A sermon I preached back at my sending church, it's based on Hebrews 12. 18-29. The letter to the Hebrews is a letter in the New Testament which ties the Old Testament into the new, uncovering how the Old Covenant prefigured and pointed to the New and what has changed. For this reason it’s one of my favourites of the New Testament letters. And today’s passage is no different, contrasting the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai to us approaching Mount Zion, the place of God’s dwelling. And the writer gives us very quickly a summary of the terror, majesty and awe of that day when God descends upon Mount Sinai to make a Covenant with his people. They’re referencing Exodus 19 and to help us enter into this better I’m going to read a portion of that passage. ‘On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.’ It's an awesome image isn’t it, filled with power and wonder, and something of terror. Not only are the people of God trembling in fear, it’s like all of creation at that mountain is trembling, the earth shakes, smoke and fire rise, darkness descends, the sky cracks with thunder and lightning. And through all this the sound of trumpet blast which is getting louder and louder. As God descends upon the mountain it’s like creation is tearing at the seams, unable to truly handle what is happening as the God who created it all, who is far beyond it all, comes. And the command goes out that nothing is to come near the mountain, not even animals. The whole image is one of the holiness, the might, the majesty and the awe of God. The complete otherness, the uncontrollable-ness. Writing to the Hebrews the author reflects on this passage and draws out 7 aspects; the physical mountain, fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, trumpet blast and the voice of God which terrifies the people. The author takes these 7 things and contrasts them with 7 of the aspects of the mountain we have come to. For as Christians we have not come to Mount Sinai, we have come to Mount Zion, aka the city of the living God, aka the heavenly Jerusalem. And what do we find there? We’ve come to innumerable angels in festal gathering, rejoicing before God, angels feasting, celebrating. We’ve come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, that is the church. All those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. We’re not coming solo, or as groups, we’re coming as a people. We’ve come to God the judge of all, the one who is perfect in righteousness and mercy. We’ve come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, that is, the ones who came before Christ, the people we find in the pages of the Old Testament, who awaited the coming of Jesus, who lived as God called them to, who have now been made perfect with us. We’ve come to Jesus, the one who created and brings the new covenant, the new promise of God’s goodness, mercy and grace. And we’ve come to the blood of Jesus sprinkled on the heavenly altar. The writer to the Hebrews has a lot of time for reflecting on the blood of Jesus. It's quite the contrast isn’t it. Everything about Mount Sinai is dark, forbidding, but also wonderous. Whereas Mount Zion seems a bright place, a place filled with light and joy, a place of feasting, gathering, rejoicing. At Mount Sinai God remains distant, high atop the edifice, at Mount Zion he draws near. So what’s changed? Clearly something has happened. It’s not as though God was just having a bit of a rough day when he came to the people at Sinai and is now feeling a bit more himself. It’s not that God was full of wrath and anger and has now discovered the way of love and peace. God hasn’t changed, instead God went up another mountain, and we have been changed. Because upon Mount Calvary, all our sin, all our brokenness, all our rebellion, all our hatred and disconnection, all of that was placed upon the shoulders of the Son of God. Jesus takes all of that upon himself and bears the punishment. He dies our death, carries the weight of our sin and shame down into death, right down into the hell it deserves. Before we couldn’t come to God, our sinfulness could not come into the presence of God’s holiness. It’s why at the mountain God gives commands and rules for people to follow to help curb their sinfulness, and then a system of sacrifices to deal with the sinfulness that happens anyway, but it never truly solves the issue, more of a diagnosis tool and temporary solution. God’s perfect holiness and our sinfulness don’t mix. God doesn’t stand far off at Sinai because he’s aloof, he does so for our safety, our protection. Yet at the cross, as Jesus bears our punishment, as he pours out his blood for us we find that the blood of Jesus doesn’t cry out for vengeance, protesting his murder as did the blood of Abel, even though we had murdered him, killed the son of God in human flesh, instead his blood speaks a message of forgiveness, of redemption, of cleansing, of peace. And now we can draw near, cleansed of our sins in Jesus we can come to God. On the cross Jesus takes what was ours, and in return we gain what is his. Now, when we come before God, we don’t come in our sin and shame, we come in Jesus’ name. We come not as servants but as children. Through Jesus we call the God of the universe Father. In our fallen state when we approach God, doing so in our own strength, we find ourselves at Sinai, the terror as we are faced with the God of the universe. As come face to face with a God who is utterly holy, all our perceived goodness fades as we are faced with what true goodness and holiness looks like. We find ourselves faced with a God whom we cannot control, cannot tame. All that raw power and strength speaks of the one who cannot be bent to our will to do our bidding. And yet God is always uncontrollable, whether at Mount Sinai or Mount Zion, but what he also is, whether at Sinai or Zion, is utterly for us. If you read on to Exodus 20 you find the people terrified, telling Moses to go and speak to God for them because they can’t bear to hear him. And Moses replies “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” All that raw power and strength is for them, God comes, longing that his people be freed from sin, kept from sin, kept from all that harms them, all the damage they inflict upon themselves and one another in their sinfulness. The people fear, but God wills only their good. We can too easily take God lightly, think he is tame, domesticated. We decide that he’s ‘safe’. But he isn’t safe, he’s God, as the reading from Hebrews reminds us, he’s a consuming fire. But what he also is is good, righteous and merciful. As we come to Mount Zion, as we approach God in Jesus’ name, trusting not in ourselves, our own goodness, our own efforts, our own name, but trusting in Jesus’ goodness, his saving work, his name, we find that all that would have caused us fear and terror at Sinai now brings joy and hope. For the darkness has been driven out by light. Trumpet blast no longer bringing terror but signalling the victory of Christ. Fire and smoke no longer our destruction but for our purification. God as judge, no longer for our condemnation, but for our salvation. Whilst before the shaking of the earth would have caused us fear, caused us to cling on tighter to the things of this world, our life, our jobs, our money, our self sufficiency. Now, now that God has given us a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, now we do not fear when the earth shakes, when troubles come, when life is hard, indeed we even long that God would shake the earth, so that at last all that remains is his Kingdom, all made right and good and perfect at last. So do not fear, instead come. For you have not come to Mount Sinai, to the dread of that place and the dread of the law. Instead, in Jesus, you have come to Mount Zion, to the freedom and the life that he gives. Do not come lightly, but come in confidence, in hope, and in joy. For all that would have caused us terror is found to be for our good. All that power and strength and majesty is poured out for our salvation. When this world shakes, we know that he is drawing near, that at last we will behold Mount Zion not by faith, but in our flesh, with our own eyes. Amen.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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