Reflection
Come boldly. Come as you are, no airs and nothing to offer. Bring the little ones, the helpless and humble. Invite the homeless, the bleeding, the smelly, the outcasts.
I’ve never been a fan of places or people being honoured as ‘holy’. Instead of inviting bold access, it makes us feel reticent and uncomfortable. Churches called ‘sanctuaries’ or priests in robes. Altars in churches; confessionals, holy water, icons, bells and smells… There’s a place for the symbolic. We’re sensory, visceral creatures after all. This preacher’s gone to great lengths to invite us into a very sensory world–a God-designed world that served its time. But without a doubt, Jesus has introduced a better way. Ironically, it’s a way of bold access to the only truly holy place: the presence of God. There we are welcomed and heard and attended to. There sits our high priest who’s sympathetically, ever interceding on our behalf.
Prayer
Fully flesh and bone, you embraced our visceral, sensory, reasoning humanity. You waged our war on sin and death. You felt the rub of our conflicted world. You welcomed the helpless and unempowered. You wept at wayward confusion and hopelessness. Staggering, that you are now my advocate. Staggering that your one-time sacrifice has qualified me to free, shameless and bold access to the Father of grace and mercy. Gratefully yours, ___________!