In the southern classic To Kill a Mockingbird, perhaps one of the most poignant scenes takes place in a courtroom. Scout and her brother, Jim, were watching from the balcony as a trial unfolded that promised no chance of fairness or truth. The children’s father, Atticus Finch, was faced with the responsibility of defending a man already doomed for execution. As Atticus left the courtroom, a woman speaks to the child. ”Stand up, Miz Scout. Your father is passing by.” Scouts’ surprise at this request is easily understood. To her, Atticus was the man who read the newspaper to her in the evenings, who asked her about her day and ended arguments between the siblings. He was her father and she was comfortable with understanding that.
When Moses encountered God on Mt Herob, he was living among a people whose culture revered nature. The burning bush defied the natural laws that would have caused the bush to be consumed. Yet Moses came closer to what was obviously a miracle, curious but without respect. And God called to him from the flames “Moses, take off your shoes. The ground you are standing on is holy ground.”
Sometimes, we allow our relationship with God to become familiar like Scout’s with her father or even Moses at the burning bush. He is God – we never forget that. He is the One we cry to in the darkness of night and sing to on Sunday morning. We pray to Him for our daily bread and ask Him to protect our families and ourselves. “Forgive us our sins,” we pray, remembering the model prayer. But do we appreciate exactly what it means to “walk” into the presence of the Most High God? God said to Moses “Take off your shoes.”
Jesus said the name of God was to be respected. Hallowed. Holy. Surely this was reflected at Sinai when God gave the children of Israel ten commandments to govern their lives, beginning with the absolute that the Lord God was to be preeminent over any other worship. The third commandment warned that the name of God was holy and was not to be misused. The Jews, fearing a lapse in behavior, would not speak or write the name in its entirety. And yet, the commandment reaches beyond the actual use of the name in conversation and speaks to attitude toward the holiness of God.
Moses asked for the name of God and was told ”I AM.” I Am the beginning and the end. I Am the One who will lead from captivity to freedom, from the wilderness to the promised land. I Am the God of the past and the promise of the future. I Am the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life and the Living Water. I Am Alpha and Omega. I Am the Resurrection and the Life. This is the God we worship. This is the God we praise and fear and love. We must never allow familiarity to weaken our understanding of Him nor religiosity to create barriers that separate us from Him. He made our hearts His temple and our voices His call to the lost. We are standing on holy ground.
Take off your shoes.
Yorumlar