Careful Words - Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Solomon has been considering the world by looking at it through the eyes of humanity, through a philosophy of meaninglessness. Now, for a few verses, he completely shifts his point of view and considers our relationship with God, focusing on how we come to worship him. I wonder if the weight of looking at the world only through humanity’s eyes has become too much for him; last week we looked at how Solomon even mentions how the dead are happier, and the person not yet born is better off than us. The answer to such despair is God, so Solomon turns to the one who created the sun.

Worship has changed a lot even in just my lifetime; not necessarily for better or worse, probably a bit of both. Saturday night was all about preparing for worship the next day. At supper we would read the Scripture passages for the next day. After supper we would polish our shoes, while mom made sure our Sunday clothes were clean and ironed. Saturday night was bath night because Sunday was about being our best for God and Sunday worship was all about honouring God. But it could also be very legalistic.

How do you prepare to come to church to worship? What do you expect from worship on Sunday? I often hear many say they come to be fed, to be blessed, and to be equipped. A quiet shift has taken place from going to church to glorify God and honour him, to worship now being about our experience of worship, coming for what God gives us on Sunday rather than what we’re bringing to God; honour and glory. Some come out of obligation or habit. Some come on Sunday morning so they can do what they want in the afternoon. Some come to be entertained; while others come to be seen and heard. It wasn’t much different in Israel. People came to the temple, but didn’t always come with a right heart or spirit, without reverence or awe of God. Worship was often a formality.

Solomon calls us to “Guard your steps” when we go to the house of God. This is a command, to come before God with reverence. It’s a reference to how coming before God is a holy experience, an echo to those times when God came and met his people personally. The most well-known is Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3. When he saw a bush on fire and not burning, he goes to check it out, “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” Moses is struck by the realization that God has come to him, has reached down to speak with him, even though he’s a sinner and God is holy. Awe and reverence drives Moses to hide his face.

Jesus taught us to pray to God, “Hallowed be your name.” God is holy, and while he calls Abraham and others friends, we still approach him with awe and reverence because he’s the creator of all things, including us; he’s holy and the only one who can make us holy. Jesus calls us to approach the Father with respect; deep respect. We’re reminded that God is in heaven while we remain here on earth; we hear an echo again to how Jesus begins the prayer he teaches to his disciples, “Our Father who is in heaven.” This is why we come to God’s house to worship, coming together in a designated place to worship God, a place where we invite the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the presence of God.

One of Jesus’ angriest moments is when he sees God’s house disrespected in Matthew 21:12–13, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” Those who came to worship at the temple would have had to contend with the noise and chaos of the sellers, the buyers, and the animals, all while trying to worship God. This would have especially affected the Gentiles, as the selling area was in the Gentile court, impacting their ability to worship, pray, or seek God’s presence. How can you approach God to worship in the middle of a marketplace, it would be like trying to worship at Parkland Mall while all the stores are open and doing business.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Hallowed be your name in heaven and on earth,” approaching God with respect. Jesus urges reverent worship in the temple because it’s the house of God. The writer to the Hebrews picks up on this call to reverent awe in 12:28–29, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” Worship, thankfulness, gratitude, and reverence are all connected. Because God’s holy, when he gives us his Spirit to live in us, the Spirit works like a consuming fire that burns away all that’s unholy, sanctifying us throughout our life into the image of Jesus. Be careful of being too casual with our holy God.

Solomon calls us to “Go near to listen;” to listen to God speaking rather than filling worship with our words. Going to listen shows humility, a desire to learn and be shaped by God, to grow into God’s image, to grow deeper in Christian character. In the Old Testament we’re told to worship God with reverence through listening rather than speaking. Deuteronomy 6:4–5 is central to the Jewish faith, reminding them of who God is and how to relate to God, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Hearing leads to obedience, the call to hear is a call to obey in the Old Testament. Without hearing there can be no understanding or obedience.

When Solomon talks about the “sacrifice of fools,” he’s pointing to doing sacrifices out of ritual rather than a desire to honour God through your offering; ritual is not good enough for God, he wants your heart and your entire life, this is why Jesus tells his followers that if they’re bringing sacrifices and remember that a brother has something against them, to put their offering down and to make things right with them before giving your offering to God. God is a God of restoration and reconciliation and it begins with each other.

Solomon goes on to talking about talking to God, about not being quick with your words, and not overtalking either. “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” There’s a huge difference between God and us, we’re in no place to demand anything from God, nor to expect anything from God. Our ability to see things as God does is limited because we’re limited, living under the sun rather than seeing all things from the perspective of God. Jesus teaches us to let our words be few when we pray, Matthew 6:7–8, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” It’s about trusting God in our worship and our praying, because he’s our God, and our father, and loves us accordingly. His love for us is awesome! He keeps coming after us, he never gives up on us, he gives up his own holy Son so that we can be made holy through his sacrifice. God is an awesome God worthy of all our love and respect.

