"But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.” As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions." Numbers 16:30-32
As I read through the Torah, I am struck by how the Father tells his people what will happen in response to their faithfulness to his law and what will happen in response to their breaking it. Their well being is tied to how they follow his laws and his covenant. Do what it says and crops will grow, they will have success in battle, and they will be fruitful.
This is also true in the passage I read this morning. It describes a rebellion led by some of the Levites who were the priests of that time. They resented the leadership of Moses and Aaron and felt they were using their closeness to the Father as a way to exercise power over the people of Israel. As we read through the story, these Levites are punished for their rebellion and Moses' authority is reaffirmed in the course of these events.
As I read this story this morning, I thought about how things are slightly different under the new Covenant we have through Jesus. There isn't the same promise of immediate success or protection in this life. Jesus speaks about how his followers will be persecuted for his sake and treated unjustly. This is different. Before if you followed the Father's will you would experience his blessing. Now if you follow the Father's will you will experience challenges in this life.
I think the reality of our life with God is complicated. Sometimes when we do the Father's will we will experience joy and blessings. Sometimes when we follow his will, we will experience persecution. Sometimes things will happen to us which are unrelated to what we do because we live in a sinful and broken world. But in all of this, the things that we do and our desire to follow the God's will still matters. In all things our walk with him is important even if it doesn't always lead directly to blessings or curses.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Friday, January 25, 2019
Daily Reading Reflection: Luke 19:11-27
“He replied, ‘I
tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the
one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’” Luke 19: 26-27 (NIV)
I tried to explain another version of this parable to a friend once. I think I did a bad job because they asked me questions about it that I didn't know how to answer. In this story, which is meant to tell us something about the kingdom of heaven, a ruler goes away for a while before his time of coronation. When he leaves on this journey, he gives some money to ten subjects. When he returns he brings the ten subjects in and they speak to him about what they did with what he gave them. One says he increased the money tenfold. One increased it by five times. The ruler is pleased with both of their actions. Then he comes to a servant who was so afraid of losing what he had that he held on to the money he was given so he could return it. The ruler is outraged and demands to know why this subject did nothing with the money he was given and takes it away from him to give to the more productive subject. Then he turns around and orders the end of all those who opposed his rule.
Jesus told a lot of stories and I think people pick certain ones because they make us feel good or we like the message. I find this one to be challenging but I have a few thoughts about this.
The first thought is always that this is a story about sharing what we have as opposed to holding on to it for ourselves. If you are the kind of person who is perfectly happy to live your own life, not put any burdens on anyone else, but also not share your life or gifts with anyone else then this should make you deeply uncomfortable. The story says use what you have to do something otherwise you are wasting what you've been given. Make friends, build relationships, have intimate moments, work towards improving the world, take care of creation, all of these are things which invest what we've been given and help it to grown. Otherwise you are wasting that gift God has entrusted you with. He doesn't want it back for himself, he wants to see it put to use.
As a person who is quite happy to be alone, that is challenging for me. I can easily be the tenth servant, not prepared to do anything with what I've been gifted. This story is a call to me to look outside myself and see where I can put what the Father has gifted me with to good use.
I tried to explain another version of this parable to a friend once. I think I did a bad job because they asked me questions about it that I didn't know how to answer. In this story, which is meant to tell us something about the kingdom of heaven, a ruler goes away for a while before his time of coronation. When he leaves on this journey, he gives some money to ten subjects. When he returns he brings the ten subjects in and they speak to him about what they did with what he gave them. One says he increased the money tenfold. One increased it by five times. The ruler is pleased with both of their actions. Then he comes to a servant who was so afraid of losing what he had that he held on to the money he was given so he could return it. The ruler is outraged and demands to know why this subject did nothing with the money he was given and takes it away from him to give to the more productive subject. Then he turns around and orders the end of all those who opposed his rule.
Jesus told a lot of stories and I think people pick certain ones because they make us feel good or we like the message. I find this one to be challenging but I have a few thoughts about this.
The first thought is always that this is a story about sharing what we have as opposed to holding on to it for ourselves. If you are the kind of person who is perfectly happy to live your own life, not put any burdens on anyone else, but also not share your life or gifts with anyone else then this should make you deeply uncomfortable. The story says use what you have to do something otherwise you are wasting what you've been given. Make friends, build relationships, have intimate moments, work towards improving the world, take care of creation, all of these are things which invest what we've been given and help it to grown. Otherwise you are wasting that gift God has entrusted you with. He doesn't want it back for himself, he wants to see it put to use.
As a person who is quite happy to be alone, that is challenging for me. I can easily be the tenth servant, not prepared to do anything with what I've been gifted. This story is a call to me to look outside myself and see where I can put what the Father has gifted me with to good use.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Daily Reading Reflection: Luke 12:13-21
"'And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drinkg, be merry'. But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'" Luke 12:19-20
This parable is a brilliant one. It draws you in and gives you a conclusion which is satisfying because of its reversal of power. But then it's true brilliance comes in the moment when you realize how often you find yourself in the person who is receiving his comeuppance in the story.
