Posts Tagged ‘Leviticus’

To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God – Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth

January 26, 2025

Epiphany 3 – 2025

Luke 4:14-21

Marian Free

In the name of God who. preferences the poor, the oppressed and the marginalised. Amen.

Many of you will have seen the controversy surrounding the sermon preached by the Bishop of Washington State, Mariann Budde at the National Prayer Service for the Inauguration of President Trump. Certainly, my social media feed has been filled with comments all week.

What stirred people to applaud or to condemn the Bishop was the way in which towards the end of her sermon Budde directly addressed the President and asked (very gently) that he show mercy towards those who would be negatively impacted by the executive orders that the President had signed on his first day in office – those whose sense of security was already tenuous and who now had no way of knowing what the future might hold. Bishop Budde has been urged to apologise to the President and has been bombarded by negative comments and even death threats – many from Christians. 

This morning’s gospel is a reminder that Budde was simply speaking from Jesus’ own playbook – which, as it turns out, is (and always was) God’s playbook. When Jesus announces his ministry, when he claims the authority of the Spirit, and when he spells out the reason God sent him, Jesus is simply repeating what was written in the law from the beginning and what the prophets had been exhorting ever since.

In this morning’s episode from Luke’s gospel Jesus begins (one could say inaugurates) his ministry by attending the synagogue in Nazareth – something that he was accustomed to do. It was presumably his turn to read from the scriptures because he stood, and the scroll of Isaiah was brought to him. Jesus unrolled the scroll and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

                                    because he has anointed me

                                                      to bring good news to the poor.

                  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

                                    and recovery of sight to the blind,

                                                      to let the oppressed go free, 

                  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Good news to the poor, release to the captives, freedom for the oppressed sounds very much like mercy to me.  

Jesus has not just stumbled across the passage from Isaiah but has chosen these verses carefully. (It seems that God’s purpose was already clear to him.) The verses in question are not sequential. Jesus reads a couple of verses from chapter 61 (1-2) and adds to them a verse from chapter 58 (6) which allows him to add the line “let the oppressed go free”[1]. Jesus probably did not need to read the text exactly not only because that was not necessarily expected, but because those who listened would have known already what it was that God demanded of them. They would have known too that Is 58 continues: Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” 

In choosing these verses Jesus was repeating what had been central to the Jewish faith from ages immemorial – that God desires a society which honours the dignity, the freedom and the right to food and shelter of every person, a society which puts the care of those who are beleaguered, excluded or misunderstood at its very core. These values there in Leviticus, which insists that debts be forgiven in the Jubilee year, that those enslaved by debt be freed and those who had lost their land (and heritage) due to debt have it restored. Leviticus spells out how to care for the poor – by not harvesting to the edge of the field so that the poor might have something to glean and how to welcome and care for the stranger and sojourner in the land. These instructions are repeated over and over in the Old Testament – care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger in the land. Micah tells the people: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?[2]”

What is good in the law’s eyes, what is good in God’s eyes is not simply the not doing wrong (lying, murdering, committing adultery). What is good, is caring for the vulnerable, the dispossessed, the outsiders.  God’s plea for justice, compassion and equity echoes through the scriptures and Jesus is saying no new thing when he claims that this is God’s primary concern and the reason that he, Jesus, is filled with the Spirit and the centre of his ministry. Jesus’ fulfilment of the OT prophecies is not simply that he is the anointed one sent by God, but that he has come to restore Israel to its proper relationship with God, to bring the nation to its senses that it might remember the commandments of God and live justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with their God. 

The society that God wants God’s people to build is one that is welcoming and inclusive, one that recognises that being blessed entails being a blessing to others, that having more than enough is too much when others do not have enough and not wronging or oppressing the alien in the land, for our forebears were aliens in the land of Egypt. It is a society that understands that putting the well-being of others first is the best and only way to ensure our own well-being.  Placing mercy at the heart of all that we do will go a long way to creating the community God intended us to be.

[1] “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Is 61:1-2).  “

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? (Is 58:6).

[2] The consequences of oppressing the poor, of taking advantage of those who are worse off, or of acting unjustly are also spelled out in the prophets. (For example Micah)

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Our bodies – God’s interface with the world

December 30, 2023

Holy Family

(Initially written for the series When Women Preach. If you’d like to hear it in my voice go to https://australianwomenpreach.com.au/)

Luke 2:22-30

Marian Free

In the name of God, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer provided the liturgical resources for the world-wide Anglican Church   up until 1975. It included a rite called the Churching of Women   (latterly known as Thanksgiving after the Birth of a Child.) This rite is based on Leviticus 12:2-8 which refers to the purification of women after childbirth. It is worth quoting the text in full as it lies behind the gospel set for today; “If a woman conceives and bears a male child,   she shall be ceremonially unclean seven days;    as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.   On the eighth day   the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.    Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days;    she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed.  If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation;    her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days. When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter,   she shall bring to the priest      at the entrance of the tent of meeting    a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering,    and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.”