“When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.” Do not put strings or conditions on your requests to God, everything you already have is God’s anyway; a gift given to you to manage for him. Do not use God’s name lightly, let your mouth only use his name with the deepest respect and humility. In Matthew 5:33–37 Jesus warns us about making vows, “I tell you, do not swear an oath at all … All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” When we pray to God, it’s about trusting that God gives us what’s best for us. We don’t have to convince him to give us his blessings, it’s his joy to do so.

In Solomon’s time, worship was done at the temple; when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman, he says in John 4, “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” When we consider what Jesus endured for us so that we could be washed clean from our sin, made holy, our worship needs to reflect the holiness of God, to come to him with awe and reverence. It needs to become a part of each day as we worship through our work, our play, our home and family life, and in all parts of our lives, bringing glory to God.

 

A Cord of Three Strands - Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Selfish individualism. We live in a very individualistic world. We’re constantly told that it’s all about us, and if it benefits us, rewards us, if we desire it, it must be good. Our busy lives are a sign of this too, we’re so busy because we’re afraid of missing out. When we slow down, many of us turn to social media to fill our time, and the algorithms tailor our social pages to our personal tastes and preferences, so that we never need to be challenged by a different perspective, leading us to believe we’re always right, leading to a more individualistic way of engaging the world. We’re all impacted by our culture, is selfish individualism rubbing off in the church too? A strong focus on the self leads to a lonely world.

Solomon addresses this in verse 4, “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” People work hard to get ahead, too often with little concern for their neighbour, focused on what they don’t have but what the other person has. Envy easily leads to a willingness to step on others to achieve your desires. Solomon sees the oppression going on under the sun, he sees the tears and hears the cries of the oppressed. He recognizes that they’ve no comforter, no defender; they’re alone. Often, those being oppressed feel their friends slip away; they don’t want to be targeted themselves, so they step back. The oppressed experience even more pain as they struggle with no one on their side. Solomon emphasizes the aloneness, mentioning it twice, he recognizes what’s going on and calls it hevel, meaninglessness, like the wind blowing, you can’t hold onto what you’re chasing after under the sun into eternity.

Solomon addresses the desire for wealth and its cost, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” It’s better to be content and grateful with one handful rather than desiring more and more, warning that it will come with toil. We hear an echo to Genesis 3 and God’s punishment to Adam, Genesis 3:17–19, “To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” For the greedy person, the toil is endlessly, and without any enjoyment of what they’re been working for. Eating supper alone, even with a large bank account, still means you’re eating alone, “there was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” this too is meaningless—a miserable business!”

You can be part of a community and still experience feelings of not belonging, of not having a place in the community, of being oppressed and no one recognizing or caring. It’s hard to walk through life alone, to feel friendless and struggle alone with no one to walk alongside you. The first “not good” in the Scriptures is when God sees that among all creatures, Adam is alone. God immediately creates Eve from the side of Adam as a help-mate for Adam, someone to share life with. We’re not called to walk alone; we’re created to be in community. Part of the image of God is community: three persons in one essence.

The feeling of aloneness, of feeling like you have no place happens even in churches, when no one recognizes or acknowledges your presence. It’s often surprising when you look around in a group like a church and observe how many people are overlooked, quietly ignored unless someone needs something from them, loneliness in a crowd. Having lived on the fringes of most groups, it’s something I’ve picked up on over the years. Someone recently wrote in a church blog about how church employees face this a lot, they’re only recognized as an employee and not as an individual with interests and a life outside the church. They went on to say how once they took a position in the church, even their friendships changed, simply because of their work. New members to a church can find it hard to really belong because those who’ve been there for a while are so comfortable with each other, that they find it difficult to remember to welcome new members, not only into the church, but also into their lives.

Solomon, as king, likely faced loneliness. Who can he confide in who understands what he carries as the one responsible for an entire nation? From the outside looking in, he had everything; he had great wisdom, wealth, many wives and concubines, power, and yet I wonder if he ever had an opportunity to relax with a bunch of friends and talk about how the archery competition went, how the fishing was in the Sea of Galilee, or how his chariot and horse team was faster than the king’s next door. How important it is to have people who see you for who you are rather than for what you do.

The power of loneliness has been used as a form of discipline. There are faith communities who use shunning, turning their backs on someone and not acknowledging their presence when they do something that members feel violates the values of the community. This is a powerful and extremely painful experience for those who are shunned. It’s often practiced in informal ways in many places, even in churches and church families.

This is why Solomon moves on to talk about the importance of companionship. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” I heard a really wise statement this week, the discussion was about recovering from addiction and the person mentioned, “the opposite of addiction is connection.” People who are supported, who have someone in their lives to walk alongside them, encourage them, be there for them, are more likely to move out of addiction than those who try to do it on their own. Having someone come alongside you creates strength and increases your ability to heal, to work through hard stuff, to grow into your potential instead of losing hope and spiraling downwards.

