What I’m Thinking: Between Us and God

When Moses didn’t return quickly enough from Mount Sinai, the Israelites demanded an idol to stand between themselves and God. Meanwhile, on the mountain, Moses performed exactly the same role…

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking this week of my gratitude to two congregations who worship on the grounds of Church of the Holy Cross: the Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa and the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. This Sunday they joined together and celebrated “White Sunday.”

The young people took the lead – the children and the youth. They told stories; they sang songs; they did skits; and they witnessed to the faith. It was profoundly moving and I thank you.

I’m thinking also of the thirty-second chapter of Exodus. The people of Israel, with Moses gone too long up on the mountain, well, they make for themselves an idol. Yes, they knew they were not supposed to do it. They did it anyway.

God tells Moses that this has happened, and says to Moses, “I’m going to make you into a people.”

Well, it turns out that the people of Israel were in some ways right. They did need someone to stand between them and God, because God was threatening to reject them, and it was only Moses who stood between God’s anger and the people that God had rescued.

So, what I’m thinking this week is: What do we keep between ourselves and God that keeps us, at least in our own minds, safe? To what degree do we try to protect ourselves from what we might feel is God’s justifiable anger with us? To what degree do we keep something between us and God because we fear the unknown? To what degree do we create our own idols to protect ourselves, not from the loving God in which I believe, in whom I believe, but the wrathful God that so many of us construct?

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m interested to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.