Hallowed 50th

In my last post, I mentioned that the Hebrew jubilee was celebrated every 50 years because it followed seven cycles of sabbatical years (seven times seven). Another Jewish feast was calculated similarly: Leviticus describes the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) as celebrated on the “day after the seventh Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:16). The “counting of the omer” would ritually count the days from Passover to Shavuot. An omer is a measure of unthreashed stalks of grain—the amount that was used in an offering at the temple. But the ritual of “counting of the omer” would count the days, often with a congregation after evening prayer.

Shavuot celebrates Moses receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. It is considered a time of covenant between God and humanity. Traditionally, Noah made his covenant with God on Shavuot. It is also the season of grain harvest, starting with barley around Passover and ending with wheat seven weeks later. When they had the temple, people would offer two loaves of leavened bread from the wheat harvest. It was also the beginning of the fruit harvest, and people would begin to bring their first fruits to the temple.

Be Free

Recently, there was a story about a Moravian Church who purchased and forgave million of dollars of medical debt. The Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem started the Debt Jubilee Project to help people in the local counties who are burdened by the outrageous medical debt system.

For some background: Healthcare spending per capita in the U.S. was $12,914 in 2021, $5,000 more than any other high-income country. Unregulated costs, complex administrative bureaucracy (often related to sorting out insurances’ coding and billing), and for-profit medical businesses inflate the costs of receiving medical care. There is an estimated $195 billion in U.S. medical debt, larger than the entire economy of Greece.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19% of households could not afford to pay for medical care upfront in 2017. Four percent of households held high medical debt (more than 20% of annual income). It’s a problem not seen on a such a scale in developed countries that treat healthcare as a public service for the good of the citizens.   

When someone has an outstanding medical bill, the medical office will hire a debt collection agency to collect the payment. The collection agency, if there is still no payment, will bundle and sell debts on to a third-party collection agency, usually for pennies on the dollar so that they can recoup some of the loss ($1 is better than $0, even if the bill was $100). The medical office gets what it can and has to write off the rest. The third-party agency can do whatever they want with the debt. Usually, they try to collect it (make money). But in cases like this church, they forgive the debt. For around $15,000 the Trinity Moravian Church forgave $3.3 million of medical debt this year.

The Bells of Notre Dame

The famous bells of Notre Dame have become a recognizable, romanticized sound of Paris. Their constant vibrations give a continuous sense of breath to the sacred building. As part of the restoration since the 2019 fire, the bells have recently been restored and arrived back in the cathedral.

The first record of bell ringing at Notre Dame took place in 1198 during the construction of the cathedral. During the French Revolution, about 80% of France’s church bells were melted down. Notre Dame’s three clock bells and the large Emmanuel were spared. Emmanuel is the largest, current-oldest, and most famous of Notre Dame’s bells, was cast in 1686 and rings in F#.

The bells mark times for prayer but are also rung in celebration and honor. They were silent during the German occupation during World War II until in 1944, as French and American troops were entering Paris, the bells rang again, soon joined by bells across the city. Due to the Germans strict control over radio stations, many Parisians did not know how close Allied forces were. The bells were the first indication to many that liberation was imminent.

The Offering of Cain

There’s one part of the story of Cain and Abel that always bothered me: why wasn’t Cain’s offering good enough?

Cain was a farmer. He offered what he had: fruit. Abel was a shepherd. He offered what he had: sheep. Why is what the brothers offered more important than that they made offerings? I’d be angry and gloomy too if God held no regard for my offering. Now, it’s not Abel’s fault, and Cain definitely shouldn’t have let the anger consume him and lead him to kill his brother. But, why was his offering rejected to begin with? Does God really require flesh over fruit?

Well, it turns out that what they offered wasn’t equal (“he offered what he had”). Revisiting the text, Abel offered “from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions” (Gen. 4:4): the first and the best. Gen 4:3 says, “So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground.” There’s a footnote after “course of time” indicating at the end of day(s). So while Abel offered his first and best, Cain offered his leftovers as an afterthought. Later, God will accept offerings of first fruits from His people. It’s not about what was offered but how it was offered. Abel wanted to give the best he had; Cain was willing to give something but not the first/best and didn’t make it a priority.