Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Come on Mo, is it really necessary to catalogue every single conceivable combination of sexual partners that would be detestable to the Lord? I feel like I’m back in maths class trying to work out all the possible permutations of a particular set theory. One thing this relentless listing does do though is make it pretty hard to argue that homosexual intercourse can be biblically justified, as culturally unacceptable as that may be. The common retort that we should also therefore not wear clothing made of two separate materials (v19) I think is a distraction rather than a genuine counter-argument. I must confess that I don’t have the foggiest why that particular law was laid down but I do know that nearly every other principle found within these two chapters was affirmed and advocated by Jesus; “not a jot or a tittle...”. We therefore continue to seek to respect parents, keep some form of sabbath, turn from idols, be compassionate towards the poor, be honest, love our neighbours as ourselves, respect others, respect the land, reject the occult, shy away from decorating ourselves in a manner that suggests allegiance to another god, respect the elderly, look after our children, worship only God and carefully manage our sexual activity. Some of these are closely in line with cultural norms and relatively straightforward to agree with, even if they are hard to uphold, eg being honest, respecting the land. Others though place us in a clear clash with the prevailing message of our day and they take serious boldness and effort to follow. It has ever been so. The Israelites themselves were clearly told by God that following his principles would make them distinct from all those around them. God wanted this. He wanted them to jarr with their surrounding culture because he didn’t find the surrounding culture to his taste. We are called to live a different culture, to demonstrate life as God intends it to be. At it’s heart this is a positive call, not to nitpick and criticise the culture around us but rather to recognise it is different and then to press ahead and forge a new culture of our own. That is something Vineyard people are wonderfully good at. Let’s keep advancing the Kingdom Way.
Mark 14:43-72
I’m rolling up the clouds like a scroll, I’m smashing the feet of iron and clay, I’m calling down the curtain on this corrupt and imperfect kingdom. And, more than that, I’m starting a new show, a show of light and hope where I’m the star and all and sundry play a role. And a fat lady is never, ever going to sing for the end of this production. It’s no wonder the high priest tore his clothes when Jesus declared these words; he probably needed to buy a bit of time before his jaw would climb back up off the floor and reattach itself to his neck. This is the sheer audacity of what Jesus declared and what we believe; the greatest day in history has gone. The world was once and for all fundamentally sorted by the one man Jesus Christ. We don’t need another hero or a black Jesus or to imagine there being no religion. Everything we need has been done, by him, back then. There is not a person in London whose life could not be radically and totally sorted out because of what Jesus has done. There is not a community in the whole of England which can not be transformed and inspired by the coming of the Kingdom into its midst. Yes we do live inbetween the dawning and the arriving of this new Kingdom, there is the experience of the now and the not yet but - and this is a glorious, blood-pumping thought - there absolutely is a “now”, Jesus has opened up those ancient doors and beckoned all the nations to come in, he has torn apart the curtain and unleashed his presence across the globe, he has triumphed over ever power and is scattering his gifts across this land. Let’s not be downtrodden or discouraged, browbeaten or deflected but rather let us celebrate the very present reality of God’s kingdom available to all through us in us and beyond us.
Proverbs 6:30-35
Forget Titanic and the English Patient and Shrek and all the other Hollywood tales that captivate the heart; don’t bonk another person’s wife. You will regret it, you really, really will.
