A couple of weeks ago I was talking to one of my minister friends about the regime I was about to embark on, replete as it is with dietary, hygiene, medical and lifestyle rules.  'Sounds like a lot of "thou shalt nots"' was the response.  This weekend another of my minister friends came up for the weekend, a long planned visit that had an element of divine timing about it, we chatted about the rules and I commented, flippantly, that Leviticus has nothing on the Oncologist.  All of which got me thinking about the importance of context, the risks of misinterpretation of shorthand and the challenges of discerning principles and particulars.

"Thou shalt not eat lemons, oranges, lime or pineapples" or "avoid citrus and acidic fruits as they will hurt, and possibly attack your already weakened mouth and throat linings".  The intent is the same, but out of context the former becomes some kind of 'dietary law' to delineate those 'in' from those 'out'

"Thou shalt only use Sainbury's non-bio washing tablets" or "make sure you don't change your washing powder because the drugs will make your skin more sensitive and we need to be sure what causes any rashes or skin-reactions."  Not a mandate to shop at this supermarket only, but an important principle - reduce the unknowns to a minimum.

And so it goes on.

So, yesterday when my friend and I went out for brunch, it had to be to a cafe I know and I had to eat something I'd had before.  When I choose from the after service refreshments at church, I opt for the bought biscuits rather than the homemade cakes :-(

It means I dutifully check those parts of my anatomy I have been told to check and carry the phone number of the High Priest, I mean doctor, at all times just in case.  It means I make myself sit down and do nothing for hours at a time... hard though it is for anyone to believe that I will.

And it makes me think about the more bizarre Leviticus codes in a new, and kinder, way as I imagine a group of people in a strange new world trying to stay healthy, trying to ensure their survival into future generations and trying to get it right.  Context matters, and so does the discernment of timeless principles; working out which is which is not always so easy several thousand years later.