“Inspired Faithfulness, Part 2: A Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, August 24, 2025, Year C / Proper 15 (20) – Psalm 71:1-6 • Hebrews 12:18-29.

THEME:  Singing sacred hymns helps us experience God. (Hymn Sing Sunday)
 

Have you ever had what you would describe as a genuine experience of God?  A situation or an encounter where you felt that you were surely in the presence of the One who made us? If so, then you know the experience goes well beyond what we would call merely spiritual. It is tangible.  There is a physical, almost tactile dimension to the encounter.  It is like being in the presence of someone great and famous, only much more profound, and many times more intense. If you have had this experience, you know there can be only one reaction: awe. Reverent awe. Abraham Heschel, the great 20^th century rabbi and writer, called this “radical amazement.”  It is an odd mix of emotions, to be sure. There is fear. There is also love. Our knees tremble, even as our hearts melt.

That experience is what the writer of Hebrews is commending to those Jewish Christian converts whom he encourages to keep the faith, despite ongoing persecution. Last week, in part 1 of this series on Inspired Faithfulness, we talked about the great cloud of witnesses who inspire our faith. These include those heavenly saints who now live with God and know firsthand the Kingdom over which Christ rules. They also include those saints who are still running the race of faith alongside us. As we saw last week, we help one another persevere in the faith, anticipating the full revelation of God in his heavenly Kingdom. 

Contemporary saints like us, however, do not yet have that full revelation of God and his Kingdom. What we do have are glimpses of God, God moments that point to the Kingdom. Today, the writer of Hebrews is persuading his community of Jewish Christian converts to persevere int eh faith by giving them a picture of that heavenly experience of God. He starts by describing the encounter of God with Moses on Mt. Sinai. Then he contrasts that experience with the encounter with God in Jesus Christ on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy and Exodus tell us that, as Moses speaks with God, the people are in abject fear.  It is quite a picture: the mountain top boils with black clouds.  There is smoke and fire. Lightening flashes.  Thunder shakes them to their very core. The people have been warned not to approach the mountain where God speaks to Moses. If they or their animals touch it, they will die. The people are terrified.  They are so afraid, that they beg Moses to speak to God on their behalf. Moses himself quakes with trepidation. “I tremble with fear,” he says.

By comparison, the encounter with God in Jesus Christ is a true foretaste of the heavenly Kingdom. It will be a feast, hosted by Jesus himself, orchestrated by angels, and attended by all the saints who have gone before, and who now revel at the foot of Christ’s throne. The question that the writer of Hebrews is asking is Why would you settle for the fearful experience of God’s presence on Mt. Sinai, when you have already tasted the joyful experience of God’s loving presence in Jesus on Mt. Zion?

The shaking and consuming fire of God that evoked fear in their ancestors is not God’s vengeance – it is God’s purification of his people. In Jesus, they have been made new. All within them that is not worthy of God is now shaken loose and burned away. If they persevere in faith to the end of their earthly lives, what remains when they enter the Kingdom is the righteous and holy image of God, the image in which they were made, once again perfect and permanent. In other words, when you have known God’s love, there is no longer a need to be governed by fear. All that is needed is to accept and trust God’s love in Christ, and to live with it, by it, and for it. 

We still stand in awe of God. His presence is just as awesome for us as it was for Moses and the Israelites. But, because of Christ, we know that God’s love is equally palpable and far more powerful than anything we might fear. C.S. Lewis captures this notion perfectly in his wonderful Christian allegory, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Two of the characters, Lucy and Tumnus, speculate about the nature of Aslan, the lion who is the very picture of God.  Tumnus says, “He is not a tame lion.” Lucy responds, “but he is good.” He is more than good, friends. God’s love surpasses anything we know. When we experience that love, we are experiencing God. And that is cause for awe.

Friends, there are many ways to experience the awe of God’s presence. For almost 2,000 years, Christian mystics have pioneered all manner of spiritual techniques to cultivate the awareness of God’s presence. But, for ordinary believers like you and me, singing sacred music is one of the very best ways to experience the awe of God’s presence. Charles Kingsley, the great 19th century English pastor, famously said, “Music is a sacred, divine, God-like thing… It makes us feel something of the glory and beauty of God, and of all which God has made.” That is what you and I are experiencing on this hymn sing Sunday. We are most certainly in the presence of God this morning. The hymns we sing help us to know and to feel God’s love in a palpable way.

They assure us that, like the writer of Hebrews, God wants us to persevere in the faith.  He wants us to carry on trusting in Jesus Christ, despite hard times. Because what lies ahead of us is the full experience of God’s love in heaven – the Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

May it be so.