Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Take Your Shoes Off!



You’re walking along, doing your thing, when you see something unusual. It stops you in your tracks. Been there? Done that? It strikes us because it’s not what we expected. Normality has been disturbed. It can be a little confusing, disorientating. It can fascinate us. It doesn’t need to be a big thing. I was walking along where I live and walked past a church. Something was different. The hedge between the church grounds and the pavement had gone! Completely! That was weird because it was different. Last week when I went up town, the market square (usually a vast area of grey nothingness) was covered with a market! May not seem unusual but it was obviously a special event because, despite the name, there’s no regular market there. OK, no big deal, but these things give us a chance to be curious. Why has the church removed its hedge? Will they replace it? Won’t it be vulnerable to vandals? Maybe they’re making it more visible? I wonder what that market’s all about? Why are they doing it? How long has it been there? Cultivating curiosity can be good. You can walk on by or go and investigate. 

These little things pale into insignificance compared to Exodus 3 when Moses sees a bush on fire but not burned up. His curiosity got the better of him. He went to investigate. It’d be a dull mind indeed that thought, “that’s a strange thing – I’ll just get on tending the sheep”. He goes for a look and encounters God, who tells him to take off his sandals because he’s standing on holy ground. I don’t think that spot of earth was inherently holy. It was made holy by God’s presence. 

Where do we find what we might call “holy ground” today? Where is God’s presence today? Here is one idea. It’s not an exclusive idea. I don’t claim it’s this and nothing else. Christ is holy. Christ is in Christians (yes, I know, it’s hard to believe sometimes). Boom! I would suggest that where Christ is, there is holy ground. If Christ is in us, then every step we take is on holy ground. And we are, ourselves, holy ground, individually and corporately, as the temple of the Spirit. This is a huge privilege and a heavy responsibility! 

What an amazing thing! The risen Jesus lives in His people. Not only with, but in. Not only “up there”, but in. This should rock our worlds! It’s a true cause for happiness! 

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

But it’s also a cause for sobriety, because we have to live our lives in the knowledge that He’s always there. We don’t have to do only “Christian” activities, but we have to do all activities as Christians. 

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

When on our own, Christ is in us. When two or three Christians are together, He’s there in the midst of us. We therefore have to recognise that He makes us one, and any differences or difficulties between us are less important than His presence in us.

This too leads to happiness. I’ve sadly bitched and backbitten in the past. Criticised and sneered. That’s a miserable existence. Loving one another is the only way Christians can live and be happy. There is One who unites us and that is most important.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
 
Read John 17:20-23 and do what you can to make it happen.

(P.S. The church has a new fence which makes the building more visible.)

2 comments:

  1. I. Loved. This.
    *silence for my speechlessness*
    Seriously, I cannot blab a long enough comment to tell you how much I loved this post!! :D
    (I have a new favorite now, clearly...)

    How you told a personal story of curiosity, then illustrated the Word of God with a complete, and understandable idea was grand!! I'm amazed!!
    Let's show Christ! †
    (Wish I had a longer comment! I loved this! :P)

    ReplyDelete