In his book The Hungering Dark, Frederich Buechner wrote that “humanity is like an enormous spider web, so that if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing trembling.”
The people of Israel were trembling as the presence of God was announced by the blast of the trumpet, thunder, lightning, fire, and smoke on Mount Sinai. No longer slaves in Egypt, it was a holy moment as Moses descended from Mount Sinai to tell the Israelites that God was calling them to live in a new identity as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. Announcing God’s call through what is known as the Sinai Covenant or the Mosaic Covenant, Moses pronounces that what God had promised to Abraham in the 12th chapter of Genesis was going to be fulfilled in the 19th chapter of Exodus though the nation of Israel. To refresh your memory about God’s covenant with Abraham, I invite you to hear Genesis 12:1-3:
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It is through the Sinai Covenant that God’s covenant with Abraham is fulfilled as Moses announces that the real purpose of the Israelites’ exodus was not deliverance from slavery, but instead deliverance into the presence of the Lord. It was for this purpose that the Israelites were consecrated to serve God’s purposes as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation through whom the earth shall be blessed and set trembling.
It is through the roots of the Sinai Covenant in Exodus 19 that Christians are defined as a royal priesthood and a holy nation in today’s scripture reading in I Peter 2. Written by the apostle Peter, among the first to become a disciple of Jesus, the premise of this scripture is that Jesus delivers his followers into the presence of God. In describing Jesus’ followers as part of a holy nation, Peter broadens the story of God’s deliverance beyond blood lines into faith lines as the world is set trembling through the message of God’s presence in Jesus.
A few years back there was a draught in North Carolina. A farmer who lived in that state, Danny Murray, was in danger of losing his dairy farm because there was no hay to feed his cows. From the beginning of the farm, Danny and his wife had supplemented their income by part-time jobs as they worked to help their dreams become reality. Danny described the challenge they were facing as something they could not overcome by hard work as they could not make it rain and they could not make the grass grow. With time, Murray says that his prayer became, “Why God? Just show me one particle of good in this whole mess, and I will keep trying.”
The morning after he had prayed that prayer, Murray decided to call the cattle auction, but the phone rang before he could make the call. A familiar voice said, “Danny, this is Ed Biddix, down at the Extension Office. Good news! We’ve got some hay coming in this morning from Kentucky.” Murray replied, “That’s wonderful, Mr. Biddix, but what is it going to cost? I’ll have to try to get some money together.”
Don’t worry about it, son. These people heard about our situation and they just want to help. The hay’s a gift.” The next morning while Murray was feeding some of the hay to the cows, he heard his wife shout, “Danny, come here, I want you to see something.” She handed him a piece of paper, found on one of the bales of hay that had come from Kentucky and had been delivered to one of their neighbors.
Murray began to read, “To the new owner of this hay bale: Dear Farmer, my name is Susan McDowell. My husband, Benny, and I own the Advanced Feeds store in Hodgenville, Kentucky. We’ve been in business for less that three years. We need rain bad too. Some of our farmers are out of hay, so they are buying some to send. I write this because I know how you farmers are feeling – looking at your lifelong dream that you have worked so hard for and feeling like it is slowly getting away from you and you have no control. I guess we all know life is a gamble, but I think farmers know it even more. To work in the farming business, I believe that you have to feel the presence of God every day that you go out into your fields. Our faith and trust in the Lord will see us through these rough days.”
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people: once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
I Peter 2:9-10
Friends, it is time to set the world trembling through the presence of God.
The Presence of God
by Pastor Marc Brown
October 8, 2023
Accompanying Scriptures: Exodus 19:1-11, 16-20 | 1 Peter 2:1-10
Fort Hill United Methodist Church
Order of Worship for October 8, 2023
Scripture Lesson Exodus 19:1-11, 16-20 | 1 Peter 2:1-10
The Good News “The Presence of God”
Music “Be Thou My Vision” Hymn #451
Prayer
Blessing
Closing Music “Forest Green” arr. Penny Rodriguez
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