Proper 16 / Pentecost 14 / Ordinary Time 21
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe....
-- Hebrews 12:28
The author of Hebrews drew a sharp contrast between previous manifestations of God in the lives of God's people and what has happened in Jesus Christ. Recalling the theophany of God on Mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments, he noted that God's presence was accompanied by "a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them." While not denying that God was and continued to be "a consuming fire," the author of Hebrews described the new covenant made possible through Jesus as something that enabled people to approach God without fear.
The first blood that attracted God's attention was the blood of Abel that cried out to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10), but now, the blood of Christ has enabled us to attract God's attention before disaster strikes. The problem, as Hebrews saw it, was that we might reject this incredibly graceful invitation to be received by God through Christ. The author reminded his hearers that the people that refused to obey God after the first theophany were punished. God was not to be mocked.
God was trying to establish a people of God on earth through the giving of the Ten Commandments and the sprinkling of blood on them in the formation of the first covenant. Now God, through the blood of Jesus, was trying to bring about the kingdom of God that would unite heaven and earth. Could we expect God's response to be any less intense if we rejected this heavenly gift purchased at such a price? By this harsh imagery, the writer tried to awaken his people to the reverence and thanksgiving due God in worship. Because so many of our contemporary members approach worship so casually, it is perhaps appropriate to remind them that God is more than an abstract idea. There is an awesome presence and a consuming fire that has been mediated to us through the compassionate Christ. We should approach such a God with a profound sense of thanksgiving and awe in our hearts.
-- Hebrews 12:28
The author of Hebrews drew a sharp contrast between previous manifestations of God in the lives of God's people and what has happened in Jesus Christ. Recalling the theophany of God on Mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments, he noted that God's presence was accompanied by "a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them." While not denying that God was and continued to be "a consuming fire," the author of Hebrews described the new covenant made possible through Jesus as something that enabled people to approach God without fear.
The first blood that attracted God's attention was the blood of Abel that cried out to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10), but now, the blood of Christ has enabled us to attract God's attention before disaster strikes. The problem, as Hebrews saw it, was that we might reject this incredibly graceful invitation to be received by God through Christ. The author reminded his hearers that the people that refused to obey God after the first theophany were punished. God was not to be mocked.
God was trying to establish a people of God on earth through the giving of the Ten Commandments and the sprinkling of blood on them in the formation of the first covenant. Now God, through the blood of Jesus, was trying to bring about the kingdom of God that would unite heaven and earth. Could we expect God's response to be any less intense if we rejected this heavenly gift purchased at such a price? By this harsh imagery, the writer tried to awaken his people to the reverence and thanksgiving due God in worship. Because so many of our contemporary members approach worship so casually, it is perhaps appropriate to remind them that God is more than an abstract idea. There is an awesome presence and a consuming fire that has been mediated to us through the compassionate Christ. We should approach such a God with a profound sense of thanksgiving and awe in our hearts.
