Scapegoat

Lev 16:15-22         8/29/2017

So this is where the term comes from.

The transference of guilt and shame. All the trespasses of the people placed on the head of the scapegoat.

Is this what Caiaphas meant when he advised, “that it was better that one man should die rather than the people”?

There is a certain convenience in recognizing that Jesus was destined to die for my sins.  It is unacceptable.

Like Bonhoeffer, I have to admit there is something divinely counter-intuitive here.

The hope of freedom requires that we see this sacrifice for what it is: A cleansing toward freedom of the freest kind.

Atoning Sacrifice

Lev 16:3-14         8/28/2017

Purification through animal sacrifice.

The life is in the blood. Blood is viewed as the medium of precious life. Like the distinction between essence and existence; this is the existence. This is the aliveness.

And that’s the nature of the sacrifice.

Blood.  Something has to die in order for its aliveness to be offered.

Something in me has to die in order for the divine to empower me to offer myself.

My imagination of who I am; my vain processes for getting pleasure and control; my lame disposition for taking more than I receive – these have to die.

This is an offering.

Atonement

Lev 15:24-16:2         8/28/2017

Aaron cannot enter the holiest place whenever he wants – but only at an appointed time.

Being successful with God has to come on God’s terms. It’s not some divine egocentrism, it’s the nature of the situation.

You want relationship with God. That’s the goal.

He dwells in inapproachable light. That’s the challenge.

You have to act as a response to the knowledge that He has acted first.

Those well-intentioned things that you’ve been putting off though you know deep in your heart they are what God would have you do, do that first. Do it today.

The Normal Body

Lev 15:12-23         8/24/2017

You can’t bring your filth into the presence of the Lord. There is no shame in this. Our bodies sometimes produce uncleanness – but under the law of Moses, it is unacceptable to force this uncleanness upon God, who is entirely pure.

Likewise our hearts. We need God. We need stuff. Born in sin – we have our ways of trying to get the things we are sure we need. But our strategies for “getting” aren’t necessarily God’s ways. They don’t come from faith. They are not born by trust.

In our natural self, we can’t help it. We have our strategies and programs for getting what we want. Most of these do not require God’s assistance. In this sense, they are unavoidable filth.

Bringing these strategies into God’s presence doesn’t move God – but it can hurt us. God can’t be compelled to embrace the filth. It’s not intransigence.

Light destroys the darkness. Water washes away impurity.

Personal Uncleanness

Lev 14:53-15:11         8/23/2017

Infection in the genitive parts of the human body – a threat to my contribution to future generations. There is something strangely fearful about these sorts of disease.

I want to know the future is secure – even though I realize I won’t live forever. The investment and the debt to future generations. The need for the community to survive. I feel this pressure.

This force, which has kept the community alive through myriad generations is unquenchable.

May it find in me a channel of peace and fidelity.

Healing the House

Lev 14:41-52          8/21/2017

Anything could become unclean through infection.  It’s precarious.

Life.

We want control.  We want Jesus to take the wheel.  It’s about me.

There is a different way.  It isn’t without disappointments and difficulties.  But freedom of every kind is born out of these.

The Struggle.

Is it the replacement of a few stones or the tearing down of an entire house.  What does it mean to be unclean?

Infection in the House

Lev 14:29-40         08/19/2017

So much from so little. A house with problems has all this potential to show me my pride and self-interest. This is the irony of wanting to serve people – of wanting to be a part of forming community.

Never realizing the obvious; that God uses community to form me.

It’s your house. Replace the unclean stones.

Purification

Lev 14:18-28         8/18/2017

It’s God’s mercy that as we reach towards our potential we encounter the limitations of our old ways of thinking. These heuristic programs for success helped you to survive your childhood and worked to get you the things that you wanted from life – job, house, car.

But at some point you realized this wasn’t enough.

Our former patterns of selfish manipulation don’t work so well in God’s economy. He is hoping to show you a different way. Today.

It can be a frustrating and disorienting experience – but entirely necessary. It’s not so much a crucible, as many people say, but a willingness to let go of the things that once worked. Your old strategies for success cannot take you where you really want to go.

But in a rush, what we have known is what we know. The trust is that in following a new way – a way you haven’t known – everything will work out.

God is a person. He is a teacher. He loves you. He is showing you the way. A way of freedom and power. The way of givenness.

A response from givenness.

Returning to the Camp

Lev 14:8-17         8/17/2017

Having been excommunicated because of disease, there is a ceremony for the returning member of the community.

The freedom to relate is based, at least somewhat, on the community’s willingness to receive and accept each individual.

The value you might create today means little if no one trusts your determination to the common good.

Letting Go

Lev 13:56-14:7         8/16/2017

Is there something that is between you and God; some thing that prevents a deeper relationship?

Attachments. Sometimes God points out through the circumstances of my life that I am over-attached. He shows me that I want some thing more than I want what He wants – more than I want what’s best for my neighbor or the community.

That’s infection.

And even knowing this doesn’t mean I stop wanting it. I deny that it’s really an infection – really a liability – really keeping me from following Jesus. But infection can only be hid for so long – can only be denied for a while.

Be aggressive. If it’s keeping you from God’s best, then get rid of it.