Deuteronomy 19 – Should justice be based on outcome or intent?

Deuteronomy 19:2-6 you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess. 3 “You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there. 4 “Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously– 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies– he may flee to one of these cities and live; 6 otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

The Israelites are taking a step away from an “eye for an eye” mentality and toward a mentality of “love your neighbor”.

Is justice based upon out come or intent? In an outcome based justice system, if I accidentally kill or cause the death of another, then my life should be forfeited. In a justice system based on intent, my life is only forfeit if my intention was to kill another; there may still be consequences for unintentional action, but death is not one of those consequences.

Is your sense of justice based upon outcomes or intentions? How does this affect your view of society, politics, capital punishment, war, and discipline?

Should you work toward changing your sense of justice?

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Deuteronomy 16 – Ideas about idols

Deuteronomy 16:21-22 “You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourself. 22 “You shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which the LORD your God hates.”

Asherah was a Semitic mother-godess, often worshiped as a fertility god. The image of Asherah was often carved into tress or poles.

This passage was written to Israel and was part of the law established for the Jewish people. With that said, does it speak to contemporary Christians? Should we have crosses or flagpoles where we worship? Or is that taking it to far?

I come from a religious tradition (Friends/Quakers) that historically rejected all adornments to its worship space. A meeting house was just that, a plain house in which to meet. There was no decoration, no adornment, no instrument, no cross, no flag; just benches. The goal was to keep focus on the leading of God, and not set up idols for worship.

Can a statue be an idol? Can a painting be an idol? Can a guitar be an idol? Can a flag be an idol? Can a cross be an idol?

If so, what should we do about it?

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Video of the week: I’m Not Afraid (remix)

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Deuteronomy 6 – Love God, love neighbors

Deuteronomy 6:4-19 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 “Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, 12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 “You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. 14 “You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, 15 for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth. 16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. 17 “You should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 “You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, 19 by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.

Jesus uses this passage when he is asked to give the greatest commandment; he tells the people to love the Lord their God. In referring back to this passage Jesus was implying all of the other things that Moses wrote down here: there is only one God, that God is the only God worthy of worship, and we are responsible for raising our families to know and honor that God.

But Jesus adds something. Jesus adds something that is not explicitly stated here. Jesus says to love your neighbor as well. To some extent loving your neighbor is emplied here in Deuteronomy; but, only if your neighbor is an Israelite. If your neighbor was “an enemy of Israel” then Israel was called to drive them out of the land.

Jesus made our faith more focused on the needs of the world around us. That makes sense. If we have found Jesus then we have been brought out of the slavery of sin, we are living in a communion with God that we did not earn, we are awaiting a future home in heaven that we do not deserve. If we have found Jesus then praise of our heavenly Father should be on our lips at every moment.

But, if we have found Jesus we have a responsibility to love those who are still looking for him. We are to love those who are still in slavery, who have not yet “come out of Egypt”. That is why Jesus added that we are to love our neighbors, rather than try to defeat them. If we can share a small portion of the love Christ has showered on us, then maybe they will realize who Jesus is, and decide to join his family.

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some (or, rather, a lot of) stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Meanderings

There are an abnormal number of Qs in this week’s list. Anyway, here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Meanderings

I take a moment every six months or so to remind anyone reading that the meanderings are things I came across which I believe add to the conversation about life, faith, Christ, and art. I do not necessarily endorse anything I link to. With that said, here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Numbers 36 – The Value of Numbers

Numbers 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which the LORD commanded to the sons of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.

So concludes the book of Numbers.

What value does the book of Numbers have for Christians today? It’s original role was as that of “case law”. Leviticus gave the laws by which the Israelites were to live in order to be faithful to God; but, Numbers provided examples of how those laws played out in every day life. For instance, what happens in the year of Jubilee if you have inter-tribal marriage; do inheritances change tribes? This was important for Israel, not so much for a contemporary Christian.

The takeaways have more to do with a general call to faithfulness. We are called to trust that God will provide for our needs and that God can be trusted to follow through on promises.

There is also a general theme of caring for one another. Israel is not a collection of individuals, nor a collection of tribes; it is one people who must work together, with mutual support and cooperation, and do what God has called them to do. This is an incredible example for the Church today. The Church is not a collection of people, or individual churches, or even denominations. The Church is one people, committed to Christ, who must work together, with mutual support and cooperation, and do what God has called the Church to do.

The value in Numbers is the example it sets for us on how we are to be the Church.

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Numbers 34 – Our Journey

In Chapter 34 God divvies up the promised land to the different tribes within the nation of Israel. The people have finally been faithful and trusted God; their trust and faith is being rewarded with a blessing.

We all have difficult journeys to make in our lives. While on those journeys we can trust that God will bring us through, we can refuse to move, or we can run away in fear. When we refuse to move and when we run away, we are rejecting the eventual blessing that God is looking to pour into our lives.

Move courageously along in your journey, listen to God and trust that God will bring you through.

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Numbers 21 – Numbers, Jude, and Idols

Numbers 21:5-9 The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” 6 The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

This passage always confused me because it seems to go against the whole “no graven idols” thing (also, how do you make a sculpture of a “fiery” serpent?).

