Sermon: From Sinai to Zion

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on August 21, 2016

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From Sinai to Zion

Audio Version

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.  (For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death."  Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.")  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!  At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven."  This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:18-29 (NRSV)

We're marching to Zion

Beautiful, beautiful Zion

We're marching upward to Zion

The beautiful city of God

From "Marching to Zion" by Isaac Watts and Robert Lowry

One of my favorite movies is the 1999 cyberpunk thriller The Matrix.  This film depicts a very bleak future in which humans are the underdogs in a war against machines, and the protagonist Neo finds himself a somewhat reluctant hero in this conflict.  At one point in the film, a comrade named Tank tells Neo about the last human city deep below the surface of the earth - a city that happens to be named Zion.  Tank says to Neo, "If the war was over tomorrow, Zion's where the party would be."  It is no secret that the creators of the film drew a lot of inspiration from various religious sources.  I cannot help but wonder if maybe this part of the story was inspired by Scripture passages like today's reading from Hebrews.

As we read the message originally addressed "To the Hebrews," the unnamed author encourages us to hold fast to our faith in the midst of difficult times.  He or she goes on to describe faith as "the assurance of things hoped for" and "the conviction of things not seen," reminding us of numerous heroes of faith from the Hebrew Scriptures.  Some performed great feats; some witnessed great miracles; some endured great hardships; some suffered great pain; and some worked for great things they would not live to see.  The author compares the life of faith to a race we run in front of "a great cloud of witnesses," all of the men and women of faith who have run the race before us.  Our example, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith," is none other than Jesus, the teacher, the healer, the wonder-worker, the "suffering servant."  The author encourages us to remember the One who suffered on our behalf and to treat our own hardships as strength training for the race.  He or she calls us to run toward the goals of peace and holiness, as we throw aside the weights of bitterness and selfish indulgence.¹

As we continue to read this message, the author takes us back to the time when the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai shortly after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt.  In preparation to meet God, Moses instructed the people to consecrate themselves by washing their clothes and abstaining from intercourse.  Only when the people heard a trumpet blast were they allowed to ascend the mountain.  Until then, anyone who touched the mountain was to be put to death, and any human or animal who touched anyone who touched the mountain was to be put to death as well.  On the day the trumpet sounded, a thick cloud and thunder and lightning had descended upon the mountain, and God descended in fire and covered the mountain in smoke.  As the trumpet blasts grew louder and louder, God spoke through thunder, causing the mountain to shake and the people to tremble.  In the end, only Moses and Aaron were allowed to ascend the mountain.²  The author of Hebrews describes that dreadful scene, saying that nobody present could bear what they heard and that even Moses was trembling with fear.

The author of Hebrews goes on to say that we are not journeying to Mt. Sinai but to Mt. Zion.  We are not approaching the Mt. Zion located in Jerusalem in the Middle East but rather a heavenly Mt. Zion and a heavenly Jerusalem.  There we will see God, Jesus, angels, and saints, all gathered for a celebration.  St. John uses similar language in his apocalypse when he writes of God's final victory over evil.  He writes of a time when heaven and earth are made new, when a New Jerusalem descends from heaven, and when God's home is with humanity.³  This time of communion between God and humanity is compared to a wedding banquet.⁴

The depiction of the festive scene at Mt. Zion is a far cry from the depiction of the terrifying scene at Mt. Sinai.  As people who sing that "we're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God," are we really approaching the same God the Israelites met at Mt. Sinai?  Did God somehow change between one mountain and the other?  Was it perhaps our understanding of God that changed?

