Over the past couple of decades, and maybe even for a little bit longer than that,
there's been a new brand of Christianity that's popping up for a variety of reasons.
It's kind of a new flavour of church.
And this movement is led by people who basically say that they couldn't live up to the standards
that the traditional church was holding them to.
And their response to that is to create churches where sin and failure is almost celebrated.
In these churches, the pastors pride themselves on swearing from the pulpit.
They pride themselves on gaining street cred with outsiders through drinking exploits, sexual conquests,
and a bunch of other things that the more conservative churchgoers amongst us might find a little bit embarrassing.
But here's the thing.
These people, to their mind, are trying to follow Jesus.
Their life choices are guided by the understanding that God welcomes sinners on no merit of their own,
so why stress about trying to change?
And let's especially not put that pressure on anyone else.
Their gospel message amounts to something like,
do whatever you want, God will love you anyway.
Now, as you can probably imagine, this gospel has been well received.
I mean, it's all the perks of God, minus any of the more difficult bits.
It's all grace.
It's no holiness.
And let's be honest, there might be a small part of us
that hears that and thinks,
I wouldn't mind that version of following Jesus.
The version that says, hey, Jesus died for you so that you could be forgiven,
so don't worry about the rules.
Well, that's what we're up to in Leviticus.
Last week, we looked at the Day of Atonement in chapter 16.
God had provided very strict rules and guidelines for how this day worked,
very strict rules for their worship.
There was priests that had to be dressed certain ways.
There were specific sacrifices,
all for the purpose of making atonement for the sins of the people.
So God has drawn the people into his presence by grace.
God has just dealt with the fact that the people are failing at following the rules.
He's just overcome their inability to obey him.
And so you would think that more rules would be a strange place to go.
Having just dealt with the failure of the rules,
to then give more rules seems a little ridiculous.
And yet, chapter 17 begins like this.
The Lord said to Moses, speak to Aaron and his sons,
to all the Israelites and say to them,
this is what the Lord has commanded.
Chapter 18 begins,
the Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say to them,
I am the Lord your God.
You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live.
And you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I'm bringing you.
Do not follow their practices.
Chapter 19, the Lord said to Moses,
speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them,
be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
Holiness still matters to God even after grace.
Even after dealing with the problem, holiness still matters.
I mean, Israel has just been visibly and ritually, symbolically cleansed.
That was the point of the sacrifice of the day of atonement.
Laws and rules are straight away brought back into the equation.
So atonement didn't actually remove the law.
It didn't even make it unimportant.
So what did it do?
We've got to remember the big picture, the main game of what God is doing here in Leviticus.
And not just here in Leviticus, but in all of the Bible and in all of human history.
God's agenda for Israel is not just to wipe them clean.
He wants to dwell with them.
Relationship is the goal.
He wants them to be in his presence, to have ongoing relationship.
And so everything in the Bible up to this point, the rescue from Egypt,
the commandments being given, the clean and unclean food laws,
the specifics of the priests and how they dress, the tabernacle and how it was to be made,
the purifying of sacrifices, all of it was to make it possible for people to enter the presence of God.
That was the whole point, that God wanted them to be able to come and worship him.
Because that's really what worship means.
Worship is entering into the presence of God, drawing near to God through the way that he has opened.
Worship is relating to God appropriately, the way that he deserves.
And God wasn't looking for visitors.
That wasn't the goal, that Israel would come visit him occasionally and be appropriate or clean or acceptable.
God wanted worshippers, full-time worshippers, people who lived for him and with him.
And so now that they've been cleansed and already drawn into God's presence,
the law functions to define what worship looks like.
The law's function is to show us what life looks like now that they've been drawn into God's presence.
It's you've been cleansed, so now live clean.
It's kind of like God's way of saying, your old life was you playing around in the mud.
I've done the hard job of cleaning you off, don't jump back in the mud.
I've provided some fresh, pristine grass over here, play there.
God is defining what life is like now that you're clean, not do this in order to be clean.
Now that Israel is the other side of the Day of Atonement,
the law is not trying to answer the question, how do I get into the presence of God?
That question's already answered by the Day of Atonement, by the sacrifices repeated annually.
These laws are God defining what day-to-day life looks like for his people.
It's God showing them what it looks like to be in his presence.
Obedience to the law has now become how you worship God.
