I'm reading through the Bible in what is supposed to be chronological order, and I'm sure for the most part they have it right. But that's beside the point for now. I'm in Exodus and starting Leviticus and the sacrifices are being described. And perhaps for the first time I could visualize the priests sacrificing these animals. It becomes apparent quickly that the tabernacle courts are a mess, awash with blood. I mean men come to worship and animals are gutted and the blood runs everywhere, and then the priest actually throws the blood around, and grabs different organs and burns them in a certain order.
About six years ago I lived on a farm and the owner had a nuisance permit to kill deer. I spent many midnights helping gut and cut up deer and it was a stinky nasty mess (albeit the tenderloins were wonderful to eat but the process to get them, yuck). So I'm reading about what God is commanding them to do and I think, this is worship? Really? This is a mess!
Today at most churches worship is neat and tidy and there's no guts being spilled literally or figuratively. And maybe we're missing out. Maybe God didn't intend worship to be a neat, tidy, orderly thing. Now I know there's the New Testament verse about orderly worship. But what if we've gone too far? Certainly there was a level of order and reverence that was carried out at the tabernacle but there was also a mess. And when do we ever get messy anymore? When or where do we deal with the guts and blood and the hard stuff?
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