Jul 30, 2023
(Ex.32:15-24,30-34; Ps.106:1,19-23; Mt.13:31-35)
“Eventually the whole mass of dough began to rise.”
The kingdom of God comes gradually, grows imperceptibly; from the smallest of seeds it becomes “the largest of plants,” and “the birds of the sky come and build their nests in its branches.” Indeed, this yeast is kneaded into our hearts, and by its grace we rise gradually unto the form heaven would make us – and so the glory of God becomes ours, and with others we share His grace within us.
See that it is the people’s impatience which has led them into sin: “Make us a god to be our leader,” they say to Aaron, “as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what happened to him.” Moses is gone to the mountain forty days to receive the commands of God upon the tablets of stone, but this time is too long for the Israelites to wait, and so when he returns with the “tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God Himself,” he finds that they have “exchanged their glory,” present so really, so physically, in the Law he carries in his hands, “for the image of a grass-eating bullock.”
They could not wait. The God they sought in vain image was coming to them in truth with His Law written in stone, but they did not perceive His approach; and so, taking matters into their own hands, they crafted their condemnation. For now it is but chastisement that awaits them; this, too, comes gradually, and is unavoidable. As the Lord says to Moses, “When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
“So grave a sin” the Israelites commit. It is only because “Moses, His chosen, withstood Him in the breach, to turn back His destructive wrath,” that the people were not struck out of the book the Lord has written. Indeed, though they shall all die in their sin in the desert, their generation shall maintain the promise. But it shall not be until Christ Jesus stands in the breach for all, that we who are so prone to evil shall be saved entirely. Only He makes the absolute atonement for the sin of the people, which Moses prefigures in our first reading today.
And now that the Son has come, now the seed is planted in our hearts, now the yeast begins to rise in our souls – now the kingdom of God is nigh. From the desert we are thus led, the angel of God going before us. We have but to listen to the word He speaks to us in His blessed parables and apply its truth to our lives, and thus staying the path set before us we will come in time to the kingdom that awaits us. We shall yet see the Lord descend from on high, not carrying tablets in His arms, but carrying us and our salvation in full bloom. And on that holy day we shall eat of the bread He has caused to rise in our hearts and in our lives.
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O LORD, may your kingdom grow ever in our midst,
and may we patiently await its coming.
YHWH, your Son comes to stand in the breach, to reveal to us your holy kingdom. For it now we must but wait, and allow your will to be accomplished.
We have sinned gravely against you, LORD. Our hearts have all turned from your glory to the idols of this age. We have been blinded by the gold the world so persistently offers.
Give us patience to wait on your goodness, LORD. Give us the wisdom we need to know the coming of your reign. For it rises in our midst this day, if we but have eyes to see what your Son reveals.
From the mountaintop let your Word come down, O LORD, to instruct us in your ways. For without your Law to guide us here, quickly we become depraved.
O punish us not in your rage, dear God; strike us not out of your Book. Let our hearts embrace the words of your Son.