June 14, 2018: Day 61 – Leviticus 21

It seems like God only wants the perfect and the unblemished to serve him as priest according to this Scripture in Leviticus.  I am perfectly comfortable in pastor’s being held to a higher standard.  If we are going to be standing in front of people and giving them recommendations on how to live and if we are going to interpret Scripture and give what is our understanding of God’s word for that time and place, then we should be held to the standard, and probably even above that one, that we profess.  I have no problem with that.  I say this not because I am confident that I will live up to expectations, I know I will fall short, but simply because that is what leaders need to do.  They need to be held to higher standards.

What we must be aware of is when you hold people to higher standards then the temptation is to think that this person is better, or for our case as Protestants, that this person has a closer walk with Jesus.  That is not our understanding.  In our thinking where we uplift the priesthood of all believers, we say with confidence that every single person is called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and no one calling is higher or more important than another.  As a pastor I do not have a more important role to serve  than the teacher in the public school.  You can carry that out as far as you would like.

So this chapter deals with the physical requirements for a priest of the people of Israel and who he is allowed to marry or not marry.  Boy, I’m glad to be a Presbyterian.