She Was An Amazing Priest

for some of us location has great significance.

location of a business.
location of a house.
location of a church.

where we are at can affect how we hear a message. it can effect how we view the world around us or the people we encounter.

it is the location of our childhood that has a tendency to attach baggage in our lives that acts as lenses we have to look through to see our world. sometimes these lenses distort truth and reality, but other times these lenses help us see things more clearly. it is up to us to discern which is occuring -- distortion or revelation.

in the book of exodus, the people have just left the oppressive powerhouse, egypt and are following God to a place called sinai.

sinai wasn't claimed by a nation as it's capital. it wasn't a central point for commerce or a location where east met west.

sinai was neutral.

God and moses communed on "neutral" ground.

in exodus 19 we learn that moses went up on the mountain to God. it was here that God told moses what to tell the people, so he did. moses went back down the mountain, "summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak." the people responded in agreement to do everything God would say.

so, moses took their answer back to God. God in turn told moses to consecrate the people. moses did just that. he got down the mountain and consecrated the people, then he told them, "prepare yourselves" and he "led the people out of the camp to meet with God".

it was there on holy neutral ground that God speaks to the people. to His people. the very same people that God declared to moses would be His "kingdom of priests and a holy nation".

according to The JPS MIQRA'OT GEDOLOT Commentary this act of God speaking to a group of people all at one time has nevered happened again in human history.

what's interesting is that God doesn't choose to do so in a city, or back in egypt.

God speaks to a massive group of people in the wilderness. He does so on neutral ground and not one person or nation could claim ownership. God did it for the world to hear.

remember God said earlier in exodus 19, "although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

how can the world hear if God only speaks this to the Israelites?

i think the answer lies in the word "priest".

what does a priest do? what is their role?

a priest is the mediator between the people and God. they are the "middle-man" so to speak. a priest is your connecting point to what your god is and is not like.

if you've ever seen other religion's priests, they are the physical representation of whatever god it is they are representing.

what the priest says
what the priest does
what rituals they perform represents that god.

everything the priest does helps us get a grasp on what their god is about.

glancing back to exodus. when God tells moses that the people will be a kingdom of priests for Him, do you think God is inviting the people to show the world who He is and what He is like?

God announces to the people on neutral land that He wanted them to be His presence to the world.

don't miss that God wasn't simply talking to the men. often we hear the word "priest" and we think "men", but God is speaking to the "nation", to the entire israelite community --men, women, and children.

God calls us all to be a kingdom of priest.

if we think about that word, "priest", and we realize, as we mentioned earlier, that a priest is a mediator; the person people seek to be connected with God. what does that mean for us today?

we usually don't think of ourselves as being priests. we usually think of ourselves as being christians or followers of Christ, but never priest.

scripture clealy indicates that we are priest in the Kingdom of God. we simply need to find out what that means.

what we say

what we do

how we worship

how we react to situations

all give people the visual perception of who God is and what He cares about.

a priest (you and me) is the human representation of God.

in 1910 a young girl was born in albania who would one day become an amazing priest.

it was at the age of 36 that she realized what being a follower of Christ meant. recalling her call she said her purpose was to "help the poor while living among them. it was an order. to fail would have been to break the faith."

four short years later, she created a mission to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." this endeavor began with 13 members and today it has more than 4,000 people being the representation of Christ to the unwanted.

if that wasn't enough, she saw another need and five years later she opened an orphanage.

what began with 13 in 1950 now numbers around 5,500 across the world, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 different countries.

mother teresa took the call of being a priest to the fullest and yet most would say that she was just a nun. i think she truly understood that the way we act, what we say, and who we love shouts to the rest of the world, "THIS IS GOD.

THE GOD OF PEACE.
JOY
HOPE
LOVE
AND GRACE.
THE GOD OF RESCUE.
THE GOD OF LIBERATION.
THE GOD OF REDEMPTION."

are we being a true representation of God?

can we be called "an amazing priest"?

my hope lies in Grace. in the Grace of God, He works through my folly.

may we love the unloved.

may we seek out the lepers, the dying, the depressed.

may our perspective change today.

may we realize that we stand, called, on neutral, Holy ground.

may we be a great Kingdom of Priests.