April 17: Leviticus 19-21; Psalm 37:1-17; Mark 13

Leviticus 19-21
Notice how the rationale for the behavior that is commanded is worded:  (19:2)  You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
Then there is a brief summary of some of the ten commandments: honor your parents; keep the sabbath; do not make idols.
Then there are instructions about sacrifices and how to eat them honoring the LORD.  The food is to be eaten on the same day as the sacrifice or the day after.  I would think this was merely a prudent health instruction.  But its placement right before the rules about not reaping the fields to the very edge, but leaving some grain for the "poor and alien" (19:10) leads me to wonder if this is a commandment about the communal nature of Israelite life.  A "sacrifice of wellbeing" is not (in a sense) urgent.  It should be eaten with a big enough group, perhaps, so that it's all eaten up.  It's an excuse for a party, a celebration; and that's a communal event.  Maybe the best thing is to invite someone who doesn't have meat of his or her own???

Then notice how many of the instructions that follow are also about living in ways that make a community operate smoothly, as well as about living in ways that keep the community of Israel from mingling with the tribes in the surrounding areas.

The flip side of the coin of all these community-building and community-protecting rules is the sanctions that are to be brought down on those in the community who violate the rules.  The sanctions are harsh.  (20:2--"the people of the land shall stone them to death"; 20:5--"I (God) will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people.  Another punishment is childlessness--again, a way of cutting off someone's future memory.

The notion of holiness includes "separateness" and "distinctiveness" (20:25, 26).

If the nation is to be holy, how much more the priests…to the point that, like sacrificial animals, priests must also be "unblemished" (21:16).  There was little regard for the dignity or humanity of the disabled…

Psalm 37:1-17 
This was the subject of the first sermon I remember listening to as having God's words for me at that moment of my life.  I heard a pastor of a small church on the shore of Lake Memphramagog--can't remember if it was an Episcopal church in Vermont or an Anglican church in Quebec; but the topic of the sermon was "Fret not thyself because of the wicked…"  It was about not letting things make us anxious that we really could turn over and trust that God would take care of.

Mark 13  The disciple of 13:1 wasn't kidding about the size of the stones of the temple.  The foundation stones are still to be seen in Jerusalem and they are HUGE and solid.  But I think they are mostly re-built.  The destruction of the Temple in 70 CE was pretty thorough.
Very close to Jesus' last days, the disciples are asking him about THE last days--in the context of the thing (the destruction of the Temple) that they can only picture as the end of the world as they know it.  Jesus calls all the violence and unrest "the beginning of the birth pangs" (13:8).   I wonder what kind of birth he was envisioning: the birth of the Kingdom of God in its fullness?

Jesus says in this context:  (13:29-31)  "So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.  Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."  We probably need to talk about this.  What is "this generation"?  What does Jesus mean by "all these things" taking place?  What does he mean about his words not passing away?  We can all imagine that lots of the things that Jesus said weren't recorded and don't come down to us today.  Have those things passed away?

Finally, Jesus pleads ignorance "about the day or hour"  when "the time will come".  His instruction is, therefore, to "keep awake!" To be always ready for the coming of "the master of the house."  We should not be wasting a bunch of time trying to fix dates for a literal return of Christ.  We need, instead, to be living faithfully and consistently, every day and minute.