It was at Mt. Sinai, that God made a covenant with the Israelites.  Through Moses, God said to them,
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.  Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.⁵
Priests are mediators between humanity and the divine: they show the world what their deity is like.  As a priestly kingdom, the Israelites were called to represent to the world the God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  They were to carry out this function by following the Law, which they received at Mt. Sinai.  The Law was a series of rules meant to form them into a just society, a society fundamentally different from what they had experienced in Egypt.⁶

People are generally unable to follow rules perfectly, and the Israelites were no exception.  Within this kingdom of priests was an order of priests, descendants of Moses' brother Aaron, who were responsible for atoning for the people's transgressions against the Law through ritual sacrifices.  The author of Hebrews notes, earlier in the message, that these priests could not perfectly atone for sin.  They had to stay on their feet because they had to keep offering sacrifices, for the sins of others and also for their own sins.  Furthermore, the office of priest had to change hands because nobody lives forever.

The author of Hebrews tells us that we have a High Priest who is like no other priest who ever walked the earth.  This High Priest is from an order that preceded the order of Aaron.  He did not need to offer sacrifices for His own sin, for He was without sin.  He did not have to offer sacrifices over and over again, because He offered a single once-and-for-all sacrifice, His own flesh and blood.  His priesthood did not change hands with His death, for He serves eternally.  He does not serve in a human-made temple or shrine, for He serves at the right-hand side of God.⁷  Our High Priest is none other than Jesus Christ.  St. Paul writes in one of his letters, "There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all."⁸

If it is indeed the task of priests to show people what their deity is like, I would argue that Jesus was the only priest who could adequately show the world what God is like.  One early Christian hymn calls Jesus "the image of the invisible God."⁹  Another hymn teaches us that, in Jesus, "the Word [of God] became flesh and lived among us."¹⁰  Brian Zahnd, one of my favorite preachers likes to say, "God is like Jesus.  God has always been like Jesus.  There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.  We have not always known what God is like - but now we do."¹¹  Christ came into the world not only to show us what God is like, but also to enter into the human experience.  The God described at Mt. Sinai was frightening and unapproachable.  By contrast, the author of Hebrews writes that our High Priest intimately understands our experiences as humans and is fully able to empathize with us, so we are free to "approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."¹²

Not long after Jesus began His public ministry, He returned to His hometown of Nazareth to preach in the synagogue on a Sabbath day.  When He stood up to read, He was handed the Book of Isaiah.  He opened the scroll, searched for a certain passage, and read the following to the congregation:
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Jesus rolled up the scroll, sat down as rabbis did whenever they started to teach, and then announced to the congregation that Isaiah's prophecy had been fulfilled that very day in their midst.¹³  It was this passage that would set the tone for Jesus' entire ministry.  We see in Jesus what we also see in the Exodus story, that God in the business of setting people free.

Later on, on another Sabbath day when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in another town, He spotted a woman who, for the last eighteen years, was unable to stand up straight.  In the middle of His teaching, He announced to her, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."  Immediately, she straightened up and began to praise God.  The leader of the synagogue spoke up and said to the congregation, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."¹⁴  He was, of course, referencing the Fourth Commandment, one of the rules given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai:
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.¹⁵
Acts of healing were considered work, so, by the letter of the law, they were forbidden on the Sabbath day.

Consider for a moment why God would give the Israelites such a commandment in the first place.  Only a few months before the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai, they were slaves in Egypt.  When Moses and Aaron first approached the Pharaoh, they requested that he allow the Israelites to leave Egypt for a few days so that they could worship their God.  Angered by their insolence, the Pharaoh took out his rage on the Israelites, requiring them to start gathering their own straw to make bricks while still maintaining their daily quota.¹⁶  In Egypt, the Israelites were not treated with the dignity meant for human beings who bear the image of God; they were treated as machines, valued only for what they produced.  The Fourth Commandment was not merely a stricture on the amount of time the Israelites were allowed to work: it was a gift from God to the Israelites.  The Sabbath day was a mandatory day of rest intended to uphold their humanity.  It was a symbol of their freedom and a reminder that God is invested in people's freedom.¹⁷

Over time, the observance of the Sabbath day had become one more rule the people were required to follow or else face serious consequences.  What was meant to protect people from oppression had become oppressive in itself.  Jesus, on the other hand, understood that "the sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath."¹⁸  While the leader of the synagogue thought that people should not seek healing on the Sabbath day, Jesus thought that the Sabbath day was the perfect occasion for the woman in the synagogue to be given rest from the ailment that had oppressed her for the last eighteen years.¹⁹  Is there any better day than the day meant to symbolize freedom and uphold people's humanity to celebrate the release, recovery, freedom, and favor Jesus came to bring?