It's become an extension of their gathering, an extension of their formal time together in the tabernacle.
This is a part of their response to his holiness and to his grace in drawing them to himself.
Now for them, that whole connection to go from formal worship to all of life worship would have been kind of obvious.
See, for them, life was literally built around the tabernacle.
The camp of Israel had the tabernacle at the center.
At the center, that was where they met with God.
That was where the sacrifices happened.
That's where the priests worked.
It was at the center of the camp and around that tent was where everybody lived.
And so sure, you went to the tabernacle on specific days and at specific times and for specific reasons.
But when you came out the front door of your tent to go and buy bread from next door,
you were literally in the shadow of God's house.
When you were yelling at your kids for making too much noise and waking you up early,
you were literally in the shadow of God's house.
God is saying, my presence is especially in the tabernacle, but it's more than that now.
You've been brought into my presence, into a relationship with me.
God is saying, if you want to worship me, it can't be limited to a set of rituals,
a set of formal gatherings.
They're important, they're even essential, but it can't be just that.
Daily holiness, daily obedience, full-time worship is what God desires and what he deserves.
And the law is the gift that he gives us to show us what that will look like,
to show us how we're supposed to function now that we're in his presence full-time.
It's obedience to his standards, holy living in response to his grace.
Grace came first, but law remains because of who God is.
Law remains to help us understand more of his character.
Israel has been brought into the presence of God, but he remains a holy God.
And so holiness is required for life lived in his presence.
But how much more for us now compared to them?
We live on the good side, not just of Israel's Day of Atonement Festival with the goats and the bulls and the priests and all that sort of stuff.
We're on the good side of Easter.
We're on the good side of God providing the once-for-all sacrifice for sin in Jesus.
We're on the good side of God saying that I can deal with all of your sins irreversibly in the sacrifice of my son.
We're on the good side of God saying Jesus is now the only priest forever who sits at God's right hand interceding for us.
And because of him, we have confidence, the New Testament says,
confidence to march into the throne room of a holy God and call him Father.
How much more with the access that we have, which is far greater than they ever enjoyed in the Leviticus.
How much more do we need God's law as a guide for us for how we might best live in his presence?
How we might best worship this God who has done everything to draw us into relationship with him.
How much more do we need and should we appreciate this gift of the law?
Because it gives us the answer to the question, how do I love?
How do I reflect and communicate gratitude to the God who gave his son so that I could know him?
Jesus himself says when you get to the New Testament,
if you love me, you will obey my commands.
The evidence of love for God, the evidence of worship,
is not just how holy you seem on a Sunday night,
how focused you seem, how many notes you took,
how many weeks in a row you've been here, how loud you sang.
They're all good things.
But the evidence of a holy life, the evidence of worship,
is what the rest of your week looks like.
How conscious you are of the presence of God in your day to day.
Now, if obedience is the evidence, we need to make a quick detour,
a quick side point here.
So obedience matters.
That's clear.
But obedience to what?
Obedience to what?
For us who are living on this side of Jesus' death and resurrection,
which laws still count?
Which ones do we have to do?
How do we figure it out?
Or, as Steve put it in week one of this series,
in case you missed it,
if I can eat prawns,
why is gay sex wrong?
Because just a couple of chapters ago,
there was all these rules about what to eat and not eat.
And in chapter 18 that we didn't read today,
in chapter 20,
which is the other side of today's passage,
there's a whole bunch of specific rules about sexual purity,
including the call not to have gay sex.
So how do we figure out which ones we have to listen to?
Well, firstly, and this is really important,
grace, Jesus, doesn't delete the law.
Jesus says in Matthew 5,
he's come to fulfill the law,
every bit of it.
He says we're not allowed to remove even a word from it.
So as a starting point,
all of it matters.
But even though grace hasn't deleted it,
it has done something to it.
It has transformed it.
What do we mean?
What does Jesus mean when he says he's fulfilled it?
Well, let's look at three different kinds.
First of all,
there's the laws about clean and unclean.
Laws around foods and different things.
Those laws are superseded.
They're replaced.
They existed to create a distinction between God's people
who did one thing and everybody else who did something else.
They were physical markers.
But Jesus makes it explicitly clear in the New Testament.
In Mark 7,
he says food doesn't have the power to make you unclean.
In fact,
he declares all food clean.
