22 April 2012
Leviticus 25:1-7, 18-24
When I was
in high school, I decided to read the whole Bible, beginning to end. Genesis
and Exodus were tough going, but then I got to Leviticus. A few chapters into
Leviticus I decided to skip to the New Testament. Not because it was difficult,
but because it was so somnolent, which was one of my tenth grade vocabulary
words, somnolent—adjective, tending to cause sleep.
Leviticus
is the book of details. It is the book that teases out the minutiae of the law;
it is the book where we find the laws about what not to eat (shellfish, pork)
what not to wear (blended fabrics, linen and wool together). Sometimes, it
makes us think, gee, God is kind of picky. But Rabbi Harold Kushner enlightened
me, when speaking at my church in Waterloo, Iowa several years ago. He said,
“Do you think when I go out to lunch and look at the menu, I say to myself, ‘Oy
Wey, I’d like to have a ham sandwich, but that mean old God won’t let me.’ No.
I say to myself, ‘Isn’t it wonderful. Six billion people in the world and God
cares what I have for lunch!’”
So
Leviticus is, to some, a sign of God’s embrace. It is a book of love. Loving
parents care about what their children eat, what they wear, how they wear their
hair. For example, Leviticus teaches me that God and I agree on at least one parental
rule: our children should not have tattoos. It’s OK for other people but not
for our children. I mean specifically my children. I’m totally OK with any of
you having tattoos. There’s nothing inherently wrong with decorating yourself,
as long as you’re not my daughter.
So, I think
Leviticus is like that. It doesn’t mean that God has anything against people
who eat shellfish or pork, who mix the milche
und fleishe—the milk and the meat, or people who wear cotton and wool
blended together. To the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, the people
of Moses, Leviticus is a set of great expectations from loving parents to
children. It’s a book that says, We expect you to think about things, to be
mindful of the details of your life, to think about how your behavior is a
reflection on your parents and your God.
So, that’s
our introduction to Leviticus. This particular chapter of Leviticus belongs a
section that is teasing out the details of the commandment, “Honor the Sabbath
Day and keep it holy.”
Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. (Deut 5)
In the book of Genesis, the Sabbath day is identified as a
day of rest because, according to the first story of Creation, God made the
world in six days, and rested on the seventh. God’s rest makes the seventh day
holy, be holy as God is holy. That is the priestly tradition.
But in Deuteronomy, the Sabbath day is linked to God’s
justice. It is attached to the memory of slavery. When you were slaves in Egypt
you had no rest. You are no longer slaves, you are free people. Take at least
one day a week to remember that you are free. But also, do not do unto others
as the Egyptians did unto you. The Sabbath is my gift to you, it must also be
your gift to others—to your servants, your slaves, your employees, to the
resident aliens and foreigners in the land, and even to your animals. Your day
of rest should not be an extra burden for others. Your rest is to extend to all
people.
And here in Leviticus, the command to rest extends even to
the Land itself. Because the land is a gift from God. It remains God’s
possession for all eternity. Do not enslave God’s land. The earth itself is to
be granted a Sabbath rest.
This should
make us think, right?
Whose land
is it anyway?
Do the
mountains of West Virginia belong to Massey Energy? Or to the people of West
Virginia? Or to God? If we really believe that the earth is the Lord’s and all
that dwell therein, then what does God require of us in regard to mountaintop
removal?
Do our
lakes and the land surrounding them belong to the people who built their homes
and businesses in the watershed, or do they belong to the state of Minnesota,
or do they belong to God? If we believe that the water is a sacred gift from
God, than what does God require of us in regard to our lakes?
Does the
earth belong to the entities that hold the title deed? Does any piece of paper,
however correctly filed, grant the holder the right to enslave the earth and
extract from it whatever wealth he can?
What is our
role in giving voice to the voiceless?
Let this be
our meditation, and may our meditation lead to action, as we consider…. What
does the spirit say to the church?
