November 9th

Leviticus 23:1-24:23, Mark 15:33-47, Psalm 32:1-11

What we all need is a good holiday. Although it is a shame that we have lost the real meaning of that word. Holiday or Holy-day which us where it came from.

Holy-days are key within the calendar of the early Israelite people, they had quite a few of them and they had them at least once a week. The Sabbath was a big thing and it was to be respected. But then there were all the other festivals and one of those was a whole week long. They didn’t do things  by halves, when it came to God they tried to do things properly.

Although these festivals may have slipped from our calendar, what is more shocking is that God has slipped from our calendar. Ok we often talk about putting Christ back in to Christmas but as Christians we are a bit guilty too. In the Mark reading Jesus has just died, the centre of the Easter story. Tomorrow the resurrection, the heart of the Easter story. As a church we sometimes have a general importance of the season, the run up of lent but then we turn up on Easter Sunday to really get into the season before enjoying the bank holiday the next day. What about Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the rest of the week. When we do celebrate God we can take a few lessons from the people of Israel. And I have only mentioned one festival. They had loads more. Certainly one challenge to the church from Leviticus.

What I really really loved about today’s readings though is the fact that the death of Jesus and this psalm quite literally sit side by side. Jesus call out to God, feeling forsaken and then he breathes his last. This idea of being forsaken is one that the psalmists talk about regularly and yet here, just as Jesus is breathing his last breath we can look at the column at the side and here these words:

Blessed is the one
   whose transgressions are forgiven,
   whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
   whose sin the LORD does not count against them

 

“Washed Clean”

I loved this video, all about what the death of Jesus does, summed up in Psalm 32. Hold yourself in that place today.