Leviticus 25:1-26:13
Yet more on the Sabbath here - I really must think about that properly at some point - but more captivating is the concept of the Year of Jubilee. If my hair was a little longer and my clothes a little baggier I may be tempted to say this concept is totally gnarly man (according to the urban dictionary gnarly is when you have gone like so totally beyond radical). At it’s root the Year of Jubilee seems to codify and smash down into economic reality the idea that were are but tenants on God’s land. I know it is a long way from our current economic experience and seems more than a little alien but, coming as it does as the culmination of the legislation of Leviticus, I think we can consider the concept of the Year of Jubilee to be pretty majorly important to the Lord. His desire is plainly laid out here - he wants his people to organise their buying and selling in such a way that it is simultaneously an act of compassion towards others and an act of worship towards him. It’s another example of the enthralling and terrifying freedom that he has given to us as his people. It’s awe inspiring and reassuring that God wants “no man to be left behind” in our economic progress but is is discomforting verging on haunting that he holds us responsible for making sure this is so.
Mark 16:1-20
I love the idea that Mark’s gospel originally ended at verse 8. The descriptions of Jesus’ followers in the run up to this finale are “alarmed”, “trembling and bewildered” and “afraid”. Isn’t that how we should feel when we realise what we are actually dealing with in Jesus? I don’t think we should expect to be able to glide smoothly through a faith that confounds everything that we know about life and which calls us to chuck a hunk of wood on our back and freely walk towards a hill where we can be nailed to it. I think I need a bit more fear and trembling in my faith. Fear that I am dealing with a power so great that even the slightest drop of it could scatter me to the ends of the earth and trembling that the my miserable contribution is being regarded as valuable for the cause. Having made my way to that state of mind, I’ve no doubt that verses 9-20 are also authentic even though they slightly change the feel of the ending. They have more triumph in them, more of a guide as to what the empowered church is meant to be doing and what the result of their activity will be. We need to the feel of both endings in tension with one another. We must always be focused on mission, on empowered speaking and dynamic praying, but at the same time we must cling to trembling reverence and fearful focus on Jesus. He is the one who reassures us. He is the one who soothes us and comforts us. He is the only one of us who holds all this stuff together. But he does all of this not just for our sake, but for the sake of our world.
Psalm 33:1-11
I’m sure it is down to my huge level of ignorance but I just can’t seem to imagine someone plucking tranquilly at their harp and then breaking at every coda to summon-up a mighty roar to the Lord. They just seem so incongruous. Maybe that is where the ten-stringed lyre came in. Maybe that was the distorted electric guitar of David's day?
