“STANDING AT
THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN”
[A sermon following the Boscastle
floods”]
|
A sermon preached at Readings: Luke
13:10-17, Hebrews 12:18-24 |
Exodus 19:17 “And they took
their stand at the foot of the mountain”
A
few years ago Liz and I spent a wonderful fortnight in Boscastle
–
we hired a small cottage right down near the harbour mouth
and spent many hours simply sat outside looking down on the holiday makers
strolling by the river, standing on the little hump backed bridge eating their
ice creams.
This week we watched the TV footage of that precise
same location –
but now the scenes were of pandemonium and devastation
with cars and debris being swept away by the torrential flood waters
crashing down from the hills around.
What just a few minutes before had been a quiet
unexceptional day
in the life of the village and its visitors
suddenly transformed into a day of awe and terror.
One minute people finding themselves drawn
towards the dramatic might of the spectacle –
the next finding themselves fearing for their very lives.
That
is perhaps a good emotional point of reference
when we turn to the story in Exodus chapter 19.
The
life of the children of Israel has had a quiet predictability about it –
according to the writer of Exodus
they have been marching through the desert from Egypt for three months non
stop.
And
now all of a sudden they come to a great mountain – Mt Sinai.
The mountain is a mountain of smoke and fire-
some have suggested the image is of a volcano,
but it seems to fit better with an almighty thunderstorm of devastating
proportions –
certainly the mountain is hidden beneath swirling thunder clouds
and illuminated by the fire of colossal lightening flashes.
The
people are terrified. Why?
Well
here again is a sudden and dramatic appearance of raw might and majesty –
the people are dumb struck and terrified.
But
this is more than just a dramatic physical phenomenon –
this is also about sin and righteousness –
For the author of Exodus,
the mountain top is the specifically located dwelling place of God himself –
so the people are afraid
not just because of the raw power of the mountain boiling above them –
they are frightened because there is here
something of the justice and purity and holiness of God –
and they realize their own sinfulness and unworthiness.
Instinctively
they know that they couldn’t just continue
in their old petty small minded self centred ways in such a place -
any more than a casual motorist on his holidays
could have kept driving through the centre of Boscastle
as though nothing had happened when the tidal wave arrived.
Just being here, they realize,
is going to turn their lives upside-down like a car tossed about on the flood
tide.
So
they must wash so that they are purified.
They
must not approach the holy mountain –
it is roped off like a modern day disaster scene –
they must keep their distance.
To
go closer would be death –
So
the people are purified and come to stand at the foot of the mountain.
They
cannot, dare not, go nearer, they cannot see God –
so Moses alone goes up the mountain.
In the coming chapters he has various distant encounters with God –
God says that even Moses cannot endure to see his face –
he must hide in a crevice of rock as God passes by.
This happens.
When Moses returns below his face is shining,
simply because he had seen the back of God as he passed by…..
(Exod 33:17ff and 34:29ff).
Did you listen some of the interviews with folk in Boscastle?
The teenage boy who had lost his mother for 24 hours
–
they had got split up when the floods arrived.
The TV cameras captured the moment when mother and son were reunited.
The lad said words to this effect
“The car is a write off, but that doesn’t matter –
we are alive and together as a family and that is all that counts”
Maybe
he would understand what the children of Israel knew
in those distant days in the wilderness –
That
moment of raw physical terror had mixed in with it
a new understanding of what really mattered in life –
Somehow
going back to the ordinary world would never be quite the same again….
And
when you saw the look on his mother’s face
as her 14 year old boy spoke with such love and wisdom, -
is it fanciful to say that her face glowed like the face of Moses long ago? –
for she too had had her epiphany, her revelation,
her discovery of a new depth, a new dimension to life….
And
here today we come to worship –
and I wonder how that ranks in the experiences of our week?
Did
we saunter in, chatting and thinking of other things?
And if we (as is our tradition)
bowed our heads in private prayer after we reached our seats,
what did we pray?
O
Lord, I hope the sermon won’t be too long…
I wouldn’t have come if I’d know he was preaching…
Will it be wet on the way home….
Did I turn the oven down?….
Yet
here we are in God’s house, awaiting to come to his table,
waiting to meet with the might and power and the holiness of God himself.
This
is our life changing experience,
as we enter Church it is as though we stand at the foot of the mountain,
suddenly aware of unseen power in the hills above.
Oh
that we might approach the House of God
as once Israelite men and women approached Mount Sinai,
full of awe and fear of the Lord –
doing all we can mentally and spiritually to prepare for the occasion -
recognizing that to come here is to open our lives to his presence,
and who knows what the result of that might be??
But
there is more to be said.
We
need to turn the pages of our Bible from the Old to the New Testament,
specifically from Exodus to Hebrews, our set epistle today,
where we find the author reflecting on the story of Israel at Sinai.
Hebrews
reminds us that we are in a new dispensation –
No longer is God hidden, but in Christ is available to all.
Turning from the OT to the NT is almost as though
we have been watching the news from Boscastle on the
TV
and have suddenly flicked the channel to the Olympics
and the white-water canoeing finals.
Yes, the power and awesome might of God
the crashing torrential waters,
are still there –
but it has somehow been transformed
from a scene of gut wrenching terror
into one of exhilarating awe.
This
is the message of our passage from Hebrews.
Note
– the message is not that meeting God is easy and casual and chummy –
it could be so understood,
but looking at the rest of Hebrews this would surely be to misunderstand:
·
the mountain is still the mountain –
·
the thunder and lightning still flash
·
the waters still crash down the valley
·
the world is still turned upside down
But
in Christ, God has given us the ability
to ride the waves
and more –
like Moses to climb the very mountain from whence the storm comes,
to approach the Holy of Holies itself.
So
as we come to communion tonight,
let us know
that we stand at the foot of the mountain,
that we stand on holy ground.
Let
us look at our own weakness and frailty and sin –
And
let us be overawed by the majesty,
the grandeur of the unseen things above
But
let us not be afraid –
Rather
let us climb towards the mountain top –
into the very eye of the storm -
And
then
as we return from the mountain top
to our troubled world,
O that those about us might see
how our faces shine
- and know that in God’s power
we have begun to reflect God’s glory
in the valley below.