I commend to you a little reading in Leviticus.<\/p>\n
What?<\/p>\n
Nobody commends Leviticus. That\u2019s the backwardest part of the Bible. When my youth group performed the \u201cBible in 15 minutes\u201d we summarized Leviticus as:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t have sex with your daughter.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t have sex with your sister-in-law.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t have sex with your great-aunt.<\/p>\n
If you have an oozy skin discharge, OR if you touch a corpse\u2026<\/p>\n
And in the interest of fitting the rest of the Bible into 15 minutes, the whole cast yelled \u201cew gross!\u201d and ousted Leviticus from the stage.<\/p>\n
Today, I commend to you a few verses from Leviticus. Specifically, from the collection known as the \u201cHoliness Code\u201d (chs 17-26). You can skip the parts about whom not to have sex with (common sense works there), and go on to chapter 19.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now you need a little Hebrew, but I\u2019ll provide it. NOTICE how people, creatures, and land are all treated similarly, even with the same words: you shall not reap the edge (pe\u2019a)<\/em> of your field (19:9) nor will you shave the edge (pe\u2019a)<\/em> of your beard (19:27). <\/em>NOTICE that your fruit trees are to remain uncircumcised (\u2018arelim <\/em>19:23) for three years, whereupon its first \u201ccutting\u201d or harvest of fruit is dedicated to the Lord. If that\u2019s not telling us \u201ctreat your trees like people,\u201d I don\u2019t know what it is. NOTICE that the land doesn\u2019t just take male metaphors, it\u2019s female too: \u201cDo not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity\u201d (19:29).<\/p>\n This is the same great chapter that tells us \u201clove your neighbor as yourself\u201d (19:18) and even \u201cyou shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt\u201d (19:34)\u2026 and I wonder. Hidden under this code, are we actually being told\u2026<\/p>\n *to tenderly care for our fields as we do our own bodies?<\/p>\n *to protect our land as fiercely as we protect our daughters?<\/p>\n *to honor and celebrate the fruit of a tree the same way we would celebrate the life of a baby boy?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n