We were created for companionship at creation, Jesus himself created a circle of companions by choosing 12 men to walk with, and a smaller circle of 3 friends to be with him during special and difficult times. The Holy Spirit created the church, a community of people to be family together, to support and encourage each other, to work together, to build close friendships with. The second of the great commandments is a call to “love your neighbour as yourself,” a call to look outwards to others and build relationships with them.

A wise friend offered this wisdom, “Both my personal relationship with God and my friendships with others require accountability and responsibility on my part. It’s a blessing to spend time with my Christian friends and it’s an essential part of my continuous growing relationship with God...here are some things that God has taught me through my friendships. Friendship is an extension of myself; the good, the bad, and the ugly; true friendship embraces the whole person. Don’t enter a friendship expecting to change the other person, instead expect God to use that person to change you! Some friendships are for a season of life, God puts them in your path to either meet a need/cause growth etc, for a defined period of time; that’s ok. In order to be a good friend, I need to give what I expect the other person to give; you cannot expect someone to trust you if you don’t trust in return. Christian friendship works best when love, forgiveness, accountability and responsibility are present; the combination of the four is awesome!”

We’re the body of Christ together. Remember that we’re all one in Christ. Reach out to those who aren’t connected. Seek out conversations with others not in your circle of friends, reach out to some of our housebound members, and to those who are going through difficult times, pay attention to the people around you to see who stands alone, talk to them. Ask questions to learn what they’re interested in, what some of their dreams are. Share what you appreciate about them to someone else that you normally don’t talk to, pray through the church directory, ask God for ways you can encourage and build them up in the Lord. Because we’re one in Christ, when we reach out to the other, we’re reaching out to Jesus, and we’re being changed because we’re his body together. As the body of Christ, when we work towards everyone being healthy and connected, the stronger the body of Christ is.

In Christian friendships, we grow stronger as we’re changed by the other person through God. Like a three stranded cord, Jesus keeps us from unravelling, adding security and strength into our relationships. When you braid a rope, you start with a knot and when you finish you end with another knot to keep it together. In the same way, Jesus is the knot that holds us together giving us strength. May we live together under Jesus rather than under the sun.

A Time for Everything - Ecclesiastes 3:1–22

This morning we’re returning again to Ecclesiastes. Just a few reminders of key thoughts in this book: the word hevel, meaning vapour, empty, void, or no substance is repeated over and over again in this book, often translated as meaningless. Ecclesiastes offers a philosophy of life rooted in living “under the sun,” understanding the world from the perspective of humanity rather than through the eyes and plans of God.

I remember a song based on the first 8 verses of our passage this morning, written by Pete Seeger and sung by the Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! These first 8 verses are a poem that is based on the theme of time, how there’s a time or season for every activity under the heavens. As you read the poem more slowly and reflectively, it can bring on feelings of unsettledness; there’s nothing permanent. Verses 2-8 bring together opposites without any judgment on whether one is better than the other, only that at certain times one is present, but that at other times, the other is present.

Time is the key word in this text, there is a time for this, and then there’s a time for that, but do we really know which time we’re in right now. It’s spring, planting season, but when exactly will the weather let us get into the field to begin. Same with harvest, it’s not like you can put an exact date on your calendar to begin, it all depends on how the growing season goes. You can say, “Well, we mostly know around when these seasons are,” but how about those in business, can you truly say with absolute certainty that right now is a good time to start a business, or grow your business, or hold firm, or shut down? In all this talk about time, one time cancels out another time, so nothing really changes, hevel, nothingness. We hear an echo to chapter 1:4-6, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.”

We think we have control, we make plans, we work hard, always expecting that everything is going to work out according to our plans, but the reality is when we make plans, then, as James tells us, we should say, “Lord willing.” Who saw a pandemic coming, who saw the war in Iran that is creating economic hardship all over the world coming, who really sees drought or flooding coming; so often we live in ignorant bliss thinking we’re in control, in charge of our lives and decisions; blissful ignorance. When the Teacher wrote this, the people were buying and selling, making fortunes and losing them, thinking that they’re in charge. There’s no awe for God, only ritual performance, doing faith for show, not from the heart or a relationship with God.

They’re living under the sun, without any true concern about God in their daily lives. In our own busyness, we all have times where we think we’re in charge and fail to really consider or think about God until something unexpected, usually something that impacts us in negative ways, that we focus again on God. There are so many things that happen in our lives and all around us that we have no control over; only God is sovereign and is in control of what’s going on. Working hard, even for our own goals, isn’t wrong. God approves of using his blessings, it’s the abuse of his blessings and making them our end goal that he disapproves of.

Solomon then wonders what we actually gain from our work in verse 9, coming to the conclusion that it’s good to enjoy our work because that’s our lot. He goes on to remind us that “everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.” God’s works, what he’s doing will last into eternity, while what we do doesn’t endure forever; yet Paul does write in 1 Corinthians 3:12–14 about building our lives on Jesus, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.” It all comes back to living life over the sun, looking to live under Jesus, with an eye on who God is calling us to be. Solomon puts it this way, “God sets eternity in the human heart… I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

Verses 9-14 can be seen as the central theme of the entire book; in our limited perspective, it’s simply good to do good, to live with gratitude for all the simple gifts like eating and drinking, of family and friends, of blessing others to build community and society that reflects God’s goodness and will. All of the events, like those in the poem happen when they’re supposed to. All the impermanence and repetition are ordained by God to accomplish his purposes, even if under the sun it can feel like hevel, meaninglessness.

