On holiness and the Gospel in Leviticus . . .

     At the first service, I tried to be a bit quick.  There has been a lot going on the last couple weeks, and this week is barbecue week.  I thought I would give a short homily, but I left too many questions unanswered.  So I promised 8 o’clockers I would do better this service.  You are welcome to take it up with them whether it was better or the right advice!  Lol

     Our OT reading today, contrary to the Order of Worship, is from Leviticus, not Isaiah.  I told you it has been a long couple weeks for everyone.  Leviticus, I was reminded this morning, is not a book with which many people are familiar.  They might know some of the torah that gets read through the lectionary, but it is a book that only insomniacs really treasure.  Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch, the first five books written by Moses after his time on Sinai with God.  Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which mostly repeats the teaching from Leviticus, are responsible for us receiving the torah.

     To remind ourselves, torah is one of those Hebrew words that the Church really needs to adopt in its local language, no matter the context.  In the United States, we often translate torah as commandment or laws, both of which are fair, but that misses much of the nuance of the word.  In the United States we have a difficult relationship with the word law.  We love laws when they are enforced against others, but we tend to chafe a bit when they are enforced against us.  Just ask one of our MetroPD officers how well we respond to being pulled over for speeding, especially those of us from Williamson County.  We all know the speed limit laws are merely suggestions when we are driving, not hard and fast laws.  And our “go to” complaint when pulled is all too often “but everyone else is speeding, too.”  By the way, if you ever get pulled over by an officer who asks you if you told your mama you’d jump off a cliff or bridge, too, if everyone else is doing it, you’ll know he or she was chatting with your priest!  Lol

     Good, you are all laughing.  At least you see the humor in it.  The torah, though, was given to a redeemed people who wanted to know what it was like to live in an intimate relationship with a holy God.  Put a bit differently, Israel wanted to know what it meant to be God’s people.  The Tradition is that Moses asked that question of God and received the torah, a list of 613 do’s and don’t’s, that instructed or taught His people what kind of behavior He expected from them.  So torah has that background.  It is another gift of God, another sign of grace.  Modern Christians like to make the pithy statement that “we are children of grace, but they were children of the law.”  I get it, but we misunderstand the nature of the torah.  The torah was the instruction manual that taught God’s people how to be His ambassadors in the world around them and so draw them into right relationship with Him.

     Our passage today comes from chapter 19, which falls squarely in the section we call the holiness code.  Now, it was pointed out to me between the services that I need to remind us of the difference between holiness and righteousness.  Holiness refers to the character of God.  If God said something was good, we were called to do it.  If God said something was bad, we were called to avoid it.  Think of the first such instruction, do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Was there anything wrong with the tree?  Was it intrinsically evil?  No.  With its fruit?  Both Adam and Eve thought the fruit looked and smelled good.  Adam and Eve were called to trust God and listen to His instructions.  They did not.  And sin entered the world.  Only One human being has ever lived a holy life.  Any guesses as to who that was?  That’s right, Jesus!  And just to remind ourselves, how did we reward Him for His faithfulness to God?  You got it.  We put Him to death.

     Righteousness, on the other hand, is a courtroom term.  It describes one’s standing before God.  If the torah is the target, righteousness describes who was closer to hitting that target.  Many of the decisions of the elder men at the gates were questions of righteousness between two individuals.  The great news about righteousness, though, was that one could get closer to God.  No matter how far we separated ourselves from God, we could always turn back to Him and draw closer.

     Think back to the OT.  How did one lose the guilt of their sin?  That’s right.  They offered a sacrifice.  In its teaching, the torah prescribes what is necessary to atone for sin.  One brought the appropriate sacrifice to the Temple, killed the animal in the way instructed by the priest, offered the parts of the animal described in the torah on the Altar, and then offered to those outside the temple the remainder, inviting those within earshot to celebrate with us that God had forgiven our sins and we were righteous before Him.  When Paul mentions He is righteous, Paul knows he has offered appropriate sacrifice for his sins.

     How do we Christians become righteous?  Exactly, we confess our sins, receive absolution, celebrate with our neighbors that we are restored to God, and then we eat the pledge of our inheritance together, the Body & Blood of our Lord.  Keep in mind, that action is not a conditional clause in our baptismal right, and it is one of only two dominical commands surrounding the Eucharist: that we are repentant before God and at love and charity with our neighbors when we partake of the Eucharist.  When we hopefully recite the baptismal vows in a few weeks with our newborn sets of twins, I will ask us all that when we  sin, will we repent and return to the Lord?  There is no “if you sin.”  God knows we will, and He makes provision for our frail state.  The holiness code teaches us about the heart, desire, and character of God, all of which we are called to emulate as His children.  We know He is merciful, so we repent when we sin.  Any questions?

