Holiness Enthroned

Reflecting on the Seventh Sunday of Easter: One Day after Sunday (Year A)

Scripture

Psalter: Psalm 99

Old Testament: Leviticus 9:1-11, 22-24

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:1-6

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Prayer

Creator of the universe, you made the world in beauty, and restore all things in glory through the victory of Jesus Christ. We pray that, wherever your image is still disfigured by poverty, sickness, selfishness, war and greed, the new creation in Jesus Christ may appear in justice, love, and peace, to the glory of your name. Amen.

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Reflection

The Lord reigns,

    let the nations tremble;

he sits enthroned between the cherubim,

    let the earth shake.

Great is the Lord in Zion;

    he is exalted over all the nations.

Let them praise your great and awesome name—

    he is holy.

The King is mighty, he loves justice—

    you have established equity;

in Jacob you have done

    what is just and right.

Exalt the Lord our God

    and worship at his footstool;

    he is holy (Psalm 99:1-5).

Psalm 99 portrays God as holiness enthroned. It is a Psalm of festivity but also of sober reflection. In comparison with God our holiness pales. God reigns in Zion, Jerusalem the holy city, but is also God’s earthly city. The word holy in this Psalm is used to emphasize the distance between God and humanity, not in morality alone, but also in the realm of being—that God is not creaturely as we are. As creatures, we are temporal. We are mortal. The Temple in Jerusalem is the bridge between the holiness of God and the frail holiness of humanity.

Recognizing the holiness of God leads us to praise. It leads to worship. In God, holiness, grace, power, and justice come together. The imagery of God’s holiness is depicted in traditional language: the imagery of the fiery chariot, which is an image of judgment and salvation. God’s grandeur is solitary. God alone is divine. In the polytheistic world that surrounds Israel, many gods compete with and against each other. In Israel, there is no competition between deities. There is no deity worshipped except the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All foreign deities are not only not divine, they are nothings. They fail to exist.

It is God’s holiness that elicits our response of holiness toward God. God intends to refashion our broken images into something pleasing and acceptable in his sight. In so doing, we take up the character of God in the world. Israel is reminded of its vocation, of its mission to be a light to the nations and to reflect the one true God of Israel to those around them.

PRAYER: Holy God, you have called us to follow in the way of your risen Son, and to care for those who are our companions, not only with words of comfort, but with acts of love. Seeking to be true friends of all, we offer our prayers on behalf of the church and the world.

Guide us in the path of discipleship, so that, as you have blessed us, we may be a blessing for others, bringing the promise of the kingdom near by our words and deeds. Amen.

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