Intimate Details

by Michael Phillips

Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22

There was a time when the people of God shared a unique intimacy with the creator of heaven and earth, things visible and invisible.  God spoke to Moses from a burning bush; God spoke to Pharaoh with signs and wonders.  Then a rag tag bunch of slaves were led by God through the terrible wilderness of the Sinai using a pillar of clouds by day and a pillar of fire by night.  In the beginning of all of these relationships there was uncertainty.  Moses has to ask who to say had called him – which God.  Pharaoh also had to ask.  The people ask Moses if he led them into the wilderness to kill them, wondering if they had been better off in Egypt.  Yet in time, little by little, the people became aware of God’s genuine desire to make a nation of them and lead them into the Promised Land. 

Even so, in spite of all this amazing evidence, they wavered in their faith.  One moment God is real and provides for their every need, and in the next they’re asking what God has done for them lately.  We are told in numerous Scriptures that this is the nature of God’s people, so it shouldn’t surprise us if it’s our nature, too.  We are also prone to grumbling and complaining and wavering in our faith.  We also want more than we have – even if we have everything we need from the hand of God.  This theme runs constantly through the Scriptures which suggests it’s an important topic if we want to forge an intimate relationship with God and with one another.  God would not abide their grumbles, gripes and criticisms forever.

Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that the word Lent does not appear in Scripture.  This custom didn’t arise until after the initial rush of Christian faith was over and believers had grown ho-hum about their faith.  When the world didn’t end as Jesus said it would his followers stopped expecting so much from God or from each other.  They hung a wooden cross on the wall and settled into comfortable routines, surrendering their passionate intimacy with God and others for things more convenient. 

Little by little Christians became devoted to their comforts instead of their God and the cross of Christ.  They decided there was no contradiction between being comfortable and being Christian.  Before long it was difficult to pick them out from the popular culture.  They no longer distinguished themselves by their bold love for one another.  They avoided extremes, decided to be nice instead of holy, to be cordial rather than loving – and God wept. 

You see, God remains interested in the intimate details even if we’re not –

God remains interested in acts of contrition for sins we have committed, acts of forgiving one another, and acts of holy hospitality where strangers are welcomed into our midst as if they were Christ.  These things are not impossible for people who choose to forge a deep and meaningful relationship with God and others. For this reason we have the word Lent – a time set apart to renew the intimate details of our love for God and neighbor by accepting anew the cross of Christ.

Creative love – God’s kind of love – means discovering ever new ways to give of ourselves in our relationships with one another; to be willing to express our honest hopes and fears and to listen attentively as others share their hopes and fears with us.  We have not been designed by God to cope with life on earth in isolation.  We have a built in need to lend and receive support within the context of a holy community of faith.  Our best earthly glimpse of the meaning of life – a meaning deeper than any human reason has yet formulated – comes to us in and through our expressions of mutual support.

There is a crack in everything God made, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Love one another as Jesus has loved you.  Love your flawed neighbor in the same way you love your flawed self – and new life will begin to emerge from the cracks.

(Comments to Michael at mykhal@sbcglobal.net)