Community/Communion
May 14, 2023Lanitha Tanton presented "Where You Are in Community" as a sequel to last week's message. A video of the message is here.
[Conversation Starters will begin again with the start of the next official life groups session this summer.]
One could use the phrase "story of community" to describe the entire Torah. The Torah tells the story of building the Israelite community from Adam through the patriarchs and up to the entry into the Promised Land and sets out the rules to create as close to an ideal society as possible. We all know that the results have been far from ideal, but you get the point. The world would be darn near utopian if everyone followed just the Ten Commandments let alone all the laws of the Torah.
This fact alone should be reason enough to compel study of the Torah by everyone who lives or wants to live in a free society. The Founders of the U.S. found much wisdom in the Torah (and the Bible generally) and they used that wisdom to frame much of the Constitution. Regardless of faith or no faith, study of the Torah provides wisdom for Man to apply to nearly every aspect of life. Fun fact: Deuteronomy is the most-often cited book by the Founders out of all the books they used, religious and secular included. And, more importantly, the people of the day would fully understand the references. Back then, people were very Bible literate. These were the days when graduating from a Harvard or a Yale required Bible study and learning Biblical Hebrew.
And the balance of the Old Testament, in large measure, continues that story of community, praises that story, warns against abandoning God and the rules, etc.
"Communion" is another story. As you might imagine, that word does not occur in the Old Testament (OT). Nonetheles, students of the Bible do point to some OT verses and say they allude to communion to come. For examples, see Exodus 12:8-11, Exodus 24:8, Exodus 24:9-11, Isaiah 53:6-7, Genesis 3:22, Deuteronomy 8:3, and Jeremiah 31:31-32.
What I find more compelling is equating "communion" of the NT with "covenant" (ber-eeth, בְּרִית) of the OT. Rather than say putting your heart into it in order to be in communion with, the OT might suggest we need to put our heart in to it to uphold the covenants with others. BTW, there are other Biblical Hebrew words translated as "covenant," but their meanings lean to: arise, stand, bond, remember, everlasting, tablet (e.g. Ten Commandments), keep, preserve, and interval (as in "space between" two parties in a contract). You can see at what the root of the word is getting.
Don't forget that "heart" in the OT is not refering to the organ that pumps blood. "Heart" in the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) languages meant the mind, the seat of thinking. FYI, the seat of feelings was the kidneys.
Lanitha mentioned this phrase which occurs in the OT as, "And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Remember, in ancient Hebrew, the heart was the seat of the mind, and what they called the mind (nephesh) was your essence or muchness. Regardless, note that it takes all three. The phrase could be translated today, in order, "mind, soul, and muchness." Muchness here includes "all you've got": your talents, your property, your resources, etc.; everything!
There are many covenants in the OT. Some are between God and Man. Some are between Man and Man. Some are conditional. Some are unconditional. But in all cases, covenants define how people have skin in the game in relationship with others and/or with God. It's much like how to commune with others in the sense of participating and behaving in relationships with others.
The "big three" covenants of the Torah are: 1. God's promise to Noah and crew following the flood to never destroy man again by flood (Genesis 9), 2. God's covenant with Abraham sealed by circumcision and promising land and blessing and many descendants (Genesis 17), and 3. the revelation of the Ten Commandments et al at Mount Sinai and sealed with observance of the Sabbath (Exodus 31:13).
Bonus
There's a phrase in the Torah that describes the opposite of being in community or in covenant. It's "cut off," as in cut of from his kin. It's a "punishment" listed for certain actions. For example, see Genesis 17:14 (uncircumcised males are cut off from their kin).
The word transated as "cut off" is ka-rate (כָּרַת). As Prager points out, the exact meaning of being cut off is not clear. It could be a shortened lifetime, being denied the afterlife, and the like. Prager prefers a simpler understanding: being cut off or cut out of the Jewish people. You choose not to abide by the rules, OK, no problem, you're just out. It's a consequence, not a punishment.