If
the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally... (Leviticus 4:2)
When
Leviticus uses the phrase sins
unintentionally, it might be better rendered as wanders away into sin, or does wrong. Ignorance of the law was no excuse. If someone (or a group) engaged in
actions or behaviors and only later found out those things were infractions of
the law, he was (they were) still guilty. The real difference
between the sin offering and
the guilt offering was
that the sin offering was for more general sins, while the guilt offering
included restitution for harming or injuring another person.
Whether
between persons, or between humanity and God, these laws are for maintaining
relationship and restoring that relationship once it has been broken.
An
interesting component of this passage is the concept of community sin. Too
often we think of sin as only an individual’s offense rather than allowing for
the idea of sin shared by the entire community. The church is not innocent of
wrongdoing. Whether it’s the crusades, the Inquisition, genocide of native
peoples in the name of manifest destiny, dehumanizing women, Blacks and now
gays and lesbians, or our misguided attempt to enforce an Evangelical system of
government on the rest of America, the church… the Christian community is not
innocent.
There
are sins for which our communities (countries, political parties, religions,
denominations, congregations, ethnic groups, genders, etc.) need to repent.
How
will you, as part of the church, encourage or facilitate repentance in the
Christian community this week?
When I read chapter 5 and thoought about the offerings that were to be made for sins you didn't know you committed,those you might commit and not realize, I began to think about my days and the unintentional sins that I commit. Thoughts, comments that would be best left unsaid. But what I was really thinking about was the huge amount of butchering, slaughtering etc. that must have been taking place day in and day out. How often were these sacrifices to be done? If there were thousands of people at this time how could the priests keep up with the slaughtering? What about the stench, continual disposal outside the city and that mess. It seems that it would be a hurculean task.
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