The Touch of Christmas

Darrell Griffen is the pastor of the Oakdale Covenant Church on Vincennse Avenue on the south side of Chicago. If you ever heard him preach, you’d want to go back again. Darrell grew up in Wisconsin, did his Master’s work at Harvard and then took a ministry position in the Manhattan Borough of New York City, in a neighborhood called Harlem. While he was living in New York, his parents came to visit him and one of the things Darrell wanted to do was take them to Long Island. When Darrell mentioned his plan, his mother protested vehemently, “Oh no, I’m not going there! If we go there we may never make it back. No way!” Darrell’s mother who had come to see him in Harlem, had never been to Long Island. But she had some preconceived ideas about what Long Island was like. She was certain, totally convinced it was a dangerous place. She had heard stories in the news about gangs all over Long Island, about how someone on Long Island had committed murder and buried the victim in their back yard. Women all over the island were getting breast cancer and there had recently been a massacre on a metro train. Everything she’d seen, heard, or read convinced her Long Island was dangerous and she didn’t want to go there.

The Israelites had a similar idea of what it would be like if they ever went into the presence of God. They felt about seeing God like Darrell’s mom felt about seeing Long Island. You don’t want to go there. It’s too dangerous. Everything they’d ever read said, “You can’t see Him and live.” No one could survive seeing God. The presence of God is a dangerous place. You don’t want to go there because if you do, you may never come back. And that was what they though about seeing God. Touching Him was totally out of the question.

I think some people today have the same idea that going where God is can be scary. It’s dangerous. He knows all about me. I can’t hide anything from Him. I’ve heard the fear in some people who mask it with jokes like, “The roof might fall in if I show up there.” But behind all that is an expectation about what it’s like when you get in the presence of God. You don’t want to go there. You might come out with a sour face or a long list of things you’re not allowed to do anymore. If you go into the presence of God you might see a bunch of people acting crazy or be asked to be or do something you don’t want to be or do. It’s dangerous to go into the presence of God. You don’t want to go there because you might not ever make it back.

When Darrell’s parents arrived in Harlem he had his work cut out for him convincing them to go to Long Island, but he kept after it and finally they gave in. They made the drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and onto the island. When they arrived, his mother was shocked as she stared with wide-eyed wonder, like a 5-year-old seeing the cotton candy vendor at a ball game. She said, “I can’t believe it. This not what I expected at all. It’s really pretty nice.” And this woman who had been terrified of going there ended up enjoying a whole day on Long Island and leaving with a desire to go back.

In Exodus 24, Moses, Aaron, Abihu, Nadab, and 70 other Israelites followed obediently when God sent them up Mt. Sinai. Moses had just returned, having received the Ten Commandments and the other guidelines God had given for how the Israelites were to live if they were going to be the people of God. When Moses came down from the mountain and told the people what God had said to him, everybody said, “We’ll do it. We’ll live the way God wants us to” (v. 3). Then God himself wrote down the covenant code of conduct and Moses didn’t recite it, but read it all to the Israelites so they heard it all a second time. Their response was the same: “Whatever you say, we will obey” (v. 7). After God said, “This is what I expect from you, and here’s what you can expect from me,” the people said, “Count us in,” and a covenant relationship was established between God and Israel.

It might appear to be a little bizarre how it was solidified, but we see how it happened in verses 3-8. Animals were sacrificed in an act of worship. (The narrator makes sure we know the young people were involved, included, and given major roles to play in this ritual of worship—see v. 5.) But Moses did something else. He took all the blood, put half of it into bowls, and poured the other half on the altar. The blood Moses put into bowls he then sprinkled on the people in a ceremonial act of ratifying the covenant between God and Israel.

That’s when Moses, Aaron, Abihu, Nadam and the 70 were told to go back up the mountain. When they did, the unthinkable happened. God showed up and they were in His presence—they were also able to see Him. The first thing they thought was, “We’re dead! We can’t see God and live. No one sees God and lives to tell about it.” But then again, I don’t think they saw a whole lot of God. They described seeing what was under His feet. It seems to me that a glimpse of the glory is often what we see of God today. We see His feet, or His hand at work. I can say I’ve seen God this week. I heard His voice when I listened to Gary Brennan at our early morning prayer interceding for a co-worker who doesn’t know Jesus. I saw His handwriting in a card I received from Pauline Shore. Sometimes all we need is a glimpse of God’s hands or feet as all the evidence we need that God really is here.