When we think on eternity, we see only a small part of God’s plan and purpose. We’re called to walk in faith because we can’t understand; Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” and Job 26:14, “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”  and later in Ecclesiastes 8:17 Solomon writes, “then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.” Scripture keeps calling us to a humble understanding of the limits of our knowledge of God. God gives us glimpses of who he is and what he’s doing, but we can never know the entirety of what God is doing and what he has done. He tells us enough for us to know who he is and who we are, how he works and how we should work, but there’s so much more to who God is that we need to stand in awe before him.

Even though we’re not in control, we’re still responsible for what we do, especially since we should know good from evil by knowing what’s happened before, obeying how God’s called us to live, which is why Solomon reminds the people, “God will call the past to account,” and, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” This is why we tell the stories of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit over and over again so that we can learn who God is, what he expects, and who he expects us to be as his children. Ignorance is no excuse for doing wrong. 

It's hard living with uncertainty, it creates anxiety or a sense of futility, of hevel. Anxiety leads to fear, to stress, and can impact relationships in negative ways. Solomon reminds us that God sets these times; God made everything beautiful in its time, he’s put eternity in our hearts, a call to look past living for what’s under the sun to living for who has created the sun and everything under and over it. Because we’re creatures created by God, we’re unable to really understand what God has done, is doing, and will do, but we can choose to trust God in uncertainty.

It takes faith to live with peace and hope, placing our trust and future in God’s hands. We grow in faith through regularly studying Scripture and who God reveals himself to be, a God who is invested in his people, a God who has a plan for saving his people and renewing all creation, a God who is in control, omnipotent. We grow in faith when we take time to talk with God regularly instead of only when we need something, we grow in faith when we regularly come together to worship God. The more we grow in our relationship with God, it leads us into a place of awe and wonder, both trusting and knowing that he’s made everything for its time, leading to the fulness of time, choosing to be happy and do good.

Paul reminds the church in Galatians 4:4–5, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” Jesus speaks to the time of his return in Matthew 24, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.… So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” The poem in verses 1-8 can give the impression that everything in time simply repeats, God shows that time is flowing towards the fulfillment of his plan of redemption and restoration of all things. As we look forward to Jesus’ return, keep your eyes on God, do good. While our fate is similar to the animals in that we’ll die, we know that God has his purposes for us, that our lives are not hevel because we’re his children, so live in confidence and in awe of our God who holds our times in his hands.

 

 

New Life! - Leviticus 25:8–22 - Easter

Christ is risen! The grave is empty; death is defeated, and hope is restored. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into all the land; new life is available to all who choose to accept the living Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Our passage this morning points to new life, to new beginnings, to renewed hope. The Lord gives Israel a charge to do a massive reset for the people every 50^th year, giving the land and its workers 2 years of rest, while restoring the people and families who have experienced big set backs in their circumstances over the past 49 years.  

The Lord institutes what is called the Year of Jubilee. On the 10^th day of the 7^th month, on the Day of Atonement when the sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins are offered, trumpets were to be sounded throughout the land to announce the Year of Jubilee, connecting the Year of Jubilee to forgiveness of sin, and the restoration of the peoples’ relationship with God. The year’s celebrated by the freeing of all Jewish slaves, the forgiveness of all debt, the resting of the land and its workers, and the restoration of all property to its original family owners.

Today, the idea of a Year of Jubilee would be rejected as being socialist, Marxist, unrealistic, unfair, and unwise. There was a movement leading up to the year 2000 that built on the idea of the Year of Jubilee, advocating for the forgiveness of the debts for the poorest countries in the world. There was even a discussion of this at Calvin Seminary and one professor was strongly against even the idea of such a thing. His reasoning was that it would impact pension funds and retirement savings plans for those who have invested in the stock markets. This caused an uproar from many others who were angered that there was more concern for protecting the wealth and ease of the people of the richest nations than for those struggling in the poorest nations.

Israel is given the Year of Jubilee at the foot of Mount Sinai, long before they enter the Promised Land, reminding the people that God is the giver of the land, the owner of the land, and that this year is a reflection of all the laws given to them on how they are to live with each other as a people. We see Israel practicing at least the Sabbath rest years in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the writer is describing the years Israel spent in exile, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” Jeremiah 34:8–9 hints at the Year of Jubilee being practiced in part at least, “The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.” While Isaiah 5:8 warns the people of buying up the land of others for yourself, “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

Restoration, renewal, and resurrection have always been part of God’s plan; this is Easter! The Year of Jubilee gives us a glimpse of how the kingdom of God works. Due to the brokenness sin brings, some people and families prosper and do well, while others fall on hard times, into debt, loose their jobs or livelihood, homes, and sometimes even their freedom as they’re forced into placing themselves into slavery in order to pay their debts. Some would go into desperation mode and overwork their land and themselves first, leading to lower crop yields in the long run. The Year of Jubilee is God’s way of offering his people a new start after hard times: Jewish slaves were set free, debts forgiven, the land and its workers were given rest, and the land that had been sold or taken to cover debt was restored to its previous owners.