     Notice, too, the Name that God uses to describe Himself to Moses.  He constantly uses the covenantal name, Yahweh, to describe the relation that exists between His people and Him.  In fact, God reminds the reader or hearer after a bunch of these instructions that He is the LORD.  God is intentionally reminding Moses and us that we are in a unique relationship with Him.  When we do as He commands, He is honored and glorified.  When we disobey Him, He is dishonored.  Better still, when we are mocked and dishonored for obeying Him, He is mocked and dishonored.  And still better, when He is glorified by those in the world around Him, He shares that glory with His people.  I see a couple nods of confusion.  Feel free to ask me any time to point out the implications of this covenantal relationship.  In truth, we could do a long study on this in a class.  All of this is grounded in that relationship we claim to have with God and with which He gifts us..

     Back to Leviticus for now, we skip a number of what you and I think of as the Ten Commandments thanks to the Lectionary editors.  My guess is that they assume we know those, and, to be fair, we should, especially at Advent.  Every now and again, Larry asks the adults to list them in Bible Study, right?  We also skip today how we are to treat immigrants and how to treat the poor among us.  The Christian Nationalists  and those who think poverty is a moral failing around us will not like those commandments, if they ever read them.  We are told we cannot glean the fields, that the poor and immigrants are allowed to follow our harvesters and pick what they find.  We are also not allowed to go back through the vineyard and pick the grapes that we missed the first time through.  Those are left to the poor.  Larry is leading the adult Sunday School class through types and shadows right now.  Those attending that class might notice in these skipped verses that it is almost as if God wants everyone, especially the poor and immigrants, to have access to bread and wine, right?  Our lectionary editors have us jump all that to holy behavior when it comes to our neighbors.  

     Now, we understand that jump is meant to point out to us that Jesus will use verse 18 as a basis for the Second Great Commandment in the reading from Matthew today.  Jesus’ citation reminds us of the continuity of the Covenant, but it also reminds us of God’s instructions regarding the Eucharist.  There are only two.  We must be repentant before God and at love and charity with our neighbor, which is why we confess, are absolved, and then quickly celebrate the Peace before coming to the altar rail, right?  None of us wants to profane the Eucharist just as our Jewish ancestors had no desire to profane God or His Covenant with them.  All that leads to the big problem identified in Scripture, in this passage of Leviticus and elsewhere, and of God’s solution.

     When we read God saying “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” we often read it as a command.  Those who understand grammar will say it is an imperative.  God is telling us to be holy.  It is certainly a fair understanding.  God is instructing us how to live in communion with Him, of what it means to be in relationship with Him.  It is not wrong to strive for those things that glorify our Lord.  The problem, of course, is that we and others experience all kinds of failures.  No show of hands, but how many of us determined one day not to sin during church.  Anybody make it past Tuesday or Wednesday?  I’d be excited if I made it past Sunday, but hopefully many of you are further along the path of sanctification than I am.

     At some point, though, we all still sin.  We may want to do what’s right, but we invariably fail.  Sometimes we commit sins; sometimes we commit sins of omission.  Ever keep your head focused downward to avoid the sale of the newspapers around town?  Ever cross the street to avoid a beggar?  One of my big confessions is that I am not always excited to need to walk down to church and feed someone who is hungry.  I am the professional among us.  I have studied Leviticus and Deuteronomy without falling asleep.  I really do know better.  But I have grumbled at times when I am outside, see someone clearly looking for help, and decide I have to walk down here.  You might say, “It’s ok Brian, God understands you were working out at the Y and tired” or “you had a busy week.”  But the truth is that we are called to feed when someone hungers, especially when the food is already here, right?  That not loving what He commands reminds me I am in the camp of the sinners and not living as the Collect petitions.  Like all of us, I am in desperate need of God’s grace.

     And heaven help us when we really work at keeping His commandments meticulously.  “I always feed the hungry, what do you do?”  How quickly does self-righteousness creep into our interpersonal activities and relationships.  We know better.  But time and time and time again, we choose sin.  And if we are choosing sin, we can never be holy.  The trap seems closed, or to use the image of a couple weeks ago, death has us in its chops.