So he explicitly tells us we can leave those ones behind.
But the reason we can is because
the physical marker has been replaced by a spiritual marker.
Because uncleanness is not a dirt issue.
It's a heart issue.
And it's an issue that can only be overcome through Jesus' death in our place.
So the cleaning work is a work of the Holy Spirit,
not a work of your diet.
And so we can leave those things behind.
Cleanness still matters.
Clean and unclean distinction still matters.
But it's just not expressed in diet anymore.
It's expressed through those who trust Jesus and have been made clean
and those who are trying to make themselves clean.
And it's not working.
That's the first one,
the clean,
unclean laws.
The second kind of laws that we've looked at as we've been through Leviticus
is ritual laws.
The laws that tell us about who can be priests,
what the priests have to wear,
what day they should go to the tabernacle,
what shape the tabernacle should be,
what material for the temple in the tabernacle,
what material for the utensils in the tabernacle,
how to clean them,
who cleans them,
when they clean them,
that sort of stuff.
All of that stuff has been superseded by Jesus.
It's been replaced by Jesus.
Again,
in Hebrews in the New Testament,
it's explicit.
Jesus has become the once for all sufficient sacrifice for sin,
which means there's no more sacrifices required.
So laws about sacrifices are redundant because the complete sacrifice is done.
The account is settled.
And then on top of that,
we know that he's our high priest forever.
So you don't need priests anymore,
which means you don't need someone standing at the front in special clothes.
Jesus has replaced that.
But the third group within that law in the Old Testament,
which is sometimes referred to as the moral laws or the ethical code,
the laws about sexual purity,
about caring for the poor,
about respecting your parents,
that sort of thing.
Those are the ones that we have more trouble with,
the ones that might be more controversial.
Firstly,
how are those laws fulfilled?
Well,
what Jesus does is live in perfect obedience to them in a way that we never could.
What he does is perfectly tick the box,
more than tick the box,
so that he has passed the standard that the law sets.
And then what he does is for the person who comes to him seeking forgiveness,
he takes his perfect obedience and puts it onto them,
so that they have a past level of obedience.
And so our inability to live up to those standards
no longer is a barrier to keep us away from God,
because Jesus has dealt with that by being perfectly obedient.
But,
this law still matters,
and let me tell you why.
See, for Israel here in Leviticus,
having just been made clean,
already now in a relationship with God as his people,
the laws are there to reflect and reveal God's character to them.
We don't get to the New Testament
and have Jesus start flicking away these moral laws as outdated or unimportant.
The function of the law was for Israel to see what God cared about,
see what mattered to him,
to see that he is a pure God who requires purity.
He is a preeminent God who requires exclusive worship.
These laws shift from being oppressive standards that we have to reach
to being a model of what it looks like to live the life that God has designed.
A model of what it looks like to live in the presence of God,
because these are the expressions of him,
the extensions of his character.
God's grace to his people in the day of atonement,
and ultimately in Jesus,
drags worship out of a formal ritualistic setting
and spills it out into the day-to-day life of people.
And so now,
through obedience to these laws,
we worship God.
We don't convince him to take us into his presence.
He's done that.
But these laws are there to show us,
if you love me,
this is what it looks like to love me.
If you want to worship me,
this is what it looks like to worship me.
Now all of life can be lived
and must be lived worshipping God for those who belong to him.
Now at first,
this blurring of lines between
formal worship in the temple
and all of life worship
might feel like this is a little oppressive.
Like there's even more opportunities for you to stuff this up now.
You can kind of understand those churches that are thinking
this would be easier if we just pushed the laws to the side
and focused on the forgiveness stuff.
Because if we're supposed to worship God all the time,
if these laws matter that much,
it feels like there's more pressure.
That is except for one thing.
Worship doesn't just include this all of life daily obedience.
It empowers it.
Worship doesn't just include every minute of every day
and the obedience to these laws.
Worship, being in the presence of God,
empowers obedience to these laws,
motivates obedience to these laws.
Now what made Israel holy
here in Leviticus
is not what they did.
It's God.
It's what he was doing.
He is the basis for their holiness.
Holiness means being set apart,
being chosen.
When God chose them,
he made them holy.
It was he who chose them
and in choosing them,
set them apart as his,
belonging to him as holy.
