THE WORD:: ce


God expects us to earth our faith in the realities of everyday life


me of the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus may have been the first book that Jewish children studied in the synagogue, but it is probably the last book that anyone in today’s Church takes seriously. The rituals for


sacrifice and cleanliness seem so irrelevant (if not


incomprehensible) that it’s tempting to think it has nothing to offer the contemporary Church. And yet nothing


could be further from the truth because, by its very concentration on detail,


the book is a sobering reminder that God expects us to earth our faith in the realities of everyday life, and that, far from disarming us, our failures should drive us back to the one who can cleanse us from every sin. The book of Leviticus spelled out


how God expected his people to fulfil their calling to be “a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6) in Moses’ day. The apostle Peter recognised that the Lord expects nothing less of the Church. We are “His very own possession” but we must never forget that with great privilege comes great responsibility. We are to be holy, for


example. This will manifest itself in different ways, in different cultures, (we might reasonably assume that we can trim the hair on our temples), but we must never forget that in the final analysis, holiness is all about dedication. The command, “You must be holy because the Lord your God is holy”, essentially meant: “You must be a different kind of nation, because Yahweh is a different kind of God”.


Or, to put it another way, we must never allow the world to shape our values or mould our behaviour (Romans 12:1ff). We must take our priestly duties


seriously too, and that means recognising the importance of our sacrifice. We don’t need goats or calves of course, nor even turtledoves or pigeons, but God does still expect our sacrifices – sacrifices of praise echoing from lives of love (Romans: 12:1ff, Hebrews: 13:15-16). Given this then, we shouldn’t


be surprised to discover that the apostle Paul understood the Church’s mission in these terms too. That’s why he said God had given him the priestly duty of “proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:16). New Year resolutions come in all


sorts of shapes and sizes, and some are more useful than others. On reflection, I can think of no better way to begin 2012 than to remind myself that God has entrusted me with the priestly duty of sharing my faith, in the hope that it will result in a constant stream of people surrendering their lives to him.


Reading 1 Peter 2:1-12


Prayer


Thank you Lord for choosing us and giving us such a wonderful purpose in life. Help us to live in a way that pleases you and attracts others to you too. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


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