Acknowledge. Repair. Restore.
For Lenten Season, members of the Juniper Formation Leadership Team and community have been sharing daily reflections through the Daily Ripple app and Substack. This week’s reflections are written by Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher, Ph.D.
Watch the above video on our YouTube channel to do deeper with this week’s content.
Acknowledge. Repair. Restore.
Numbers 5:5-7
God said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: If one of you wrongs another in any way whatsoever—and thus becomes unfaithful to me—that person is guilty and must confess it. The wrongdoer must, for their guilt, pay full restitution plus one-fifth, and give it to the person who was wronged.
This week’s scriptures focus on what to do about harm, and I can’t think of a better frame for the week after the genocidal US-Israeli regime bombardment of Iran included a girls school killing 148 children and teachers. Followed by abuser-in-chief Trump gas-lighting the Iranian people saying I’ve given you what you want, “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.” How do you say this to parents whose children are dead?
In this scripture, God is not asking for punishment, but for us to 1) Be conscious of when we cause harm, 2) Relationally acknowledge how we’ve harmed another, 3) Repair of the damage we’ve caused, and 4) Restore to better than how things were.
Imagine that. Seriously. For every harm that we’ve witnessed and endured, personally, historically, in our communities, our nation, globally, imagine what that kind of action looks like and what kind of world it would create.
Sometime during Lent, practice this kind of faithfulness. When you’ve harmed someone, confess that harm to them and repair the damage beyond where things started. How does this practice impact your faithfulness? If you keep going, what kind of world will you cocreate in your ecosystems?
Making Restitution
Numbers 5:8-10
If the injured person has no close relative to whom the restitution can be paid, the restitution belongs to God and must be given to the priest, along with a ram with which atonement can be made for the guilty person. All sacred contributions that the Israelites give to the priest will belong to the priest. Your personal sacred gifts belong to you, but what you give to the priest belongs to the priest.”
First, let’s name “atonement” as how we reconcile relationship with God, and therefore each other, when we’ve caused harm. And not as “atonement theology,” which claims Jesus was a sacrifice for humanity’s sins and the only way to our salvation. The latter is harmful and out of line with God and the Hebrew people who reject human sacrifices (e.g.: Abraham and Isaac).
When we’ve caused harm and we can’t repair the damage to the person affected or a close relative, then the restitution belongs to God, and goes to the priest.
Perhaps this is a symbolic apology. And also, priests were fed, clothed, and taken care of by the offering. Not only did this restitution take care of the daily needs of the priest, in doing so, it ensured the priest could spend their time, energy, and focus on serving the temple and community.
Sometimes we can’t make restitution with the person impacted or their relative, with whom do we make restitution? With those who are caring for the community of faith? With those who are faithfully caring for the descendants of those harmed? Those enslaved? Can you draw the throughline of how reparations for the enslavement of Africans is a Biblical mandate?
Surrounded by Songs of Freedom
Warning, this Daily Ripple references sexual assault in the Bible.
Psalm 32:6-7
That’s why people of faith everywhere should pray to you—they’ll find you.
Even when the flood begins rising, it will never touch them.
You are my hiding place;
you’ll protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of freedom.
This Psalm is penned by David, who like too many leaders, manipulate a faith call for domination.
The boy David who grew up on the margins, and gets launched as a national hero when he fells Goliath with a slingshot…
…Is also King David who rapes and impregnates Bathsheba. Instead of confronting his harm, he tries to cover it up and ultimately plans the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband and a loyal soldier in his own army. David takes Bathsheba’s body and forces her to bear five children.
David is one of many leaders who use God as a hiding place to cover up their abuse and violence.
Such abusers think that the flood of justice will never touch them. They believe they have divine favor and no matter their sins, that God will protect them.
God does surround us with songs of freedom, from the oppressed, the abused, the enslaved. These are the voices Jesus lifts up, the stories we must hear, and whose harm we must reconcile.
How are you surrounding abusive leaders with songs of freedom? For the protection of those harmed, and for the liberation of the abusers? How are your songs of freedom meant for collective liberation?
Ask for What You Need
John 5:13-16
Are any of you in trouble? Then pray. Are any of you in good spirits? Then sing a hymn of praise. Are any of you sick? Then call for the elders of the church, and have them pray over those who are sick and anoint them with oil in the name of Christ. And this prayer offered in faith will make them well, and Christ will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayers of the just are powerful and effective.
What I hear when I read this passage is: Ask for what you need from God and one another. And also, faithfully offer prayer, song, anointing, confession, and forgiveness for one another so that you may be healed.
We, as the body of Christ. We with God working within and among us, are balm for one another. We are medicine for each other. We are healing presence. We also includes science!
And not only that, but when we operate this way together, we are “the just” whose prayers are powerful and effective.
I am very much a “get off of your knees and pray” kind of person. Action-oriented. This passage calls us to be the prayer for one another. Prayer is not an internal thought, or a mumble under our breath, it is the way we take care of each other.
But how many of us believe that we have such power within us and within our relationships and community?
How are you raising relationships and communities of healing in a world so full of harm?
Reconcile as Siblings
Matthew 5:23-24
If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your sister or brother has a grudge against you, leave your gift there at the altar. Go to be reconciled to them, and then come and offer your gift.
Jesus is the expert of side entrances—finding different ways to teach the lesson so that everyone can understand and get there together.
All of the scriptures this week point to one sacred truth: when we are in right relationship to one another, we are in right relationship to God. Not the other way around.
It is more important for us to reconcile as siblings than to worship. And also, we can’t truly worship unless we are reconciled as siblings. What gratitude can we offer, or what forgiveness can we seek from God in worship if we do not first do this with one another?
As a parent of two small children, I already know this in my bones. My heart that now lives outside of my body in these two children is whole when they are in right relationship. What hurts my heart the most is when they harm each other, or when they are harmed by someone else.
What would church look like if we reconciled as siblings before worship—instead of just reading aloud pre-written prayers of confession and affirmations of forgiveness together? How can you take this practice into your life? Where do you need to reconcile before ritual, symbol, offering, or the publicness of your faith?
