Sermon Tone Analysis

Parashat Bechukotai

A Protestant Minister and a Catholic Priest enjoyed teasing their Rabbi friend, continually asking him when he was going to convert to their faith.

When the Holidays rolled around, the Rabbi sent them a card with the following:

Season's Greetings!

Roses are reddish,

Violets are bluish;

When the Messiah comes,

You'll wish you were Jewish!!"

Ha-Foke Bah Hebrew

Ha-Foke Bah English

Today is our last message in the book of Va’Yiqra “Leviticus.”

When I started this series I was so excited about it and I hoped that I could somehow communicate to you that excitement and bring this amazing book to life.

And in the very beginning I made the statement that Leviticus addresses something that almost every person holds in a common, “We all long for the world to be good.”

By that, I mean we long for it to be just, to prioritize the right things, to have shalom and security.

A world where not only can I be the best version of me possible but I can be accepted as the best version of me even when I am not at my best.

I said repeatedly that in Leviticus grace is a central theme.

After the golden calf Moses could not go into the Tent of Meeting but because of the sacrifices of Leviticus he is able to enter in by the time we get to the book of Numbers.

We said that Aaron was the golden calf maker and yet God chose him to be Israel’s spiritual leader.

We said that in Israel’s daily sacrifices and especially on Yom Kippur he has totally taken away our sins.

Throughout this sermon series I have tried to show that there were natural things that happened as a result of grace: prioritized our lives better, loved the outcast more, love our neighbor enough to have a conversation, ending the blame game and so on.

Last week we talked about the Year of Jubilee, I believe God’s greatest challenge and aspiration for Israel.

A challenge that when heeded as the effect of restoring the world every seven years and restoring lives at the end of every 49 years.

As the commentator Samuel Balentine said, “It is a sabbatical year when the land lies fallow, but no one goes hungry.

A jubilee year when all debts are canceled, slaves are set free, and everything lost is returned and restored.

The laws in chapter 25 paint a wonderful picture of worship in the service of social justice.”

I put forward for you what my greatest wishes are for us as a congregation so that we could put our worship in the service not only of social justice but of the Gospel.

Today, our Torah portion introduces something that is odd.

When I was in college, undergraduate and graduate, my writing professors and preaching professors would always tell us that when you are wrapping a paper or sermon you never introduce a new topic, new idea.

At the end of your work, you tie everything up, maybe give a great ending story or love poem but don’t introduce a new idea or new topic.

Yet, Moses our writer is not playing by our rules.

And, he introduces a topic that is almost counter everything he just taught about sacrificial repentance.

You see in the previous chapters all repentance or thanksgiving hinged upon the worshiper putting animals to death either because of sin or because of praise.

Here at the close of Leviticus Moses introduces the concept of confession and repentance apart from the sacrifices.

Such an announcement anchors a unique and innovative approach in Israel’s understanding of the atonement for sin.

Forgiveness will be found, God’s favor restored, and relationship restored by confession of sin alone.

Sin-Bucket

Now, when I say confession, it draws ups lots of images depending on your background.

If you had a protestant background it is the image of emptying out your sin bucket to the tune of 1 John 1:8-9, if you were Jewish it is emptying out your sin bucket on one long day called Yom Kippur and if you were a criminal it is what you do to mitigate the consequences of your crimes.

Basically it is just emptying out your sin bucket a way of saying, Oh, I feel so terrible!

You empty your sin bucket, and God or the courts somehow magically forgets your sin.

I am picking on everyone.

Everyone has a system for dealing with sin and offloading it from their guilty conscience.

All of this kind of confessional systems is just our attempt to outsmart God.

It is like one of my children who when I asked my child “did you put all your dirty clothes up” that child said of course I did.

This child smiled and grinned.

Yet, when I walked in this child’s room the dirty clothes were “put up” they were put in piles on the far side of the bed where they did not think I would see them.

My child thought he was outsmarting me.

Not cool and we had to have a talk.

Trying to outsmart and outmaneuver God is a sin.

