Tuesday, March 1, 2016

We're Not Supposed to Eat Lobster?


“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. These familiar words were part of a recent Year-of-the-Bible reading, words found in the third book of the Bible, the book of Leviticus, chapter 24, verse 20. They are words we know well. They are words that seem to give us permission to avenge ourselves when we feel ourselves wronged.

But in our very first week of reading, we heard Jesus’ words to us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth’. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (Matthew 5:38-39) Jesus appears to be rejecting the Leviticus text and telling us that we cannot seek to avenge ourselves to right a wrong of any kind.

So what are we to do? How are we to reconcile two biblical texts that seem to be in conflict with one another? And, truth be told, most of us would probably admit to preferring the Levitical text over Jesus’ teaching. When someone wrongs us, we want payback!

This is why we read the Bible and this is why we study the Bible. This is why we do things like Year-of-the-Bible. For as much as we’d like to reduce the Bible to a set of rules, with everything easy and clear, the Bible can often confound us and confuse us. Understanding the Bible takes work, and it takes God’s help through the Holy Spirit.

The Year-of-the-Bible structure is helpful. It gives us Old and New Testament together, side by side, so we can compare texts. And then we are given a bit of a Psalm and Proverb to form a frame around the Testament texts. So we read, for example, “The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin” in Proverbs (10:14) as a reminder that God calls us to learn, with the Spirit guiding us.

Lent should be a time of learning, a time of study, a time of reflection and introspection.  We should look afresh at texts, reading the words and learning the context, always digging deeper. It is one thing to read the rules in Leviticus, but why, for example, did God insist that we were not to eat lobster, scallops, clams and shrimp? And why now do eat with great enthusiasm marine creatures that have neither “fins nor scales”? What actions may we take when we feel ourselves wronged? Are we really to “turn the other cheek” to everyone, or can we be selective?

Make March a time of study, of reflection, and of opening yourself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Make Lent a time of transformation, the Spirit refreshing you like a spring breeze and teaching you as you grow in grace and wisdom as a disciple of our Risen Lord.

Allelulia!
Pastor Skip