Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 21 February 2021

 Happy Sunday!  

Kind of a weird, out-of-cycle day.  Due to the really nasty ice storms this past week, ice that largely hasn't melted and is an inch or so thick in many places, the usual gathering for church services was converted into an on-line event today.  Doesn't help that ice melt salt etc. is simply not available, and lots of us have been looking.   So the decision was the correct one, but we meet that closeness.  We're supposed to be going into a warming/ less arctic period this coming week, or so the (frequently wrong) "experts" are prognosticating.  We shall see.  But it does kind of throw our weekly routines out of sync.  Not the worst problem, that, but its real.

We have this past week entered into the period we call "Lent".  This is the 40-day run up to Easter, which is of course closely tied to Passover.  We often lose track of that, unfortunately, but this period of time also has significance for the Jews, and certainly that was true during and before the appearance of Jesus.  It's an excellent thing to treat this period carefully and reverently and, yes, prayerfully.  

And it doesn't help that I got word last evening that one of my cousins'  fathers had passed over Friday night.  Ernest had long been the pastor at the church I grew up in, and he was awfully good to me even though I was one of those kids (including in high school) that all the teachers tried to avoid.  He planted seeds on some pretty stony ground, and I am grateful.  Very.  With all stuff attendant to the "Wuhan flu" that have been sitting on the land for more than a year now, arrangements are not yet public.  But then, my own brother passed in late December and we've not been allowed to have any memorial gathering, and there are many other cases.  So we shall see.

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Numbers 5, 6

NUMBERS 5

Isolation of the Unclean

1The Lord instructed Moses: 2“Command the Israelites to send away anyone from the camp who is afflicted with a skin disease,  anyone who has a bodily discharge,  or anyone who is defiled because of a corpse.  3You must send away both male or female; send them outside the camp, so that they will not defile their camps where I dwell among them.” 4The Israelites did this, sending them outside the camp. The Israelites did as the Lord instructed Moses.

Compensation for Wrongdoing

5The Lord spoke to Moses: 6“Tell the Israelites: When a man or woman commits any sin against another, that person acts unfaithfully toward the Lord  and is guilty.  7The person is to confess  the sin he has committed. He is to pay full compensation, add a fifth of its value to it, and give it to the individual he has wronged.  8But if that individual has no relative  to receive compensation,  the compensation goes to the Lord for the priest, along with the atonement ram by which the priest will make atonement for the guilty person.  9Every holy contribution the Israelites present to the priest will be his.  10Each one’s holy contribution is his to give; what each one gives to the priest will be his.”

The Jealousy Ritual

11The Lord spoke to Moses: 12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man’s wife goes astray, is unfaithful to him, 13and sleeps with another,  but it is concealed from her husband, and she is undetected, even though she has defiled herself, since there is no witness against her, and she wasn’t caught in the act; 14and if a feeling of jealousy  comes over the husband and he becomes jealous because of his wife who has defiled herself — or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of her though she has not defiled herself — 15then the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He is also to bring an offering for her of two quarts  of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering for remembrance that brings sin to mind.

16“The priest is to bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord. 17Then the priest is to take holy water in a clay bowl, and take some of the dust from the tabernacle floor and put it in the water. 18After the priest has the woman stand before the Lord, he is to let down her hair  and place in her hands the grain offering for remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse. 19The priest will require the woman to take an oath and will say to her, ‘If no man has slept with you, if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, be unaffected by this bitter water that brings a curse. 20But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has slept with you’ — 21at this point the priest must make the woman take the oath with the sworn curse, and he is to say to her — ‘May the Lord make you into an object of your people’s cursing and swearing when He makes your thigh  shrivel and your belly swell.  22May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach, causing your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’

“And the woman must reply, ‘Amen, Amen.’

23“Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. 24He will require the woman to drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and cause bitter suffering. 25The priest is to take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, wave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. 26The priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion  and burn it on the altar. Then he will require the woman to drink the water.

27“When he makes her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, and her thigh will shrivel. She will become a curse among her people. 28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, she will be unaffected and will be able to conceive children.

