Aaron – The Noontimes

Leviticus 9: Joy and Ministry

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Joy and Ministry

From time to time we will visit scripture to look for stories about joy that will surprise us in a number of ways. If you wish to explore other stories in which joy astonishes us, click on the word Joy in the categories cloud in the blog’s right hand sidebar and choose a reflection, or enter the word Joy in the blog search bar. You may also want to visit the Joy for the Journey blog at www.joyforthee.blogspot.com to see how joy surprises you there. Today our story is from the Book of Leviticus.

Whenever we practice formal religious rites, experience God in nature, or find God among family and friends, we will always find ministers of joy. In today’s story we read about joy experienced by God’s people who wander in the desert looking for the promise of safety and security. We watch as Moses designates priests who will act as intermediaries for the faithful, and we wonder if we ourselves might be priests to one another. We examine our willingness in being conduits of joy to the world. And we reflect on our own capacity for joy.

Reubens; Sacrifice of the Old Covenant — *Peter Paul Reubens: Sacrifice of the Old Covenant*

Wherever we find the God of joy, we will also find those willing to tell how they have been redeemed by God’s love. In today’s story from this book of laws and restrictions, we ponder on the freeing power of joy and its ability to overcome all obstacles. We consider how we find joy in other places, times and people and how joy is always present – although often hidden – in times of deepest sorrow; and we reflect on how we might reveal the healing presence of joy to ourselves and one another.

However we find joy like that described in today’s story about these ancient people in the celebration of life and thanksgiving, we will be moved to open the windows and doors of surprise for ourselves and one another. We remember how we long for joy in times of sadness or exile. We recall how the burning presence of joy can heal and save. And we determine to bring the loving salve of God’s joy into the narrowest places of our lives each day.

And so we pray . . .

Let us call on God’s living presence in any hour of despair or pain.

Let us offer up to God any arid landscape we experience today.

Let us minister to one another with shouts of great celebration as we recognize God’s desire to bring joy to even the tiniest moments of our lives.

And let us revel in the loving surprise of God’s joy and presence and like the faithful we read about today, let us cheer loudly as we fall down in great bows of delighted reverence for God.

Amen.

For more about anxiety and joy, visit: http://riselikeair.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/anxiety-joy-a-journey/

Reubens image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacrifice_of_the_Old_Covenant_Rubens.jpg

Temple image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemini_(parsha)

October 23, 2021

Aaron, covenant, joy, Moses, reverence, surprise, thanksgiving

Exodus 32: The Golden Calf

Exodus 32: The Golden Calf

Monday, November 18, 2019

Even as a child I was impressed with how quickly Aaron slid from one role to another: loyal brother, facilitator of the making of the Golden Calf, loyal brother once again. He appears to get by unscathed and I remember thinking that he must not be very bright, and this is why God let him off so easily.

Some scholars say that Aaron went along with the crowd because it would have been impossible to go against the unhappy throng. Others point out that Aaron presents an argument we hear often even today; You know how prone the people are to evil. They said to me, “Make us a god to be our leader; as for Moses . . . we do not know what has happened to him”. He further argues, “They gave [the gold jewelry] to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out”. I was amazed, when I first heard this story, that there seemed to be no consequence. Yet Aaron rallies, aligns himself with Moses and the others who want to stand with him rather than against him, and he escapes the violent death that awaits those who remain against Moses. A coup takes place, blood is spilled, the Hebrews muddle on through the desert.

I am thinking of the many golden calves I have seen erupt from the fires of anger and jealous, fear and anxiety. I am also thinking of how many times I have been asked if I am for or against and how I have answered. I am also thinking of Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:30, Mark 9:40 or Luke 11:23: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does gather with me scatters. And I am grateful for God’s generous mercy.

As a child I knew I lived in the black and white world my parents had created for our family. In that world the most frequent – and most dreaded – punishment for infractions of rules was the dreaded three word sentence, “We will talk”. Sometimes we waited days or even weeks until Dad or Mother would nod and say, “Now”. We would have worried and gnawed over all of the arguments we might present for our innocence and we had thrown out all that were false. We ended up with the unvarnished truth. During the waiting time we would have sorted through the varied outcomes of the impending conversation. And in the end we were so eager to unload our conscience and to confess to our waywardness that we provided our own best castigation. We came to see that we had been wrong. We admitted openly how we had strayed. And we were anxious to enter into and complete any penalty we were to suffer. It was a wonderful form of coming to terms with what it was we had done, why we had done it, and how we ought to be dealt with. My husband and I used similar strategies with our own children when golden calves appeared in our home and we met with the same success in raising ethical, thoughtful, merciful children. God’s generosity and mercy cannot be outdone. God’s love and patience cannot be matched. And for this we ought to give thanks.