And it's through the ongoing meeting with him
that they progressively become
more sanctified or more holy in their actions.
God's holiness,
his purity rubs off on them
as they spend time with him.
So if you think of it like
God is the sun.
Now when you lie in the sun,
its radiance will bring you color
and warmth.
Different colors depending on your skin type.
But it will bring you color
and warmth and heat
and health to your body.
Case in point is
the two fairly tanned,
relaxed, healthy looking people
in the front row.
Now in the same way,
basking in God's presence,
basking in his glory and holiness
in the formal gatherings
at the temple,
at the tabernacle,
using the forms that God
had prescribed for Israel
was designed to make them holy.
to progressively transform them.
In fact,
we can push this analogy
a little bit further.
Having just understood
that worshiping God's presence
now kind of flow through all of life,
what's the uniqueness of gathering then?
It's almost like the difference
between sunbaking
and just walking to work
when the sun is out.
Now if the sun is out both times,
you will get some heat,
some light,
some warmth.
You will get some awareness
of its benefit.
But when you sunbake,
you focus your attention
on the sun.
You position yourself.
You pour your energy
towards the sun.
You limit your other activities
so that you can absorb
as much as possible
from the sun.
And the result is
you will get more from the sun.
You'll get more red or brown.
You'll get more warmth,
more vitamin D.
Likewise,
everything that God has established
in terms of the rituals for Israel,
the Sabbath gathering requirements,
function as an opportunity for Israel
to sunbake in His radiance.
to focus themselves
on His holiness
and His majesty
and His power.
Now He specified
how it happens,
when it happens,
and everything that He specified
in Leviticus.
You thought they were just
random details
about which material
and what shape things should be.
Every detail
was supposed to focus them
on Him.
From the shape of utensils
to who was up the front,
everything was to focus
on God Himself
so that the result would be
an encounter with God
that transformed them,
that progressively made them
more holy.
God is the active party
and He has been the whole time.
He's the only one
who can sanctify people,
who can wash them,
who can make them holy,
even in the Day of Atonement
which God gave them instructions
on how to do.
In the sacrifices,
in the ritual,
it's God who must
cleanse the people.
The goat's not getting it done.
The rituals themselves
don't guarantee God's action.
They can't achieve cleansing
in and of themselves.
They are absolutely dependent
on God's decision,
on God's power.
God is the key.
And that's why every aspect
of Israel's corporate worship
was directed towards
showing God's holiness,
revealing His glory
so that as they dwelt
in that glorious presence,
they would be changed
progressively
and they would be better equipped
to be the priest nation
they were supposed to be.
be glowing with His wonder
and majesty and power
so that the world around
would look
and see the sun
that they were basking under.
The corporate worship of Israel
was the key means
by which God would achieve
the day-to-day holiness
of His people.
Time in His presence
equipped them
to live with Him
during the week.
Now this side of Jesus,
we've taken a big step forward
when it comes to gathering
as God's people.
There's a lot less blood.
We did have it in our mind
to decorate the Leviticus backdrop
with animal carcasses,
but we thought better of it
at the last minute.
We have come a long way
when it comes to gathering
as God's people.
We've already reminded ourselves
that we have confidence
to enter the most holy place,
the throne room of God,
because of the blood of Jesus,
who died once for all
that we might be forgiven
and cleansed.
But God still encourages us
to gather.
In fact, in Hebrews 10,
just after telling us
that we have confidence
to enter the holy place,
the writer goes on to say,
therefore,
don't stop meeting together.
God is present among His people
by His Spirit all the time.
Always present,
and yet there still seems to be
something unique
about when we gather.
Some unique opportunity for us
as the gathered people
around God's Word
to encounter His presence
in a special way.
And in fact,
that's the whole point of gathering.
That's why we bother doing this.
So that you might encounter
God among His people.
So that you might see His glory,
taste His glory,
feel His glory,
and then be transformed by it.
Is that what you're expecting
when you came to church tonight?
Is that what you were hoping for?
When you walked in the doors,
that you would get to encounter
God's holiness and glory?
Were you expecting to come here
and walk out different,
transformed,
because you'd encountered
the living God?
Or were you hoping for a service
that finishes on time?
Good supper?
Maybe a half-decent conversation?
God gathers His people
so that they might encounter Him
and be transformed.
