Sermon by the rev'd. John C. Bauerschmidt

Proper 27, Year B
November 12, 2006
Christ Church, Covington

“[Christ] entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24).

On the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem, to offer prayer and sacrifice for the sins of the People. This was a solemn annual event in the life of the ancient People of God; in fact, the chamber of the Holy of Holies was not entered at any other time, by anyone else at all. This action was a fearsome thing, not undertaken lightly. The High Priest would purify himself in order to enter, because this was the ultimate “sacred space” within God’s House. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, containing God’s Commandments, surmounted by the Mercy Seat or throne of God, the place where God would sit down and put up his feet. In the Holy of Holies, the High Priest would pronounce the Name of God, the sacred tetragrammaton, the only time in the course of the year when God’s name would be spoken aloud. The blood of sacrificial animals would be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, and incense would be burned, an offering meant to take away sin and reconcile humanity and God. According to tradition, the face of the High Priest afterward was supposed to shine like Moses’ after his encounter with God. When the High Priest emerged from the Holy of Holies, it meant he had survived the ordeal and that his offering had been accepted.

I’m glad that Steven Spielberg drew on these rites and their images when he made Raiders of the Lost Ark thirty years ago. Baby boomers (and maybe others) will remember. Now keep these images in your mind, and set them within the context of Christ. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews does exactly this when he claims that the ancient ritual was the foreshadowing of Jesus, his sacrifice and intercession for us. It was a copy of the true and heavenly work of the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ himself. His sacrifice on the cross outweighed all others. And when Jesus comes again in glory, it will be a sign that the offering has been accepted, and that God’s Kingdom is dawning.

Like God’s ancient People, we too encounter God, and we ourselves are changed. There’s no doubt about it. We prepare for this encounter, but none of us is ever really ready. It is a fearsome thing to encounter God, to step into the space and to speak the Name. There’s a direct connection, you know, between the word “sacred” and the word “scared”, and no coincidence in the resemblance. We do not know what will happen when we tangle with God. We enter the sacred space with fear and trembling, because there we will encounter God’s word to us, as well as God himself. We bring our offering, even everything we have and are, but we know that it is overshadowed by the offering of Christ himself. Only God’s Son, the true High Priest, can bring us together with God. We are changed by this encounter, made like Christ himself, made to shine with a light that comes from beyond this world.

Today we bring commitment cards, signs of the gifts that come from God that we are returning to him. But the ground we stand on is not what we have to offer, but Jesus’ own offering of himself. This is the holy ground on which we stand. Like the ancient Hebrews, our offering is only a shadow of the true sacrifice, the gift of Jesus himself upon the cross. We may be “scared”, but God makes us “sacred” through the work of the Great High Priest. Like the ancient Hebrews, we know that in the fearsome encounter with God we will be transformed. The offering has been accepted. Sin has been put away. It falls to us to look for Jesus to come again, to see the glory of the Lord, and to eagerly await his appearing.

John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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