Though the Anglican service does not use the language of purification, it was known colloquially as “the rite for the purification of women” and, in some parts of Australia was still practiced in the 1960’s.  I can still remember someone telling me of the humiliation that she felt at having to undergo the ritual, the sense of degradation that came from an understanding that somehow her God given body, the body that had given life to another, was considered impure by the church community in which she worshipped. 

It was not only birth that was considered to render a woman unclean. In Old Testament times and, in some contemporary cultures, menstruation was/is viewed as a source of impurity that required women to separate themselves from their community during the time of their period. This is also based on Leviticus which tells us that anyone who touches a menstruating woman will be unclean until evening. {And} The woman herself is considered to be unclean for seven days. And anyone who touches her,   or who touches something that she has touched in that time   is likewise thought to be unclean.

In the church, attitudes to women’s bleeding have varied through the centuries, but Leviticus 12 continued to influence the opinions of some. For example, in the seventh century, Bishop Theodore of Canterbury stated that: “During the time of menstruation women should not enter into church or receive communion.”

While this sounds archaic to modern ears, it was one of the reasons that women continued to be excluded from the sanctuary. In living memory, flower arrangers, had to leave their vases on the sanctuary steps so that they could be put into place by a male churchgoer. (This was true whether they were menstruating at the time or not). (And) As recently as the 1980’s a bishop (who was very much in favour of the ordination or women), shared with me that he had a lingering (if irrational) sense of discomfort that a priest who might be menstruating could be presiding at Holy Communion.

In our day and age, it seems an extraordinary idea that menstrual blood could be seen to render a woman unclean, that the source of all human life could be understood as a cause for impurity and that the act of birth could likewise render a woman impure. 

In today’s gospel, Mary and Joseph bring themselves to do that which is required by the Torah (Lev 12). There is so much detail in these verses – the offering of the doves, Simeon’s gratitude, Anna’s excitement, Simeon’s song and prophecy – that it is easy to overlook why the couple are there – for Mary to undergo a process of purification – and that after having given birth to God’s very self. (A detail balanced only by fact that God did not consider a woman’s body an unworthy vessel for the Saviour of the world.)

Sadly, there has developed in Christendom a distrust of the body which is seen as the origin of desire, passion and sin. Our relationship with our bodies is complex. Without our bodies we do not exist, but bodies can be weak, frail, and broken. They do not always perform as we would wish. Bodies come with physical needs     and our natural bodily functions cannot always be controlled and are often experienced as a source of inconvenience, discomfort, or embarrassment.

Mary’s body is the reason that the family go to the Temple, but hers is not the only body.  In this short vignette, we have infant bodies and aged bodies, fertile bodies and infertile bodies, female bodies and male bodies, bodies losing their functionality and bodies that have yet to learn how to self-regulate.  Jesus’ body is small, vulnerable, and dependent. Mary’s body is young and strong and fertile and unclean. Anna’s is long past the time of being able to bear children yet is still filled with life and energy. Simeon is ready to abandon his body in death but before he does, he takes the embodied God into his arms. 

For all their frailty and inconvenience, it is our bodies that give us existence and it is “the body with its appetites, its pleasures and all its various functions    that God has chosen to make his love known among us”.[1] God’s very self did not despise the human body but chose to inhabit it and to share in all its fullness, in all the messiness of human existence: “he became like his brothers and sisters in every respect.” (Hebrews 2:14-18)

However we try to sanitise our scriptures, however we try to separate our physical bodies from the life of the spirit, we cannot ignore the fact that the gospels themselves are earthy and bodily. From Jesus’ bloody, violent, and messy birth, to his bloody, violent and messy death the Incarnation is proof positive that holiness and bodilness cannot be separated, that our bodies are not to be despised but to be treasured as the place in which God did and does make God’s home.

Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ presentation in the Temple, Jesus’ life and death, and even his scarred resurrection body, are all evidence that Jesus fully embraced the human condition – that God in Jesus was vulnerable and in control, weak and strong, sorrowful and joyful – “like us in every respect”. 

