My daughter had the unfortunate pleasure of being in four different schools in five years. And for a couple months, at the beginning of each year, she needed her mom or her dad to stay with her right up until the bell rang for school. The playground seemed like an uncertain and potentially dangerous place. In that setting the worst thing she could imagine was being left alone.
It makes me think of the Israelites in the wilderness. They knew what it means to live in uncertainty and potential danger. They left all that they knew in Egypt: shelter, food, water. Even though Egypt wasn’t ideal, the wilderness seemed more perilous still. Perhaps it is not surprising that the last verse in the book of Exodus describes in vivid detail the presence of God among them. “ For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.”
There is an assurance in this text that the very presence of God will abide continually, reliably, enduringly. It is visible and identifiable. It provides the community with the assurance that God’s presence is with them. Even in the uncertainty and unsustainability of the wilderness.
That must have been reassuring. Imagine that every time you faced danger or fear or uncertainty, you could look up and literally see the presence of the one who had delivered you from Egypt right in front of you. The obvious power of God was right there; all you had to do was raise your eyes.
Friends, in the last 10 years I have heard Christians, good, honest, faithful Christian people, proclaim with fear and sorrow in their heart, the death of the Church. Most of us have noticed declining numbers and declining budgets, how the world is changing, how the tried-and-true ways of engaging our world and our neighbor seem ineffectual. It’s an uncertain and potentially dangerous time. It’s almost like we’re in the wilderness.
But we are not anymore alone in the wilderness that the Israelites were. Like the Israelites we are tempted to look back to the place from which we have come and assume that the familiar is where we will find safety. But the place from which we have come is not where the pillar of God leads. The pillar of God is always out in front, taking us on to the Promised Land. And no matter how scary or unknown the wilderness may be to us, God is undaunted. God does not lead us out into the wilderness to abandon us and see if we can survive.
The pillar of cloud signifies God’s presence, but it also signifies God’s leadership and guidance. And in a world that is changing as fast as ours is, we need both. We need the promise of God’s presence. We need the reliable, constant, enduring presence of God. We need that reassurance; we need that comfort. We are transformed and made new by God’s presence. But God never intends for us to sit comfortably in God’s presence. The cloud never settles for long.
Just as we need God’s presence, we need God’s guidance. We need God to lead us into the wilderness, to lead us fearlessly into the unknown. When we rest in God’s presence, we are transformed; when we rise and follow God’s guidance, we participate in the transformation of the world. And the world around us is desperately in need of presence. God’s presence, and ours. So, we, as the Church, must be sure to sink into the presence of God that we can be centered and transformed. And then we must follow the itinerant God, whose home is a tent, out into the world.
I’m excited that God is still out in front, that God’s presence is never behind us, but is always out in front leading us on to the Promised Land. As we seek to discern God’s direction for Denver Presbytery let us never forget to follow that cloud.
Rev. Dr. Christopher Spotts