CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
The Rev. Fred
Weimert September 27, 2009
“Strange Practice”
Today’s
assigned reading
was to come from the book of Esther…
And I like the book of
Esther,
But even
Jewish people only use it for the festival of Purim
which
doesn’t occur until sometime in the winter.
As I
thought about this
I
began thinking about the Jewish calendar
and I did notice that today
at sundown
probably the
most sacred day of the Jewish year begins.
that
is, Yom Kippur,
the Day of atonement.
Since the lectionary
never includes
the readings for the Day of
Atonement.
I
thought it might be appropriate
for
us to read
at least the beginning of the
reading
from
Leviticus 16.
It has some wonderful
material in it…
like the
idea of the scapegoat…
That
goat that bears the sin of the people
out
into the wilderness…
far
away from them.
But this Leviticus text
is also full of mysterious material…
the smoke
and fire of sacrifice…
Blood
dripped on the mercy seat…
and
then this goat which is sent out
appears to be sent
to
some wilderness Demon, Azazel.
Some
believe, that was what was being done,
the
goat was sent to appease some dark force.
Others
say it is just a word for ‘goat’
and
another word for ‘depart’.
which
have been run together…
the
goat that departed.
However, for me,
the greatest
mystery from this text…
was
what happened to Aaron’s two sons…
at the
beginning of the reading it says:
The LORD spoke to
Moses
after
the death of the two sons of Aaron,
when
they drew near before the LORD and died.
The death
of these two boys
was talked about earlier in
Leviticus 10: 1-3
Now
Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu,
each
took his censer, put fire in it,
and
laid incense on it;
and they offered
unholy fire before the LORD,
such
as he had not commanded them.
And
fire came out from the presence of the LORD
and
consumed them,
and
they died before the LORD.
A similar account is found in
Numbers 3: 4
but the Hebrew word
describing the fire in both stories
isn’t kadosh
or holy… holy fire…
the word is zoar, or strange, foreign, loathsome fire…
they
brought strange fire before the Lord…
This is weird and mysterious stuff.
Obviously
something horrible had happened
in the holy of holies…
and it was interpreted as
God’s judgment
being
visited upon Nadab and Abihu.
It could well have been an accident
involving fire and
animal fat…
and these
two boys could have simply died by accident,
But their accident
probably precipitated
the writing of this material…
about the
proper time and way
to
approach God in the holy of holies.
Whenever I
think of that concept of “the priesthood of believers”…
or being “priests to each other”…
I think of this passage.
Even though that priesthood idea
was probably born out of
I Peter 2:5
“like living stones,
let
yourselves be built into a spiritual house,
to
be a holy priesthood,
to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.”
This notion of a ‘Priesthood’ of
believers
was latched
on to by Martin Luther
and
other Church reformers…
And it became a central
tenant of the Baptists…
sadly most
Baptists think it simply means
we can bring ourselves before God in
Prayer…
I think it
means far more…
I
believe it means that we are somehow tasked
with
bringing others into the presence of God…
into
the holy of holies.
And when I think of stepping into
God’s presence
I
think of this passage…
and
of Nadab
and Abihu…
and
their bringing strange fire…
which
cost them their life.
I think of
the meticulous preparations that Aaron made
to
enter the Holy of Holies.
And I think
of myself
and
my lack of discipline…
my
stumbling into God’s presence…
desiring
to get in and out…
as
quickly as possible,
and with what I want, from God.
Leviticus
16: 1-10
The LORD spoke to Moses
after the death of the two sons of
Aaron,
when
they drew near before the LORD and died.
The LORD said to Moses:
Tell your brother Aaron
not
to come just at any time
into
the sanctuary inside the curtain
before
the mercy seat that is upon the ark,
or
he will die;
for
I appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place:
with a young bull for a sin
offering
and a ram for a burnt offering.
He shall put on the holy linen
tunic,
and shall have the linen
undergarments next to his body,
fasten
the linen sash,
and
wear the linen turban;
these
are the holy vestments.
He shall bathe his body in water,
and then put them on.
He shall take from the
congregation of the people of
two male goats for a sin offering,
and one ram for a burnt offering.
Aaron shall offer the bull as a
sin offering for himself,
and shall make atonement for
himself and for his house.
He shall take the two goats
and set them before the LORD
at
the entrance of the tent of meeting;
and Aaron shall cast lots on the
two goats,
one lot for the LORD
and the other lot for Azazel.
Aaron shall present the goat on
which the lot fell for the LORD,
and offer it as a sin offering;
but the goat on which the lot fell
for Azazel
shall be presented alive before
the LORD
to
make atonement over it,
that
it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
Here ends the reading.
When I was
in college,
running
cross country…
my
whole existence took on a very structured routine…
which might
come as quite a surprise
to those of you who know me now…
I ran with someone who
was quite compulsive,
and Charlie
was responsible for much of the structure…
in
both of our lives…
But
he wasn’t alone…
I also had a coach…
who encouraged us toward a fairly
strict regimen
of morning and afternoon practice…
and the most important element in this
regiment
was that everything was governed by
time…
In
practice you were to run 5 miles
each
mile in 5 minutes or better…
You
were to run 15 quarter miles…
each
in 65 seconds or better.
