July 8, 2009

Texts:
Exodus 27 and 28
Matthew 28

Exodus: In this section, it is spelled out that Aaron and his descendants will be the priestly class. Aaron, you'll recall, is Moses' brother. Would it be easier today if we decided that the priestly class would be an inherited position? Rather than have to go through the whole search process for new pastors, we could just hire a Levite.
This is a reminder for us, I think, that it isn't about the particular gifts of the people called to serve. Instead, it is about God. There is a saying: "God doesn't call the equipped. God equips the called".
And what about those priestly garments? With the jewels and the gold and the checkered linen, they must have even looked other-worldly (or like Liberace). What do you think about the priestly garments?

Matthew:
In this final chapter of Matthew's gospel, the women encounter the angel at the empty tomb. The guards go to the Chief Priest (remember the Levites from Exodus? Perhaps inherited office has its own problems....) who bribes them to lie about what they'd experienced.
But the women tell Jesus' other followers and they go to Galilee, back where it all began. "When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted."(v 17) The Greek word for "doubt" really means "to stand in two places". This isn't intellectual doubting, but is waffling behavior. Jesus calls people to do outrageous things (make disciples of all nations, for example) and they waffle.
How do you see their waffling? Do you think it might be because they think he's asking them to do it all? The mission of the church is not up to us, though. (Thank goodness!) The mission of the church is Jesus' job.
For what it is worth, the word translated as "nations" is the same word for "ethnicities". Does your reading of this passage differ if the baptism imperative is not directed at countries?