‘You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Leviticus. In this year walk through the Bible, Leviticus is one book I was not looking forward to reading. It’s full of all sorts of very prescriptive rules and judgements. This is the book that many cite when condemning homosexuality as an abomination. Never mind that a few verses before, we learn that wearing clothing with mixed fiber is not ok, nor is sitting on a surface that a woman sat on who was bleeding. It’s hypocritical to read Leviticus, or any Scripture as literally true, unless you’re going to read it all as literally true.
Clearly, I don’t read it as literally true. One joy of reading it is that I’m forced to wrestle with what it means to me, if it’s not a giant rule book. I believe it’s a way of interpreting God’s law, that may have made sense to the people of the time. At its core, it’s about how to live a holy and sanctified life. It also contains these gems, like, love your neighbor as yourself. Yes.
If I were to write my own rule book based on my circumstances, I suspect it might appear as arbitrary as Leviticus. It certainly wouldn’t last thousands of years.
- Wear clericals to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Friday are days of rest.
- Ride your bike to work, to save energy and have time to reflect. Even in the rain.
- When not working at a Sunday church, attend when you can. Sabbath the other times.
- Don’t smoke in the house, to keep the house holy.
- Pray and write in the mornings. Except when you need sleep. Then sleep.
- Be tolerant of everyone.
- If someone has demons, they are definitely not ritually unclean. But sometimes hard to be tolerant with.
I don’t write these to solicit any comments about my list. But it is an interesting exercise. What would be in your rule book?
This morning, I’m thinking about my rule book, and how it might look as capricious as Leviticus to anyone else. I need to show Leviticus a little more grace, and let their rules be theirs. And definitely not take it literally or presume it’s 100% relevant in my world now.
For I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.
This morning, I continue the walk through Leviticus. Today, we hear about birth, and how long a woman must remain ritually unclean after birth – which of course, depends on whether it’s a boy child or girl. Then it goes on to talk a lot about leprosy. With the distance of thousands of years, I don’t have a lot of need to learn about various types of leprosy, baldness, hairs, and clothing. Some of the writing, I suspect was about what was important at the time, important to keep people healthy – their version of COVID protocols.
But using the leprosy of the time as an opportunity to remember how important sanctification and making oneself holy, that makes sense. Sanctify yourself, because you are holy, and God is holy.
Carrying that forward to today, we could be using COVID as an opportunity to double down on being holy. On sanctifying ourselves and our spaces and our lives.
It’s interesting how much time we spent as the church trying to logistically figure out how to handle what we knew as church before. How can we gather? How can we celebrate Eucharist? What about ordinations, baptisms and funerals? Now that the initial rush is over, perhaps we can settle in to what the people thousands of years ago did in the face of leprosy. What can we do, what should we do to sanctify ourselves, to reflect God’s holiness? It won’t look like what they did in the face of leprosy, nor should it.
Personally, I have spent much more time in my home. I’ve had the opportunity to adjust work hours so I worked when I needed to, and rested when I needed to. To be clear, it was no less work, just organized a little differently. And now that I’m back in the office more regularly, I have a new-found appreciation for weekends. Before, time just rolled together. Work from home Monday-Friday, and then Saturday – stay home! Ugh. Now weekends are more protected, more enjoyed, and hopefully more intentional. I love time to enjoy outside, and I enjoy getting my house in order for the next week, a more leisurely pace, time to worship and prepare a great meal or two. How can I use that pattern of living – either the memory of COVID times or whatever the next year is going to bring – how can I sanctify myself, my time my space?
I am a fan of space-based cues, or visual cues. Going to church is a different experience than worshipping online. Cathedrals make my soul soar. In my home space, I have done some things that help sanctify my space. I rearranged a book shelf and made a little altar, or at least organized some meaningful things with more intention and space. I have a lovely ceramic bust of Mary, albeit the fair skinned blue eyed Mary. When I was growing up, she was hauled out every Christmas and adorned with evergreen boughs. She’s on my altar. I have a tiny icon of St. Dymphna. She was killed by her mentally ill father, and is considered the patron saint of mental illness. No, I don’t pray to St. Dymphna, and I don’t think she is God, or can intervene on my behalf. But I do like to know that in the history of the church, there have been other stories of mental illness and faith. I also have a special votive candle that I occasionally light.
While I have the space, I must admit that I don’t sit and reflect there as much as I’d like to think I do. I do have to pass it frequently, so I’m reminded.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to use COVD-tide as cue or excuse to sanctify myself because God is holy. Today, I want to spend some time walking and thinking about just that.
