March 24th 2019 3rd Sunday of Lent (Cycle C)
Wholly Holy
The tie in between
today’s readings is: Sacred Space
God’s holiness is
very mysterious. Granted, no one can fathom the Almighty, but we can see His
power in a tornado, push it to the edge of our mental capacity and say, “Whoa!”
Scientists can “look” at a quantum particle in a collider and then turn the
Hubble Telescope to maximum magnification of the universe and perhaps grasp a
notion of Omnipresence. When it comes to holiness, however, we are clueless
because there is no basis of comparison. It can’t be measured as more or less
of something. Holiness is a state of being and is the very core of the Supreme
Being. It is rigid, eternal, and exclusive. You either are or you aren’t holy and
if you aren’t, you’re out! For fallen mankind this is the most terrifying of
aspects. Biblical encounters with God’s holiness as we see with the prophet
Isaiah are traumatic. It is only by His mercy that we are not duly
disintegrated due our corrupt state against His Divine Nature. So how does a
loving God even begin to have a relationship with sinful humans, who if we were
magically transported to heaven would make the angels vomit? Well, you start by
clearing off a sacred space.
A sacred space is a
location where God associates His presence in encounters with men. In the Old
Testament altars were built to mark the spot, trees also took on this altar
motif. It’s a kind of God fingerprint, a
spiritual electricity of sorts. Our reading in Exodus 3:1-15 is full of sacred
space features. On Mt. Horeb God calls to Moses from the midst of the burning
bush and tells him to take off his shoes because the ground is holy. The
mountain and the bush take on prominence as sacred spaces. God links His
eternal, I AM, name to the children of Israel by His association to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob and so causes them to be holy. Their upcoming conquest of the
Promised Land with the presence of YHWH in the tabernacle and later the temple
makes the entire geography sacred space. When Moses goes to Pharaoh for the
Exodus mission, the Lord says that the certainty of success lies in the fact
that they will worship Him on this holy mountain where they were now standing.
YHWH will be their God and they will be His people. God is a jealous God. He is
all about the relationship and the relationship is holy.
There is a tension
between the sinner and the sacred. What happens when you’re not so holy after
all? How does it affect the God to man dynamic when you break the rules? Well,
if you go with cosmic karma God will ZAP you. Good things happen to good
people, but bad people better watch out. Jesus blows this point of view out of
the water in our reading in Luke 13:1-9. Taking the headlines out of the
morning edition of the Jerusalem Times, He asks the crowd if they thought the
people crushed by the falling tower or those Galileans that Pilate killed were
worse than any of them. NO! Jesus drives home the point that we are too finite
to understand the cause and effect of life. That said, there is a fate from a
Holy God worse than death awaiting all of us. It is based on our sin. It is
coming and it is devastating. Unless you repent, you will perish! Repent here
means a total change of heart not just a change of mind or behavior. Our Lord
launches into a parable about a fruitless fig tree. The owner is sick and tired
of this tree not fulfilling its purpose. “Why does it even burden the ground?”
he asks. The nuance here gives the tree a sinful persona. A good tree
cooperates with its purpose and bears fruit, the bad tree not so much. So a
person or a nation occupying sacred space needs to live in character with the
Holy. The scene parallels God arguing with Himself as to whether judgment
should come down or mercy be granted to a sinner. Mercy wins out this
time...for a while and God gives every opportunity for a change. The message
from a sacred space point of view is that what is unholy cannot remain in
sacred space, one of two things must happen.
The sinner must be
removed. 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 gives a warning especially to the religious.
Verses 1 to 4 chronicle the religious aspects of the Exodus. They were baptized
into Moses through the Red Sea, ate manna and drank from the Rock, all of which
spoke of Jesus, all of which tied the children of Israel to God through the
sacred. It failed to make them holy because it only connected to them on a
physical level. It did not penetrate. It did not change their fallen nature
because so many times religious practices for all their piety and message stay
on the surface. So, from verses 5-10, they lusted, committed idolatry,
grumbled, and tested the Lord, until finally they were removed in dramatic
fashion. Here God speaks loudly AND carries a big stick as a wakeup call to us.
WATCH OUT! Removal from the holy presence of God and into outer darkness is
what hell is all about!
The sinner must be
changed. Psalm 103:1-11 praises God for His mercies. The Lord among other
things pardons your iniquities, redeems you from the pit, crowns you with
compassion, and does not deal with you according to your sin. Instead of judgment,
He dispenses grace. But this only comes through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Something amazing happens when you confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord by
faith. God changes your very nature and you become a bonafide child of the most
High. In this change He places His Spirit in you, which makes you a temple of
the Holy One and fit for heaven. You become actual sacred space and want to live
accordingly! This change is awesome the
angels shout! So, my friend, you have a choice. The sands of God’s patience are
running through the hourglass of your life. You still have time to repent.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Tick-Tock.
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