May the mumbling commence!
Oh, to be cleansed and atoned for! As I read chapter fourteen of Leviticus, I was struck by the purification process for those with infectious skin diseases. The first seven verses of the chapter tell about the initial interaction between the person and the priest. Since the banished person should not enter the camp (or town), the priest had to go out of the camp (or town) to perform the beginning of the purification process. I wonder how someone with an infectious skin disease would have got the message to the priests that he was healed. Were there loved ones of the banished person who might maintain contact with them? Were there devoted individuals who would put their reputations and lives at risk to leave the camp (or city) with the express purpose of relating to these banished people?
However the communication happened, when the priest came out of the camp, he brought with him two clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. These items were supplied by the priest and/or the community. I can almost smell the aromatic cedar wood. What a lovely embrace of scent (at least to me)!
In the ceremony, one of the birds would be killed, and its blood would be collected in a clay pot that already had fresh water in it. According to the laws governing cleanness, that clay pot would need to be destroyed after this ceremony. Much better a clay pot than a human life! The live bird, along with the cedar wood and the hyssop branch, would be dipped into the water and blood in the clay pot. Most probably the hyssop branch was used to sprinkle the mixture on the person to be purified. This was repeated seven times, a complete number in the eyes of Hebrews.
Then, a beautiful thing happened. The priest pronounced the person clean, and the second, live bird was released into the air. Even as the cleansed person returned to the community, the bird returned to freedom. What a beautiful symbol!
But that was the only the first part of the reintegration of the person to the fullness of communion with God’s people. The cleansed person would then have to shave off all their hair, wash their clothes, and bathe. Then, the person could return to camp, where he or she would have to stay outside of his or her tent for seven days. There they would have to be, naked of hair and exposed to the eyes of the community. On the seventh day, they must repeat the process (shave, wash clothes, and bathe).
Then, on the eighth day, the person to be purified would bring to the priest two male lambs, a ewe lamb, six quarts of flour mixed with oil, and about two-thirds a pint of oil. That’s an expensive offering for someone banished from the community. While there may be help from family members and friends, there was also an alternative, slightly less expensive offering – one lamb, some oil, and two birds.
Israel was called by God to be a nation of priests. I find it interesting that this process, in some ways, parallels the process for the consecration of Aaron and his family. Some of the blood of the offering is placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe. The same is to be done with some of the anointing oil. Sound familiar? It is familiar because it is exactly what was done to Aaron and his sons during their consecration, which also lasted seven days. Then, the remainder of the oil was poured over the head of the person being cleansed. After this process, the person returned to full communion as a member of Israel – once more a part of the nation of priests.
I give thanks this day for avenues for purification and atonement. God does call us to be holy and perfect, so we need ways of being purified and atoned for. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Jesus is the path for purification and atonement now.
And let’s remember that we need to be open to ways to reintegrate those who have fallen from full communion and to integrate those who seek communion for the first time. Let’s not close the doors of communication that the Holy Spirit opens in our families, our friends, and our workplaces. May it be so, because the harvest is still plentiful and the workers are still few.
Enough mumbling for today…
Peace Out
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