Practices were timed…
Meets were timed…
And
each split…
that
is each mile time was recorded.
and
the record of each meet was posted
on
a bulletin board by our lockers.
Also on that bulletin board was a
weekly newsletter,
published
by the coach
from
giving
results from all of the cross country meets
from
the previous week…
with
the times of every runner
from
every team in our conference…
and
in the state of
Everything was about time…
and it made me,
who had never stepped on a track in
high school,
into a good college runner…
The only day of the week that I had
‘off the clock’ as it
were,
was Sunday…
Because
my coach didn’t work on Sunday.
Of course that didn’t mean that my
compulsive partner, Charlie,
would leave me alone…
No, on
Sunday afternoon, we would frequently
go
for a little one hour, 10 mile, run…
five
loops on our two mile course…
and
as there was no one to time us,
Our
run would be governed by the bells
in
the
We would
warm up and stretch
until the bells chimed for the first
time.
and
then we would start our run…
when
they chimed again
15
minutes later…
we
were to be at least
to
the north soccer goal…
2
½ miles into the run.
When
they sounded again
at
30 minutes…
we
were to be at least to
the
finish line
or 5 miles into the run.
When
they sounded again
at
45 minutes
we
were to be back
at that north soccer goal…
7
½ miles into the run.
And
when they chimed an hour
we
were to be finished with the run.
10
miles in an hour…
I got to believe that the purpose of
those bells
at
was simply to pace Charlie and me.
And in a
way they were,
but the discipline they were originally
designed to regiment
was more spiritual than
physical.
I am
reading a Church history book right now…
by Diana Butler Bass…
A
People’s History of Christianity:
the
Other Side of the Story…
In
a chapter entitled: Devotion: Paradise
Restored
there
is a section: Praying the Hours
Which
begins with this paragraph:
For a couple of years I was
fortunate enough to live around the corner from the Santa Barbara Mission, a
historic church complete with a monastic community. The mission, built in 1786, stands high on a
hill overlooking the town and the ocean.
From this holy perch, church bells ring out that can be heard throughout
the neighborhood on a regular basis.
Occasionally somebody complained—or mounted a petition—wanting to
silence the loud, disruptive, and frequently ringing of the bells. The church, however, always won and the
argument. The bells are part of
As Baptists most of us
never learned about such things…
Concepts
like “Keeping the Hours”
or
“Saying the Offices”
The
“Divine Hours”
The
“Divine Office”
are
foreign to us…
“The
Office” for us is a TV program.
Breviaries
and prayer books…
we
don’t use such things…
too
high church for us…
We
have the Bible,
which
is, of course, full of prayers and songs…
that
we aren’t disciplined in using
daily or hourly… either.
In our
Bibles there are echoes of this concept
of
the discipline of daily prayer…
in
Acts 3:1
One day Peter and John
were going up to the temple
at
the hour of prayer,
at
three o'clock in the afternoon.
and
again in Acts 10:9
in
the story about Peter and Cornelius:
About noon the next
day,
as
they were on their journey
and approaching the city,
Peter
went up on the roof to pray.
Peter and
John and probably all of the disciples
prayed
at 3:00 o’clock
and
noon,
and
probably also 9:00 a.m.
as well as 6:00 AM and PM…
all
of the times when the compulsive Romans
would
ring the bell in the forum…
telling
people it was time
for business to begin or end.
It sounds as
if they were Muslims…
No,
but they were disciples,
and
regular prayer was part of their discipline.
Benedict
that famous Abbott back in the 6th century
was
the first to invent a mechanism
which would ring bells on a set
schedule…
the clocca…
source of our word clock…
“When
the clocca rang,
they
drew attention to the eternity of God
and
the brevity of human life.” pg. 106
Benedict said:
“To pray is to work, to work is to pray.”
And so for Benedict
prayer was
always…
the
Work of God…
“Opus
Dei”
A
term, which thanks to Dan Brown…
we have managed to turn into
something
almost heretical.
Discipline
is important for those
who are tasked with bringing others
into the holy of Holies…
And
discipline should be a consideration
for people who now know
about what happened to
Nadab
and Abihu…
The
sons of Aaron,
those who brought the strange fire…
which cost them their life.
I don’t
know how structured I can be about prayer…
This book on the Divine Hours
by Phyllis Tickle drives
me nuts…
It is so
compulsive…
I don’t have time for all of this.
But I do
remember an old song that was my Grandfather’s favorite…
which went:
Whisper a prayer in the morning,
Whisper a prayer at noon,
Whisper a prayer in the evening,
twill keep your heart in
tune…
In this
world where it is so easy
for hearts to get out of tune…
and flat out discordant,
maybe some
regular form of prayer would help us.
So
may we prayer,
so
that we might be prepared to truly be
priests
to each other.
capable
of bringing our neighbors
into
the presence of God,
where
they can find
the
forgiveness and healing
all
of us need. Amen.