Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (proper 25): October 23, 2005.

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Psalm 1

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-46

First Reading

Leviticus comes up twice in the Revised Common Lectionary. The other time is 7 Epiphany A (very rarely seen) where the lectionary appoints Lev 19:1-2, 9-18, basically the same text. If you have ever wanted to preach Leviticus, this is your chance.

Because Leviticus is so rarely called upon for its divine wisdom, we might assume it has little to give. Anthropologist Mary Douglas in Leviticus as Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) reminds us that Leviticus was not written in a little room away from the world or by a people alone and adrift in a small corner of the desert. Detailed doctrine comes from controversy and the competition of other religions. One has only to look at the development of Christian doctrine to draw the analogy. The background to this book is a religious competition between Israel and its neighbors.

Holiness (separateness) seems to be the operating principle here. Holiness is also power and must be handled with the utmost care or harm will result. For the nation the stakes are existence itself: "If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in season ..." (26:3-4). Such power needs to be handled very carefully. Note the ordination of Aaron and his sons (chaps. 8-9) with the result: "Fire came out from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering ... and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces" (9:24). The danger is noted also in the story of Nadab and Abihu who offered "unholy fire" and were consumed by fire (10:1-2). The sacrifices of Leviticus are for "unintentional sin"; for intentional sin the remedy is death. Aaron takes this as a judgment on himself, and in chapter 16 God directs Aaron to offer a sacrifice for his part in the sin of his sons. Likewise, the day of atonement is for the "unintentional sin" of the people.

Leviticus is a rigorous laying out of the law especially in regard to the tabernacle, temple, and cultic practice. But it also is the ideal against which Israel will later be judged--in the cases of Saul and Solomon, for instance. Paul knows that without the law there is no sin (Romans). The deaths of Nadab and Abihu are recapitulated in 1 Kings 14-15 with the deaths of King Jeroboam's sons. Nadab and Abijah. Jeroboam's prime sin is the establishment of worship of golden calves (think of Aaron) at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:25-33). God is holy and will not tolerate such sin.

Israel was to receive the land because the Canaanites had defiled it (18:24-30). So to possess the land that God was giving them they would have to prove themselves worthy by being holy. But in the real world they would have to show that their answers were better than those of their neighbors. Molech demanded the sacrifice of children (18:21); the LORD demands, "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin ..." (19:17). In the competition for land and life, whose way would win? Is loving "your neighbor as yourself" (19:18) the strongest, most reliable medicine for curing what ails us?

In Genesis (3:8) God is pictured as walking in the garden and speaking directly to Adam and Eve. Now in Leviticus God will be known by his separation (holiness), and God's people are likewise to see themselves as separate (holy). But is the separation from God or the other nations? Both. Israel is introduced to a middle ground distanced from God (ritual is connection and separation) and the other nations. Israel will be given the land but never own it: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants" (25:23) (see Proper 22).

This middle ground of holy alienation is the basis for a different kind of ethic in relation to one's own and others. "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God" (19:34). This ethic of exodus is given further form in 19:15-18, the specified text.

Pastoral Reflection

How strange of the ancient Church Growth Movement to give us the book of Leviticus. Here we have a presentation of holiness as understood by our spiritual forbears. Unfortunately, since we are so embarrassed by the book--all those sacrifices and regulations!--we are not primed to understand it.

Roland Bainton in his biography of Luther, Here I Stand (New York: Meridian, 1995), takes time to dwell on Luther's reaction to his first time consecrating the Lord's Supper in a section called "The Terror of the Holy." Bainton writes,

But many had done it, and the experience of the centuries enabled the
manuals to foresee all possible tremors and prescribe the safeguards.
The celebrant must be concerned, though not unduly, about the forms. The
vestments must be correct; the recitation must be correct, in a low
voice and without stammering. The state of the priest's soul must be
correct...." (pp. 29-30)

As Luther would later write in explaining the commandments, "We are to fear and love God...." Luther never lost his fear of God. Have we? Have we so emphasized God's love that we have lost the sense of the ultimate power of the holy?

It is ironic that the Old Testament phrase that we might use to summarize the message of Jesus is taken from Leviticus, "... you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD" (19:18). We hear it at Matthew 19:19, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27. Nowhere else in the OT do we stumble across that wording. We may hear it implied in the commandments and in other places, but not so clearly.

It is this ethic of the middle--God's own people, yet alienated; holders of promise and yet still exiles--that may tap into the feelings of many in our congregations. They call themselves Christian and yet feel something less than that. Many are looking for that connection to God that is more real. Leviticus, like James in the NT, is the book of doing the faith. Leviticus gives a way of handling situations from sacrifices to sexual relations. It tries to provide a sense of order in a world that is chaotic and unpredictable. "You shall be holy," like "love your neighbor," is another quick reading or summary of the basic law, the ten commandments. How we treat people will show the world what kind of God we know.

As a pastor I have appreciated the Occasional Services when I have been called to a home or the hospital. The book gave me something to say beyond my own words, whether it was reading an appropriate psalm or blessing a home or Commendation of the Dying or Holy Communion for shut--ins. Likewise Leviticus gave Israel a way to engage themselves with God beyond mere words. Worship should be a way of engaging God beyond our individual prayers. Worship should help us to live in a reality of a risen Savior, who is now and not yet. GH