We live in interesting times. While our differences can produce conflict, we also have more positive contact with other belief systems. This is good and bad. (That is life on planet earth!) As Jesus once said, the weeds and wheat grow together until the harvest. And weeds and wheat can look alike sometimes...
We need to stand for the truth, but we also need to be open to truth. None of us totally grasps all truth, so we are all still on the journey. While my sympathies lie in a Catholic direction, I have also benefited from the Evangelical faith. I have affection for the Eastern Orthodox way. I focus on Scripture, but also have read mystics. Science and social sciences, especially history are important, too. Listen. Learn. Discuss. Learn.
Connecting with the Jewish roots of my faith is important to me. Rabbi Leman has helped me in that. He inspired me to read Torah yearly and I have done so three times now. I also read it with Jewish commentary and gain insights I never found in Christian works. Derek’s new book, Yeshua Our Atonement, opens to me a better vision of the Ancient Covenant text, the bible of Jesus and the early church. After finishing teh first draft of today's blog I was surprised to see that the Internet Monk is also doing a series on the First Testament. I am not alone in this!
Seeing the “old testament” as outdated (or worse, “bad”) has produced all manner of problems in the church. As I open myself to insights into the Word of God uttered in these pages (which is well over half the Bible) I am broadened and deepened.
One example, Numbers 15:39. God tells the Israelites that they shall have a fringe on their garment with a blue string (like the priest) to remind them that they are to live under God’s commandments. What comes next is enlightening and challenging “you will not go around after your own heart and after your eyes because you whore after them. So you will bring to mind and do all my commandments, and you will be holy to your God.” However complex the explanations about what this should look like (back to weeds and wheat); it provides some principles. One is “following my heart” (much advocated in our culture) is a negative in the biblical narrative. And the explanation is pretty clear, our eyes and hearts are polluted. The other command, be holy, is repeated in the Christ Covenant texts. The "new" in Jesus is an expansion of the "old," but the more recent and the more ancient are greatly in sync. We are to be holy. Holiness is a gift and grace, it is also a task! The next chapter recounts the revolt against Moses and Aaron by Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Korah says "we are holy, too. We should be able to do priestly functions." The meaning of holiness is clarified for them (and us) as fire from heaven consumes them and the earth opens up to swallow them all. Is this different from the New Testament? Hardly, but you have to actually read both to see it. Holiness is a NT word which is defined over and again in the First Covenant book. We need to know it all. I wish you well in your journey of faith this day!
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