{"id":4395,"date":"2025-10-27T16:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2025\/10\/27\/like-ripples-in-a-pond-based-on-leviticus\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:12:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:12:54","slug":"like-ripples-in-a-pond-based-on-leviticus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2025\/10\/27\/like-ripples-in-a-pond-based-on-leviticus\/","title":{"rendered":"Like Ripples in a Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Like Ripples in a Pond” based on Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Matthew 22:34-46<\/h1>\n
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Leviticus is one of those books of the Bible that we often pass over — I mean a fair portion is instructions for high priests in ancient Israel or dietary rules that we were absolved from following so this might be understandable. Or even worse \u2013 rules that are cherry-picked and used to harm. But there are portions of it that help not only with what we\u2019re still commanded to do, but which I think help us make sense of the whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shall be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy.\u201d The word used in Hebrew is \u201cKedosh\u201d meaning \u201choly\u201d or \u201cset aside\u201d – and while in much of Leviticus it\u2019s used to refer to ritual purity, cleanliness that allows humans to be in the presence of God (like in the temple in Jerusalem). But in this case, the verses that follow cast a different light. To be \u201ckedoshim\u201d or \u201choly ones\u201d requires no dunking in water nor abstaining from certain foods, but rather speaks to how we are required to live in relation to one another. That we must not be vengeful nor slanderous nor hate-filled. But rather kind, just, and loving.<\/p>\n

Now often Christians act as if Jesus came up with the loving of God and likewise neighbor \u2013 it\u2019s one of those \u201cholier than though\u201d habits that obscures our mission and creates tensions that need not exist. It wasn\u2019t even a new way to interpret the Pentateuch \u2013 in fact at least one biblical scholar, Nicholas J. Schaser, <\/b><\/a>notes that \u201cJewish sages who lived in Jesus\u2019 era described these biblical verses in very similar ways. For instance, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (circa 4th\u00a0century CE) Rabbi Akiva\u2014who was born around fifty years after Jesus\u2014says that the Levitical command to \u201clove your neighbor as yourself\u201d is the \u201cgreat principle of the Torah.\u201d1\u00a0A famous story preserved in the Babylonian Talmud (circa 600 CE) states that the renowned first-century sage Hillel once paraphrased Leviticus 19:18 for a non-Jew, saying, \u201cWhatever is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is\u00a0all the Torah<\/b>, the rest is commentary. Go study.\u201d 1<\/p>\n

The Talmud, for those who are not familiar, is one of the central texts of Rabbinic Judaism, second only in importance to the Hebrew Bible (which includes at it\u2019s core, the Torah). It\u2019s the combined thinking and arguments of thousands of Rabbis and a major source of Jewish Law or \u201cHalakah\u201d \u2013 which actually translates more literally to “the way to go” or “the way of walking”. For what it\u2019s worth, I think the Church Universal would be far less fractured if we had the equivalent of the Talmud\u2026but alas, here we are.<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019ve now clarified that \u201cloving neighbor as ourselves\u201d is the heart blood of not only Christianity, but also Judaism and that to be \u201ckedoshim\u201d or holy ones we must be just and kind in the ways we live and treat one another\u2026how the heck do we do that in this world that\u2019s gone mad? How do we look at each and every person and see a beloved child of God \u2013 even when that other person is the antithesis of what we want our \u201cneighbors\u201d to be? How do we \u201creprove our neighbor\u201d, demand accountability, use our voices to end our privilege, while not losing sight of the \u201cImago Dei\u201d or image of God in the opposition? And how do we keep on keeping on when we\u2019re tired and discouraged?<\/p>\n

I think we start small, like the mustard seed that grows into the huge tree and recognize that even the tiniest pebble creates ripples that reach far beyond the water it touched. And just like a tiny amount of yeast will raise 100x it\u2019s weight in flour, our efforts, our voices can start the fermenting, the leavening, that allows all of us to rise. Allows all of us to grab hold of the knowledge that we are kind, capable, beloved people of God \u2013 and feel the power that comes with that knowledge, that God is within each of us, we\u2019re not alone in this.<\/p>\n

The Pharisees in this reading of the Gospel didn\u2019t give a wrong answer \u2013 they just didn\u2019t give a complete one: Jesus was a descendant of the House of David, yes, but also upon his resurrection and triumph over death, he becomes Lord as well. Likewise so often in contemporary Christian preaching, Jesus as God Incarnate gets all the emphasis (often leading to that \u201cholier than thou attitude\u201d again), when in many cases we would do better to remember that Jesus also was fully human. A poor man, with brown skin, living in an occupied land under siege, one who raised his voice and made enemies of his religious authorities as well as the empire, one who fed the hungry, who treated women as equal, who cried out in fear and sadness as he said goodbye to friends and his mother. And in doing so, God became more like us, giving us the chance to become more like God.<\/p>\n

May we use that power and knowledge to live into what it takes to help build the Kindom. Amen.<\/p>\n

Based on \u201cLeviticus 19:1-2, 15-18\u201d and \u201cMatthew 22:34-46\u201d<\/p>\n

1) Commentary on Matthew 22:34-46 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

October 26, 2025<\/p>\n

Karyn McCloskey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Like Ripples in a Pond” based on Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Matthew 22:34-46 Leviticus is one of those books of … Continue reading Like Ripples in a Pond<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,38,39,33,1265,372,56],"class_list":["post-4395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-first-umc-schenectady","tag-love","tag-schenectady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4620,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395\/revisions\/4620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}