Sunday Sermonette: Wasting food

Exodus 29 goes from the stage setting of 27 and costuming of 28 to the action of the drama: consecration of the tabernacle and establishment of the priesthood. These instructions are highly elaborate and seem largely arbitrary, but they do have the consistent quality of being very expensive. The temple is built of precious materials, the garments are set with gemstones, and now we have a ritual in which mass quantities of food are destroyed. For pastoral nomads, meeting God ' s demands must have been quite onerous. Judaism today no longer has this quality. Temples are mostly modest, as are priestly garments, sacrifice has long been abolished, and except for the highly orthodox, ritual is largely restricted to the sabbath.But these chapters of Exodus do make me think of medieval Catholicism, in which the resources of what were quite poor communities were squeezed the create great cathedrals, filled with precious objects, presided over by bishops in silk robes wearing precious rings. Some religions demand this sort of ostentation, whereas others promote simplicity in worship and honor God through non-material observances. I don ' t really have an explanation for these differences.29 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect.2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brus...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs