More Than Spectacle--October 14, 2021

More Than Spectacle--October 14, 2021

"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.')" [Hebrews 12:18-21]

God isn't the Wizard of Oz--thank God.

You know the famous scene in the movie, where Dorothy and her friends arrive in the Emerald City seeking a meeting with "Oz, the Great and Powerful," hoping for a way home, and a heart, and brains, and courage.  The ominous floating head of the Wizard is surrounded by fire and flashing lights, and his loud, booming voice frightens them before they even get around to making their petitions.  

Of course, before the story is all over and the credits start rolling, Dorothy and company discover that the Wizard isn't what he first appeared to be. All the pyrotechnics--the spectral, almost alien face, the sound effects, and the flames--were just a show.  They were all intended to intimidate and frighten those who dared seek an audience, so that they wouldn't notice the real "man behind the curtain" was merely a short old man pulling levers and turning cranks.  The noise and the spectacle were all a show--an illusion.

Now, at first blush, you might think that the biblical stories of God's presence on Mount Sinai were just more of the same.  After all, in the storytelling from Exodus, when the Israelites go to the base of the mountain so that Moses can meet God at its peak and receive the commandments, there are all those same sort of ominous signs.  There's the fire, the billowing smoke and darkness, the blaring sound of God's voice that rang out like a trumpet and sent the Israelites scattering like little children at the sound of thunder.  And rather like Dorothy timidly approaching the entryway to meet the Wizard, Moses himself seemed rather unnerved at the prospect of coming face to face, as it were, with the presence of the living God--the One whose self-given name is, mysteriously, "I AM WHO I AM."  The similarity is enough to make you wonder, "Is God going to turn out to be just some traveling salesman behind the curtain, trying to scare people from seeing too closely?"

Well, in a sense, it does turn out that God is more than the pyrotechnics and special effects.   But that's just it--God is more than the spectacle and show, not less.  The Wizard of Oz is something of a fraud, of course--he uses the fire and lights and sound effects to make himself seem more than he really is. But with God, it's different--it's more that the thunder and lightning, the fire and the the blare of the trumpet, are all inadequate to capture the fullness of who God is.  They are attention-getters, to be sure.  They are signs for the ancient Israelites that after having been hoodwinked by the bluster of Pharaoh who claimed to be a god but was no more than a pompous blowhard with a good P.R. department, that now they have come into the presence of the Real Thing.  The real and living God is meeting them on the mountain, and the real God doesn't need to rely on Pharaoh's propaganda to convince anybody about being God.  Creation itself puts on a display to recognize God's divine presence, but the booming sounds and flashes of fire aren't meant to fool anybody.  They are pointers to the Reality beyond them--they say, "The real and living God is more and bigger than all of this."

If all we had was a special effects show from God, our faith would be pretty hollow.  After all, flashes of light and booming noise can make you afraid, but they can't love you.  A blaring noise from the mountain can frighten you, but if it makes you too scared to listen, it will be hard to have a relationship with the Source of the sound.  We worship more than a spectacle, and we believe in more than good fireworks display.  As the writer of Hebrews puts it, we haven't come into the presence of any of those things--there is more we have been waiting for.  We have come into the very presence of God in Jesus, the God who, yes, was fearsome and transcendent on Mount Sinai, but also who is infinitely more, fuller, and more mysterious than just the light and noise on the mountain.  We have come into relationship, not with a clap of thunder or a flash of flame, but with the One who chooses to be in relationship with us.  God is surely beyond our comprehension and understanding, and yet God also chooses relationship with us.  Like C.S. Lewis said of his Christ-figure the lion Aslan, "He's not tame... but he is good." The real and living God will always leave us speechless, much the same way standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon or peering out into the vastness of a starry night sky will move you to awe, but God is always more than those impressive visuals.

We do sometimes need the reminders that God is bigger, wilder, freer, and more mysterious than we think, especially when we try to make God fit our boxes and expectations, or turn God into our wish-granting genie.  But it is also good news to know that, too, because it means that God is more than the spectacle of the Wizard. God is the Real Thing beyond the smoke and mirrors or the man behind the curtain in Emerald City.  We haven't come to just some noise and lights.  We have been brought into relationship with the living God.

Wow.  Just... wow.

Lord God, help us to be conscious of your presence--holy, mysterious, and yet good--in the midst of this day.