"A Kingdom of Priests"

 

"Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

 

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." – I Peter 2:9-11

 

            Israel finally arrives at Mt. Sinai. This is what the whole journey has been headed for, the meeting with God at the place where the Lord first spoke to Moses in the burning bush. It takes us back to chapter 3, after God calls Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt: The Lord says,

"I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." (3:12)

 Through many dangers, toils and snares, they made it. Moses brings the people before God on the mountain. When he asked Pharaoh to allow the people to worship the Lord in the wilderness, he had no idea that God would be there waiting for them. When they set out into the wilderness to find a place to meet with God, they had no idea that God would actually talk to them, that they would hear the voice of God. They did not know that they had a purpose in God's heart that went beyond their freedom. But here, on this holy mountain, they were formed into a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now we get some insight into this story of parting seas and manna in a desert and water flowing from a rock. God was drawing this people to himself. On eagle's wings he carried them from Egypt to Sinai.

            So often when I have preached on the Ten Commandments, I have done it as a separate series, isolated from the journey of Israel to Sinai. But how different it has been to take enough time to read the whole story together, to understand that these Ten Commandments are in fact woven into the long narrative of the Exodus. That is why chapter 19 is so important. Here we see Israel preparing themselves to receive God's law. We also see this community being formed by God, given an identity and a purpose. Identity and purpose come before the laws, not after it. God tells them who they are and what their purpose is in his will, and then he gives them rules to live by. This is a story of grace. Jim Bruckner reminds us that the story begins not with sacrifices and law keeping, but with slaves crying out to God for help. God heard their cry and rescued them. Then we see that the commandments preserved and equipped the people for their mission in the world.

 We are studying the commandments during Lent because they guide us to the grace of God, they guide us to the cross of Jesus, where we are formed into his people, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people with an identity and a purpose.

 When did you receive and identity and purpose in your life?

 Who spoke to you?

 What did they tell you?

 When our boys were young, in grade school, we lived in a farming community, a town that had a strong sense of identity, a community spirit. And just at that time the local high school came upon a number of years when they had outstanding basketball teams. It excited the whole town. Everyone seemed to be a fan. It was hard to get a seat in the gym on Friday nights. For a time the players began to carry around gym bags in the school colors with their names printed on them. Soon someone saw a way to make some money. It was not long before most of the high school students carried these bags to school, and then the middle school kids needed them, and pretty soon every fourth and fifth grader in town seemed to be carrying one. That is when the high school kids stopped carrying them. But for some years the tradition endured at the grade schools.  In a way it was comical to see all these little kids carrying their green and white basketball bags, but they had been given an identity – we are the Bulldogs. And they were given a purpose, to someday win the state championship. The Lord gives us a true identity and a deeper purpose. It should be visible to others.

            When did you receive an identity? Who gave you a purpose in life? Is it the talk radio host who gives you an identity? Is it our popular culture, the movies and the music, that tells you who you are? Do you learn it at school along with history and geography? Do you pick it up around the dinner table from your family? There are a number of voices out there, some of them quite loud, some with a repeated message. They want to tell you who you are, and what purpose you are here for. Or does your identity come from God? Does his word give you a purpose in living?

            Israel got its identity and purpose from God at Mt. Sinai. When they arrived at Sinai, Moses knew the place, and immediately rushed up the mountain, eager to find the Lord and to connect Israel with the experience he had with God there. He met with God, and came back down to give a message. Israel had gone through so many experiences, and all those events may have become jumbled in their minds: the mighty acts of God in the plagues in Egypt, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea, the provision of manna and water in the wilderness. To us it all fits into a story line, but not to them. It was too much to grasp, to put in an order. It was overwhelming and confusing. Now Moses gives them a picture to help them understand their experience. They had been carried on eagle's wings and brought to God. In his farewell speech in Deuteronomy, Moses tells it again,

"In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him." (chapter 32:11-12)

            So this confusing and frightening journey in life is made clear. We have been held the whole time. Our wandering has not been aimless; we are not in the wilderness to die. We were guided, protected, drawn to God. God did it. God initiated it. We thought we were at the mercy of Pharaoh's army and wilderness and hunger and thirst, but in fact we have been carried on eagle's wings.

            Then he gives them the message: "If you obey me fully, you will be my treasured possession; you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Something is expected of them. Obedience will lead them to become a special treasure of God. John Durham says that the word "special treasure" means "a personal collection." The whole earth is the Lord's, but Israel is the crown jewel. They are to be a kingdom of priests. A priest is someone who mediates God's grace and law to others. Israel is called to extend throughout the earth the ministry of the Lord's presence. They are not the only ones who need to know they are carried on eagle's wings. All people need to know. God cares for us and carries us. A holy nation is a people who are set apart from the world because they demonstrate how living in God's will changes a people. Through this nation God makes himself known to the world.

            These are the words then that are used in I Peter chapter 2 to describe the church, the followers of Jesus Christ. This is precisely our identity as well. We are called a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. That is our identity. But to what purpose? "That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

            Have you thought about your identity? It is not formed by the loud voices around you. It is formed by the cross of Jesus.

Have you thought about your purpose? It is not dictated by the world. It is made clear in God's word. To declare the praises of God. You are in your living each day functioning as the artists and musicians and preachers of the Kingdom of God. Your expressions of love, your sacrifices for the next generation, your obedience, your words of encouragement, your witness to the cross and resurrection of Jesus, that is what declares the praises of God.

            We sing, "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee." Your purpose is lived out in your consecration to Christ. It is formed by the cross, and not by the loud voices of the world. It is formed when you live by faith in God who carries you on those days when you do not feel like a priest. It is formed in the courage to trust God when the opportunity to live by his purpose is present to you.  Consecrated, Lord, to thee.

In this season of Lent, this time of renewal, it is good for us to face our wandering, to confess our lack of acceptance of the identity we have been given in Christ. It is good for us to seek forgiveness and restoration. It is also good for us to express the freedom we gain in being forgiven by living out our purpose. That purpose was spoken on the mountain by God, and came to our hearts through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

 Amen.