It sounds familiar

Beloved of God,

It’s still not too late to sign up to help with our annual Trunk or Treat. This is a great way to show love and hospitality to families in our community. It’s also a great excuse to wear a costume and eat…er…hand out candy. You can email Megan if you’d like to get involved.  I’m gonna be a dragon. 

    Our Scripture reading this week is from Leviticus 19. If you read through it, some of the commands sound familiar. For instance, verse 11 sounds like a recap of  some of the Ten Commandments. Other commands sound like something brand new:

    “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. 
Lev 19:9-10

Where did that come from? Some of these commands assume the bonds of folks living stable lives in close proximity. There’s a promise about where they are going to end up within these expectations. None of these people have planted their own crops yet, but they’re already getting instructions about how farming should look different among them.
    Another thing that’s meant to be different is so broad and demanding as to sound absurd. It’s the kind of command that makes claims on both actions and affections: 
Lev. 19:18   “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
Christians have been trying to weasel out of this command for over a thousand years. It’s already inconvenient here in Leviticus, but what’s even worse is that Jesus gives it a place of prominence in his teaching. If we’re going to get around this one we’ll probably have to come up with craftier arguments than we have used.
    Or, we might simply follow it. We might trust that God’s demands upon our actions and affections are in some way good for us. Jesus said that the whole corpus of law and prophets hangs in part on this very command. We cannot really live life with God unless we live like this. If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to follow him into commands like this that he kept, taught, and expects us to keep as well.

Please join me this week in praying for:

• Those suffering violence in Israel and Gaza. 
  
• Joy and safety for those who are celebrating Halloween in the coming week.
• Those among us and in our community who are carrying grief right now. 
• Youth and children in our care, especially as they navigate their own cares and worries. 
• Those among us who are injured or sick.
• Those we know who are truly and deeply lonely.
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels. Pray especially for those who are about to be called into those tasks for the first time.
• Folks who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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