The Lectionary reading for today doesn’t go into very much detail on the sacrifices of burnt offerings, which makes for a much cleaner, less horrifying reading. However, the book of Leviticus does. In the years when I’ve read through the entire Bible, I’ve always resented having to take the time to read Leviticus; it seemed so irrelevant to me, it was boring, how was this supposed to provide inspiration for the spiritual journey? In addition, I wondered how the priests could possibly remember which items went with which sacrifice (it wasn’t always animals) or exactly how many bulls (was it 2 or 13 or 1000?), lambs, goats, birds were required. Daily sacrifices, additional festival sacrifices, sacrifices to seek God’s direction or protection. There was a lot of killing going on, both as an offering of repentance and as a method of obliteration of sin.
I think we tend to whitewash the whole Old Testament sacrificial system. We like to picture an orderly line of patient Israelites with their patient animal(s) waiting for their turn at the altar, where the priest will reverently and gently perform his role. But the reality must have been chaotic- the bellowing of the bulls pulling hard against their ropes, the baaing of lambs and goats, people shouting, the doves angry in their cages, the sounds of slaughter and butchering. The smell and mess of mounds of feces, volumes of warm blood, and spilled entrails must have been overwhelming. I can’t help but wonder who did the massive cleanup so that Sabbath worship in the temple was possible? How did the priests get the blood out of their holy raiments- and in time for the next sacrifice? I admit that I am grateful for the “all things new” that Christ’s sacrifice provided.
I have never burned anything, except food, marshmallows, and dirty paper plates after a cookout. There are churches that provide a controlled fire for parishioners to ritually burn papers on which they have written their sins. Our church avoids the fire hazard and, during lent, we’ve had the opportunity to write down our sins, which were then nailed to the wooden cross in the front of the sanctuary. On Ash Wednesday, I accept the cross of ashes from the palm branches burned the previous year. All of these activities are ones of repentance, an offering up of ourselves “as a spiritual sacrifice”- a desire to do better, be better followers of Christ.
Perhaps the closest I’ve come to burning as a form of obliteration happened during an early stage in my spiritual journey. During that time, demons were a big thing. Frank Peretti had written his books “This Present Darkness” and “Piercing the Darkness”; there was a “holy fear” of demons and contact was to be meticulously avoided. I had an album by Janis Joplin’ and I suspected the wailing of Janis was a sign of demonic activity; I didn’t burn her album (that sounded dangerous and maybe impossible?), but I did break the record into pieces and throw them in the garbage (full disclosure- my spiritual discernment has evolved since then; I wish I had it back).
Then, there are the insidious burnings of obliteration. They have no sacrificial, redeeming value, their purpose is destruction. Unfortunately, the flames of these fires burn too frequently, they burn indiscriminately, they burn the innocent, they burn hot.
books burned because of fear
KKK crosses burned because of hate (what a travesty that symbolism
is)
brides burned in India because of domestic violence
property burned in riots because of anger
fires in bombed out buildings in Ukraine because of aggression and
power
forests and homes destroyed because of careless campers
arson because of?
Our world is burning around us; do we give up in hopelessness and despair? I believe there will be a reckoning, just consequences meted out, a trial by fire when evil will be punished. Probably not as quickly as we want, but “ the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone's work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.” May it be so
— cmshingle
I think we tend to whitewash the whole Old Testament sacrificial system. We like to picture an orderly line of patient Israelites with their patient animal(s) waiting for their turn at the altar, where the priest will reverently and gently perform his role. But the reality must have been chaotic- the bellowing of the bulls pulling hard against their ropes, the baaing of lambs and goats, people shouting, the doves angry in their cages, the sounds of slaughter and butchering. The smell and mess of mounds of feces, volumes of warm blood, and spilled entrails must have been overwhelming. I can’t help but wonder who did the massive cleanup so that Sabbath worship in the temple was possible? How did the priests get the blood out of their holy raiments- and in time for the next sacrifice? I admit that I am grateful for the “all things new” that Christ’s sacrifice provided.
I have never burned anything, except food, marshmallows, and dirty paper plates after a cookout. There are churches that provide a controlled fire for parishioners to ritually burn papers on which they have written their sins. Our church avoids the fire hazard and, during lent, we’ve had the opportunity to write down our sins, which were then nailed to the wooden cross in the front of the sanctuary. On Ash Wednesday, I accept the cross of ashes from the palm branches burned the previous year. All of these activities are ones of repentance, an offering up of ourselves “as a spiritual sacrifice”- a desire to do better, be better followers of Christ.
Perhaps the closest I’ve come to burning as a form of obliteration happened during an early stage in my spiritual journey. During that time, demons were a big thing. Frank Peretti had written his books “This Present Darkness” and “Piercing the Darkness”; there was a “holy fear” of demons and contact was to be meticulously avoided. I had an album by Janis Joplin’ and I suspected the wailing of Janis was a sign of demonic activity; I didn’t burn her album (that sounded dangerous and maybe impossible?), but I did break the record into pieces and throw them in the garbage (full disclosure- my spiritual discernment has evolved since then; I wish I had it back).
Then, there are the insidious burnings of obliteration. They have no sacrificial, redeeming value, their purpose is destruction. Unfortunately, the flames of these fires burn too frequently, they burn indiscriminately, they burn the innocent, they burn hot.
books burned because of fear
KKK crosses burned because of hate (what a travesty that symbolism
is)
brides burned in India because of domestic violence
property burned in riots because of anger
fires in bombed out buildings in Ukraine because of aggression and
power
forests and homes destroyed because of careless campers
arson because of?
Our world is burning around us; do we give up in hopelessness and despair? I believe there will be a reckoning, just consequences meted out, a trial by fire when evil will be punished. Probably not as quickly as we want, but “ the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone's work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.” May it be so
— cmshingle
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