Glenn M. Miller, “Sacrifice in the Old Testament,” The Great Irruption: Christ’s Work on the Cross
This week we are getting a broader perspective on the sacrificial rites we read about in Leviticus last week. For instance, I had a chance to talk with an egyptologist friend, who told me the ancient Egyptians didn't sacrifice sacrifice as much as the ancient Hebrews, and when they did it was mostly a royal prerogative. (Also, they preferred large animals--no doves or grain!) Remember too that God calls the Israelites to sacrifice in the temple and not in the fields:
This is so the Israelites will bring to the LORD the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the LORD, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. ~Leviticus 17:5 [emphasis mine]
That got me thinking about how important sacrifice must have been in ancient Judaism, that it was something for all Jews to do to have relationship with God and with other Jews--kind of how everyone is welcome at the Communion table in the United Methodist Church.
Have you ever considered how modern Christian "sacrifices" or rites build community?
Or coming from a different angle, which of the three Old Testament approaches to sacrifice most closely aligns with your own?
- The legal/cultuc prescriptions in the Pentateuch
- The worshipper's contrite and thankful heart in Pslams
- The prophetic rebuke and challenge to abuses in the Prophets
2 comments:
A passage from Exodus came up at the study tonight. I will chat for a moment about it. A lot of the theology of Psalm 103 encapsulated in Exodus 6-7:
6 The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed,
‘The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,*
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.’
The only part missing in Psalm 103 is the part where the iniquities fall to 3-4 generations. I find this harsh and incompatible with my theology on the one hand, but if this "visiting iniquities" were to be "reread" with a meaning I got from WIU President Goldfarb, then I would claim that it has more to do with what I call the fallout of our actions as lasting consequences on the world. So if "visiting iniquities" is translated into systemic sin, I think the Exodus passage is solid.
My injection of this divine self-revelation, as it appears in the Bible, turned the tables to ask me my question, "Are we still in covenant with God; if so, how does that look?"
My response is yes. The covenant has changed quite a bit. Christians claim the covenant has been expanded to include Gentiles. Muslims also claim space in the tent.
What that covenant looks like from my Christian perspective is as follows:
Christians have a responsibility to love God and love neighbor.
My instinct was to say that the Exodus text is indicative of God's part of the covenant. But as I think about that text, I think it goes even deeper than that. God's part of the covenant is self-revelation.
The "new covenant", according to the Lukan writer and Paul, has its source in Jesus. For progressive Christians, Jesus is metaphorically the Word of God as a revelation of the heart of God (compassion and justice) and God is sacramentally present as we celebrate at the Table of Grace (Eucharist/Communion).
Relationship, the heart of covenant, is at its best when we know one another. Divine love and revelation and humanity loving as God loves and revealing as God reveals deepen and strengthen covenant. Our part of this covenant requires sacrifice as deep as giving up our first and best of everything through sacrifice.
Aardvark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark
Anteater: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anteater
Anteater: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo
Erasmus: http://www.pianonoise.com/catpage.htm
kae;-)
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