In my last post I explored the principle in Leviticus 19:9 - 10, showing how it builds mission into society, i.e. in the way you work you have conscious and intentional provision for the poor and disadvantaged.
In fact the concept goes even further than this. It enables such people to keep their own dignity by doing their own work to provide food for themselves. In other words instead of the farmer simply giving some of his hard earned crop away, which would be a fine thing, there is the invitation for others to actively share in the crop by harvesting from God's provision for themselves.
This would be especially poignant in a society where if you had no land, it would be difficult to work for yourself for such provision. The principle effectively 'lends' or 'spares' them some land from which to glean, enabling them to work just like other privileged people. If they work hard, they too can do quite well (as per the story of Ruth). This system thus levels the playing field, enabling privileged and unprivileged alike to work productively.
It is therefore a system of grace, operating on more than one level. And once again it is built into the normal rhythms of the society.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Building mission into society
Leviticus 19 verses 9 & 10 give a very important principle: leave some slack that others can freely pick from. It is gloriously simple - in your natural harvest there is provision for those who would otherwise struggle.
I wonder if the foodbank we opened this week could be considered as an equivalent for our culture of these verses: in your shopping build in some extra capacity that is made freely available to those in need. Both have a sense of building mission into society, i.e. in the way we operate provision is made for those in need. What takes it a level above the welfare state is the active consciousness of it - it is not simply a tax that disappears into the ether, but instead you purposefully leave slack for the benefit of others in your locality.
The Leviticus 19 verses goes against the grain (excuse the pun) of how much of our society operates - since we strive to squeeze out every last fraction of a percent of productivity. Yet right from beginning Israel was taught to create a society that deliberately had some inefficiency, but it was an inefficiency that would enable the society to be richer overall. Mission was built into the way society was to operate.
I wonder if the foodbank we opened this week could be considered as an equivalent for our culture of these verses: in your shopping build in some extra capacity that is made freely available to those in need. Both have a sense of building mission into society, i.e. in the way we operate provision is made for those in need. What takes it a level above the welfare state is the active consciousness of it - it is not simply a tax that disappears into the ether, but instead you purposefully leave slack for the benefit of others in your locality.
The Leviticus 19 verses goes against the grain (excuse the pun) of how much of our society operates - since we strive to squeeze out every last fraction of a percent of productivity. Yet right from beginning Israel was taught to create a society that deliberately had some inefficiency, but it was an inefficiency that would enable the society to be richer overall. Mission was built into the way society was to operate.
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