has given to us freely his forgiveness in the times that we mess up, but he has never said that our actions will be without consequences. It is one of the reasons that we need to pray about big decisions before we act. And we need to be a people that are constantly in the Bible so that God can actively speak back to us. Too often I have had a person come to me to tell me that they were going to do something that was clearly forbidden biblically with the words “in my situation, I think God is okay with it.” And then I have watched them follow through – and crash and burn. It is at that point that they come back to me hoping that God will absolve them from the consequences, and I have to remind them that it just does not work that way. We earn our own consequences – and often we have to suffer through them.

I am currently working on a series of messages slated for the fall that is asking questions about God’s anger. It is easy to read a passage like the one we find in Leviticus 10 and find an angry God. We may even read the author write of God’s anger, but in these instances I am not sure that that is really what is going on. I wonder if this passage, and others like it, is really about the consequences of our actions. It is something that most of us try to train our kids to think about – the fact that consequences exist.

Maybe the big difference between the Biblical texts and today is how often sin resulted in death. But I also wonder if that was maybe just a visual way of making sure that we understood the relationship between our own actions and the consequences that follow them. I am also not sure that we are free from death now. Sometimes I am sure that the sicknesses we suffer through have a lot to do with the way that we have decided to live our lives – our lack of health is just another consequence. I know that we do suffer death because of our sin – it is a spiritual death that threatens to turn is into a kind of spiritual zombies just trying to make it through life one event after another. And spiritual death is not worse than its physical counterpart.

In this verse, it is simply God’s presence that consumes the offenders – and I admittedly like that wording. And I think that we need to understand that coming into God’s presence while actively rejecting him is always a dangerous thing to do. It is also dangerous to enter into his presence out of a sense of routine. Our worship is always something we need to prepare ourselves for. Are you ready?

      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 11

On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. – Leviticus 9:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 7, 2012): Leviticus 9

We seem to be designed for a seven day week. It just seems so natural. The seven day week may have been in use with Israel since the very beginning. There is historical evidence that the seven day week was in constant use by the Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. But it has not been the only week that has been used. Various cultures have used weeks that have varied in the number of days, most between three and ten days. The Aztecs and Mayans have even experimented with a thirteen day week. But it is the seven day week that we seem to continually return to. The most recent divergence from the seven day week might have been in Revolutionary France where they tried a ten day week called a décade. But even this experiment gave way to the seven day week.

In a culture built on seven days, and a culture that emphasizes the importance of the seventh day as a Sabbath day of rest, there is also a special emphasis on the eight day. The eighth day in the Bible was significant as a day of perfecting and purifying both man and animal. It was on the eighth day that the circumcision was performed on a newborn baby boy and it was on the eighth day that an animal is made acceptable as an offering to God. And Ezekiel says that at the end of days, that it is from the eighth day on that God will accept our sacrifices. There is significance in the eighth day.

Moses summoned Aaron and his sons to him. The seven days of their consecration was complete. And now they would be installed into their offices and be ready to make the sacrifices for the community of Israel. It was the time of the eighth day.

And maybe it is significant that Jesus rose from the dead, completing the sacrifice that he made for us on the eighth day. The work of perfecting and purifying all of mankind had been completed and the creation that had been set into place in seven days was recreated on the eighth day. And so, as Christians, we continue to celebrate the work that God did on the eighth day. It is the reason why Sunday has become so important to Christ’s Church.

       

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 10

Moses said to the assembly, “This is what the LORD has commanded to be done. – Leviticus 8:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 6, 2012): Leviticus 8

Sometimes, one of the hardest things that we have to do is to give authority to someone else over things that we once had responsibility for – to give away the dream that we had carried for a while. And yet, at the same time, it is the healthy thing – the proper thing - that needs to be accomplished as our organizations grow. Often the limiting factor of leadership is found in our ability – or rather the lack thereof – to delegate responsibility. But as we hold tight onto our dream we become the factor that threatens to kill our vision of the future.

Jethro, Moses father-in-law, had already warned Moses of the danger of trying to do everything himself. But to be the leader that Israel needed, it was advice that Moses was going to have to put into practice. It would start with the arguments that Moses sat in judge over, but the implications went far beyond just that. Every aspect of national life had to be delegated to leaders that would take care of that responsibility.

So, this would be the last time that Moses would preside over a ceremony in tabernacle. It was one of the things that he had to delegate – in this case to his brother Aaron and his sons. This ceremony would consecrate them for the job and the torch would be passed. It was a big deal, and it needed to be celebrated that way.

Maybe that is one of the mistakes that I make – not remembering how big a deal it is when I delegate. Another mistake is that I often seem to forget what Moses knew, once a job was delegated, it was delegated. Moses walked away and left Aaron with the dream to be carried out the way that he – and God – saw fit. And Moses never looked back.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 9