God's Consequence Sheet

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." Leviticus 26:13

God's Consequence Sheet
By Rev. William Dohle

I had the best 2nd grade teacher, I think, a kid could ever have.

Her name was Ms. Fossom and she was great!  She taught me how to be creative, how to take risks, how to write little stories.  She taught me science and a love of nature.

But the biggest thing she taught me was this: There are always consequences.

She had the best idea for discipline.  At the back of the room there was a wipe-off board with everyone's name on it.  To the right of our names there were boxes that were empty at the start of the day.  If one of us needed a warning, one of the boxes was checked off.  If we did it again, another box was checked off followed by the consequence for that box.

Being a "good" child, I always tried to keep by board as clean as possible.

And there were rewards for being good too!  Good rewards like pizza parties and movies and all the things that kids love to enjoy when they're enjoying school.

Consequences, good and bad, followed our behavior.

At the end of Leviticus, in the next-to-the-last chapter of the book, God lists some consequences for following the law and being "good".

• I will send rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops...and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.(26:4-5)
• I will grant peace in the land and you will lie down...You will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword before you.(26:6-8)
• I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers.(26:9)

And the best of God's good consequences...

• I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.(26:12)

That's what happens if the people follow God's decrees and laws and commandments.

But we know that they don't.  They don't always follow God's commandments anymore than I always kept my consequence board clean in 2nd grade.  Sin has come upon us all and we stumble.  And the consequences for disobedience are described too.

• ...if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws...then I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life.(26:16)
• You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.  I will set my face against you so that yo will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you...(26:17)

And if that doesn't work?  If even these consequences fail to turn Israel back?

• I will punish you for your sins seven times over.  I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.(26:18)
• I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.  I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.(26:22)
• I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant.  I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.(26:25)
• You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.  I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols and I will abhor you.(26:29)
• You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.(26:37)

Wow!  Talk about consequences!  God sure is serious about this whole covenant thing, isn't he?

At the end of all of these consequences, both good and bad, God has a promise.  The promise that started his relationship with Israel to begin with.  God says: "I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham and I will remember the land...I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them.  I am the Lord their God.  But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God.  I am the Lord."(26:42-44)

God's funny that way.  He always ends it with a promise.  Consequences come and consequences go.  Sometimes we do the right thing and enjoy the fruit of our labor.  Sometimes we do the wrong thing and suffer the consequences.  Sometimes we do the right thing and suffer the same consequences. Sometimes it doesn't always end up as cleanly as we think it should.

But whatever consequence, or lack of consequence, we suffer the fact remains.  We are God's.  God will not abandon us.  Even when we fail and fall as so often we do.  Even when the consequences of this life weigh us down.  Even when it's all really our own fault, God doesn't let up.  He doesn't abandon us or neglect us.  He has promised himself to us and for us and his promises last forever!

Help me, God, for us often neglect your ways and follow my own path.  Forgive me when I stumble and lead me to live a better life in You, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

One of God's Great Ideas!

"Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.  Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month...Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants."  Leviticus 25:8-10

One of God's Great Ideas!
By Rev. William Dohle

Good ideas are hard to come by.  Just ask any writer.  As a writer myself I struggle sometimes coming up with something original and unique.  Something that will make my reader go, "Wow!  I never thought of it like that!"  Because, by and large, most ideas are recycled from one source or another.

For example... I read Fantasy books, those are books that feature swords and sorcery, men in distress and maidens in armor, and vice-versa.  Every book I read, or probably ever will read, is somehow related to the original classic "The Lord of the Rings" which is itself based on the mythology stories of countless cultures.  Tolkien and every writer after him have arranged and rearranged the material, bringing a new story out of the old.

So they say... there is no such thing as an original idea.

But occasionally, whether original or not, an idea comes that is so outrageous, so incredibly unbelievably crazy, that it is received with a mixture of laughter and scorn.  When faced with an idea that wild, one must either dismiss it or embrace it.  There is no in-between.  That idea, for God, is the Year of the Jubilee.

Most people are unfamiliar with this biblical concept.  Rooted in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, it takes place on the 7th year of the 7th year.  Basically, every 49 years.  This year is a time of grace, hope, freedom, and celebration.  What must take place this year??

• "...everyone is to return to his own property." Because "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.  Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide fo rhte redemption of the land."(25:23-24)
• Houses in the country, if purchased or acquired by someone, are to be returned.  "...houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country.  They can be redeemed and they are to be returned in the Jubilee."(25:31)
• Slaves sold into servitude are to be freed and released.  "...he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, for the Israelites belong to me as servants."(23:54-55)

In other words... debts are to be forgiven!  Stored crops are to be eaten.  No work is to be done on this year. For this year, which would have come but once in a lifetime, is a Jubilee, a gift of grace and freedom and liberty from God!

Can you imagine the celebration?!

Of course some scholars say it was just a dream...nothing more.  They say that the Year of Jubilee wasn't something that Israel ever did.  It was a good idea...but not practical.

