Leviticus 07 – God’s Constant Desire for Communion

“‘These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy: ² The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be splashed against the sides of the altar. ³ All its fat shall be offered: the fat tail and the fat that covers the internal organs, ⁴ both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys. ⁵ The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering presented to the Lord. It is a guilt offering. ⁶ Any male in a priest’s family may eat it, but it must be eaten in the sanctuary area; it is most holy. (Read the rest of the chapter, here.)

Forbidden Fat, Forbidden Blood

Let’s start with a word about the latter half of the chapter, where the blood and fat of the animal are yet again expressly forbidden. Actually, it’s not much of a word, but more of a pointing you in a direction of where I and others have talked at more length about this specific restriction. First, the work of Mary Douglas informed most of my thinking of fat as a metaphorical covering: a protective barrier between mundane humanity and the dangerously powerful divinity of God. You would not want to consume something with that much symbolism, that much power, but rather, dedicate it to God. You can read more about that in my post on Leviticus 03. As to the special sanctity of blood, I wrote about that while discussing Romans 03, and have to once more give a shout-out to Almost Heretical for informing these ideas.

7:1 “which is most holy”

I want to spend today talking about the first part of the chapter, specifically verses 7:1 and 7:15, because they truly emphasize God’s desire to be reconciled to us and in communion with us.

7:1 reads “These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy:” (emphasis my own). Let’s refresh our memories: The guilt offering is made after someone intentionally commits a sin or a crime. This is slightly different than the sin offering, which seems to apply mostly when someone sins unintentionally. There is some mention of unintentional sins in stipulations regarding the guilt offering, but by and large it applies to: restoring property that has been stolen or extorted (see 6:4-5), breaking faith with a community member (6:1-3), or providing restitution for holy articles that have somehow been carelessly treated (5:16).

The guilt offering is being made by someone who has committed the gravest of errors: an intentional sin against God, and now is looking to make right. Whoever is offering a guilt offering has broken a divine covenant, violated a divine agreement, and, quite likely, is in danger of execution: Nadab and Abihu presented the wrong fire to God (in violation of their contracts as priests) and were literally burned to death, as just one example of such violations from here in Leviticus.

But look what we are told: this offering, the offering that restores said sinner to God, that restores them to life, is the most holy offering. The thanksgiving and fellowship offerings, that thank God for Xyr gifts to us, are not the most holy. The sin offering, which is, in comparison to the guilt offering, just a little expression of mea culpa, is not the most holy. No, the offering that restores a sinner to God is the most holy. Of course it is nice to be thanked for your gifts, or apologized to if someone steps on your toe, but what is really soul-healing is to have someone who has wronged you offer a heartfelt apology (and restitution). And we see that reflected in the fact that the guilt offering is the most holy of all the offerings. God leaves that doorway to forgiveness open for us, even here in the book of rules that modern Christians like to deride so often. The guilt offering is the most holy, because it restores our communion with God.

7:15 “leave none of it till morning”

7:15 falls in the Fellowship Offering Recap section. It reads, “The meat of his fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; he must leave none of it till morning.” Now, certainly this is partially a practical consideration: in an era without refrigeration, meat only lasts so long. But I’m here to tell you, it can last til morning. Maybe I’m a lazy housewife, but I often leave a chili or roast on the stove overnight and just reheat it at lunch the next day. No one has gotten food poisoning yet. So that practical consideration only goes so far.

I think it again shows God’s eagerness to be in communion with us. When you are presented with a gift, who wants to wait to open it? Waiting to open your gift is the hardest part of Christmas as little kid, right? Well, God, being in charge, can say “no waiting on these thank you gifts, we’re going to enjoy them right now!” When we come bearing gifts and thanks to God, God receives them graciously and effusively, because God enjoys being in communion with Xyr creation.

God delights in you

“The Church,” however you conceive that to be historically or institutionally, has done a good job of making people feel unworthy of God’s forgiveness. The Church as done a good job of hiding God’s joy in us and God’s desire to be with us. The church would often have you believing that you are scum, and nothing you could do would bring pleasure to God, that we can only bring God anger and sorrow and then repent in whatever pathetic way possible in the hopes that we won’t be thrown into hell. I will agree with them on one thing: that our actions can bring God sorrow, and probably anger, too. When we turn against each other, when we abuse God’s creation, even when we fail to take joy in what is given to us (take a look at Ecclesiastes to see how God wants us to be joyful) – that is an affront to God.

But I hope that these two verses discussed today help highlight exactly how much God loves us, and loves being with us. When we recognize the error of our ways and turn to God (and whomever else necessary) and say sorry, and work to do better, we are restored in God’s eyes, and God is delighted. When we say “thank you” for the gifts God has given us, God is there to hear it, and is delighted.