     The Gospel answer, thankfully, is that we cannot be holy.  Only Jesus was holy.  Only Jesus was able to focus on the task that His Father gave Him and chose the path of obedience every time.  And so, in the end, we understand God’s command that we shall be holy might not be a command, but rather a promise.  That when we failed, He sent His Son; that when we believe Jesus is who He claimed to be, His holiness is imputed to us.  That when God looks at us, He sees Jesus in us.  Or if we prefer, it is the coming of the Holy Spirit, after the Ascension of our Lord Christ, that makes us holy.  However we choose to describe it, God dwelling in us makes us holy, imitators of our Father in heaven.  It is only through Jesus that this problem of sin and our unruly wills is truly solved.

     God knew this, of course, when He sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden and promised them restoration.  He understood and planned for all this even as He further unveiled His covenant with Abraham and Sarah.  Time and time again, God reminded us of our need for Him to bridge that chasm between us, that our strength and ingenuity would fail us.  And finally He reminded us of that truth from the Cross.  When we mocked Him and challenged Him to come down if He was the Son of God, He willed Himself to stay because He loved each one of us.  And instead of cursing us, He uttered those wonderful, victorious words, “It is accomplished!” We remind ourselves of that essential truth and promise each time we gather for this meal.

     Even then, though, God is not finished with us.  After accepting our repentance He feeds us with the Body and Blood of His Son, nourishing us for the work He has planned for us, reminding us that we are all created in His image and children of His own redeeming, and that we now dwell in Him as even He dwells in us.  And reminded of those truths and nourished, fed from His Body and His Blood, we are sent back out into the world to the do the work He has given us to do, to be a holy people, joyfully thankful to reveal the heart and mind of our Lord, inviting others to join in that relationship and in the hope we have in Him!

In His Peace and promise!

Brian+

In Whose image?

      It is that time of year when we Episcopal churches lean into our budgeting program or stewardship, and people begin to complain that all any churches care about are money.  If you are visiting today, I remind us repeatedly throughout the year that we are called to be good stewards of all with which God has entrusted us, but we do have to spend a bit of time planning for next year, 2027.  There are buildings to be maintained, a big yard to be mowed, utilities and salaries to be paid, and ministries to be supported.  This year, because of the timing, we also have the extra reminder that stewardship includes our vote.  God has planted us in this nation, in this community, and we have a thankful obligation to Him to cast our votes for those leaders who will govern us as He calls them to govern.

     Our passage from Matthew takes place after Jesus has told the parables of the two sons and the wicked tenants.  For their part, the leadership in Israel has figured out that Jesus is not pleased that they ignore God’s instruction about how they are to live in the world.  To be sure, the leadership can mouth the words, but they do not live the life to which God calls all of His sons and daughters.  As a result of Jesus’ teaching and preaching, they are enraged at Jesus and want to put Him to death.  Were Jesus only a fun-loving hippie, no one would want to kill Him, let alone crucify Him.  When He describes them as white-washed tombs or wicked servants, they get really upset.  After all, they want those around them to think highly of them, right?

     Today is interesting because the Pharisees send their disciples along with the Herodians to entrap Jesus.  There are a couple things we need to understand.  The first is the unlikelihood that Pharisees and Herodians would ever work together.  We think we live in a divided nation.  Some of us think that those of other political parties are an enemy to be defeated.  To be sure, we have dehumanizing language that we cavalierly drop in our political discourse.  But we are not an occupied land.  Like it or not, other Americans govern us at every level.  Americans run the federal government; Americans govern the state in which we live; Americans govern Nashville; Americans even govern Oak Hill or whatever section or community from which we hail.

     At this time in Matthew’s Gospel, Rome rules Judea.  Rome has brought in soldiers, companies made up mostly of their own ethnic enemies, in order to make sure that nobody gets too out of hand.  As we will see in the next few weeks, the distance between a life of ministry and death on a cross in not particularly far.  Most subjected or oppressed people hate their conquerers, so most rank and file Jews longed for a messiah that would cast off the Roman oppressors.  One group which liked the oppressors, though, were the Herodians.  Herod had famously and successfully bribed Caesar so that he could be named king.  Yes, Herod was answerable to the Governor appointed by Caesar, but he had some limited autonomy which allowed him to recoup the bribes he had paid Caesar.

     All of that is to say that the Pharisees and the Herodians were not known for their ability or willingness to compromise.  The Pharisees resented the Herodians for conspiring with Rome, and the Herodians did not care much for the Pharisees’ unwillingness to live in the world in which they found themselves, namely in service to Rome.  The fact that they came together to speak with Jesus would have set off the alarm bells of many Jews.

     The second understanding we need is that of the tax which will be the subject of these short verses.  Specifically, the tax being discussed in the so-called “Head tax.”  Rome collected a denarius from everyone in the empire.  A denarius equaled a day’s wage.  The money that was raised by this head tax was then used to pay the salaries of the soldiers stationed in the area.  Now, I have reminded you already that Rome brought in ethnic enemies of the Hebrews to patrol and keep the peace in Judea.  So, this tax was rather despised.  The conquered people paid the tax that was then put to the salaries of the soldiers who were used in their oppression.  Everyone understand the psychological game Rome was playing?  Good.  By the way, if the oppressing soldiers were not being paid for their work, what do you think their attitude would be to those whom they were patrolling?  That’s right, not very good.  There was no “to protect and to serve” in their esprit de corps.  They wanted their money, and their ethnic enemies were responsible for paying them.  You can imagine how those interactions went.

     One final note is a reminder.  Everyone understands that one had to pay for sacrifices with Temple shekels, right?  The only currency accepted by the leadership was the Temple currency.  Some of us might remember Jesus’ attitude about the bankers set up in the Temple.  Those of us who traveled in the dark ages might remember that the worst conversion rates were from the money changers at the airports.  The Temple moneychangers did not take a back seat to that gouging.  In fact, Jesus’ criticism of them as He flips their tables is that they have made the worship of God burdensome for His people.  All that is to say that the more the traditional the individual, the less likely they were to accept the currencies of the world in their midst.  Some experts argue that money changers could conduct their business from the Court of the Gentiles outward, but I do not believe we can be certain where the line was drawn for this encounter.

     The attempted trap is a question that follows a lot of flattery, “Is it lawful to pay tax to the emperor, or not?”  A fight raged among the controlling parties as to whether the tax was immoral and part of idol worship or just the cost of doing business.  The Herodians fell into the latter camp because they were the ones licensed to do business in Judea by the emperor.  The Pharisees were likely the ones most consistently opposed to paying taxes because they followed the torah given to Moses by God.  Political parties being political parties, I suspect these boundaries were not etched in stone.  And I expect that other groups switched sides depending upon the sentiment of the people and other self-interest considerations, much as there is little difference between the modern democratic party and republican party.  Members of both parties work today for their own enrichment and that of the families rather than the benefit of those who elect them, right?

     The trap is laid with the understanding that if the rabbi says yes, the Pharisees can denounce Jesus.  Similarly, if Jesus says the tax is immoral, the Herodians can appeal to their Roman overlords with the claim that Jesus is an insurrectionist and will lead the people into rebellion.

     Unfortunately for those springing the trap, Jesus is not just a rabbi, a teacher, as they diminuize Him in the eyes of the crowd.  The people think Jesus a prophet and hope He is the Messiah, and they are closer to understanding His identity than the leadership which should recognize the signs He has done as those of Messiah.  Jesus calls them out for being hypocrites.  A wise Pharisee or Herodian might have thought better of the trap at that point, but Jesus plays along and asks them to show Him the coin used for the tax.

     I have just reminded you about attitudes toward the non-Temple coins.  The audience does not need that reminder.  So imagine their surprise when the coin is produced quickly by those claiming to lead Israel.  To use easy language, they would appear as true hypocrites in the eyes of those who witnessed this exchange in the Temple!  They are carrying coins that signify idolatry in the Temple!  What do I mean.

     I have already reminded you that the head tax was a denarius.  The denarius was a Roman coin and stamped with the image of Caesar on it.  Often there were inscriptions.  Think of our coins with presidential profiles and mottos.  Inscribed on the coin was a phrase something like Caesar Augustus, of Caesar, Son of God.  You all have suffered through nerdy details during my tenure, but that one should ring a bell.  Euangelion and Son of God were words that were as much a political polemic as a theological truth in the ANE.  Caesars claimed to be the sons of gods and, therefore gods themselves.  That is on the coin the trappers lay for Jesus in the Temple.  See the problem . . . for them?

