Monday, October 17, 2011

Pentecost 19a - Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The Law is given as gift to a people who will wander in the wilderness for forty years so that the relationship begun in Egypt might survive until the land promised. That doesn’t mean that everything in Leviticus is Gospel truth. It just means we cannot understand the command to be “holy” outside of “the Lord your God is holy.” The law reflects the personality of God. God does not render unjust judgments. God does not show partiality to the poor or preference to the great. God speaks the truth and does not hate so that even God’s reproach is an act of kindness. Of course it didn’t work with the people of Israel who proved to be rebellious and stiff necked or with us who share the same characteristics. That is why God living “love your neighbour” does not hold us accountable even though we violate the law and profit by his blood.

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