In this chapter, Moses refers to the Exodus 3 times, reminding the people of who God is and what he’s done for them; this is to be reflected in how they live with each other. They’re reminded that they’re God’s servants, they shall not rule over each other with harshness, and to fear the Lord. The Year of Jubilee is God’s law. The land of Canaan is God’s gift to the Israelites, and even though it was given to them, it always remains God’s land as we read in verse 23, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

The principles we find in the Year of Jubilee are: concern for each other, providing for each other, and treating each other with respect. Jubilee provides opportunities for people to have new starts, that large gaps between rich and poor do not become institutionalized. There’s a lot of talk about our K-shaped economy right now where the rich are getting richer and the average person is falling further behind. Jubilee repairs the inequalities that creep into societies over time, and prevents the division of people into classes of nobles and others. Jubilee is about living out concrete applications of Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus himself quotes this commandment when a lawyer asks him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest,” and Jesus tells him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” Jesus teaches, it’s more blessed to give than to receive; by taking care of the blessings God has given us and sharing them, we acknowledge that they’re not our own.

We see this lived out in the early church in Acts 4, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” The early church lived the principles of Jubilee, different social classes recognizing each other as brothers and sisters in Jesus. Living for Jesus is always radical, and we should be challenging ourselves to embrace God’s principles more fully in our lives. Jesus lives this out in his life as John writes in 1 John 3:16–18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Love and generosity are key principles of Jubilee, a call for those who have been blessed with much to be generous with those who have little. The resurrection shows us how much God and Jesus love us, that it’s a never-ending love; we’re loved into eternity.

The Year of Jubilee points ahead to Jesus’ return when the full impact of Good Friday and Easter will come into play, when sin is fully washed away and defeated; when Satan and evil is completely defeated and God’s people and creation will experience forgiveness and renewal, and full restoration with God. The Year of Jubilee is given to Israel as a sign of how God’s mercy and grace bring healing, rest, and restoration to all parts of creation.

Jesus gives us glimpses in his ministry, beginning with his claim in Luke 4, “on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus brings in the Year of Jubilee, the messianic age, his return will bring in the perfect kingdom of God in a renewed earth, as John points to in Revelation 21-22.  Paul expands the Year of Jubilee to all of creation in Romans 8:19-21, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” By faith in Jesus, we’re brought into Jesus’ mission and called to practice the Jubilee life. Living for Jesus sends us into the world to bring the transformative love of Jesus to the whole world.

 

The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day - Leviticus 23:26–32 - Good Friday

           

Do you ever wonder if all your sins are really forgiven? Are you afraid that God will hold some of your worst sins over your head for when you die and Jesus comes to take you home? Good Friday is the most somber day of the church year, the day that the weight and destructiveness of our sin is put right before us so that we cannot deny its horror or cost. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, the beating at his trial, the nails used to hang him from the cross, the mocking of the crowds, the abandonment of his disciples, being forsaken by his Father, the inner anguish of carrying our sin is all stuck in our faces to get us to finally acknowledge the pain, brokenness, and suffering sin brings. It forces us to confess that there’s no such thing as a small sin; all sin separates us from God and adds to the burden Jesus carries to the cross, adding to the brokenness in the world. Good Friday visually reveals the destructiveness of our sins in Jesus’ hanging on the cross.

Tim Keller gives us a glimpse of what brings us to Good Friday in an imagined conversation between God the Father and Jesus, “You can see God saying to Jesus, in effect, “Son, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone and I will never say it again. Throughout all eternity I’ve always said and always will say, ‘If you obey me, I’ll come near to you.’ But to you I say, ‘If you obey me now, I will abandon you.’ I will let you go, so I don’t have to let them go. I will pour all the wrath and punishment humanity’s sins deserve onto you. And even though you are the eternal Son of God, that pain and the power of that justice will be so great, your body and soul will be ripped apart—so theirs don’t have to be. Are you willing to do this?” Jesus said, “Yes.”

The Day of Atonement visually shows the people the seriousness of their sin. Sin must not merely be kept in check. It must be removed entirely. That’s what the Day of Atonement points to. This is the only day of the year that the high priest enters the Holy of Holies, dressed in only a simple white garment. Before going into the Holy of Holies, the high priest offers a bull calf as a personal sin-offering, then cleansed from sin, he fills his bowl with live coals from the altar, he enters the Holy place, places incense on the coals, sending smoke over the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. He then takes blood from the bull calf sacrifice and spreads it on the mercy seat and on the ground before the altar. He then sacrifices a male goat as a sin-offering for the people, taking some of the blood of the goat into the Holy place and spreading it on the mercy seat.

