My pastor Joshua Johnson recently preached a sermon that deeply resonated with me, and still does, proclaiming that "God showed up"-- which scripture records time after time, and which my pastor knew from experience God still does. (The YouTube of that sermon, which I highly recommend, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHCUjZurp2I.)
My reading the following week included a Canadian pastor's blog, where he talked about the prayer in Isaiah 63:15-64:12. Isaiah 64:1-2 especially caught my attention, since it too talked about God showing up:
"Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence !"
There are many reasons we do NOT want God to show up. Most importantly, because His Presence is tremendously frightening. That "rending the heavens" thing would scare most of us out of our boots. That's undoubtedly why His first words, and the first words of His messengers, are nearly always, "Be not afraid !"
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel captured very well the feeling we cannot but experience in God's Presence: "God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.” A character in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe similarly describes Aslan: "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's
the King, I tell you.”
We have reason to be fearful. This King before us is good. And in our gut, we all know we are not. However cleverly we rationalize to ourselves that we are "a good person," we know all the great wrongs and hurts we've done. We also know in our gut-theology that the Law's sentence for our crimes is death. So it's a terrifying thing to stand before the Lawmaker, Who is also the only Judge of men's hearts. We know...and know that He knows better than anyone else could...that we deserve death.
If He lets us live, it's only because His mercy is as perfect as His justice. But the self-delusion we have always called "my life"...pride in my own way, my own righteousness, my own sufficiency, my own "cleanness"...is left in ashes by the Holiness of His Presence. We would all say what Isaiah said when God "showed up" while he was quietly worshipping in the Temple:
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)
At the same time, we want more than anything else for God to "show up." We want blessing; and our gut-knowledge is that there is no blessing...no peace, no joy, no provision, no protection...outside His Presence. If only He could be persuaded to mail His presents to us, like a kindly uncle...instead of inconveniently bringing them in Person.
But that's the way He does it. Our terrifying, blessing, King, chooses to come Himself: and no one can second-guess the King's decisions.
This season is, of course, the most appropriate possible time to talk of God "showing up" in Person. This post bookends yesterday's "Why I Hate Christmas:" it might be subtitled "What's Real About Christmas."
So I say today, with all His saints, with all my heart,
Praise Him, all ye people, forever, and ever: for the King Himself deigns to show up here this day, every day, within His Own creation, in our human experience, in human form...in Person !