Now, I think that our church,
our tradition,
we get nervous
about some of this sort of language.
Some people have misused ideas
like experience when it comes to God.
And the point isn't that you come to church
chasing an experience.
The point is,
you come to church chasing God.
And that will be an experience
when you encounter Him.
But what I'm trying to say here is,
the goal for us gathering
is not that you know
that God loves you.
The goal of us gathering
is that you feel loved by God.
The goal is that you come here
not to gather some new information,
but that you taste
and feel God's love.
That you know His holiness
and His purity.
That you get a vision
of who this God is
who has drawn you
into a relationship with Him
so that you walk out the door
just busting with desire
to love and serve that God
for the rest of the week
and the rest of your life
and every day
until He calls you home
to be with Him.
God has designed this
to be your taste of heaven.
However imperfectly
we might execute it.
God gathers His people
so that they might encounter Him
and be transformed
and that's the key
to growing in holiness.
Doesn't matter how many strategies
you have,
how self-disciplined you are,
how many books you read,
if you're going to grow
to be more like Jesus,
you need to spend time with Him.
And one of the key ways
that you can do that
is by gathering with His people.
This matters because
holiness is not a behavioral issue.
It's not an effort issue.
It's not something
you've got to try harder at
if you're not doing it well.
It's a heart issue.
In the New Testament
in Luke chapter 10
there's this story
where a young man
comes to Jesus
and says,
Rabbi,
what must I do
to be saved?
The end point
of the story
is that Jesus
tells the story
of the Good Samaritan
and basically says
to this guy,
you've got to
love your neighbor.
which is exactly
what Leviticus 19
said to Israel.
But before Jesus
gets into this story
of the Good Samaritan,
his first response
to this guy is,
keep the commandments.
Now,
undeterred by this response,
not feeling shut down
at all,
the young man
presses Jesus
and says,
all these I've kept
since I was a boy.
He's like,
yep,
done.
Box ticked.
Now,
you might be thinking
he's just an idiot
and doesn't know
how bad he is
and he's ignorant
of his sinfulness
but Jesus doesn't
argue with him.
Jesus doesn't go,
hey,
you think you're holy
but nah.
He just kind of
moves on
and talks about
loving your neighbor
as the true
fulfillment of the law.
Now,
there's two things
that we need
to grab there.
Firstly,
it seems like
it's possible
to tick the box
of keeping the law
without actually
being holy.
I mean,
it's possible
that this guy
had done the,
you know,
only God,
not lied,
respected his parents,
not given false testimony,
not coveted,
not committed adultery.
It seems that
you can actually
tick the box
of obedience,
you can do
the right actions
but not actually
be holy
or honor God
in the way
that you're doing them
which gives us
a clue
that that was never
the point of the law
in the first place.
If you can meet
the standard
and Jesus says,
yep,
not quite there,
the law wasn't
designed to get you there.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is
it shows us
what's missing.
For this guy,
the missing element
is his heart.
Because the laws
were there
as a display,
a revealing
of God's character.
The point of the law
is not to give you
boxes to tick
or a bar
to jump over.
That's why Jesus,
when he gets to
Matthew 5,
going through
a whole bunch of laws,
sets up this pattern
where he starts with,
you've heard it said
to the people long ago,
you shall not murder
and anyone who murders
will be subject
to judgment.
This is the box
that this young guy
was ticking.
Yep,
done.
But Jesus continues.
He says,
but I tell you
that anyone who is angry
with a brother or sister
will be subject
to judgment.
The point of the law
wasn't to give you
a baseline.
It wasn't just
to limit the act
of physically
ending someone's life.
What it was
communicating
was that people
and life
matter to God.
And not just
whether that life
is alive or not,
but the day-to-day
experience of living
and even anger
flies in the face
of a God
who cares
and cares for
and values
that individual.
God's grace
and specifically
his grace
in atoning for sin,
in offering forgiveness,
transforms the law.
Now when we come to it,
we need to read it
through the lens
of Jesus.
We need to read it
hearing Jesus' words,
I have fulfilled it.
Which isn't the same
as deleting
or cancelling.
What he's done
is explicitly
put the law
and the rules
where they were
supposed to be
the whole time.
Not as a standard
to be lived up to,
but as a description
of the heart of God.
As a revelation
of what matters
to him.
As an invitation
to love
what God loves.