Each time I see the adulation that surrounds a golden calf in my family, community or workplace, I pray for the kind of patience my parents taught us. I ask God to bring me wisdom, good timing, and the fortitude to witness to falsehood in a way that will be effective. And I pray for the good counsel and right thinking of the Holy Spirit. When I allow God’s waiting time to pass, I find I have more success than if I lunge forward on my first impulse with my first reaction.

The people we read about today become unhappy about their circumstances and so they create an immediate world of superficial happiness as they revel and play around an idol of their own making. They quickly learn that there is a price to pay for self-centered thinking . . . and that golden calves often leave us standing against our God.

a re-post from October 28, 2012.

Image from: http://abwbibleperiod8.wikispaces.com/Ch8A+The+Golden+Calf

November 18, 2019

Aaron, idols, Luke 11:23, Mark 9:40, Matthew 12:30, Moses

Wisdom 18:20-25: Intercession

Wisdom 18:20-25: Intercession

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The faithful will always have a priest willing to intercede for them. Today we read about Aaron who intercedes as a spiritual leader for the Israelites; every day we have Jesus who intercedes for us in all that we petition.

Bridge-building is important to a Christian community for without the lifelines that we toss out to connect ourselves to one another, we run the risk of sinking into oblivion. Just as camel caravans link the living water and sheltering palms of desert oases, we reach out to one another so that we do not become stranded in the lonely desert parts of life. We must celebrate life where we find it . . . and build bridges to call together the limbs of Christ’s Mystical Body.

Forgiveness – both the asking and the granting – is the essential construction material that we will need for these Jesus bridges. There is no one among us who has not needed to ask and to give forgiveness and so we pray.

The world is rent asunder by our refusal to forgive, we pray: Bring us, Lord, your perspective of hope.

For the hardness of heart we have shown toward those we have hurt, we pray: Bring us, Lord, your openness of heart.

For the breaches in relationships we have allowed to live and grow, we pray: Bring us, Lord, your depth of wisdom.

For the resentments we have accumulated, we pray: Bring us, Lord, your counsel and courage.

If the Lord rescues me from the snare of my faults, should I not extend the same hand of rescue to my neighbor? Resentment, grudges, retaliation do not help the one who offends me. They merely confirm the breach between us. Bridge-building is costly, as the cross demonstrates, but the people stranded on both banks are all freed by the bridge.

These prayers and thoughts are adapted from yesterday’s MAGNIFICAT, and as always, when I think about bridge-building, I am aware that there is a difference – although small – between pardoning behavior and allowing abuse to continue. There is a reality that exists in bridge-building that comes into being when we empower people – they are freed from a former unhealthy behavior that has stunted growth and dried up life. When we enable people to continue in an unhealthy behavior, we become part of the problem. When we gently confront people, we set into place the pillars of the bridge.

When we allow Christ to show us what tool to use next, what material to bring out of storage for use as the struts and cables of the bridge, we begin to make links, we will see that we are building a bride that will last for all time. We will also see that it is a bridge of and to salvation.

This work does not happen without physical and spiritual exertion; but when we have the Master as our project planner, the work becomes less arduous and less frightening.

When we find ourselves stranded in a small, backwater oases, looking through the burning sun in the day and the cold darkness of night . . . waiting for something to appear on the horizon . . . we will know that it is time for bridge-building. Let as ask the Master Planner to intercede for us . . . now . . . today . . . and all days.

Adapted from a Favorite written on March 18, 2009.

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 3.17 (2009). Print.

Image from: http://www.cepolina.com/photos.asp?V=Rotorua_bridge_mist_water&S=Rotorua&A=all and http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147290-d149576-r125773547-Mount_Isabel_de_Torres-Puerto_Plata_Dominican_Republic.html

For more thoughts on intercession for our enemies see The Jesus Bridge page on this blog: https://thenoontimes.com/the-jesus-bridge/

March 19, 2019

Aaron, bridge building, Jesus bridges, Mystical Body

Tag: Aaron

Leviticus 9: Joy and Ministry

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Exodus 32: The Golden Calf

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Wisdom 18:20-25: Intercession

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