Wellness Gifts

Now, in the context of these atoning gifts, as they're removing impurity, it's important for us to remember that impurity can be of various kinds.

There is what we have come to call mortal impurity, things which are about a formal separation of ordinary stuff from life stuff, things which are not typically about sin or guilt.

There is also moral impurity about ethical separation of bad stuff from good stuff, and this does concern sin and guilt.

And it is important to keep both kinds of impurity in mind here today for two reasons.

For one, because the atoning gifts will deal with both kinds of impurity, the ones that have to do with sin or guilt and the ones that don't.

But I also think it's really important to remember that there are multiple kinds of impurity because both ritual and righteousness are important to Adonai because we are nephesh, whole living beings composed of both dust, the body, and spirit or breath, the soul.

And what we do with our hearts as the seat of our soul matters deeply to Him, just like what we do with our bodies matters deeply to Him.

And that is why I've called this episode Wellness Gifts, because the goal of the atoning gifts is to bring wellness to everything and everybody.

Wellness is shalom, wholeness, completeness, well-being.

It is perfection, but in the holistic sense, not just moral perfection.

So here's an example.

My living being, my nephesh, is perfected in a sense when it eats healthy foods, when it gets eight hours of sleep.

This affects not only my body, this also affects my soul, my mind, my heart, all those things.

For the entire nephesh to experience shalom is to be remade according to the original design or purpose for which we were created.

It is for us to achieve our telos, which in Greek is the root of the words in the New Testament that we use for things like completed, finished, and perfected.

When the nephesh is experiencing shalom, it is operating according to the creational parameters, reclaiming Eden in small doses outside of Eden.

And I mean that reclaiming Eden in terms of both body and soul.

All of that is why I'm going to talk about atoning gifts as wellness gifts.

These are gifts which address a lack of wellness.

They are gifts which bring together a system which is not right.

A system which is bent or out of shape or burdened or heavy, one which is full of dirt, dust, or even junk or gunk.

In these cases, that internal cohesion and connection has in some way or other been disordered, made to be not well.

And that state of not well needs to be repaired so that Adonai, who is wellness itself, can continue to dwell in their midst, and also so that the not well people can draw near to him.