When this group of Israelites who had ascended Mt. Sinai saw God, they didn’t get what they expected. Not only did they live to tell about it, they got an invitation to sit down with God for a meal on the mountain. It was a Supper on Sinai where they got to fellowship with this God who had just invited them into a covenant relationship and sealed it with blood. We can see their expectation (fear) in verse 11, “But God did not raise his hand against these leaders.” That’s Hebrew for God didn’t do them in like they thought He would.

Can you imagine what they must have felt when they saw God and instead of being struck down they were invited to sit down and have something to eat? (Probably a lot more surprised than Darrell’s mom when she saw that Long Island wasn’t full of gang members and murderers who buried people in their back yards.) I think God wanted them to know this covenant, though it was full of expectations for Israel’s behavior, wasn’t only about keeping commandments and obeying rules. It was also about times like this where they would eat and drink, and discover the God who had given the tablets was also a God who invited them to a table. Apparently the covenant they had just entered into wasn’t only about tablets inscribed with Commandments. It was also about tables filled with fellowship. It was about a God who was accessible.

One of the reasons I think there’s really something to this whole eating and drinking on the mountain is because in the very next chapter, after Moses returns from another 40 days on the mountain, he comes down with a blueprint for a worship space and all the furnishings. It’s called a tabernacle, and among other things, this tabernacle (dwelling place) was furnished with a table. With specific instructions God told Moses, “Build a table and put 12 loaves of bread on it.” The bread is called the Bread of the Presence and it was among the items God said to put in the Tabernacle, along with the Ark of the Covenant that housed the stone tablets upon which were written the Ten Commandments. A table in the Tabernacle? Fresh bread on the table? Why? I think God wanted His people to remember the covenant was more than rules on tablets. It was about relationships established and grown, born and raised at tables.

I can almost hear Darrell’s mom now, wanting to go back again. “Long Island? It’s not like that at all! It’s not a dangerous place. You’ve got to go there yourself. You’ll see. Let me tell you all about it.”

I can almost hear the 70 leading the way to worship when the Tabernacle was completed, directing others to the table. “You’ve got to go to the Tabernacle where God dwells; I’m telling you, you can experience God’s presence in ways you never imagined or expected, and when you do you’ll want to go back again and again. Believe me. I’ve experienced a God who not only writes commands on tablets, He invites people to tables.”

The Israelites didn’t expect to see God and live to tell about it. They certainly didn’t expect to encounter God at a table on Mt. Sinai, but they did. Maybe today you didn’t expect to encounter God at a table, but you could. On the night He was betrayed Jesus gathered His closest followers around a table and told them about a new covenant He was establishing. A covenant about to be ratified not by the blood of an animal poured on an altar and sprinkled on the people, but by His blood, which would be poured out on a cross and sprinkled on the hearts of those who would believe in Him. That’s what the writer to the Hebrews was talking about (see 10:19-25). Come near to God, have your hearts sprinkled. Command and invitation. Rules to follow and a relationship to enjoy. Tablets and tables.

God is always exploding our expectations, broadening our understanding of who God is. That’s what He did to Moses and the 70. It’s what God did most dramatically in the Incarnation. The God above and beyond became the God who moved in next door. He became flesh. Dwelt among us. Not far away but up close and personal. Approachable. Relational. Accessible. Touchable. Christmas is about a God who didn’t love us from a distance. He came to us desiring intimacy and fellowship. And He still comes to us like that today. In a world where so-called valuable things are often labeled, “Do Not Touch,” the most valuable, eternal, and meaningful One there is invites us to touch and be touched by Him.

What do you say we go to Long Island? Follow Moses up Mt. Sinai? Head to the Tabernacle. Check out the table where God-made-flesh joins us. Once we’ve met God there, I’m pretty sure we’ll find ourselves wanting to go back again and again.
Communion

Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:14, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”