Sermon for Sunday 16th August 2020 - Trusting in God in Liminal times
Heavenly Father, I pray that through the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, these words may be to your Glory. Amen.
The year after we got married, Louise and I decided to go on foreign holiday. It was a very long journey and it was through a wilderness, we stopped at B&B’s on the way, we crossed the border into Scotland, our journey taking us to Inverness, and we thought, it can’t be far now.
Three hours later, direct north, after the crossing the Sutherland wilderness, we arrived in our remote holiday cottage, on the north coast of Scotland, halfway between Cape Wrath in the west and John O’Groats in the east.
Now that seemed like a big journey, partly because we realised that once we had arrived, we would have to get home again, it was a beautiful place, a true wilderness and required planning and a good road atlas, there were no sat-navs or google maps in those days, oh no.
I’m not comparing our journey to the Israelites spending forty years in the wilderness, we did at least have a map,
but whether our journeys are
from place to place or metaphorical, they can be just as challenging, whether
you’re walking to the shops after a time of depression or running a marathon,
and not to show off, but I’ve done both, they are both tough and your journey,
is your journey.
We are approaching the end of our
journey through the book of Exodus, for it hath 40 chapters and today we shall
contemplate chapters 25 to 31. Our Exodus reading today doesn’t describe a
journey but instead, some DIY, the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, an
ornate chest for the tablets of the covenant law, which we’ll hear about next
week.
The rest of these chapters are a detailed description of the Ark, a Table, a Lampstand, a Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting – a tent to house the Ark when they are not travelling.
There are instructions for an Altar of Burnt Offering, for Priestly garments, on how Priests should be consecrated, who should make all of these artefacts, and finally, expecting all of this to take six days, God instructs Moses to observe the Sabbath, to rest on the seventh day, finally sending Moses back down the mountain with two tablets of the law.
All of these artistic designs have meaning, they are symbolic, of God’s power, of God’s bond with his people, that wherever they go in their journey to the Promised Land, God is with them. He quite literally dwells among them, the Tabernacle of God is erected every night at the centre of their camp.
The Ark is carried in their midst. God knows the people need to know He is with them, and He is, every step of the way.
This idea of questioning whether God is with us in difficult times is something we quite naturally keep picking away at. And I suppose that comes from the doubt which is naturally a part of faith. Where was God when this happened? What was he doing?
Its one thing to be told that God is in us, and through us, in every atom, every mountain, every person, every creature, all of them and more. But to truly believe, is difficult.
So, for the Israelites, here is God, actually placing himself amongst the people, going with them through the wilderness, in a royal, kingly Ark. Before this, he led them through the wilderness, with a pillar of cloud by day and of light by night. God knew this was one of the most challenging experiences his people would face and He realised they would need his presence among them to see them through to the end.
As well as being among them, The Ark symbolised the
throne of God.
At that time, the Word was the law,
represented by the Ten Commandments, on two tablets of stone which would be
kept in the Ark. God was King, Judge and was also, divine, so he needed a
throne worthy of his power.
The word as law brings us to our Gospel passage of
John chapter 1 where the word became flesh, so, the law, became flesh - Jesus.
He re-wrote the covenant.
He changed the nature of God as God became humbled and
human. So, while God is immortal and eternal, before Jesus, the relationship
was different.
Before; God governed more directly, through prophets
and kings. After Jesus, the relationship became much more personal.
That personal relationship with Jesus makes it easier to realise that the relationship with God is one of love, as it was during the exodus as well.
This time of pandemic is special. Almost unique in recent history, it has sent us all on journeys, alone, and together, as a nation and globally, and quite where we are going is uncertain, however, perhaps it helps to think that the destination may not be the goal, but the journey itself and it is in the travelling, where we find ourselves.
Very few worthwhile journeys are easy and we may never choose to embark on the more difficult road, but this could be described as a liminal time, but on a global scale. And what do I mean by that?
Well a Rite of Passage has three stages, the first is separation, where we break away from our old selves or an old way of living.
The second stage is transitional, or liminal, where the old life is behind us, but we have yet to begin a new way of living.
The third, final stage, is incorporation, where the rite of passage come to an end and we begin to assume a new identity, a new status.
If the Rite of Passage is planned, like going to University or joining the army, because we can see the goal, the first stages of separation and transition are usually easier to accept, and if you’re able to make the journey with others, like friends, a class at school, a troop of soldiers, then achieving the final stage of incorporation becomes a deeply formational moment and a sacred bond is formed.
Well, at the moment, I think we are in a liminal stage, a time of transition, and we don’t know where we’re going or what society will look like or when the rite of passage will be finished.
This is anthropology and psychology joined together, which often closely links to the way being a Christian helps us to find our place in the word.
It’s the study of cultures but
it also applies to journeys of faith. It applies to someone being baptised, finding
Jesus and becoming a Christian, or someone training to be a priest, or to be a
church separated from the way of being church they know, working out new ways
until the rite of passage is over.
Studies show that people who journey through a rite of passage together, like friends at school, like the Israelites did or a church community does, they find the experience less jarring and the destination easier to adopt.
At the moment, we’re not sure where we’re going, and neither were the Israelites, but they had God with them, leading them, and while we may not have an Ark, we do have God with us now, in church, in scripture, in each other and in the blessed sacrament of bread we receive in communion with Christ and each other.
So, lets hold onto that unity in Christ, because God is there, leading the way, and as we follow him together, the way ahead becomes clearer every day.
Amen
Applecross, Western Highlands. Scotland. Visited on our return home from the wilderness.
8 And have them make me
a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them. 9 In
accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle
and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
10 They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall overlay it, and you shall make a moulding of gold upon it all round. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it, and two rings on the other side. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, by which to carry the ark. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 You shall put into the ark the covenant[a] that I shall give you.
17 Then you shall make a
mercy-seat[b] of pure gold;
two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its
width. 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; you
shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy-seat.[c] 19 Make
one cherub at one end, and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the
mercy-seat[d] you shall make
the cherubim at its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall
spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy-seat[e] with their
wings. They shall face each other; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned
towards the mercy-seat.[f] 21 You
shall put the mercy-seat[g] on the top of
the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant[h] that I shall
give you. 22 There I will meet you, and from above
the mercy-seat,[i] from between
the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant,[j] I will deliver
to you all my commands for the Israelites.
John Chapter 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with
God. 3 All things came into being through him, and
without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in
him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all
people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not overcome it.
6 There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He
came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through
him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to
testify to the light. 9 The true light, which
enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]
10 He was
in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not
know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept
him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed
in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who
were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but
of God.
14 And the
Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as
of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth.
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