One last thing I want to point out: there are no stipulations on who can bring a guilt offering. You do not have to be white, rich, straight, employed, sober, college-educated, skinny, and with all your shit together. No matter what anyone else tells you, you are not an irredeemable sinner. You may perhaps need to make a proverbial guilt offering or two…or maybe you just need to say thank you more. Or maybe you’ve already done all of that. (Or maybe those things need to be said and done to you by some offending party.) Whatever the case, God loves you, and loves when you turn to Xyr. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. One more time, in case it wasn’t clear: God loves you. Thanks be to God.

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Leviticus 06 – Tending the Altar Fire

¹² The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. ¹³ The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out. (Read the rest of the chapter, here.)

A structural note

We’ll get to those altar fires and their metaphorical application to today’s life. But first, I want to draw your attention to some structural aspects of Leviticus. Leviticus is written in repeating patterns. This means that we see instructions regarding different offerings in different places throughout the book. At first that seems a little scattered, but it does follow a logic.

Chapters One through Five are the “What” chapters. In them, we are introduced to the five offerings: Burnt, Grain, Sin, Guilt, and Fellowship. The Burnt Offering is a young bull (or if you can’t afford that, a young ram or young pigeon), the Grain Offering is made without yeast, etc etc. So now we know “what” to offer.

Leviticus Six and Seven answer “How” they are to be presented, with additional reiterations as to the forbidden nature of fat and blood and stipulations about the priests’ share. How priests dress themselves, how they tend the fires, how they present the grain, all of that is stipulated here.

Much of the rest of the book then answers “when” and “why” questions: when is a fellowship offering to be made after a birth, when can a person suffering from a skin disease become ceremonially clean enough to make a guilt offering, why is a sin offering sometimes not enough (as in the case of sacrificing your children to Molech, Leviticus 20:1-5) and how to deal with it.

I don’t think this reveals any sort of larger truth in this particular case, but I did want to point it out. I think we often get bogged down in individual verses and miss some of the larger literary characteristics of the Bible, which can be informative. I do find it endearing that the easiest question, the “what” of a sacrifice, is answered first. When you read with small children, those are the first questions you ask them – “What color is the bird? What is the bunny doing?” “Why” questions are some of the last to be addressed in learning comprehension, and that is no different here. God, or at least, the writer of Leviticus, sets us up for success by building our knowledge from foundational building blocks to more complex understandings.

Restitution

This week brought news of the grand jury deciding none of the police officers involved in killing Breonna Taylor would be criminally charged. I am grieved and frustrated, as many others in the country are. Reading this chapter, I wanted to print out v. 5 for everyone claiming to be Christian to read and memorize. “He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it, and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offerings.” This passage, of course, is talking about tangible property that has been stolen. But wasn’t Breonna Taylor’s life stolen? Isn’t she and her family owed restitution? You cannot put a dollar value on life, and you cannot bring a life cut short back, but we seem to have lost — if indeed this country ever had — a spirit of contrition and restitution.

If society had said to those police officers, “you took at least sixty years from Breonna. As restitution, you owe us seventy two,” how different things might look now. If every tree cut down carried the responsibility of sequestering 600 pounds of carbon (50 years of 48 lbs per year, plus that twenty percent), how much more carefully would we cut? And I don’t even know what the restitution math would look like for lands stolen from the first peoples of the Americas, but it’s daunting to think about.

Ongoing work

This is all going to take long and thoughtful work. Being agents of God’s change in today’s world is more like tending the altar fire than presenting a one-time guilt or sin offering. And perhaps that’s the mentality we need to cultivate: a priestly attitude of devotion to justice being done in God’s name. A calling, a work that is never done. “The fire on the altar must be kept burning,” v. 12 reads, and again in v. 13, “the fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously, it must not go out.”

Is it glamorous? No. Tending the fire is probably right up there with doing the dishes or the laundry. But we all know what a mess things can be when you stop doing the dishes or the laundry, even for just a little bit of time. It is hard work, but it is very, very necessary work. Do take time to take care of yourself, but know that God is counting on us to keep the fires burning. The fires of justice, of compassion, of doing what is right: those are the fires we are called to tend. In times when everything seems dark and cold, it is especially important that those fires do not go out, and we can make sure that that doesn’t happen. Raise your voice, add fuel to those fires, and burn for justice in God’s name. Justice for all.

If you are learning from what you read here, please follow the blog so you don’t miss what’s next.  Click the folder icon in the upper left corner of the menu, and you can follow via WordPress or email.  Please also consider supporting the blog through Patreon or Venmo.  Donations tagged #dontcallthepolice will be specifically earmarked for printing up hardcopy resources that give people in my community alternative numbers to 911 for everything from domestic and child abuse to suicide prevention to animal control. Thank you!

