This week, I took a Sabbath from writing. I felt it was only
appropriate for the seventh week of this project. That, and The Rock dropped
the People’s Elbow on my productivity time. All of that said, I was actually a
good Christian last week. I read my allotted reading and took my notes… I just
didn’t get around to writing it out til now. So without any further delay, here’s week
seven.
Old Testament
(Exodus 30:11 – Leviticus 3)
We pick back up where we left off in Exodus, where God is
giving every single detail of how to
worship Him. I can’t lie – I skimmed this. It’s like when I’m reading Dickens
and his characters start discussing their finances and accounts (something
Dickens does in every single book)…
my eyes just glaze over until the narrative picks back up. The brain God gave
me physically can’t process numbers and minutia, so I don’t think he’s gonna
hold it against me for skimming this section. I feel like God listed out all of
these details, just so at the end he could point out that he provided the
people and resources to carry these details out. The artisans to create the
designs, the builders and construct the structures, the perfumist to create the
incense, etc. It’s like he took the scenic route to point out that we all have
our own strengths and weaknesses and
that he’s not going to ask us to do anything we’re not capable of doing.
Let’s return to our common theme that the Israelites may be
the dumbest people in history. They can physically see the mountain that Moses
is on… you know, the one covered in God’s holy smokes and fire – and they
decide the golden calf is a good idea. You know what, on second thought, let’s
not return there.
Earlier I wrote about how I thought that Abraham’s
intervention on behalf of Lot and Sodom & Gomorrah was an
opportunity that God gave him, rather than a genuine example of someone
changing God’s mind. However, I don’t feel the same way about Moses’
intervention on the Israelites’ behalf following the Golden Calf Incident. In
my reading of this, I gathered that Moses legitimately swayed God from giving
the Israelites what they justly deserved. I need a Calvinist to explain that
one to me.
And that’s about it for the Old Testament this week. Next
week we hop into Leviticus and Numbers follows that one, so I’m expecting the
Old Testament sections to be extremely short in the coming month or so.
New Testament
(Matthew 26:47 – Mark 2:12)
One topic I’ve discussed in a few groups recently is the
self-fulfilling prophecy. Essentially, I live what I believe and if I truly
believe I’m going to die by thirty or help eliminate AIDS, I’m going to make decisions in my life and take actions that
will allow this prophecy to come true. Obviously, this applies to my clients
because if they truly believe that staying sober is impossible or that no one
will ever love them or whatever, they’ll take action to make that come true. I
was reminded of this by Jesus’ statement that those who live by the sword will
die by the sword. You may remember Metallica paraphrasing Christ’s words in
their “hit” single, Frantic: “My
lifestyle determines my deathstyle.”… No? You don’t remember Frantic? You don’t remember St. Anger at all? Yeah, I wish I could
forget it too…
I love the way Jesus chastises his captors for bringing
weapons to his arrest – “I’ve been teaching you about peace and gentleness, but
you thought it was necessary to bring swords and clubs? You really don’t get it, do you?” I’m
reminded of my Values Studies class at LC with Dr. Heard, where he classified
the different levels of selflessness a person can attain (if that’s not exactly
how it went, forgive me. I didn’t value that class). All that I really remembered
was that Jesus, MLK and Ghandi were in the same category, where they valued the
lives of others and peace and all that crap over their own lives, hence the
non-violence. I guess what I’m getting at is that this scene reminds me of MLK’s
“Why We Can’t Wait.”
And with that, I’ll save the rest of the
passion/resurrection story for when we get to John, so I’ll actually have
something to write about when we get there. You know, unless something during
Matthew’s description of the passion really jumps out at me… LIKE JESUS RAISING THE LIVING DEAD!? (Matt 27:52) WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA……
Psalms (32 – 35:28)
& Proverbs (8:27- 9:18)
I usually reference The Tell Tale Heart when I talk about the
weight of sin and guilt (or when I’m talking about a fifth step and catharsis).
Psalm reminded me of this.
We also got to the Psalm that inspired Petra to write my favorite Audio Adrenaline
jam.
Finally, I can’t help but think of Andy from Parks and Rec
every time David references “the pit”… which is quite often.