It’s still a great story. It comes up in several New Testament passages, including one of my favorites, Jude. In fact, I think Jude uses more per verse references to Numbers than any other book.

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Numbers 14 – Don’t make God change his plans

Numbers 14:20-24 So the LORD said [to Moses], “I have pardoned [the Israelites] according to your word; 21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

Even if we are Christians (people who have faith in Christ) there are consequences for testing and disbelieving God. When we grumble about God and fail to put our efforts into doing what God has called us to do, we put ourselves in danger of being left out of some of God’s blessing.

Have faith and follow through on what God is calling you to do. He can accomplish anything, but God will change his plans for you if you are unwilling to be faithful.

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Numbers 2 – Honoring our forefathers

Numbers 2:1-2 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ households; they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance.

It’s these first few chapters that give Numbers it’s name. Once you get past this bit, the book is quite interesting.

I will say that we would do well to embrace our forefathers and reflect on their faith (regardless of the faith tradition they came from). Knowledge of those how came before us is a valuable thing. Planting their banner and honoring their standard can be good.

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Romans 14 – Accept your brother/sister in Christ without passing judgment

Romans 14:1,4,7-8,10 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions… 4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand… 7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s… 10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

If you believe Democrats/Republicans are evil, what should your attitude be toward the Democratic/Republican Christian in your church? “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”

If you are a theologically liberal/conservative Christian, what should your attitude be toward the conservative/liberal Christian in your church? “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”

If you do not believe women should be in leadership/ministry, what should your attitude be toward a woman who feels God’s call to enter leadership/ministry? “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”

If you believe homosexuality is a sin, what should your attitude be toward the gay Christians in your church? “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”

It seems Paul is saying that if we share a faith in Jesus Christ then we are to accept the other’s faith without passing judgment on their opinions.

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Romans 12 – Diversity in Christ

Romans 12:1-6 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly

Thank God for the diversity found among those who have faith in Christ. We all think, speak, and act differently. We all have different priorities. We all have different measures of faith.

We need to be grateful for those who have faith in Christ, but are different from us; especially when we disagree. I am thankful for the more conservative members of my Christian family because they ground me in the Bible, in tradition, and in the surety and faithfulness of God. I am thankful for the more liberal members of my Christian family because they pull me out of the church and into the world; they force me to reach into the lives of the poor, the needy, the broken, and to meet their needs. I am thankful for the charismatic members of my Christian family because they draw me out of my self and into the reality of the awesomeness of God. I am thankful we are all different, because God is greater than our differences.

It can be hard to be thankful when you butt heads with a fellow Christian who is of contrary opinion; but, we should be thankful for the diversity we all bring to our Christian family.

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Romans 4 – Learn to rest in the ambiguity

Romans 4:13-17 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; 15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

Romans 4:22-25 Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

The idea of faith being credited as righteousness is one of the most important concepts to grasp as we explore salvation. I will never be righteous, there is nothing I can do to achieve righteousness, and left to my own devices I will wander away from righteousness. However, if I have faith in “Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”, then I will be credited with righteousness. Righteousness is a gift. It is not something we can make, take or earn.

When we elevate laws over faith, we are missing the point. When we raise dogma over a relationship with Christ, we have turned Christ into a religion. Do not sacrifice the ambiguity of faith for the certainty of law. When we claim certainty, we have traded our faith for a law. Don’t substitute law for faith.

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Romans 3 – Faith, love and action; not legalism

Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

The purpose of God’s law was to enable humanity to be aware that we are sinful, that we are in need. God’s overarching purpose was for humans to live in relationship with God. If we believe ourselves to be sufficient, then we are less likely to seek out God. The law makes us aware of our need for God.

The law never had any power to save humanity or to, in and of itself, bring anyone closer to God. The law is a catalyst that enables us to pur our faith in God. It is through faith that we are united in relationship to God. The law can not save; only faith can save.

This leads to Paul’s comment at the end of chapter three…

Romans 3:31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Our faith does not make the law invalid; in fact, we still have a responsibility to work toward living out God’s law. But living perfectly according to the law is not the goal of a Christian’s life. The goal of a Christian’s life is to live under the grace and by the example of Jesus Christ, loving all those we meet, and doing that which God calls us to do.

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John 19 – Consistently in Christ

“After [Jesus' crucifixion] Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

Joseph had been a secret disciple of Jesus because he feared that being a public disciple would ruin him. It was only after Jesus had died that Joseph was willing to publicly align himself with Jesus. It was not until he believed Jesus to have failed that Joseph was willing publicly proclaim faith in Jesus. We know nothing else about Joseph of Arimathea. I have often wondered what happened to him after Jesus resurrection. Was he one of the multitudes in the upper room on the day of Pentecost? Was he one of the disciples who ultimately deserted Jesus? We do not know.

It is not good for us to wait until a moment of failure to publicly proclaim our faith in Jesus. On Monday we need to be the same person we were on Sunday. In public we need to be the same person we are in private. In failure we need to be the same person we are in success.

Do not wait for failure to publicly proclaim Jesus. Live every moment of your life so that everyone can see the light of Jesus in you.

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