Lev 14-15 Clean is no small thing

February 5th, Leviticus 14-15

       Today's chapters bring us some word about being declared clean from leprousy. Again it's about the regulations surrounding it, but an actual story might go something like this...
       There is something not right about a few spots on your hand. You hear rumors of what leprousy looks like and you begin to be cautious about every physical interaction. The condition seems to worsen over the coming weeks, you look at your wife and kids and decide it might be best for you to go see the priest who confirms your worst fear. You are Unclean.  You don't go home again, your escorted to the edge of the city. There your family will bring you your belongs. You step forward to interact with your family one last time. As you step forward, they step back and you see in their eyes what you will see in everyone's eyes for the rest of your days... fearful pity.
       Never again will you embrace your wife. Never again will you wrestle with, tickle, or throw your kids up in the air. Everything has changed. You will walk the streets proclaiming unclean, unclean. The human touch you long for will never be yours again. ( let's not treat each other like lepers during cold and flu season. Human touch has more value than staying germ free. It's  kind of like the Adventures in Missing the Point I talked about on Sunday.)
       When you read these stories about being declared clean, I encourage you to fill in the blanks with what a personal story might look like. The rejoicing that comes from being pronounced clean, the rejoicing today that you and I can be pronounced clean because of what Christ has done for us. Rejoicing that Jesus has taken care of our banishment outside the city and allowed us to be in fellowship because of forgiveness. So lets live this day free to touch people with the love of Christ.

Lev 5-7 Clean License Plates, Sticky Tabs

February 2nd, Leviticus 5-7

       So let's be honest, I kept reading hoping for one great verse that would be a great thought. The only real impression I got was a housekeeping thought. It seems to me that sprinkling blood on the front of the altar and sprinkling flour all around would make for quite a caked on mess.
       The other thought is simply the routine of all of this. Day after day, animal after animal, for a million people or more. I did think of the integrity of the priests. The command was one handful of flour to be sprinkled on the altar the rest is for the priests to use. What if the handful gets smaller and smaller because the priest wants more and more. It's a heart issue about not only doing your job, but doing it the way God asks you too.
       Speaking of the heart, all of God's commands in all of this can be just an obligation or an offering of praise or apology to the Lord. With the advantage of knowing other parts of scripture we know that "Rams and bulls and all these things I have." "The cattle on a thousand hills belong to God." This is not an issue of God's need of these things.  What God really wants in these matters, what God has always wanted and will always want is a "broken and contrite heart."
       As in our life, sometimes the details of what is going on overshadows the heart of what God wants. God wants to be connected at the heart with his people. He wants things clean because he wants to be close.
       I just gots my tabs for my truck. My license plates are cold, my plates are dirty with sand and road grit from cold, frozen MN roads. I have to get the plates clean so the "2014"sticker will adhere. God wants nothing between us and Him, us and each other. To live in an inspiring version of reconciliation. That's my prayer today.