Moving Closer to God

  Father Pothin's Reflection for July 23, 2017

This week, I want to look at Moses’s experience on the top of Mt Sinai. This is the lesson (Exodus 24:1) of Evening Prayer for this Sunday.  In ancient times people believed that going to the top of a mountain was a way of being closer to God. I believe it is still true today. I have made numerous trips to the Smokey Mountains and I have climbed the Chimney Tops on several occasions. When you reach the top it is a humbling experience. You see the vastness of God’s creation and it reminds you how small you are in comparison to God.

Moses went up to the top of Mt. Sinai because God called him there. God said, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instructions.” Moses went as he was instructed and stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. While Moses was on the mountain moving closer to God, the Israelites were becoming impatient. They didn’t want to wait for Moses to return and so they put pressure on Aaron to do something. As a substitute for God the Israelites made a golden calf and worshipped it. To make such an image was idolatrous. God was not pleased since the people had moved away from God.

I believe that life today is not unlike the time of the Israelites. It seems that people are moving farther and farther away from God. Public squares are increasingly becoming “anti-religious” but “pro-ridiculous”, congregation sizes are shrinking while stadiums, amphitheaters and gyms are running out of space. Even in the worship houses, where there is still something reminiscent of the divine, service numbers and lengths are being dramatically reduced to almost nothing. It looks like congregants take turns, alternating, one group attending this Sunday, and the other group hoping to make it next week. God, the benefactor of all, finds himself at the bottom of priorities, the last beneficiary of all.

Is not this strange and sad?   Everyone is in a hurry and people do not like to wait. Those who are anxious cope by striving to be in control. More and more people have decided to be masters of their own fate. They put their security in man-made equipment and programs. Trust is waning and unfortunately so is faith. The presence of God is becoming a distant reality.

How can we move closer to God? How can we rebuild our trust in God and know that God is real? What mountains do we need to climb? Where is the nearest hill we can ascend to recapture the glory of a loving God?

–Father Pothin