God’s glory
by Dr Kirsten Due
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A voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my own dear Son … Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard the voice, they were so afraid they fell flat on the ground (Matthew 17:5,6).
Read Matthew 17:1–9
What a passage – full of bright imagery and mystery.
Peter’s response to this display of glory is: ‘I can add to this wonderful situation – contribute by building something that captures the moment.’
Leviticus tells us about the type of tabernacle Peter wanted to build. In the festival of Booths, the Israelites built temporary outside shelters (booths) in remembrance of God’s sustaining grace to them in the wilderness. Then they lived in tents under the open sky, with God’s tent (tabernacle) in the middle of their camp.
Peter couldn’t resist the impulse to contribute by doing something similar, perhaps trying to re-capture the history of Israel in a moment. We might laugh at what seems inappropriate and ineffective, but Peter acted from what he knew. He followed ingrained tradition which told him a tabernacle was a place to welcome and honour the glorious grace of God. Peter was trying to worship in the way he knew how. That’s exactly what we do: We get a sniff of God’s glory and want to contribute; want to contain it; add to it; preserve it and understand it in terms of our familiar traditions. It’s hard to worship when things don’t match our accustomed ways.
God’s ways are mysterious, unfathomable – like the creation of the world and the redemption of a sinful humanity. It is only when the ‘shining cloud’ overwhelms, and a voice booms from within, that the disciples fall on their faces. They are floored, rendered speechless and humbled before the presence of God. Thrown on their faces by The Voice, they have nothing to add. Nothing to grasp. They stop wanting to build a physical church to contain God. They forget their centuries of tradition and ‘how things are done here’. They worship. They realise their attempts at contributing are a way of resisting the Spirit in his glory – of compartmentalising him to fit in our pockets. The disciples learn; ‘Heaven is his throne; and the earth his footstool … ‘‘What kind of house will you build for me’’, says the Lord, or where will my place of repose be? Has not my hand made all these things?’ (Isaiah 66:1,2a).
Father, your glory overwhelms us. Sometimes your ways seem strange to us. Sometimes they are frightening. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear your glory – to know you just as you are and not as we think you should be. Dispel our fears and give us unfettered hearts to worship you in spirit and in truth. Amen.
Dr Kirsten Due lives in Darwin with her husband, Noel, who is currently serving in the Top End Lutheran Parish. She has a postgraduate degree in psychology and is a doctor of medicine, currently engaged in remote area work in the Top End. She has written a book of children’s gospel stories (Bearen Bear and the Bunbury Tales) with a commendation by Andrew McDonough.
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