ritual
Morning and evening. Today and tomorrow and the day after, for the next week and the next month, year upon year and century upon century, a lamb shall be sacrificed morning and evening. It shall be for a burnt offering before Me forever.Why? Why should two lambs a day, fourteen a week, over 700 in a year, be spent on this altar? Why should the daily spilling of innocent blood be carried down through the centuries? What is the meaning? And what, when the meaning clearly has been lost and the God who proclaimed the sacrifice is now decrying its misuse, should be done?
What happens when a people loses sight of the purpose of its ritual? When the depth and the richness and the symbolism has been forgotten, and the marvel has been replaced by only motions? Is the ritual a loss? Should it be ended when its sanctity is gone, when it has become a shadow, indeed a blasphemy? Should it be replaced, or cast away altogether, rather than remain as a farce?
Or does the ritual have significance simply in its continuance? Morning and evening. Morning and evening, a lamb killed. Morning and evening, a sacrifice made. Today, and tomorrow, next week and next month, year after year and century after century until the command is eternally fulfilled, until the everlasting sacrifice has been delivered up forever. Holy to the Lord, regardless of the spiritual state of its offerers?
What is the sanctity of a ritual?
posted by kathryn @ 11:27 AM
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