Fall On Your Knees
I HAVE a seven-year-old son. He is a delight. One of our growing pleasures is that, in this past year, the set of his interests and the set of my interests have been slowly overlapping like a Venn diagram. The common ground started with the Despicable Me series, and driving his mother crazy, and has been expanding since then. As he has been getting older the type of children’s Bible that we read each night is getting more interesting. We started with a simple 50-lesson picture Bible and are now into The Action Bible, a comic book-styled Bible. Besides being more visually interesting, it is more comprehensive in the scope and complexity of the story of Scripture and the character of God, and this presents some challenges.
Recently we read the story we see set out in 1 Chronicle 13, where a victorious David, now King of a united Israel, establishes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel not just politically, but also spiritually. To that end he sets out to make it the permanent home of the Ark of Covenant. I will set aside the back story, though it is very interesting, but the Ark has been kept in the House of Abinidab, and David with the concurrence of the people of Israel is set to bring it to Jerusalem. I hope you are familiar with this story (if not, please attend to your daily reading of Scripture) and will recall that without touching it directly with human hands, they set it upon a new ox cart and began the journey accompanied by the worship of singers and musicians. At a certain point, however, the cart jolted and Uzzah the cart driver reached out his hand to steady it. But human hands were not to touch it and God’s anger was so kindled that Uzzah was struck dead.
This is a mystifying story and certainly it was to my son. It just does not make sense. How could God strike down a man who was trying to keep the Ark from falling, who was trying to do something good? Uzzah’s sin was in some sense not his own fault. He was a cart driver and not King David or a priest who should have known that moving the Ark in this manner was in disobedience to the law of God. His sin was the fruit of David and the priests of Israel’s casual neglect of the command of God. Despite being enthusiastic in reasserting the Ark of the Covenant to the centre of the nation of Israel, and accompanying this act with worship, they did not attend to God’s desire that Holy Things should not be treated in a common fashion.
I was thinking about this as I was reading that magisterial first chapter of Hebrews, which raises up the loveliness and glory of Christ Jesus who has come among us and purged our sins and is seated at the right hand of God. He is glorified by the angels, and of him God has said:
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever;
A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom
and again he said:
Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth;
And the heavens are the works of thine hands:
They shall perish, but thou remainest…
.
It is a beautiful passage of scripture, which holds up the majesty and glory of the Christ. This passage is worthy of meditation as we come together to worship our Lord Jesus Christ this season. We must ask ourselves: Does our mission and worship reflect that glory?
As a priest, it is sobering to read the passage of the moving of the Ark of the Covenant and the striking down of Uzzah. It begs the question of how often have I treated – and lead the people under my spiritual care to treat – the glory of Christ in a common manner? Have I lead them to reverence our Lord in our corporate task of placing him at the centre of our church and community, or am I enthusiastically carrying this treasure on the ox cart of sentiment or cultural fad? And in doing all of this have I placed these people in peril? We must not treat Holy Things in a casual manner.
As we gather for worship on this high feast of Christmas, let us approach the Glory of God with Joy – yes. But also, as we see the Most High Christ, let us be afraid like the shepherds, let us fall down on our knees like the wise men and let us walk in humble obedience like Mary and Joseph.
On behalf of all of us at TAP, let me wish you a Happy Christmas and a Blessed New Year. TAP
