When the people of Israel were standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and the

lightning flashed and God approached in a dense and thick cloud nobody looked

at their watch.

I used to love to read Kickerguard when I was in college and Kickerguard

one time was all exercised about 19th century European culture and he said,

let others complain that this culture is wicked. My complaint is that it is

paltry. He was complaining that culture had lost its passion and he said,

when I get distressed about this, he said, my thoughts return again and again to

the Old Testament. For there I find people who lie and steal and kill and cheat

and commit adultery. He said, people of passion, they're alive and the word of

God comes alive to me through the real episode of real people.

For Kickerguard the Old Testament read, like a novel and data steaming novel and as I was

analyzing this I said, yes, I like the Old Testament because it has these narratives

that are rich and graphic and concrete and people can understand them and relate

to them. But there's something else, something far more important that draws me as

a magnet to the pages of the Old Testament and it has to do with worship.

It has to do with what happens on Sunday morning. We come to church on Sunday

morning and we look at our watches. Don't we? Beloved when the people of Israel

were standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and the lightning flashed and the thunder

roared and God approached in a dense and thick cloud. Nobody looked at their watch.

They were terrified. The word of God says they trembled and they knew they were in

presence of the holy, which is just the opposite of what we experience in church on Sunday

...