Our bodies, our frail, imperfect bodies are God’s interface with the world. Our bodies, our very human bodies, were and are the dwelling place of God for whom no task is too mundane, no activity too ordinary, no function unspeakable and no part impure. 

“Let us glorify God in our bodies.”

{In 2011, Colleen Fulmer uploaded this song to You Tube

We are the body of Christ,

birthing, feeding,

touching, weeping. 

We are the body of Christ,

mending, bleeding,

healing, dancing,

Glorify God in our bodies.

Dance with God in our lives.

Colleen Fulmer, 2011

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=we+are+the+body+of+Christ%2C+glorify+God+in+our+bodies+-+lyrics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ba648b42,vid:XOKJVxJguug,st:0

[1] (The. Message Devotional Bible: featuring notes and reflections from Eugene H. Peterson, (Colorado Springs, CO: Nav Press,  2018) 3563, Kindle.

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The heavens torn asunder

January 10, 2015

Baptism of Jesus – 2015

Mark 1:4-11 (Genesis 1:1-8)

Marian Free

May my spoken word, lead us through the written Word, to encounter the Living Word, even Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

It is difficult to let go of the idea that heaven is above us and that hell – if such a place exists – is below. Even though modern science has revealed the vastness of the universe, and even though we know that the nearest star is light years away, most of us still think of heaven as somewhere above the sky. One reason for such a view is that our image of heaven is formed by our biblical texts that in turn are dependent on a view of the world that dominated in ancient times. In this period of time, it was believed that the earth sat on pillars above the waters below and that the sky was a vast dome that held back the waters above. The sun, moon and stars hung from this dome and the rain fell through holes in the dome.

In Hebrew the word for this dome is raqia. This is the same word that is used for God’s chariot or for the platform for God’s throne. It seems that in Hebrew thought the sky – what was for them the roof of the earth – was for God the floor of heaven. That is not to say that they understood God to be confined to heaven or that they thought that the dome was impermeable, preventing movement in either direction. After all, God had conversations with Abraham and Moses spoke to God face-to-face. It does seem however, that communication between God and humankind generally occurred through individuals such as the patriarchs or the prophets or through intermediaries such as angels. In any event, over time the communication between heaven and earth became ritualized and instead of communication being a two-way conversation, it was limited to an action that took place once a year – first of all in the tent of meeting and then in the Temple.

The design of these places of worship is important, in particular the separation of the sanctuary, which is the place of meeting. In Exodus God says to Moses: “And have them make me a sanctuary. There I will meet you and I will give you all my commands for the Israelites.” Moses used to meet God in the sanctuary on a regular basis but, according to the Book of Leviticus this place, which was separated by a curtain from the remainder of the tent of meeting, was considered so holy that it was only entered once and year and then only by the current High Priest. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies surrounded by a cloud of incense that would prevent him from seeing God. Inside the sanctuary he would sprinkle blood on and before the mercy seat. This was to cleanse the tent of the sins of the people and to make it possible for God to continue to dwell in their midst. It was not a conversation between the priest and God as it had been in Moses’ day. The Temple, when it was built, was built on the same design as the Tent of meeting. Again the sanctuary was separated from the inner court by a curtain and entered only once a year by the High Priest. The relationship between God and the people at this time was not personal but formal and dictated by ritual.

All of this background information is essential if we are to understand Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism.

Mark tells us that as Jesus was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens torn asunder and hears the voice of God saying: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It is true that in this account only Jesus sees the heavens torn and hears the voice of God, but Mark’s audience hear the words as if they too see and hear, and the implication of what is happening is not lost on them. The violent tearing of the heavens suggests to them that the barrier that existed between them and heaven has been broken irreparably. The dome is no longer intact. God has broken through into the world and nothing will ever be the same. From now on the way in which God communicates with the world will be radically different. God will be accessible to all people, not to just a few.

That this is Mark’s intended meaning is made clear at the conclusion of the gospel when another violent tearing destroys the curtain in the Temple – that which had separated the people from the sanctuary. Mark records that when Jesus took his last breath, the veil (curtain) in the Temple was torn from top to bottom making clear that no longer is communication with God limited to just one person just once a year. All people now have access to and can communicate directly with God.

Even though Mark does not record Jesus’ birth, in only a few verses he makes it obvious that in Jesus, God has radically entered the world. God’s heaven has been opened in a way that could not previously have been imagined and the violence of the opening suggests that it will not easily be closed again. The barriers (real or perceived) between earth and heaven have been destroyed. All of humanity is now able to speak directly to God without the need of an intermediary.

God has done everything possible to open channels of communication with us. It is up to us to make good use of them.

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