After the sacrifices, the mercy seat and altar are purified and the high priest then lays his hands on a second goat and confesses the sins of Israel over it. This goat, called the scape goat, is then led out into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people on it outside of the camp. The carcasses of the bull calf and first goat are then taken outside the camp and burned. This is also a day where no-one is allowed to work, a day of rest; they’re not to work on this day, a sign that their work’s unable to save them, that it’s only through God’s grace and love that forgiveness is found. This is a day of humility and denying themselves to focus on their sins and the forgiveness given to them by God.

God calls this the Day of Atonement. Atonement, in the faith sense, is about reconciliation and repairing the relationship between God and humanity through sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the sacrifice is a perfect male goat and the casting out of a second male goat, the scape goat, who carries the sin away. In the New Testament, atonement is achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we’re made right with God. Like the scape goat, Jesus is taken outside the city where he washes away our sin through his blood. Jesus carries our sin away as far as the east is from the west.

What compels God to allow his son Jesus to go the route of sacrifice, to allow Jesus to become the scape-goat? The Old Testament uses a word, “hesed” that shows us why. Hesed love is often translated as unfailing love in English. This is God’s promised love, his covenantal love, the love he declares under oath, binding himself to us in love, his never ending, unbreakable love that never bends even when ours does. This love shows up in Hebrews 10:19–22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” As our Holy Week devotion reminded us in the Day 5 devotion, “Redemption is not earned; it is offered. This reminds us that God’s love is not a reaction to our goodness, but a reflection of his character.” Humble yourselves today and see your need for a saviour, that you may then take hold of the One who gave his life for us.

 

 

 

 

Intimate Holiness - Leviticus 18

               

As a youth pastor, we studied God’s guidance for relationships and how Scripture shapes dating, marriage, and our attitudes towards sex. I would tell the youth that sex is good, but like everything in life, it needs to be respected and reflect God’s presence in our lives. I learned this week that Aldous Huxley, he wrote Brave New World, decided that life has no true meaning, but later in life he realised that his decision was a convenient excuse, a way to get free from Christian morality. He and his friends, as he writes, “objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” He liked sleeping around, so he developed a philosophy of life that allowed him to do that without the guilt his Anglican upbringing would otherwise have filled him with. He became a slave to his sexual desires. God seeks to free us from slavery to sin; he’s just delivered Israel out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt; God doesn’t want his people to go from one form of slavery into another.

I’ve been asked why God seems so concerned about sex. It’s our most intimate way of relating with each other, and this leads to vulnerability, meaning it also opens people to the potential of great hurt and abuse. It’s the most intimate way of developing trust and depth in a relationship, yet sex is only part of an intimate relationship, an important part, but not the only part. Intimacy, for those who are married or single, is developed through time together, through offering trust and reliability, in sharing life, being a faithful presence during the good, bad, and even boring times. It’s about commitment and promise keeping. It’s about encouraging each other, building each other up, creating safety and hope within the relationship, helping each other to become the person God has created us to be, reflecting the relationships God designed us for with him.

God is addressing the culture that Israel has been living in for the past 400 years. It was common in the Egyptian culture for incest and sex with close family members to be practiced, especially among the powerful and nobles as a way of centralizing their power within their own families and tribes. Egyptian sexual ethics often included marriage between brothers and sisters, and even between parents and children, along with polygamy. God is also warning them not to adopt the sexual practices of the land he is leading them to. Even in their personal intimate relationships, Israel is to reflect who God is by how they relate to each other.

We live in a culture today that devalues sex, it minimises the impact sex has on us, it makes sex about you and what you want, it’s seldom about honouring the other person. Sex has become impersonal, making it easier to walk away, making it only a physical act, not recognizing the emotional and spiritual connections. Because our culture is all about our rights towards our bodies, emphasizing that we’re the only ones allowed to decide how we can use our bodies, we’ve made our bodies and what we do with them idols; more important than God’s desire for our bodies and how we use them.

This section is about holiness in our most intimate and trusted relationships. Sex connects you closely to the other person physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This is why marriage is often used as an image of the relationship between God and his people. Hosea is the most striking example of this in the Old Testament, while Jesus uses the image in a couple of parables, and Paul uses the image in Ephesians 5 when talking about the relationship between husbands and wives.

Sexual impurity is rooted in placing priority in your own pleasure over God’s desires. Sexual impurity flows out of focusing on your desire over the other person’s needs, preventing us from developing close vulnerability with the other person, and separating us from God, just as all impurity does. Sex is too important and intimate an act between men and women to throw away or treat casually. Our bodies are not our own, they belong to God and any act between men and women needs to reflect his holiness.

