Today’s Scripture Reading (March 6,
2013): Psalm 68
We have an
interesting phrase that we use in our culture. The phrase is this – they are
rich, but you would never know it. And the phrase is usually used with great
respect. It is not that we look down on these people who seem to not use their
money to the point where their wealth is obvious. We seem to like people who
are like that. And I think the reason for that is that for those of us who do
not have a lot money, there exists this idea (probably false) that those that
have money are somehow not like us. So with the few moneyed people in our
circle of influence who live the same way that we do, to us this is proof that,
deep down, we really are all the same. We share the very same struggles and
joys that this life brings. They are like us – and we can actually be in
community with them.
So it
follows, then, that in the Christmas story, we often seem to make a big deal
about this Jesus, the very Son and heir of God, who chooses to be born in a
barn rather than in a palace. We understand in that story that God deserved much
more than the absolute best that we had to give to him. But he chose to be just
like us - to be born to working class parents that had no strings that they
could pull to get special favors, they were not famous in any way and they had
no reservoir of anything available to them when life dealt a surprise to them.
It was this ordinariness that resulted in Jesus birth in a barn – and in that
birth he became like us.
But the idea
of God becoming like us is actually an ancient idea. So it is with this thought
in mind that David looks at the mountain of Bashan. The mountain that David is
speaking of was probably Mount Hermon, a mountain that was on the border of
Bashan in the North. Mount Hermon is actually a mountain cluster, a mountain
that has three distinct summits all of about the same height. Mount Hermon is
high and rugged and snow covered. Mount Hermon dominates the surrounding area.
The mountain is regal and majestic. It is a mountain that would be deserving of
God (not to mention that with three peaks Mount Bashan would have made a great
illustration of the idea of the Trinity.)
Yet, the
reality is that Mount Bashan is God’s mountain only because God created the
mountain – it is not the mountain that God has chosen for his dwelling place.
For his dwelling place he chose a much more modest place – Mount Zion. Mount
Zion, compared to Mount Bashan, would be more of a hill. All the things that
Mount Bashan was, Mount Zion was not. And yet, that is the place that God chose
as his dwelling place. He gave up the high and regal for something much more plain.
God passes on the special so that he can inhabit the ordinary – and what that
should teach us is that we are never closer to God than we are in the ordinary
moments of this life.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
72
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