Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 32 and 1 Corinthians 5

Deuteronomy 32 – The Song of Moses [the number of verses equals the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet – 23 - times 3. It concludes the teaching books of the Old Testament: “my teaching will fall like drops of rain and form on the earth like dew. My words will fall like showers on young plants, like gentle rain on tender grass” (32:2). From the beginning, the Judeo-Christian vision has been that we humans are here on earth as creations of a “mighty,” “just” and “perfect” God, who seeks for us to be “like” Him, to be a consort for Him in this awesome universe. We ALWAYS fall short; we never are fully “like” Him as we were created to be: “Your God is faithful and true; he does what is right and fair. But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people” (32:4-5). We must constantly be reminded of these basics – his faithfulness to us, our repeated failures to return this faithfulness, his dissatisfaction and anger but also his constant willingness to forgive and start over. We must remember; we must pass the memory along.

There is no avoidance in the Old Testament, and especially here in Deuteronomy, of the reality that the history of humanity has been a story of disaster, suffering, war, and moral failure. The writers of the Torah seem to have no compunction about giving God ultimate responsibility for all of it. And, while that is a tough message to swallow, it permits us to believe that we are not hopelessly unfaithful. We can be better. God permits us to put the blame on Him in this world-view: “’I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real. I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal, and no one can oppose what I do. As surely as I am the living God, I raise my hand and I vow that I will sharpen my flashing sword and see that justice is done. I will take revenge on my enemies and punish those who hate me. My arrows will drip with their blood, and my sword will kill all who oppose me “ (32:39-41). But if we turn to him in faithfulness, we can live as He intends.

I admit that it is very hard for me to digest the harsh words of this book as the words of my God, but when I feel ready to slough them off or ascribe them to a wholly different God than the God Jesus came to reveal, I have to remember that these are the words Jesus too was raised to accept as true. They are at the very heart of the tradition he fulfilled.  And God holds even the most prestigious leaders to His high standard. To conclude the chapter, Moses is told to go to Mt. Nebo and look over the land the Lord is giving to His people. Moses will die here just as Aaron, his brother, died for having been “unfaithful to [God] in the presence of the people of Israel . . .You will look at the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land that I am giving the people of Israel” (32:50).

1 Corinthians 5 - A case of incest that has been brought to his attention disturbs Paul, especially in light of the spiritual boasting the Corinthian church has indulged in.  The person should be expelled from the community in Paul’s opinion.  But still it is the church’s boasting that is the focus of his concern (5:6). It is not necessary (or possible) to withdraw from all the immoral people who live in the world we inhabit; but Christians must exercise discipline inside the church community, “banning” those who are “sexually immoral or greedy” or those who are “idolater[s], reviler[s], drunkard[s] or robber[s]” (5:11).  God is judge of those outside the church, but inside there must be some discipline.

Paul lived in a simpler time, I think. We [and here I think I speak for both Catholics and Quakers] clearly do not “separate” ourselves from people in our faith community whom we see as “sinners.” There is a degree of agreement that we cannot and should not judge others; and where is the line in the sand dividing those whose sins are so egregious they should lead to banishment. We probably should “labor” more actively with those in our communities who we suspect are behaving badly, but especially here in America, we have trouble doing this. I think we all feel that Paul’s suggestion we leave the judgment to God is the best advice. It’s just when people’s bad behavior leads to dysfunction within the community that it really becomes important to deal with it.