God’s looking to protect the most vulnerable here, women and children, from being abused, used, and rejected. While men and women were created equally in the image of God, most human cultures did not practice this equality in real life. Even in Israel, Moses is given directions allowing men to divorce their wives, but women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, leading to a power imbalance in the relationships between men and women.  Here God addresses how this power imbalance impacts daughters, mothers, and the other women in the extended family. We see the stories of Ammon and his sister Tamar, Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar as examples of what God is prohibiting here. This abuse of power by the powerful over the vulnerable is one of the reasons God steps in to save his people out of their Egyptian slavery; there’s no place for such abuse to happen in personal relationships.

How we treat each other needs to be rooted in respect because we’re all created in the image of God. This is why God addresses child sacrifice in verse 21. Molech was an Amorite god. God has shown himself to be more powerful than all other gods, but he knows how we keep turning to the little gods in our lives. Israel showed this when Moses spends 40 days on the mountain with God and in those 40 days, right after being saved from slavery, they convince Aaron to create a golden calf for them to worship. God’s reminding them to not disrespect his name, to follow him alone as their God. This is a warning to not make our sexual desires a god, allowing our sexual desires to rule over our hearts and lives, making us slaves to our desires. Like any god, they will disappoint and hurt us, making us empty rather than full, defiling us, and so taking us out of the presence of God and into the wilderness of despair and loneliness.  

Sex joins us closer together than almost than any other act can; it is intimate, personal, vulnerable, and special. It reflects the closeness, trust, and union found in God as trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; 3 persons and 1 essence, as the church father Athanasius taught. Sex in marriage joins us together physically, emotionally, and spiritually; an earthly glimpse of God’s unity. This is why it’s reserved for marriage, a covenantal promise relationship; this is why divorce hurts so much, reminding us how Jesus looked out over Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday and wept for the people and the brokenness in so many peoples’ lives.

The first reference to marriage is found in Gen 2:23–24, “The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Jesus refers to this passage when he talks about divorce, rooting marriage in creation norms.

Progressive theology is when there is a belief or norm in the Old Testament that grows in its application, or becomes deeper in its understanding and meaning in the New Testament. We look at how circumcision was only applied to the male child as a sign of belonging to God; this sign of belonging is then expanded in the New Testament into baptism as a sign of belonging and is applied to both males and females. Sexual ethics remain the same from the Old Testament to the New Testament, which is why our understanding of marriage has remained as the coming together of a man and a woman in a committed covenantal union.

Leviticus 18 is a warning against a reckless and selfish approach to sex and marriage. What does a healthy sexual relationship look like in a marriage? It begins by reflecting on what marriage is, a gift where 2 people come together and promise to join their lives together, looking at each other and asking ‘how can I help you become the person God has created you to be, how can I encourage and build you up to realize the potential God has placed within you?’

Marriage is focused on the other person, not on what you get out of the relationship, but on how you can bless your spouse; it’s a partnership of servanthood. Tim Keller recognizes that, “The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us.” Marriage is where sin, love, and grace get practiced out, growing us in our sanctification.

When marriage gets hard, we’re called to be tender, understanding, forgiving, and helpful, reflecting Jesus’ character to each other. As Paul says in Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He calls on the wife to submit to her husband, to honour him, building him up, while the husband’s called to love as Christ loves the church, desiring to make her into a radiant church without stain or blemish, echoing the call to holiness in Leviticus. This takes a sacrificial spirit, seeking the best for his wife, to help her become radiant.

Marriage reflects our relationship to Jesus. As his bride, we surrender ourselves to the one who redeemed us. This includes obeying God in the most intimate areas of our lives.

 

 

Power in the Blood - Leviticus 17:1–16

       

The idea of the sacrifices that Israel’s given in Leviticus is not new to Israel. Sacrifices and blood enter into the story of humanity right at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel both bring sacrifices to the Lord, Cain brings the fruit of the ground while Abel brings fat offering from the first born of his flocks, offerings that involved the shedding of blood of these animals. These echo ahead to the sacrifices laid out in Leviticus, pointing ahead to the offering of Jesus’ blood for our sin; his death for our lives.

Blood becomes one of the symbols of life. In the sacrifices we see how the Lord uses them to point out, and remind the Israelites of the seriousness of our sin; that the cost of our sin is the shedding of the blood of innocent animals; again, pointing ahead to Jesus, the one-person innocent of sin, and the shedding of his blood for the guilty.

Over time, people began to believe that our life force is found in our blood, as well as the blood of animals. As this belief grew more common, people began to develop rituals to take the life force of animals or their enemies for themselves, to make themselves more powerful. These rituals often involved eating or drinking the blood of enemies or strong animals. God now steps in and gives his people laws to prevent the unnecessary shedding of blood, whether animal or human, revealing how God honours all life, and that all life comes from and belongs to God. This is why Israel was to drain the blood of an animal they had slaughtered and pour the blood out onto the earth and cover it.

This is also reflected in how the people are to bring their sacrifices to the Lord. All those who sacrifice an animal on their own without bringing it to the priests to be approved, are to be considered guilty of bloodshed and cut off from the rest of the people. Blood sacrifices, because they involve the taking of the life of a creature, need to be treated respectfully, acknowledging that the life belongs to God and is not to be taken by their own hands for their own sin offences before God. Only the Lord’s representatives, the priests, are given this important responsibility. In the sacrifices, we see how they point to the seriousness of our sin, that the cost of our sin is life through the shedding of the blood of the animals.

