Lessons of Community

Scripture Passage that Caught my attention today: Leviticus 10:19-20 And Aaron spoke to Moses, “See, today they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and yet such things as these have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been agreeable to the LORD?” 20 And when Moses heard that, he agreed.

Observation: Aaron’s sons had been “consumed” by the Lord earlier for presumably not doing something according to the proper procedure. So Moses kind of went on a righteousness rampage, insisting that everyone do everything exactly as he said. By the time we get to the verses above, Aaron has had enough of it and speaks his own mind. At that point Moses had no choice but to agree. From then on he lightened up.

Application: I was listening to a leadership journal this morning during my drive. It was the story of Carly Fiorina’s outster from Hewlett Packard several years ago. One of the unfortunate situations regarding her experience revolved around a couple people (in her case board members) who felt they knew what was right for the company over and above the rest of the board. When their proposal(s) were not embraced by the rest of the board, they essentially went around the board to air their thoughts on the front page of a national publication. The process led to a lot of unfortunate and unnecessary fall-out.

To me it’s a vivid reminder that it’s easy for personal pride and self-righteousness to blind us from seeing the value and wisdom of the community. In the process, we can easily unwittingly inflict deep wounds on the community, some of which may be difficult or even impossible from which to recover.

I’m struck by Aaron’s actions in the story above. He went along with Moses’ unilateral pronouncements for a while. But finally Aaron realized that Moses was just taking himself too seriously. So Aaron spoke from his aching heart in a way that Moses could finally understand…and, thank God, Moses agreed. From that point on they were a team again.

Prayer: Lord, help all of us to understand that we are not islands unto ourselves and that none of us needs to bear responsibility for the entire community. Keep our personal pride in check that we might be servants and partners rather than lords and rulers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Leviticus 10-12 and Acts 16)