To care about
what matters to him.
And as an invitation
to set our hearts
apart
for him.
That's the heart
of what true
and right worship
of God looks like.
That's real holiness.
Not simple rule keeping
or box ticking,
but a heart
that loves God.
A heart that loves
what matters to God.
It looks like
treasuring Jesus.
Living every minute
of every day for him.
Not 65 minutes
a week on a Sunday.
But treasuring Jesus
in the way you treat
your family.
Loving and treasuring
him in the way
you treat other
commuters on your way
to work or uni.
Loving and treasuring
him in the way
you eat your breakfast.
Every moment
lived consciously
in the presence
of the God
of heaven and earth
who gave his son
so that you could
live in his presence.
what he requires
is your heart.
The very center
of you.
He's not keeping
a scorebook
of what you have
and haven't done.
He wants your heart.
The bit that drives
your decisions.
Your reactions.
And laws
can't change hearts.
Rules
won't make you love.
love.
But time
basking in the grace
of God to you.
Time spent
focusing
on how majestic
and powerful
and holy
our God is.
Time spent
with your eyes
fixed
on Jesus.
That
produces love.
That produces
a desire
for holiness.
A desire
for obedience.
That produces
the kind
of security
that means
we can receive
the law
as a gift
rather than
carry it
as a burden.
We opened
tonight
reflecting on
the relative
appeal
of a new
brand of
Christianity.
Built
around the
concept of
conceding
on holiness,
giving up
and even
affirming
the presence
of sin.
And it
does sound
appealing.
But it
just doesn't
work.
Because what
it reflects
is a
complete
misunderstanding
of what
God has
done in
Jesus and
how secure
that makes
us.
I mean,
it misses
the whole
point.
God wants
you to be
holy for
your sake.
God wants
you to be
able to be
with him.
That's the
work he's
doing in
the life
of a
Christian.
He's
progressively
making them
holy in
preparation
for heaven.
In
preparation
for
completely
uninhibited
joy in
his presence.
To reject
the call
to holiness,
to reject
the law
like it
doesn't
matter,
is to
reject the
invitation
to live
with God.
To
reject
obedience
and law
as
unimportant
is to
reject
the
grace
that
God
has
worked
in
sending
Jesus
to die
so that
you can
be in
his
presence.
The call
to be
holy is a
call to
pursue
God.
It's not a
call to be
good.
It's a
call to
love God.
God.
So lack
of holiness
in your
life,
if you're
not more
like Jesus
than you
were 12
months ago
or two
years ago
or 10
years ago,
lack of
holiness is
not a
behavioural
issue that
you need to
fix with
self-discipline
or with
guilt or
with scolding
yourself.
It's a
heart issue.
And so if
you're not
growing more
like Jesus,
the question
you've got to
ask is not
have I been
trying?
The question
is am I
pursuing God
in my life?
Am I
getting myself
into his
presence?
And if the
answer is no,
then the only
place you can
go to change
that, to fix
that, the only
place you can
go to have
your heart
reshaped and
moulded and
set on fire
with love for
God,
is to
bask in
the glory
of God
revealed in
the face
of Jesus
who died
and rose
again so
that we
might know
him.
Let's pray.
Father God,
we want to
concede that
laws are
intimidating,
that often
we're known
as hypocrites
because we
speak about
how we're
supposed to
be but we
don't back
it up with
how we
live.
We want to
thank you that
our failures
are completely
covered by
Jesus.
We want to
thank you that
there is nothing
that we could
do that would
undo what has
already been
done on the
cross.
And Father,
we want to ask
that you would
help us to
see you,
to encounter
you, to
experience you
in such a
way that we
would see the
law as the
gift that it
is, that we
would desire
holiness not so
that we could be
good but so
that we could be
with you, so
that we might
enjoy your
presence even in
the mundane
details of
catching a
train or eating
a meal.
God, open our
eyes to the
invitation that
sits behind the
law, the
invitation to be
with you, to
love you as
you deserve.
Father, make us
more like your
sun.
Shine on us in
such a way that
we glow so
that the world
around us might
see the joy and
peace and hope
that is offered
in you.
Father, thank you
for gathering us
tonight that we
might sunbake in
your radiance.
Please reveal
yourself to us
tonight and don't
let us walk out of
this room the
same.
Amen.