In Christ, we do not see a God who hands down extremely difficult rules and then sits in waiting, ready to strike us down the moment we break those rules.  In Christ, we see a God who gives us freedom - freedom from the things that hold us captive, freedom from fear, and freedom from legalistic religion.

This good news of freedom does not come to us without a warning.  The author of Hebrews reminds us of how the earth shook at Mt. Sinai and then calls to mind the words of God as told by the prophet Haggai, "Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land."²⁰  The author reinterprets this prophecy as a warning that someday the whole cosmos will be shaken - or perhaps tested or judged.  All that can be shaken will come to an end, and only what is unshakable will remain standing.  Among what will cease to exist is anything that contributes to suffering or impedes flourishing.  In St. John's description of the coming of the Kingdom of God, God announces, "Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."²¹  If we are to experience the freedom God desires for us, some things must come to an end.

The author of Hebrews writes that "our God is a consuming fire," but I think it is important to remember that the fire of God is not merely destructive but purifying.  The author has already told us that if we are to run the race set before us, we must "lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely."²²  God wants us to be free, but sadly we sometimes think that the chains that keep us in captivity are made of gold.  If we cling to the things that need to come to an end, we will be burned.  As Brian Zahnd would say, "The wrath of God is the love of God wrongly received."²³  Imagine for a moment you just received the news that illicit drugs will soon cease to exist.  This is especially good news for addicts, for they will soon be free from the thing that enslaves them.  Sadly, because of their addiction, they might not perceive this as good news.  Like an addict, we find ourselves attached to things that are harmful, to ourselves and to others.

At work in our world are sinful systems that benefit some people to the detriment of others, in the same way that, in the Book of Exodus, the Egyptians benefited from the slavery of the Israelites.  If there is no death, mourning, crying, or pain in the Kingdom of God, then such systems must come to an end.  Their end will good news for everyone; in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."²⁴  It will not seem like good news to those of us who benefit from such systems.  There is a reason that the announcement of the coming of the Kingdom of God is coupled with a call to repentance.²⁵  God is in the business of setting people free, and we do not want to stand in the way when God is at work.

There are many images of God that strike fear into our hearts, but Jesus Christ, our High Priest, shows us that God loves all of us and that God wants us all to be free.  That said, let us throw aside all of those things that hold us back as we strive to run the race that is the life of faith.  Let's throw aside theology that gives us a distorted understanding of God.  Let's throw aside legalistic religiosity that keeps us from experiencing God's grace and extending it to others.  Let's throw aside anything that oppresses other people, and let's work to help others experience the freedom God wants for all of us.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Hebrews 10:19-12:17 (NRSV)
2. Exodus 19:9-25
3. Revelation 21:1-3
4. Revelation 19:9
5. Exodus 19:4-6a (NRSV)
6. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  pp 28-36
7. Hebrews 7:11-8:7
8. 1 Timothy 2:5 (NRSV)
9. Colossians 1:15 (NRSV)
10. John 1:14 (NRSV)
11. Brian Zahnd.  "God Is Like Jesus."  BrianZahnd.com, 08/11/2011.
12. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NRSV)
13. Luke 4:16-21 (NRSV)
14. Luke 13:10-14 (NRSV)
15. Exodus 20:8-10 (NRSV)
16. Exodus 5:1-9
17. Bell and Golden, pp 34, 191
18. Mark 2:27 (NRSV)
19. Luke 13:15-17
20. Haggai 2:6 (NRSV)
21. Revelation 21:4 (NRSV)
22. Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV)
23. https://twitter.com/brianzahnd/status/416799972810436608
24. From King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
25. Mark 1:15; Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17

The engraving of New Jerusalem was made by Gustave Doré in 1890.