BBQ and Sacrifice...

The Facebook post from my seminary-student daughter read: "'There is a fine line between sacrifice and bbq,' that is what I am learning in seminary."  Laugh here...but think about it some more.

Danger lurks in sacrifice as bbq...and great joy.  So on the one hand, the concept of sacrifice in the Old Testament was to be taken seriously...no fooling around.  If the sacrifice turned into an occasion for beer and brats, not a good thing.  The making holy, sanctification, of God's people was a gift not to be trifled with.

On the other hand, priests were allowed to eat the meat offered in sacrifice.  It was part of the support of the priestly class.  There were rules, but bbq was allowed.

So here's the interesting deal.  God's work to redeem us and the signs of that work are overwhelmingly significant.  Baptism is a powerful sign of God's love offered to us before we can even begin to respond.  Communion sustains us with the knowledge that God continues to work in and through us.  Scripture enables us to hear the voice of God.  Christian community gifts us with the experience of grace and forgiveness and the challenge to practice grace and forgiveness with others.  None of that is to be taken lightly.

On the other hand (again), God works in and through very ordinary people and elements to accomplish God's purposes.  The water of baptism is just plain water, communion is just plain bread and wine/juice...no magic.  God is so....well...God...that there is no way for us to know/see/relate to GOD.  But God loves us so much that God makes Godself known through the simple, the plain, the human.

So, there is a fine line between sacrifice and bbq...Thank GOD!

Identity...

I've never found those "become a fan" things that the kids click on all the time (on Facebook)...a fan of "Mom, you're not mad because I talked back, you're mad because I'm right," or "no reception," or "sweats, hoodies, and a messy bun," or "you."  Won't go looking either...but it is an interesting way to claim an identity. 

Claiming identity in this culture typically revolves around what car you drive, house you buy, clothes you wear, groups you join.  Other cultures base identity in geography, skin color, or family/clan group.  The difference, it seems, is between who you are (other cultures) and what you do (us). 

Is that why it is so hard for us to live into an identity given to us by God without having to "do" something to earn it?  Is that why it is so hard to understand what God has done for us to claim us as God's own?  Is that why it is so easy to attempt to define and put boundaries/rules around the "appropriate" life with God when God keeps trying to get us to live in freedom and grace?