How was your weekend? I'm guessing that weekends this close to Christmas are fairly busy shopping days - lots of stressed shoppers all preparing for the season of peace and goodwill by getting angry and cross at each other...
Regular visitors to this blog will know that we have been going through Leviticus since September. And a couple of weeks ago we had a visiting speaker come and cover the topic of Sabbath from Leviticus 23:3-4 and 25:1-7.
Christmas is traditionally a time for lots of people to get stressed - and there are lots of reasons for this - but one is simply that we try and do too much. We don't get the rest that we need. It is important that we see ourselves as total human beings - and so the physical, the mental, the spiritual...all the different bits that make us who we are - they are all interconnected. So when we are physically run down that will affect everything else. When we are tired we don't perform as well as people - we react to situations in ways that we wouldn't do normally.
In the Sabbath regulations of Leviticus, God builds a day of rest into the lives of people. Six days of work. One day of rest. Each week. Every week. But it is important to realise that it is not simply a case of what you don't do on the Sabbath that is important. It is also important to think about what you do do. The purpose of not doing certain things is to make space for things that are more important. It is a day that is special. It's a day when there is a specific opportunity to focus on God and on our relationship with him. It's a day to spend time with family and friends. To rest, to relax, to recharge the batteries, to refocus, to get things back into perspective.
For most Christians Sunday is the obvious choice for this day off. We are able to meet together with others at church and worship God together. But increasingly we find more and more people who are required to work on Sunday. What are they to do? Which ever day of the week is your day off - make sure you take it - and don't fill it with so much busy-ness that you go back to work the next day totally exhausted. Get enough sleep. Maybe your church has a house group you can attend that day. Listen to a sermon on the internet. Take the time to read and pray that you don't normally manage in the rush of the normal working week. Meet up with a friend for a long lunch. Go for a walk in the park. Schedule in a long run. If you are able make sure you spend time with your family - eat together.
If you haven't had a day off this week maybe it's time to take one. That's how God designed you.
Monday, 17 December 2012
Monday, 10 December 2012
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Making Sense of Leviticus (part 3)
If you were to divide Leviticus 19 in to those bits that still apply to Christians today; those bits that don't apply to Christians today; and those bits that apply to some Christians but not to others - and colour those sections green, red and yellow, the chapter would end up looking something like this:
But who gets to say which bits should be red, and which bits are still green? And if you can do this for Leviticus 19 then why can't you do it for any chapter of the Bible? What is to stop you finding the bits you don't like and claiming them to be yellow or red sections?
This is exactly the problem we get in to when we forget that none of the Bible was written with us in mind. When Leviticus was written down, or when Jeremiah was speaking or when Luke wrote his gospel, or when Paul wrote the letter to the Christians in Rome - none of those authors had you in mind. They were not writing to you. They were writing to people in a very different culture, in a very different situation, a long long time ago.
But, as I said last time, we read from a position of faith believing this to be the word of God. In the pages of the story we encounter God, and we live our lives in the light of that encounter - rather than following a series of rules that we have read and therefore obey.
So, when we read, the first thing to do is to ask what the text actually says. We read it through a few times, carefully. This part, for Leviticus 19 is fairly easy - for example, verse 11 simply states: do not steal, lie or deceive each other. That is what is says.
But then we need to try and put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience and understand what the words meant to them. And this is often the tricky bit - because we are so far removed from the original audience. So we need the help of Bible teachers, commentaries, a study Bible or the kind of books I recommended last time. So for example, after reading a commentary we might learn that the instructions about not cutting your hair or beard in verse 27 are not simply fashion statements, but they are instructions that relate to not adopting the mourning rituals of Israel's pagan neighbours. They are about not getting involved in the sorts of things that are linked to worshipping other gods.
And then once we've worked out what the passage meant then, we can ask the Holy Spirit help us apply it and determine what it is that God is saying to us now. This is that all important 'So What?' question.
This application may well be different depending on who is doing the reading. Those reading the Old Testament from a very rural, agricultural setting, surrounded by communities who practise ancestor worship, for example, may well find the application of Leviticus very different to those reading from their office in London. They may even find it easier to apply because their context is not so far removed from the original setting.
None of this is particularly easy. Therefore we need to ask God for help, and we need to find other people who will help us on this journey of discovery - ideally a good local church.
But who gets to say which bits should be red, and which bits are still green? And if you can do this for Leviticus 19 then why can't you do it for any chapter of the Bible? What is to stop you finding the bits you don't like and claiming them to be yellow or red sections?
This is exactly the problem we get in to when we forget that none of the Bible was written with us in mind. When Leviticus was written down, or when Jeremiah was speaking or when Luke wrote his gospel, or when Paul wrote the letter to the Christians in Rome - none of those authors had you in mind. They were not writing to you. They were writing to people in a very different culture, in a very different situation, a long long time ago.
But, as I said last time, we read from a position of faith believing this to be the word of God. In the pages of the story we encounter God, and we live our lives in the light of that encounter - rather than following a series of rules that we have read and therefore obey.
So, when we read, the first thing to do is to ask what the text actually says. We read it through a few times, carefully. This part, for Leviticus 19 is fairly easy - for example, verse 11 simply states: do not steal, lie or deceive each other. That is what is says.
But then we need to try and put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience and understand what the words meant to them. And this is often the tricky bit - because we are so far removed from the original audience. So we need the help of Bible teachers, commentaries, a study Bible or the kind of books I recommended last time. So for example, after reading a commentary we might learn that the instructions about not cutting your hair or beard in verse 27 are not simply fashion statements, but they are instructions that relate to not adopting the mourning rituals of Israel's pagan neighbours. They are about not getting involved in the sorts of things that are linked to worshipping other gods.
And then once we've worked out what the passage meant then, we can ask the Holy Spirit help us apply it and determine what it is that God is saying to us now. This is that all important 'So What?' question.
This application may well be different depending on who is doing the reading. Those reading the Old Testament from a very rural, agricultural setting, surrounded by communities who practise ancestor worship, for example, may well find the application of Leviticus very different to those reading from their office in London. They may even find it easier to apply because their context is not so far removed from the original setting.
None of this is particularly easy. Therefore we need to ask God for help, and we need to find other people who will help us on this journey of discovery - ideally a good local church.
Friday, 7 December 2012
Getting the big picture
As we've been talking about making sense of the Bible a bit recently I thought I'd post this video, which I came across on Wednesday.
I find N.T. Wright challenging and stimulating as an author - and here he has some interesting things to say about reading the Bible.
(Unfortunately I could not embed this video so you'll need to click here - this will take you to youtube)
I find N.T. Wright challenging and stimulating as an author - and here he has some interesting things to say about reading the Bible.
(Unfortunately I could not embed this video so you'll need to click here - this will take you to youtube)
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