Exodus chapters 30-31
When's the last time you travelled to visit family?
Fewer of us are fortunate enough these days to have family who live within an hour's drive. To drive two hours or more turns into a travelling event. Travelling, as opposed to just visiting, requires packing and preparing. The distance between me and my family is about 5 hours, so when I make a visit I have to plan and prepare to stay at least one night. It's a lot of work to make quality time with family, but it's necessary and worth it.
Imagine planning and preparing to visit your family. You do what you need to do in order to get yourself into their presence. You do all the work in order to spend a little bit of quality time with them. You leave early in the morning so that you have the entire day to spend with them. You make the trip, you arrive at about 9:30am and you're enthusiastic about spending enjoying quality time with your family. Now, imagine your reaction if when you arrive your family doesn't really share your enthusiasm. Imagine a situation where you've travelled and endured through the preparations, and they act like they really done even care to visit. As a matter of fact, most of them don't even bother to get out of bed to greet you.
If this happened to you, how would you respond? Would you turn, angrily, get back in the car and leave? Would you scold your family for their apathy and lack of appreciation for all the planning and preparations that you endured in order to be with them? What would you do? I dont expect that we would simply forgive everyone and head into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the family.
What do you think Jesus would do, if it happened to him?
Well, it does....every Sunday.
I think if we're honest about the way we treat our Sunday morning worship service, we would have to confess that we treat Jesus with the same lack luster enthusiasm. We have this church building that we treasure. In it we make a spiritual home for ourselves and we become a part of God's family, Jesus' brothers and sisters. Jesus promises to come and be with us every Sunday for worship. He promises to be with us in our Sabbath. He promises to travel all the way from heaven to spend a little quality time in and through all that we do in worship. The preparations he has endured, the cross he has had to bear, the distance he has had to travel; the man literally had to go through hell in order to be with us in worship. And how to we receive this gift of his presence? Most of us don't even get out of bed to greet him. When we do show up, we are often unenthusiastic at our best, and harbor our personal agendas for even being there. Songs are prepared, the house of worship is decorated with flowers and colors, scriptures and prayers are read all to offer him a spirited welcome, but most of us just go through the motions.
How does Jesus respond? Does he angrily turn and leave? NO. Does he stay and scold his family for their lack of appreciation for all that he has endured to be with us? NO. He does what he has always done, he forgives us, assumes his role in the house as the host, and makes us breakfast (Holy Communion).
In today's text from Exodus, we hear the conclusion of all that God desired for the creation of the tabernacle (church, or house of worship). But, then the final verses remind us that building the church is not an end in itself. It is merely the means toward the end of honoring the Sabbath. Sabbath is not simply a day each week when we do no work. That completely misses the point. Sabbath is the devotion of quality time with God. God built the Tabernacle so that he could spend quality time with his people, Israel. Likewise, Jesus encourages the construction of the church so that he can spend quality time with us.
We understand the importance of spending quality time with our family. But, we forget that we have a spiritual family as well. Worship is the place where Jesus promises to be so that his family may receive him and spend some quality time with him.
When's the last time you really worshiped; not the last time you attended a service and went through the motions. When's the last time you REALLY worshiped? Do you remember how good it felt, how refreshing it was, to spend some REAL quality Sabbath time with Jesus? That is offered to us every week. What a gift!
Lord Jesus, I often forget how far you have travelled to be with us. I often forget how much you have endured to be with us. Forgive me...forgive all of us... for the ambivalence and apathy with which you are greeted on Sunday mornings. May I remember your saving acts of love on the cross and worship you always with an enthusiastic, and thankful heart. In your name. Amen.
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