The Burr in the Burgh

This week, I am at Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm sitting in on a continuing education class for pastors on Leviticus. Our instructor is Dr. John Kleinig, Old Testament scholar at Australian Lutheran College.

He is quite fantastic and has me convinced that Leviticus is - by Christians - the most tragically neglected book of the Bible. My pastor, Rev. David Petersen, blogged several times recently about his experience with this course when it was offered in Fort Wayne.

The over-arching theme of Leviticus is holiness. The concept of holiness is the key for understanding the whole arrangement of worship in Israel and God’s involvement in worship. It has crucial implications for Christian worship as well.

First of all, only God is holy. No one and nothing apart from God is holy. There is no other sources of holiness. How do things and people become holy? Only by contact with God. The trouble is that sinful people who come into contact with God (without mediation) are destroyed, just as fire burns chaff and light scatters darkness. We sinful beings are in need of a means to access God (atonement; Great High Priest, Christ as intercessor).

I am attracted to this teaching, not only because I recognize the scriptural soundness of it, but because I am annoyed by the buddy/buddy informality that permeates much of contemporary Christianity. Nothing is sacred. God is a benign cuddly grandpa.