So if you have some sort of system where you’re treating God like he’s an idiot or kind of a gotcha or you’ve kind of have found the loophole, then you are dishonoring God.

Trying to find a loophole in your theology or a loophole with God is a sin.

It’s so dishonoring to God.

Our Torah Portion starts with a blessing and a warning: a blessing for a life of holiness and a warning: don’t try to “outsmart God” it brings horrible consequences.

You see, chapter 26 pictures Israel’s propensity for disobedience, trying to outsmart God and God gives a lex talons style warning: blessing for blessing, cursing for cursing.

And after the long list of curses, the final section of chapter 26 announces a new and perhaps unexpected word from God.

Despite Israel’s propensity for disobedience, and despite the repeated warnings that God will punish, and punish it severely, in ways that seem to erase every possible avenue for escape, God now announces that Israel’s future remains open, not closed, to new possibilities.

If Israel confesses its sins (v.

40), allows its heart to be changed (nrsv: “humbled”), and accepts its punishment for violating God’s commands (v.

41), then God will remember both the covenant with the ancestors and the land (v.

42).

In other words, when you stop trying to outmaneuvering God, outsmart God and instead get real about sin in your life, get real about repentance then God will begin the process of restoring the land and also begin to bless you right in that horrible situation you find yourself (land of enemies v. 44).

Now, here is the thing most of us have been taught a very twisted idea.

The idea is this: God forgets your sin.

Immediately someone will say but that is at the heart of the new covenant.

Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.”

And what about Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

So how can you say, “God does not forget our sins.”

What we have is an error by way of definition.

We see the words “I will not remember” and the words “removed our sins” and then we say that equals our word “forget our sins.”

What we mean by “forget” is “total erasure of our sins.”

What we mean is that there was writing on the chalkboard and then I said the magic words in the name of Yeshua and and the words were totally completely wiped off the board and water was then taken and the board washed perfectly down so it looked brand new and there were no traces of that word at all on the board.

That is from our definition of “forget” we find in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, “to lose the remembrance of: be unable to think of or recall.”

Yet, that is not what the Hebrew or Greek phrase “there sins I will not remember no more” means.”

Just logically follow with me on this one.

There once was a king named David.

That kind committed a horrible sin with a woman named Bathsheba, then did an even more horrible sin and had her husband Uriah murdered and all of this was written down in something called the BIBLE.

Do you suppose that every time we read this story out loud God says to himself, “I don’t remember it happening that way at all.”

Or what about Peter’s denial?

Paul’s murders?

When the Bible says he will not remember our sins.

It does not mean they just magically go out of his mind.

God neither learns nor forgets.

When he says he will not remember them what it means is “I'll never bring it up and use it against you.”

When I was in Middle School back in pre digital age which mine as well be the stone age I could never remember all the coma rules.

There are so many rules about the coma.

I would constantly ask my teacher again and again, what is that rule, what does that mean and at a certain point my teacher came to anticipate that when I raised my hand it was about the coma rule but she never said to me, “Michael, that is it.

When will you ever get it!

I have told you so many times what the rule is a out commas for a sequence versus commas for a list.

I will tell you one more time but you better…” See that would have been remembering my past sins and holding them against me in the present.

She did not do that, no, Mrs. Allen was as gracious as the day is long.

When the Bible says he will not remember our sins.

It means, “I'll never bring it up and use it against you.”

What do you do about passages that says God “disciplines us as children” Heb 12:7, “It is for discipline that you endure.

God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?”

Here is the thing don’t confuse discipline with punishment and recalling sin.

To discipline someone in the Bible is the same as “training” them for righteousness.

It is helping you to acquire the tools, skills and resources to do better next time, to get further than before.

Dr. Watson said to his wife Mary after finding out about her spotty past, “Your past is forgiven.

Your future is my privilege.”

In other words, God is not punishing you for your past, He is training you to have a better future, a future He is privileged and you are privileged to have together.

Or, like Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that on the Day of Judgment, men will give account for every careless word they speak.”