Priests and killers

May 31, we looked at Numbers 27 (the daughters of who? Zelophehad) and 35 (the cities of refuge). Just a few follow up questions for us as a church regarding how we as a community can reflect the city of refuge, how we can be a city of refuge:
Since 1 Peter 2:5 says that Christians are "to be a holy priesthood" and 2:9 goes on to say "you are a royal priesthood," we should give special attention to a text like Numbers 35.

1) Are the priestly Levites in these six cities of refuge inherently different from the murderers who were finding asylum in these towns? Remember the story of Levi and Simeon who murdered a whole town of men to avenge his sister's rape (Genesis 34)? 1 Peter 2:9-10 reminds the Christian who is a priest of God that we are now in the marvelous light, but we were called out of darkness. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." A Levite could be ritually unclean by touching a corpse. A murderer would be unclean by making a corpse. All of us are unclean and in need of mercy and a place of refuge, whether we seem more priestly or more beastly.

2) Numbers 35:25 describes how the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the avenger of blood and that there will be a fair trial so that justice, not revenge, prevails. How can we as a congregation both provide wise counsel and embody justice to those who may have done truly terrible things or those who are at least accused of embarrassing or even illegal activity? How can we be a place of rescue for the running refugee?

3) The priesthood of believers was an important doctrine that Martin Luther proclaimed from Scripture (such as 1 Peter 2). Are we each taking initiative to evaluate and improve and employ our gifts to embody the city of refuge? We are not to expect one or two professional priests to shoulder all the work of compassion, rescue, and wise administration, but we are all as the congregation, to participate in the rescue mission of mercy. Who comes into our midst now to whom you can be a minister of mercy? Who could or should be coming that we could compel, by mercy and our openness, to come in?