Sin’s not to be treated lightly. The sacrifices are a temporary solution to allow the people to come close to God, but in the end, God requires a perfect sacrifice, a first-born without blemish, holy, set apart completely for God, perfect as God is perfect. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus is the only person who is perfect because he’s also completely God. Because he values our lives so deeply, he sacrifices his own life for ours, so that we can be with God into eternity. God sends Jesus to pay the price for our sin through the shedding of his own blood on our behalf so that we’re washed clean from our sin and made holy in the eyes of God. I appreciate the imagery Scripture gives us of what is accomplished in Jesus’ sacrifice, that when our sins are washed away through Jesus’ blood, as Isaiah 1:18 tells us we’ll be “white as snow,” a visible contrast to the scarlet red of blood. The blood of the sacrifices, and later of Jesus, becomes the way of reconciling God’s people to himself, becomes the way of atonement for our sins.

Because life is a gift from God, and all life belongs to him as the giver of life, God gives Israel some powerful warnings to respect life, “‘I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people. For the life of a creature is in the blood…. it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life…. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.” This respect for the life of all creatures reminds us that our first task in the Garden of Eden is to care for creation as God’s stewards.

So, what does this have to do with today since we no longer do sacrifices? Creation care is still important; we’re still stewards of creation. How we live in and with creation is rooted in our relationship with God. Living in a part of the country that is heavily agricultural, this is probably understood a little better as caring for life-stock and ensuring the land is healthy for producing crops is part of our DNA.

Yet there’s more here in this passage. Life is a gift, from conception to death. If the life of an animal is treated with such respect by God, how much greater the respect for the lives of those created in the image of God. How do we live this out in our lives and relationships, within our communities? A couple of the issues in our time are abortion and medically assisted dying. Abortion, the respect for the lives of our youngest and most vulnerable has been part of our Christian identity since the time of Rome. In ancient Rome, the practice of infanticide by exposure was common. Families, often constrained by poverty or social customs, would abandon unwanted babies to die from starvation or wild animals. These babies were sometimes left on trash heaps, city walls, or in remote areas. Early Christians, believing that all humans are made in the image of God, stood against infanticide and abortion. Christians would rescue abandoned infants and raise them as their own. These acts of compassion provided a powerful image of the Gospel at work in everyday life.

People noticed that Christians showed love for those society had rejected. Over time, this brought cultural change. By the fourth century, Christian emperors outlawed infanticide. It’s not just enough to say we're against these things, we need to live out sanctity of life by walking along woman who are considering abortion, surrounding them with support. Being pro-life is not just about the birth of the child, it’s providing a community of support and encouragement to help her and her raise the child to maturity, being involved in their lives through the good and bad times. It’s easy to say we’re against abortion, but it takes Christ-like commitment to life to ensure all children are raised with all that they need to grow into healthy adults.

MAID is another huge issue today. When it comes to medically assisted dying, we need to look harder at palliative care and providing comfort and care for those approaching death. Life is a gift, but it can also sometimes feel like a painful weight. Today, people are taking their own lives in order to not be a burden on their families; there’s a call here to walk with the person considering death, and with their family, addressing the big picture, not just the dying. Lewis Smedes tells of a woman named Grace who took her own life because she had developed MS and was completely dependent on her husband who was also busy with caring for their 5 children. She did this to help her family, but was it effective? Smedes asks some hard questions: “Did she in the long run really make life better for her husband and children? Who can tell how much good they lost from life when they lost the burden of caring for someone they loved?”

“Canada is now noted as the fastest growing assisted dying program in the world,” a University of Alberta research team wrote. At the end of 2014, 76,475 MAID deaths have been reported in Canada since it was legalized. We’re expected to reach the 100,000th MAID death by this summer. A parliamentary committee is now meeting to expand MAID to those whose only condition is a mental illness. How are we caring for those facing death, for those struggling with suffering in life; how are we walking alongside their families and supporting their care-givers? These are the Jesus following questions we need to wrestle with.

Valuing life is about creating communities of shalom where people can flourish, find meaning and purpose, where they’re valued for who they are and not just what they produce. Lewis Smedes writes that believing that life is sacred sends us toward any neighbour who needs help to keep going because God loves them. God gives life, God alone reserves the right to take life away. Jesus offers his blood as a sacrifice so that we might live, to wash away our sin which brings death. As we’ve been reflecting over the past few weeks, this looks like coming closer to God, like forgiveness and reconciliation, like respecting life and protecting life, working towards shalom life for all. Because we’ve been given new life through the power of the sacrificed blood of Jesus, we’re called to live for life as Paul writes in Romans 12:1–2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” And in living in a sacrificial way, living for ‘we’ rather than ‘me,’ we bring life that reflects the new life found in Jesus.