29“This is the law regarding jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, 30or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he becomes jealous of his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will apply this entire ritual to her. 31The husband will be free of guilt, but that woman will bear the consequences of her guilt.”

NUMBERS 6

The Nazirite Vow

1The Lord instructed Moses: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When a man or woman makes a special vow, a Nazirite vow,  to consecrate himself to  the Lord, 3he is to abstain  from wine and beer.  He must not drink vinegar made from wine or from beer. He must not drink any grape juice or eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4He is not to eat anything produced by the grapevine, from seeds to skin,  during his vow.

5“You must not cut his hair  throughout the time of his vow of consecration. He must be holy until the time is completed during which he consecrates himself to the Lord; he is to let the hair of his head grow long. 6He must not go near a dead body during the time he consecrates himself to the Lord.  7He is not to defile himself for his father or mother, or his brother or sister, when they die, because the hair consecrated to his God is on his head. 8He is holy to the Lord  during the time of consecration.

9“If someone suddenly dies near him, defiling his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his purification; he is to shave it on the seventh day.  10On the eighth day he is to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting.  11The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering  to make atonement on behalf of the Nazirite, since he sinned because of the corpse. On that day he must consecrate  his head again.  12He is to rededicate his time of consecration to the Lord and to bring a year-old male lamb as a restitution offering.  But do not count the previous period, because his consecrated hair became defiled.

13“This is the law of the Nazirite: On the day his time of consecration is completed, he must be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting.  14He is to present an offering to the Lord  of one unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, one unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, one unblemished ram as a fellowship offering,  15along with their grain offerings and drink offerings,  and a basket of unleavened cakes made from fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers coated with oil. 

16“The priest is to present these before the Lord and sacrifice the Nazirite’s sin offering and burnt offering. 17He will also offer the ram as a fellowship sacrifice to the Lord, together with the basket of unleavened bread. Then the priest will offer the accompanying grain offering and drink offering.

18“The Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head at the entrance to the tent of meeting, take the hair from his head, and put it on the fire under the fellowship sacrifice. 19The priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands  of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head. 20The priest is to wave them as a presentation offering before the Lord.  It is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the presentation offering and the thigh of the contribution.  After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.

21“This is the ritual of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord for his consecration,  in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes in keeping with the ritual for his consecration.”

The Priestly Blessing

22The Lord spoke to Moses: 23“Tell Aaron and his sons how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

24May Yahweh bless you and protect you; 

25may Yahweh make His face shine on you

and be gracious to you; 

26may Yahweh look with favor on you 

and give you peace.  

27In this way they will pronounce My name over  the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

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Mark 4:1-20

MARK 4

The Parable of the Sower

1Again  He began to teach  by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around Him. So He got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was on the shore facing the sea. 2He taught them many things in parables,  and in His teaching  He said to them: 3“Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow.  4As he sowed, this occurred: Some seed fell along the path,  and the birds came and ate  it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up right away,  since it didn’t have deep soil. 6When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it didn’t have a root, it withered.  7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop. 8Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop that increased  30, 60, and 100 times what was sown.”  9Then He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen! ” 

Why Jesus Used Parables

10When He was alone with the Twelve,  those who were around Him asked Him about the parables.  11He answered them, “The secret  of the kingdom of God  has been given to you, but to those outside,  everything comes in parables 12so that

they may look and look,

yet not perceive;

they may listen and listen,

yet not understand; 

otherwise, they might turn back —

and be forgiven.”   

The Parable of the Sower Explained

13Then  He said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable?  How then will you understand any of the parables? 14The sower sows  the word.  15These  are the ones along the path  where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately Satan  comes and takes away the word  sown in them.  16And these are  the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.  17But they have no root in themselves; they are short-lived. When pressure  or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately stumble.  18Others are sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19but the worries  of this age,  the seduction   of wealth,  and the desires  for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  20But the ones sown on good ground are those who hear the word,  welcome it, and produce a crop:  30, 60, and 100 times what was sown.”