Leviticus 05 – Learning, Action, and a word on Gender Equality

If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible. (Read the rest of the chapter, here.)

In the middle of drafting this post I found out Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. It’s a terrible setback for achieving equality in this country. I am grieved and worried by this loss, as I know many of you are. The best way we can honor RBG is to continue to fight for equality on all fronts, something I had been thinking about while writing, but now seems even more salient having lost such a hero and protector of rights.

God’s Grace

God gives us so much grace. In essence, this chapter is a giant “I know you are going to make mistakes, but here are all the way you can make good when you realize you made one.” Notice, in particular, verse four and five:

“or if anyone thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil (in any matter one might carelessly swear about) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt— ⁵ when anyone becomes aware that they are guilty in any of these matters, they must confess in what way they have sinned.”

“Guilt” is not accrued when the offending action is taken. Guilt is only accrued when the offending party becomes aware of the offending action. God meets us where we are: asking us to learn first, then act accordingly.

And God knows we have different abilities and capacities. Not everyone is required to bring a lamb as a sin offering, because not everyone can afford it. God gives a sliding scale of atonement. Those who cannot afford a lamb can submit two doves, and those who cannot afford two doves can bring some flour. God again meets us where we are: giving us grace and options before requiring action.

God’s grace is wonderful. But I think, all too often, we rely too much on it. If we are truly living as Christians, it is not enough to admit to our “sin,” and thank God for being so gracious. We need to act, to offer the proverbial sin offering, so to speak. The requirement of this chapter, and truly the model for Christian living, is two-fold: learn, then act. It is not enough to simply learn.

Faithfuls’ Action

Indeed, the opening lines of this chapter focus upon action, calling the faithful to “speak up when they hear a public charge to testify.” Today, we are being called to testify on behalf of our siblings, our country, our very world. As I discussed in my last post, we have become aware of so many unintentional sins. Perhaps you were not aware of just how bad the rate of climate change is. Perhaps you were not aware of structural racism. Perhaps you were not aware of the US (and Canada) violating sovereign land rights of tribes for pipelines and other projects, or of the dire situations in South America that force refugees to our southern border, or of worsening humanitarian crises in Yemen, Syria, and Afganistan. But now you do know, now we all know, and denial and inaction are now inexcusable.

I know I just gave you a lot of crises – and no one person is going to be able to solve them all, so please don’t feel overwhelmed. Remember, God meets us where we are, and simply asks that we try a little better once we know. Small steps can make a difference. If every American adult donated just $10 more that would be over $2 billion for charities and other causes. If we continue the work-from-home trend started by the pandemic, we could keep literal tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. If even just half of American adults called their representatives once a year that would be one million opinions publicly and officially voiced. If 65% of the voting population turned out (as opposed to the average 55% of the last four presidential elections) we might have very different policies being passed by very different politicians. Again, these are little things, tiny nudges. But they do make a difference.

Focus on Gender Equality in honor of RBG

This week, let’s honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memory by remembering the marginalized. RBG was a particular champion of gender equality, so I’m going to focus on that here. I’ll leave you with a list of things that we can all do towards promoting gender equality. Note that none of these require any money, as I want to be sure we all have access to being agents of change:

• Remember that trans women are women, too. Excluding anyone from discussions (and actions!) about gender equality is counter to the very idea of equality, and definitely not what either RBG or Jesus would do.
• Men – share more in household chores! I challenge you to do one more thing than you usually do. And to anyone partnered to a man, ask them to do something! Oftentimes they are willing, but they just don’t even know what they don’t know.
• Think like a mom. The next time you go out to do errands or go to work, I challenge everyone to think about what it would be like to have small children in tow. Is there reserved parking for new and expectant mothers? Are there changing stations in the bathrooms? Are the sidewalks in good repair? This last one makes a huge difference not only to mothers with strollers but also to anyone with mobility challenges. Just another example of how inclusivity works to the benefit of all.
• Vote for (and hire, and promote) women. Women do not have a proportionate share of power. If we truly want to support the equality of women, we need them in positions of authority where their experience and expertise will help shape policies for future generations. The same goes for just about every minority group.

Fight the good fight, my friends, and let’s be agents of change in God’s name. Now, more than ever, it is important to act upon what we believe in. May God bless and inspire you this week, and I look forward to hearing what you act upon in your lives.

If you are learning from what you read here, please follow the blog so you don’t miss what’s next.  Click the folder icon in the upper left corner of the menu, and you can follow via WordPress or email.  Please also consider supporting the blog through Patreon or Venmo.  Thank you!