Epiphany 7 / OT 7
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
... You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
-- Leviticus 19:2
It is important to listen to this scripture on at least three levels. First, it was written to describe the distinctive quality of the people of God. To be holy was to be different, and the people of God were called to be different from the rest of humanity in a similar way to the fact that God was different from the world. On a second level, remember that the priestly writers wrote this during the time of exile. Israel had been destroyed as a nation, and the question of how they might be restored as a people of God haunted them. This part of Leviticus was called the holiness code, and it was put forth as a vigorous reform proposal of how the people could again live as God's people. Third, this particular passage was given added emphasis because it was from here that Jesus drew the second great commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. If the church agonizes over its weakened condition in the world and worries that it has become corrupted by the society around it, it could do well to reflect on this holiness code for its own life. If the church wants to restore the strength of its witness to society, to be holy as God is holy, here is a vision that it could focus on. We are invited to make provisions for the poor and the stranger. We are called to live with absolute integrity and to never take advantage of the weak and never revile the physically disadvantaged. We should advocate a sense of justice that is evenhanded and refuse to take part in vengeance. In sum, for the church to be a holy witness, we need to demonstrate to the world how to love our neighbors as ourselves.
-- Leviticus 19:2
It is important to listen to this scripture on at least three levels. First, it was written to describe the distinctive quality of the people of God. To be holy was to be different, and the people of God were called to be different from the rest of humanity in a similar way to the fact that God was different from the world. On a second level, remember that the priestly writers wrote this during the time of exile. Israel had been destroyed as a nation, and the question of how they might be restored as a people of God haunted them. This part of Leviticus was called the holiness code, and it was put forth as a vigorous reform proposal of how the people could again live as God's people. Third, this particular passage was given added emphasis because it was from here that Jesus drew the second great commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. If the church agonizes over its weakened condition in the world and worries that it has become corrupted by the society around it, it could do well to reflect on this holiness code for its own life. If the church wants to restore the strength of its witness to society, to be holy as God is holy, here is a vision that it could focus on. We are invited to make provisions for the poor and the stranger. We are called to live with absolute integrity and to never take advantage of the weak and never revile the physically disadvantaged. We should advocate a sense of justice that is evenhanded and refuse to take part in vengeance. In sum, for the church to be a holy witness, we need to demonstrate to the world how to love our neighbors as ourselves.
