Leviticus 4:1-5:13
A genuinely fascinating section on unintentional sin. Before I stumbled across this passage I used to wonder whether it was possible to sin unintentionally, especially when I remembered my Sunday school teaching that it is “the thought that counts” and “it’s not so much what you do but why you do it”. But now I’m convinced that these Sunday school platitudes are like rusting, hole-ridden shipwrecks-in-waiting rather than dependable, sea-worthy vessels for life. Motivation is important but you can’t deny that actions matter by themselves. And we see that when you did act in a way that is displeasing to the Lord you couldn’t just fire off a quick sorry and move on - you had to follow a factory-like process of mechanically atoning for your guilt. You get the sense of the tabernacle being more like an abattoir than a place of worship with the priests butchering animals, scraping off fat, flicking around blood and lugging huge chunks of meat off to be burned outside the camp. Surely their lovely ephods would have stunk to high heaven? It all builds into a picture of sin being a gross stain on the tunic (or ephod) of Israel that the people have to scrub their knuckles raw trying to get out. Obviously I’m utterly delighted that we no longer have to go through such rigmarole but, at the same time, I do wonder whether I approach forgiveness in a truly biblical way. If I had to take one of my flock and offer it to the Lord every time I sinned, unintentionally or otherwise, it would only be a couple of days before I would be bankrupt. That has got to be something for me to think about...
Mark 10:13-31
More on the down-ward spiral of faith, this time honing in on status. Mark’s thrust seems to be that if you aren’t willing to be considered scum then you need to step off the Jesus-train. There is nothing glorious about being last, about being dirt poor or about being like a little child. As Job found out, even a holy person in such a position will be patronised, despised and disrespected. The bitter truth is that people who are last have next to no status; they are assumed to have not worked hard enough or to have messed up personally or to be just plain ignorant. People generally don’t listen to the poor just as they don’t listen to children; they are there to be looked after by us, not the other way around. So Jesus call to become ‘the last’ really is very hard. And the accompanying call for us to respect ‘the last’ is gratingly counter-cultural. As I think about that I’m struck by what an amazing thing it is to be part of a church of people who are prepared to knuckle down and divest themselves of status. Of course we could do it more but we are headed in the right direction! And we can take heart that while we may be disrespected and patronised and persecuted by those around us, Jesus is preparing for us a hundred times more than we have ever left or given away.
Psalm 27:7-14
I think we’ve read enough of the psalms now to begin to get a feel for the life of faith as experienced in Israel. It was a life of struggle and hardship, of tensions in relationships and fleeting doubts but, amazingly, it was one in which a deep sense of optimism reigned. Unquenchable joy always seems to simmer just under the surface and a deep, residing hope in God seems to burn the coals of daily life. Above all, God seems like he is always within touching distance, sometimes agonizingly difficult to grasp, but always within sight and always moving towards the worshippers who are seeking him.
