Bric-a-brac

Yup, all the reading for Jeremiah and Ezekiel has been completed.  I just didn’t post it… so now it looks like it was just barely done.  Oops.

What is an essential tradition in your family?  You know, the one thing everyone conforms to no matter what they did before they married in?  Surely, someone can marry in to your family and choose to not conform to the tradition… but then they become “that person”.  Your family still accepts them, at least on the surface…but they never truly become part of the family because they refuse to participate/associate with/take an interest in/share with the core values of the family.  Instead, they choose to observe.

What happens during these observations?  Well, while they can be of a purely innocent nature, it is our natural tendency to feel like are being judged.  Why else would they continue to remain on the outside of the family when they could so easily enter into the fold?

What are the entrance requirements for your Church family?  It varies from denomination to denomination, but here are a few of the more common requirements that must be met before one is “fully accepted” as a member:

• New Member Class (varies from 6 weeks to a year of training in doctrine…at least the stance that church takes on various points of doctrine)
• A walk down the aisle
• Water baptism, which may or may not be proceeded by any doctrinal training… (and varies with different denominations as to whether it is done by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion)
• Baptism in the Holy Spirit (not an entrance requirement, but it does increase your acceptance in some circles)

What about during the Persian Period?  What did YHWH require of his people?

In Isaiah 56:1-8, we read that YHWH is gathering people to Him.  His standards are not as strenuous as we would have made them out to be.  In a nutshell, to be accepted by YHWH, keep the Sabbath.  Indeed, those who would have surely been outcasts are told that they’ll be given “an everlasting name that shall not be cut off” (56:5).  This sounds an awful lot like what our churches claim today…except our churches add several more steps before someone is “truly accepted”.  So the question is, what does God require and what does humanity require?  (Remember, God does not change… but humans have proven themselves to be extremely fickle.)

So, as I have learned from Dr. Reid:  “this is why I am a Biblical scholar and not a systematic theologian!”