An Invitation

How would you like to get in on a little bit of this Leviticus-studying action? As you know, I have the opportunity to study Leviticus this summer (by means of leading a Bible study) as part of my field-ed requirements, and let me tell you, it is hard work.  Most of the time I feel like I'm flopping around in the water when I ought to be charting the course.  So I thought that as I work and re-work this material in an effort to make it at least partly palatable, you might be interested in taking the journey with me.

See, here's the thing: I know Leviticus is generally not a popular book for Bible studies or sermons or coffee conversation or, well, reading.  There are hardly any interesting narratives in it to at least keep the story moving along or give us something to "mine" a tidbit of moralism from.  And there is an awful lot of  blood and sacrifice and measuring and counting and do's and don'ts - "you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about..."

But is it really just an ancient version of the Hokey Pokey - or hocus pocus?  I don't think so.  I wonder, though, if we were really honest about what we think about Leviticus - honest about how we don't really expect it to inform our reading of Scripture or strengthen our life with God, and the confusion we encounter in those rare moments when we do try to give it a charitable reading and find that we don't understand how it can possibly be "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" - I wonder if we might find that we've edged it out to those same margins right along with the hokey and the hocus.

But Leviticus remains, after all, Scripture - "the Word of God, for the people of God."  And Scripture is never interested in hanging out at the margins, weakly offering a dim glimpse into an archaic past that we've grown out of so we can look back and say, "praise Jesus!  Now we know what not to do!"  Jesus didn't think so.  Paul didn't think so.  And for what it's worth, I don't think so.

So as the central book in the Torah, which is central to the Hebrew Bible, apart from which we cannot understand Jesus or the New Testament or Paul's letters to many of the first Christ-followers who were so influential in shaping the life of the church, I'm here to make a case for Leviticus.  That may be overstating it a bit: I'm here to hold up the light, to clear away some of the dust and cobwebs, to "pass onto you what I've received" from people who have helped me see that even if I still can't fully understand what's going on here, maybe it's worth stopping long enough to stare long and hard at.  And maybe what we see will leave an impression on our hearts and imaginations so that we'll talk about it when we "walk upon the way, when we sit in our houses, when we lie down and when we get up," and in so doing we'll gradually begin to understand that it's less about our life with God than God's life with us.  Because that is what Leviticus has to say - how can sinful Israel - the sinful people of God - host the electric presence of a holy God?  

I hope you'll join me.