Today in church I saw a ladder standing at the front. It got me thinking about the purpose of a ladder, which is to get higher and to do work that is normally out of reach.
There has always been
a desire on the part of religious souls, to get higher, to reach the
unreachable and, while ladders are never used, other instruments are.
I naturally think of
how Babel was an attempt to reach heaven or the heavens, but the motive was
less about reaching God than one of being as God. That had a sinister undertone
that resulted in intrusions into space, which indeed made gods of men.
Thus, we now can
communicate across the planet, manage earth resources, monitor the weather,
observe what is happening around the globe, spy on nations and individuals and
direct very nasty instruments of war from such lofty positions.
Well, let God deal
with that, which I am sure He will, but lets be aware that they have tried to co-opt God to their own undertakings and lets not be guilty of the same.
In churches there has
been a growing formularization of our liturgy, a quest for technology and
methods that will unlock success in building churches, managing numbers or stimulating
the experience of God.
Are these like
ladders: instruments for getting higher or reaching the unreachable?
Pre-meeting prayers are
also used to get God to visit us. It comes close to getting Him to church,
although I am sure no one means it that way.
Of course, stimulating
messages and tight Sunday programs are also part of the process of getting
people in, keeping them there and holding them true.
Wow. So what will
happen when the power fails and none of this is possible anymore? Will we fall
apart. I suspect it will be a tough adjustment.
It’s interesting to see
God’s perspective
Here we are doing what the priests of Baal did to get their deity
to perform for Elijah, yet God is so accessible. Others are trying to reach the
heavens at a time when God is trying so hard to reach us.
He always had His hand
on the earth and the world, but worked a single strand, as in Abraham and
Sarah, into a single heir, to produce a single grandson, to raise a nation that
had to spend 430 years in the crucible of Egypt, so they could become the oracles
of God.
His first true
intrusion into our world happened when Jacob’s dream at Bethel revealed the “beach-head”
that would gradually build the momentum for God’s advance against sin. Like
Normandy, that breach in the wall, would later decide the battle of the ages.
Over the ensuing
centuries, He took Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai, where
He dwelt among His people, albeit in a fiery, untouchable, holy mountain.
Then He instructed them
to build a tent of communion and when He was satisfied with that, He left the
mountain and dwelt in their camp. He also went with them.
Later they built a
temple and He settled in the heart of the nation, in Jerusalem, and the ark
ushered in His holy presence with such reality that no one else could enter.
Not satisfied with
dwelling inside a sacred, but untouchable place, He drew closer by dwelling
among us, as a man: to share our burdens and identify with our struggles. Then,
He went to Calvary to cross remove the final barrier between Him and us.
The veil of the temple
tore through the middle as the sacrifice on the cross reached its climax. From
that moment on, the only remaining barrier to our faith was in our own minds.
The veil that the Jews
put on Moses, when he descended from the mount, obscured the glory of the law,
namely its logical fulfillment in the cross. Yet, the veil that since clouded
our minds, robbed us of the greatest virtues of our faith and the outworking of
that cross.
Having then finished
all He came to do, Jesus breathed His spirit into every believer and removed
His bodily presence so that God could indwell the temple of our hearts. AS He
said to the woman at the well, it was no longer about a time or place, but
about spirit and truth.
So is God trying to be inaccessible?
If He went to such extraordinary lengths to close
the distance between us, does He really need an invite? Is He really as
reluctant to be with us as our posture suggests?
A precious sister saw
a picture of Jesus standing in our midst this morning. She sensed Him desiring
to fulfill the yearnings of the years by bringing those with whom He has walked
so far, into a place of spiritual closure and fulfillment.
I suggest we stop
trying to use ladders to achieve that. Hebrews says, “come boldly into His
presence, through the torn veil and a new and living way, consecrated by His
blood.”
We are not a culture
or club, a social outlet or a gathering of interested hearts. Hebrews 12 says it
so elegantly: “We have not come to a mount that cannot be touched.”
Rather, “we have come to
mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all”.
Further, “we have come
to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of
Abel.”
He is here - let His rain fall on you
Truly God never needed
technology or aids to make any of that possible, but I reflect on the sacred
poignancy of His tender moments with souls and the notable absence of fanfare,
drama, lights or fireworks. Rather, He dignified each moment with a personally
relevant exchange that changed those souls forever”. I suspect we may be
missing God by missing the point.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
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