Lectionary
readings: Exodus 33.12-23 and Matthew 22.15-22
Through
September and October, we have been journeying through the book of Exodus and
asking how do we, as the people of God, stand before God on holy ground?
We might reframe that question like this: what kind of church do we need to
be? The church, in this nation, has experienced a long period of decline. But
historically, the church in this nation has experienced cycles of growth and
decline, waxing and waning fortunes. Christianity has been found wanting and
abandoned; only to be rediscovered again when alternatives have failed to
deliver. So, what kind of church do we need to be in our time of decline and in
order to be ready when the tide turns again? This was the theme when the clergy
of Durham Diocese gathered together for their annual study day on Monday gone. Together
our guest speaker invited us to reflect on our calling to be a pilgrim
people, a priestly people, and a prophetic people. It seems
to me that these three themes are found in our readings today, and so I want to
share them with you.
To
stand on holy ground is to be a pilgrim people. Moses asks God, ‘Show me
your ways.’ That is, show me your road, your journey. He knows that he has been
called to lead the people up, to ascend to where God is; and he asks to know
the road. This is the language of union with God or being formed by God into
the likeness of Christ. It points us to Jesus: when Thomas asked, ‘How can we
know the way to the Father?’ Jesus declared, ‘I am the Way.’ And God says to
Moses, ‘My presence—literally, my face or faces—will go with you and I will
bring you to the place where you will settle.’
God
always calls us out from wherever we have settled, in this world, to be strangers
and pilgrims, citizens of the kingdom of heaven under the lordship of Jesus,
living away from home, longing to return one day. That is why God sends us
internationals—students, and workers, and asylum-seekers; people who are not
especially welcome in England—to remind us of who we are. And God is revealed
among us as reflected in the faces of those we journey with, in black and white
faces, young and old faces, male and female faces. We are not English or South African
people who happen to be Christians, but Christians who happen to be English or
South African, or from wherever else it may be.
And
we are a parish church. The word ‘parish’ comes from the Greek word for ‘strangers,’
for those who live outside the walls of the house or the city: we are a church
for those who live beyond the walls of the church, for outsiders. We seek the
welfare of the society among whom we live, but our first loyalty is to the
kingdom of heaven, of which we are also ambassadors. And so, at times the
Church will both affirm and challenge government, just as this week Mr Biden
has both affirmed and challenged Mr Netanyahu. When the Church is critical of
government, people say the Church should stay out of politics; they tend not
to say that when the Church affirms government, but there we are. To stand on
holy ground, as pilgrims, is to welcome the stranger, the alien from another
land, among us—and to take a stand against xenophobia and racism.
To
stand on holy ground is also to be a priestly people. We are a royal
priesthood. The priestly role is a representative one. Humanity is called to
bless the earth, to care for all God’s creation. The Church is called to bless
humanity, so humanity as a whole can better fulfil its calling. And within our
tradition, some are called to be priests to the Church, to bless the Church so
that the Church as a whole can better fulfil her calling to bless humanity to
bless creation. Listen to this quote from the sociologist Stefan Paas:
“The
minority situation of the church is not first a problem but rather a privilege
and a calling. If I go to church as the only one from my street or my family, I
do this also on behalf of my street or my family. To be a Christian at that
moment means to be a priest on behalf of those who live in my neighbourhood, to
offer sacrifices on behalf of the family. Parents go to represent their
children, children to represent their parents, neighbours to represent each
other.”
[Stefan
Paas, Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society,
p.213f]
I
am your priest, and I pray for you, but we—you—are a priestly people. We come
before God representing our neighbours, our representative worship pointing to
the day when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. Nonetheless it is worth asking, how might we become more fully
representative? Moses said to God, ‘Show me your glory.’ And God replied, ‘I
will, but you cannot see my face.’ But God had already said, ‘My face, or
faces, will go with you.’ The glory of God is reflected in our faces—in your
face and my face—but what we see reflected there is God’s back. What we
see, reflected in one another’s faces, is where God is going ahead of us.
The glory of God we see in the oldest faces here is the bounty of wisdom, and
as we grow older we will meet God there waiting for us. The glory of God we see
in the youngest faces is the bounty of wonder, and energy, and adventure, for
God remains childlike while we grow old. So, if there are too few younger
representatives of our parish present with us, we see something of God’s
glory but whole other aspects of God’s glory are hidden from us. Yet, the
future God is leading us into continues beyond our generation, and so we should
expect to see God’s glory reflected in the faces of children. Their presence
renews us. To stand on holy ground, representing our neighbours before God, and
seeking to be more fully representative, is to ask, who is missing? and what
must we do differently, to make room for them, to be the place where god’s
glory is revealed?
Lastly,
to stand on holy ground is to be a prophetic people. Moses says, ‘Show
me your ways’ and ‘show me your glory’. Jesus says to those trying to trap him,
‘Show me the coin used for the tax.’ The
coin reveals the ways and the glory of the emperor: Roman roads carving up an
empire, the fruit of the earth and work of human hands pouring into Rome. In
this worldview the human is first and foremost an economic unit, a slave to the
market. The same view prevails today. Our education system is designed to form
future economic units to replace the ones that get discarded at the end of
their productive working life. Foreigners are viewed as coming here to steal
our jobs. Jesus recognises that we live in this world but insists that we are
not of it. That we are to view humanity as bearing God’s likeness, of pointing
to God’s ways and God’s glory.
To
stand on holy ground is to view work as a holy calling, the way in which we, as
members of the Church, bless humanity, and as members of humanity, bless the
whole creation. To see people not primarily as economic units, but as creative
partners in God’s good activity in the world. To see children not as future
workforce but as given as gift to the world with their own vocation, which we
might help them to discover. To see those who are retired, or disabled, or who choose
to step out of full-time employment for a season to raise a family or care for a
family member, or for whom life is overwhelming to the extent that they cannot participate
in the game of being model citizens, not as a drain on society but as those who
reveal something of the glory of God among us. To stand on holy ground is to take
a prophetic stance, declaring in word and action that human beings have
inherent value. This is why, for example, we are to take Safeguarding
seriously, nurturing an environment where all, including and especially the
most vulnerable, can flourish as fully as possible, free from harm, rescued
from exploitation.
How
do we, as the people of God, stand before God on holy ground? Or what kind of
church do we need to be? We are called to be a pilgrim people, a priestly
people, a prophetic people. As we seek to walk these roads, we shall witness
God’s glory, and witnessing God’s glory, we shall be changed. We shall be
changed, and a way made in the wilderness, for others to travel, to come to
know Jesus for themselves. Amen.
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