     In case anyone misses the coin, Jesus asks them whose head and whose title in on the coin.  They answer truthfully that it is Caesar’s.  Jesus calmly responds “Give to the emperor the things from the emperor and to God the things that are God.”  Notice the brilliance of the answer.  Who stamped the coin, put it in circulation, set the salary of the occupiers, and determined the tax collection?  That’s right!  Caesar.  Caesar created this, so give it to him.  Some Christians in history and today like to argue that they do not have to pay immoral taxes.  Interestingly, they get to determine what is immoral or moral.  Scripture reminds us again and again to pray for those in authority where God plants us.  We do it not because we agree with them or to justify their actions, but just to be good citizens and so it will go well with us.

     We are fortunate that God planted us in the United States, right?  We change our ruling officials by casting a vote.  That, of course, brings us to one of the big Stewardship teachings today.  Part of our stewardship is voting.  We are placed in a country by God that governs itself through elections.  We are called to cast votes for those individuals whose manner of governing best represents the character of Jesus as a thank offering to God for where He chose to place us.  Some of us may argue that our votes do not count.  Individually one vote may seem insignificant.  But what if we Christians voted as if we were stewarding the government of the land in which we are placed?  What would be the result in national elections?  State elections?  Local elections?  I know, I know, it is an uncomfortable question.  In America Christians tend to value, dare I say worship, things other than God when placing a vote, right?  That is not our calling as His sons and daughters, and we are reminded as we consider His teaching today.

     I know a few of us are wondering internally if that claim is too much, that God is concerned about things other than who governs.  But look at Jesus’ answer again.  What do we give to God?  That’s right, the things of God.  What are the things of God?  Ouch.  I know.  That’s the nub of this teaching.  Who created us in His image?  That’s right, God.  Who created the earth upon which we live?  That’s right, God!  Who created the ecosystems in which we live?  That’s right, God!  Are we beginning to see a pattern?  God made everything, so what do we steward for Him?  That’s right, everything!  That means all that is is His!  Our passions, our strengths, who we are were all created by Him.  But so was the world in which we live.  Even Caesar.

     The call on our lives is that we offer everything to God.  We model that giving each time we gather to celebrate what He has done for us in Christ Jesus.  You know this, even if you have forgotten it.  We present to God gifts of Creation in the bead and the wine and, at Advent, our financial benefits.  We remind ourselves intentionally that He gives us our daily bread.  What do we really offer to God that is not God’s already?  Our sacrifice of what?  That’s right, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving!  We offer our very selves, our souls and bodies, in service of Him because He has redeemed us in Christ!  He did the heavy lifting that we could not.  And so we offer praise and thanksgiving, which if we think about it is not a huge sacrifice, for our creation, preservation, and redemption.  We may say these words over and over and never stop to think what we mean by them, but we say them, trusting that the Holy Spirit will give us better understanding about the meaning and transform our hearts and minds to live them.

     On some level the trappers understood this.  None of you have had the expression of a light bulb going off at anything I have said.  God’s truth is enshrined in our literature, constantly sprinkled throughout Scripture, and, at least for us Episcopalians, a major subject in the fall.  I simply reminded you of things you may have forgotten, as Jesus did those who sought to trap Him.  Such is the enmity of the world, of the human heart, that the reminder of these truths are incredibly dangerous.  For now, they go away amazed, leaving Him to continue His teaching in the Temple.  But the time is at hand when they will put Him to death for demanding that kind of allegiance from those who claim to worship God.

     But to remind us of His power and His will we know that their betrayal and His death is not the last word, that His Resurrection demonstrates to us the power of God to redeem all things in our lives, that only He is worthy of what He instructs of us, that only He was willing to pay the price for all those under His authority, that only He is truly deserving of our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which we offer during worship and during our work out there.

     In the coming weeks, John and other volunteers will lead us intentionally into the season we call stewardship.  Some of that talk will be boring.  Who cares about salaries?  About utilities?  About lawn care?  About HVACs?  Other discussions will remind us of the lofty purposes of God.  How can we glorify Him more in our feeding of those who hunger?  How can we glorify Him more in our care of those with no home?  How can we glorify Him more as we seek to proclaim His healing in bodies and minds?  Perhaps we will even speak of vision.  Is God calling us, or a significant portion of us, to other works which glorify Him, that the world might be reminded yet again of His purpose and power?  I encourage you to listen to those discussions and testimonies and to attune yourselves to Him, prayerfully considering what He is calling you and all of us around you to do.

In His power and promises,

Brian+