It’s easier than finding some ‘he-goats’ - May 11

Today’s Readings:AM Psalm 56, 57, [58]; PM Psalm 64, 65; Lev. 16:1–19; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Matt. 6:1–6,16–18

The more I read the Scripture, the more obscure it gets. When I lived in the seminary community in Alexandria, Virginia, I practiced the daily routine of worship through Morning Prayer and the readings would eventually always get weird. We would mention something like ‘he-goats.’ (I chuckled when we read this together in Psalm 50 last week.) And now we have moved into Leviticus where we will spend our mornings in the next few weeks. It’s about blood and sacrifices and rules and wanting to make things right. It doesn’t make much sense when we think of our lives today. Aaron has to go and sacrifice animals, what I am assuming from our lesson last week are ‘he-goats,’ and he has to do this after the death of his two sons.

The details get even weirder, but what I think is underneath it all, is an outright obsession with getting right with God. The Israelites looked at everything that happened to them as an expression of God’s reign and so there is this necessity to be in the good graces of God. Their outward and visible life takes on the expression of atonement, of making amends with God and with each other, albeit they do it in ways that don’t make sense to us anymore. (For this I am especially glad because it will be hard enough to clean and disinfect our church grounds in this new reality without goat blood smeared everywhere!)

I say all this because I think we have missed the mark when it comes to atonement. Yes, many people see the fulfillment of our faith through the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus Christ. The problem with this is when it absolves us from taking any responsibility. What I have noticed on social media lately is many of us have become convinced that our responsibility in this world is to right people of their false belief by sharing the facts we have come to believe. Don’t get me wrong, I am bothered with purposeful disinformation that is shared in order to disrupt our common life. But it is almost as if we spend as much energy fixing all others and almost in equally bizarre ways as the Israelites did in atoning for their sin and wrongdoing. Our religious identity is too easily focused on trying to be the most informed, or woke, or righteous.

I certainly don’t want to suggest not being informed and working to discern truth from what we read and learn is wrong. But I do wonder what would happen if we put as much energy or more into being reconciled to each other and to God. Instead of the attacking comment or thought to the person who shared the ridiculous story on your Facebook feed, what would it look like to first approach wholeness in your relationship with that person? Would your response be different? At the very least, it will be easier than finding some ‘he-goats’ so why not try.

- John+

Questions for Self-Reflection

  • How do you spend time making things right with God? How about the people in your life who have offended or hurt you?

  • What does atonement look like in an online world?

Daily Challenge?

  • When someone says something that bothers you this week, remember this question. Try responding from the place of reconciliation as opposed to correcting.

John Burruss