Then God said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. Moses alone shall come near the LORD; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
This passage was the basis for one of my morning devotions today and I really could not resist it. Especially as I read it immediately after a phone conversation with a church member. She had attended our online worship service for the very first time on Sunday and said it was very nice, “but when are we going to be able to come to church in person again?” I had to tell her the same thing I tell everyone with that question - we have absolutely no idea. The Board meets on Zoom every month, kind of all look at each other and shrug our shoulders. We know it isn’t time yet, but we have no idea when that time will come.
What we have instead is worship at a distance. Only a few people - our Quarantine Qrew of musicians - gather in the sanctuary. The rest of us must stay at a distance from the sanctuary and from each other. This of course is not at all related to the scripture, but it is where my mind took me right away this morning. And this writing is, after all, my journal on how I respond to a Scripture reading each day, which sometimes take my mind far afield of the real or intended meaning of the reading. 😊
It did strike me, however, that this passage speaks to how we think about our relationship with God. In the earliest days it was believed and understood that God was actually present in certain places - on the mountain where Moses met with God, in the tent of the ark of the covenant while the Hebrews traveled all the way up until Solomon built the Temple, and thereafter in the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the Temple. Only Moses could face God on the mountain. Only the high priest could face God in the sanctuary. All the people had to keep their distance, because God is too wonderful and terrifying for ordinary people to meet face to face. Over time and with the rise of Christianity that changed, although there are Christian traditions in which only the priest may approach the altar.
We proclaim that Jesus said “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them”. We believe that God is present everywhere all the time. It is nevertheless hard for us not to think of the sanctuary as God’s House, the place where God lives. We want to be in the place where God lives. We want to gather as a body in that place. It is frustrating that we must worship alone or with just our family members, in our own homes. It is frustrating that we can see the sanctuary on our computer screens, but cannot be there in person.
Maybe it would help if we took this passage (completely out of context) as directions for how to approach God right now, in the midst of a pandemic.
“Come up to the Lord, and worship at a distance.”
Eternal God, you are omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent - all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present. Help us to remember that it only seems like we are worshipping at a distance, for our own houses are also your House, and you are there and everywhere with each of us. Amen.
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