Have you ever had an experience where you read or hear something that catches your attention, and the more you think about it the more you think to yourself “woof, that’s deep?” I was reading a book recently called the God Attachment, and so far it has been a book I can recommend if you’re interested in stuff like this, and I came across a sentence that I almost just skimmed past but then I looked back at it to make sure I read it right - because it sounded off in my head - and it just hit me. The author wrote “God made us in His image, so we returned the favor.” And initially I looked back because I thought to myself, “wait a second, we don’t make God anything.”

What the author was saying was that God made us in His image, that’s what we’re told in Genesis, and since then humanity has tried to force God into what we want Him to look like. And that image that we want to reduce God to, it’s never quite right. The account we just read from Leviticus gives us some insight into the character of God and it gives us a great measuring stick to dispel some of these images of God that we love to hold onto in our heads.

Sweet Baby Jesus

The first image I’m coming for this morning is one that can be found in a movie that, much to the chagrin of everyone I meet, I have never seen all the way through - Talladega Nights. Now, for all of you who are so offended that I haven’t seen this movie, what image of Jesus is Ricky Bobby’s favorite?

That’s right, the sweet baby Jesus.

Now I have a question for you, do you think the sweet baby Jesus would consume anyone with fire, completely incinerating them in an instant? Sweet baby Jesus wouldn’t do that, He wouldn’t punish someone so harshly just because they approached Him the wrong way. And I think that’s the reason that some people, maybe even some of us, would love to reduce God to just a sweet baby lying in a manger. Because a sweet baby isn’t going to threaten us, it’s not going to make us change, it’s not going to demand we turn from sins - a sweet baby is safe and non-threatening. But it’s also not the fullness of who God has shown Himself to be. We sometimes reduce God to a baby in a manger because it gives us the freedom to approach God however we want, and in that mistake we fail to distinguish what is common from what is holy.

Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood

Now I really hope you’re not sitting there thinking anything like, “well, maybe I can’t just think of God as a baby in a manger, but there are some other images I’m comfortable with that I can stick to.” You should know better by now. The next image I’m coming for this morning is another popular one, the sweet old grandpa. When people picture God as a grandpa, it’s interesting because they never picture the crotchety old man who sits on his porch with a shotgun to threaten trespassers, they picture the sweet old man in a cozy sweater sitting in a comfy chair who’s always kind and affirming. But do you think that sweet old grandpa God would consume anyone with fire, incinerating them in an instant? No! Sweet old grandpa God wouldn’t do that, He wouldn’t punish someone so harshly for approaching Him the wrong way. Again, I think that’s the reason that some people, maybe even some of us, would love to reduce God to just a sweet old man sitting in the corner. Because that sweet old man isn’t going to judge us, He’s not going to discipline us, He’s going to spoil us and give us ice cream even when our parents say no - a sweet old man is safe and non-threatening. But it’s also not the fullness of who God has shown Himself to be. We sometimes reduce God to a kind old man because it gives us the freedom to approach God however we want, and in that mistake we fail to distinguish what is common from what is holy.

He can be taught!

I want to illustrate another way we look at God with a few little examples, see if you can catch what they all have in common.

There’s a trend of people who, when they’re young adults, particularly college students, will leave the church because it’s inconvenient in several ways. Until they have kids who start asking questions about life, death, or spiritual things, then the parents will come back to the church because they need that support.

Or you’ll get people who never engage with church, until they need help paying their utility bills, then you’ll find them in the pastor’s office for the church’s help.

Or you’ll get people who have no habits of prayer at all - not at meals, not before bed, not at any regular time in their lives - but they’re up for a promotion or they’re facing a serious illness and suddenly they’re in prayer all the time.

Or you’ll get people who completely ignore everything God has to say about how they should live their lives, until they need something and they start praying “God if you give me this, I’ll do what you asked me to do.”

Anyone have any guesses of the image for God that all these examples share? A genie. The idea that God is stuck in a lamp or on a shelf until we need Him, then we rub the magic lamp or say that magic words and there He is. But do you think that a genie would consume anyone with fire, incinerating them in an instant? Well, maybe, but only if we told Him to. A genie wouldn’t ever punish us like that, He wouldn’t punish someone for approaching Him the wrong way, because the genie isn’t the master - the person who summoned the genie is. I think that’s the reason that people like to look at God like a genie, because He can’t judge us or discipline us or punish us - because it puts us in charge. But that’s also not the fullness of who God has shown Himself to be. We sometimes reduce God to a genie because it puts us in control and gives us the freedom to approach God however we want, and in that mistake we fail to distinguish what is common from what is holy.

What are you afraid of?

In our reading for this morning, Nadab and Abihu offer unauthorized fire before God and they are consumed because of it. They were only supposed to approach God in a certain way, and instead they figured it wasn’t that big of a deal and just grabbed common fire from the camp. Even though they were priests, they didn’t take God seriously and they suffered the punishment for it. We are a royal priesthood, and through Jesus we are given the freedom to approach God, but we best come correct. When we go to God in prayer and in worship, there should be respect there and a little bit of fear. I asked a few days ago on Facebook what people were afraid of and I heard . . . but no one said they were afraid of God. Brothers and sisters our God is good, but He is not safe. It’s important that we see God rightly, as an almighty God who punishes sin and abounds in mercy. Because He saw that we were incapable of seeing Him rightly, He saw that we couldn’t approach Him the right way, so He came to us as a servant to die and bring us back to God. We should still strive to see God rightly to approach Him rightly. We see Him as the Lord and King of all creation, the maker of heaven and earth, a God who cannot tolerate evil, a God who is well within His rights to punish us with death and hell, and a God who doesn’t, a God who chooses to sacrifice Himself for our benefit, to give His Son so that we could live, to go to extreme lengths our of His love for us. We fear and love God because He is worthy of both. In worship and in prayer, we should be careful to distinguish what is common from what is holy. When we come together on Sunday morning, it is not like every other moment during your week. When we approach the table for communion, we are coming to receive the body and blood of God, it is not like every other moment during your week. When you spend time in prayer, it is not like every other moment during your week. So don’t treat it like something common, approach these things with reverence because you stand on holy ground.