In this parable Jesus tells a story about a man who harvests a bountiful crop from his fields. When he decides what to do with his crop, he says "I will build more barns so I can be more secure". But later that same night he dies and all his striving for wealth is ultimately for nothing. Obviously we can look at this parable and see that it speaks to those who would choose to hoard up their material wealth instead of doing something about it. This whole stretch in Luke is talking about thinking in longer terms than simply the here and now. This refrain of "build more barns" is a line which I often repeat to myself when I hear of people hoarding wealth, of rigging their inheritance to their children in order to avoid giving anything up, when I think about wealthy people who don't tip their service-workers.
But the parable applies to anyone. The point of the story is that ultimately material wealth is fleeting when placed outside its proper perspective. God gives all things as a gift. When we decide to hoard those gifts for ourselves instead of spreading them about, they become a useless lump. It's like manure. When you are farming, spreading manure on your field is a great way to enrich all of your soil and help to grow more in the future. But if you pile it up in one place it's useless and just ends up stinking.
That's what I think about when I read this story. How are we building more barns? Where can we resist this urge and look at life with a more complete picture?
This parable is a brilliant one. It draws you in and gives you a conclusion which is satisfying because of its reversal of power. But then it's true brilliance comes in the moment when you realize how often you find yourself in the person who is receiving his comeuppance in the story.
In this parable Jesus tells a story about a man who harvests a bountiful crop from his fields. When he decides what to do with his crop, he says "I will build more barns so I can be more secure". But later that same night he dies and all his striving for wealth is ultimately for nothing. Obviously we can look at this parable and see that it speaks to those who would choose to hoard up their material wealth instead of doing something about it. This whole stretch in Luke is talking about thinking in longer terms than simply the here and now. This refrain of "build more barns" is a line which I often repeat to myself when I hear of people hoarding wealth, of rigging their inheritance to their children in order to avoid giving anything up, when I think about wealthy people who don't tip their service-workers.
But the parable applies to anyone. The point of the story is that ultimately material wealth is fleeting when placed outside its proper perspective. God gives all things as a gift. When we decide to hoard those gifts for ourselves instead of spreading them about, they become a useless lump. It's like manure. When you are farming, spreading manure on your field is a great way to enrich all of your soil and help to grow more in the future. But if you pile it up in one place it's useless and just ends up stinking.
That's what I think about when I read this story. How are we building more barns? Where can we resist this urge and look at life with a more complete picture?
Monday, January 7, 2019
Daily Reading Reflection: Levitivus 18
This is the first in a series of posts on my daily scripture readings. I read a cross section of scripture every day (two chapters from the Old Testament, one Psalm, one from the Gospels/Acts, and One from the latter New Testament books). These will be relatively free thoughts from what I've been reading. I hope they are constructive for you.
"So keep my charge never to practice ant of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 18:30 (the end of a chapter of laws from God on sexual regulations)
I grew up in a church culture which was fairly clear about what sexual ethics were. As a child these sorts of things seemed pretty black and white. Any behaviour can seem black and white when divorced from actual human beings participating in it. As an adult I found some of these assumptions were challenged both by my own experiences and through watching other people around me struggle with these issues. When your in high school, things happen to your body that you're not prepared for in Sunday school and suddenly things which once seemed certain suddenly become a lot more difficult to reconcile.
As someone in the tradition of Reformed Christianity, I find myself still wrestling with these challenges because on the one hand I respect the place that Scripture has as an authority in our lives. These words are words that God spoke through his people throughout history and they are words that he uses to speak to us today. When I read Leviticus 18, I read it as God's words to his people which are echoed in Paul's letters in the New Testament.
But the conflict comes because of my lived experience. I know people who have had Leviticus 18 used as a club to beat them down. My relationship with them and my understanding of what they experience and what they struggle with challenges me to wrestle with the words of scripture. How can I both respect the humanity of people and also continue to use Scripture as God's word to us? It is the type of challenge which I think about often. I was reminded of it again as I read through these pronouncements in Leviticus 18 today. I don't have a full answer, but the wrestling is still there.
"So keep my charge never to practice ant of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 18:30 (the end of a chapter of laws from God on sexual regulations)
I grew up in a church culture which was fairly clear about what sexual ethics were. As a child these sorts of things seemed pretty black and white. Any behaviour can seem black and white when divorced from actual human beings participating in it. As an adult I found some of these assumptions were challenged both by my own experiences and through watching other people around me struggle with these issues. When your in high school, things happen to your body that you're not prepared for in Sunday school and suddenly things which once seemed certain suddenly become a lot more difficult to reconcile.
As someone in the tradition of Reformed Christianity, I find myself still wrestling with these challenges because on the one hand I respect the place that Scripture has as an authority in our lives. These words are words that God spoke through his people throughout history and they are words that he uses to speak to us today. When I read Leviticus 18, I read it as God's words to his people which are echoed in Paul's letters in the New Testament.
But the conflict comes because of my lived experience. I know people who have had Leviticus 18 used as a club to beat them down. My relationship with them and my understanding of what they experience and what they struggle with challenges me to wrestle with the words of scripture. How can I both respect the humanity of people and also continue to use Scripture as God's word to us? It is the type of challenge which I think about often. I was reminded of it again as I read through these pronouncements in Leviticus 18 today. I don't have a full answer, but the wrestling is still there.
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