“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