Campus Ministry According to Leviticus
By John Allert
Executive Director of Campus Ministry Toolbox
Antithesis. The opposite of a proposition. It is a strange word we do not use often (actually never) but it is the theme of Leviticus because it is the real purpose behind the Law. It is also a concept the people of God today need to reclaim.
What does not sacrificing a bull with deformed testicles, or not eating stork-kabobs, or not farming your farm every 50 years have to do with college ministry? Antithesis. God desires and commands the people He has chosen, set apart, and revealed himself to, to be different and distinct from those around them. If we as Christians act/think, marry/divorce, save/spend, love/hate, work/rest the same as the world except we attend a building with a cross and read some ancient book, why would other people desire that? (I mean this from their perspective). How is life in Christ a glorious alternative that really does transform lives? There has always been a distinction between light and darkness, good, and evil, the way of the world and the way of God. I just wonder if I have lost this in my life and ministry. “Take up your cross and follow me” sounds like a break from the way I was going and the choices I was making, to a new way of living, right? In an effort to be relevant have we sacrificed distinction? Do we appeal to the flesh to save the spirit? When are we being “as wise as serpents”, and when do we grieve God (and ironically the world) with our slick marketing?
How we suffer, sacrifice, love the unlovely and those different from us. How we treat our spouse, make disciples of all nations, and give generously. How we raise our kids and invest our time. What preoccupations we have and what ambitions we pursue. What we call good, true and beautiful as well as false, evil, and ugly. What we stand for and stand against- these are the ways we need to be different.
Maybe that’s not popular, or seems backwards, or looks strange at times to a world that operates upside down, and is spiritually dead, but maybe that’s okay. I’m not saying be weird, but holy. This is God’s design and desire for His people. We are to be holy as He is holy (Lev 11:44-45,1Pet 2:9).
Let us stop making distinctions where God does not (race, socio-economic, worship styles) and start making distinctions that tell the whole world we are followers of Christ. Our students and our ministries must reclaim this truth in a church full of oatmeal Christians mesmerized by a cacophony of tolerance. May our lives sing a new song, dance to a different beat, march to a different drum and show of the worthiness of our God by the difference He makes in our lives. Life in God is not life in the world. Antithesis. Let’s get some more.
Passages for further study- Ex 19:6, 1Pet 1:15-16, lev 10:10, Acts 15:9, 1Cor4:7, Rom 10:12, Col 3:11
© John Allert, Campus Ministry Toolbox 2012