Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday May 23, 2014 – Leviticus 23:1-22

For those of us who are comfortable with the understanding that Moses did not write the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, this passage from Leviticus is thought to have been written by the Priestly class during the time that the Southern Kingdom was exiled in Babylon, some 500 years before the Common Era (BCE).  The attention to details –dates, times, measurements, and the insistence that no work be done on these holy days, are all giveaways to the probable Priestly authorship.  Be that as it may, what is said in these verses is more important than who wrote them.

This reading sets out what special days – holy days – are to be celebrated, and how they are to be celebrated.  The Sabbath is the first listed, and refers to the last day of creation set aside by God for rest and restoration.  Of all the listed days, the weekly Sabbath is the paramount one.  There follow other important days – Passover, and the Season of Unleavened Bread; and three agricultural festivals: celebrating and giving thanks for the early grain ripening, the harvesting of the first produce, and the final harvest festival of thanksgiving at the ingathering of all crops. 

The final verse is a reminder to the people of how they are to provide for “the poor and the stranger” by leaving a few rows of grain and other produce around the periphery of the fields for their use.

In our world and in our day, we may well have lost sight of the middle celebrations, historical and agricultural in outlook.  It is the first and the last admonishment that stand out for me – how we keep Sabbath, and how we provide for the least, the last and the lost.  I invite you to think on these things today.

-Rev'd Paul Kett