We too have abandoned this notion. No matter how much we claim to be a "Christian nation" and want to "live by the Bible", few people have ever raised this issue up in our world today.  Perhaps it's because its just so radical, this grace given freely and without cost.  Perhaps it's because its so not-capitalist...this idea that everything belongs to God and we are just tenants and caretakers of it.

But what if this actually happened?  Can you imagine it...

• The World Bank announces a year of Jubilee...and forgives the debts of the poorest countries in this world who suffer with paying just the interest on the massive loans they have.
• Banks announce that student debt acquired up to this year is forgiven...no strings attached!
• Pawn shops are required to return the property that was sold to them from the many who sold it.
• Homes acquired in foreclosure are returned by the banks to their rightful owners...debt free!  The interest and all the fees on it forgiven.

Of course there'd be questions on how to do it and for whom?  But they could be answered.  How much debt should we forgive?  All of it!  Who would receive the grace?  Everyone!  How would we know if someone deserved it?  We wouldn't!  And it wouldn't matter!  Grace would be given to all.  Grace that comes from economics turned on its head.  For a year, the world would bask in the glow of grace for a single year, reveling in what it was like to live debt-free, unbound to anyone except God.

Not practical?  Maybe.  But, practical or not, I think the Year of Jubilee is what the Kingdom of God looks like here on earth.  If God were to bring that kingdom here on earth so we could see it, it would look like this!  Freedom from debt-collectors and their chains.  Freedom from the mistakes of the past.  Freedom for all!!

Maybe that's why Jesus, when speaking about his ministry says...

The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

In other words... God has sent Jesus(and us) to proclaim the promised Year of Jubilee!!  Our part?  Let's start by forgiving the debts owed to us... and then move on to the rest of the world!

God of Jubilee, God of dancing, your kingdom whispers to us, calling us to freedom and grace and hope and life.  Lead us that truly your kingdom may come, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

Jesus: The Law breaker?

"The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses."  Leviticus 24:23

Jesus: The Law Breaker!?
By Rev. William Dohle

What makes someone a criminal??

Does speeding make you a criminal?  It is a law you're breaking after all...
Or jaywalking?  Is that a criminal act?
Is someone a criminal if they accidently kill someone?
Or make a mistake on their taxes and steal money from the government?
Are you a criminal if you've been arrested for driving under the influence?
Or for smoking in the non-smoking section?

What makes someone a criminal today?

Background checks may reveal the hidden lives of our neighbors, but what makes them a criminal?

That's not so easy to answer today because we have varying levels and degrees of wrongdoing.  Intention is taken into account.  Motivation is key.  And the severity of what you do matters to our society.

In the Bible, the biggest penalty is reserved for something that isn't criminal at all today.  Blasphemy.  Blasphemy is defined on dictionary.com as "an act of cursing or reviling God."  And its consequences are described in a story from Leviticus.

Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.  The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.)  They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.
 Then the Lord said to Moses:  “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. (Leviticus 24:10-16)

 And, here's the kicker, the man was put to death!  They actually stoned him!

This is just one example of this law that has its roots in Leviticus and continues through even the New Testament where, we are told, Jesus breaks it!  In many places, actually, but especially at the end of his life.

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
  “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him. (Mark 14:62-64)

Does this sound familiar?  Look closely at the story from Leviticus.  And then look at the story from Mark.  They're almost the same!  Jesus' story doesn't begin with a fight, but the high priest pronounces him guilty of the same thing!  They both have offended God's Name.

We forget this tiny piece of Jesus' story.  Maybe because we discount blasphemy nowadays.  Maybe because some of us believe Jesus wasn't blaspheming, that he was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One.

Either way, Jesus' act of blasphemy reminds us to slow down in our own condemnation. Slow down condemning others to death.  Not because they deserve our mercy but because they stand with Jesus, condemned to the same sentence of death.

Today we reserve this sentence for the worst criminals.  The murderers.  They receive the death penalty.  They are treated to this sentence for what they did to others.  The book of Leviticus couples blasphemy and its sentence of death with murder and its sentence of death.

"Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death." (Leviticus 24:17)

This occurs just after the story of blasphemy.

Where today we may condemn the murderer to the death penalty, we certainly don't condemn the blasphemer to the same fate.  Perhaps, before we condemn either of the murderer or the blasphemer to such a fate, we should look at where Jesus is standing.  Jesus stands, not with the offended, but with the offender here.  He stands with the one condemned to death.  He too suffered such a condemnation for the biblical crime of blasphemy.  He was not stoned for that crime, as Stephen would later be.  He would be crucified by the Romans.  But in his crucifixion and in this condemnation by the high priest, Jesus calls into question the law and its punishment.  In his death, he would question who we judge and why we judge.  By standing with the offenders, Jesus would challenge his followers to stop judging and start loving.

As easy as it is to judge another for what they say or who they are or who they love or what they believe or do, perhaps, if we are a follower of Jesus, we may set aside that judgment.  There's been enough judgment for now.  Instead, let's practice loving people, no matter their reaction.

Forgive us, Lord, for taking on the role of judge and blaspheming your name.  Help us to love and trust enough to care even for the offender.  Amen.