Ponder Anew
Smoke and Mirrors
Good afternoon.
"Mount Sinai was in smoke because the Lord came down upon it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a stove . And the whole mountain shook. " Exodus 19:18
We are well into the season of Lent. Mennonites have not celebrated the season until recently. When we were part of the Reformation, we dropped everything Catholic. We left the Mass, the spiritual disciplines , and things like fasting. Lent is often focused on the dark journey of Jesus to the cross in Jerusalem. There is the Way of Tears in Jerusalem that many pilgrims walk in their spiritual journey. Darkness is often about evil, sin and tragedy, but the biblical record has some dark stories to think about.
Jesus was ministered to by the Spirit in the 40 days when he was in the wilderness ( or darkness ). Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked, tortured hungry and beaten in his life, and he continued to thank God for good things in his life. Moses spoke with God on Mt. Sinai. Moses received the ten com
mandments there. In Exodus 19, there is thunder and lightening, and smoke too. It is dark and scary for the people of God who are at the bottom of the mountain, and Moses finds the message of God in the middle of this dark storm. Moses might have felt that the world was going to follow apart here in the desert. And he was invited by God to come up in the middle of this awful weather…. and then God recited to him the Ten Commandments. The darkness is part of this great document that has shaped the Israelite/Christian tradition for thousands of years.
What goodness has emerged from the good darkness in your spiritual walk with God ?
Salaam, shalom and peace for your life and faith.
Fred
Ponder Anew 