I’ve been re-reading the histories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob this week. A big chunk of the Bible is written about these guys, and the things they did. And one of the things they all spent a lot of time doing: stacking up rocks. The did this when they built altars. Now we see the word “altar” and think about the large wooden tables we have in sanctuaries. In the places we’ve set aside (made Holy) and regularly revisit for a time and place of worship. But these three left altars all over the place.
- Abraham builds an altar where God chooses to appear to him and makes Abraham a promise.
- Abraham builds an altar where he calls on God’s name this time
- Abraham builds another altar where God has called him to be and where God renews and specifies His promise
- Isaac builds an altar when he meets God.
- Jacob sets up a pillar when he realizes he’s already been in the presence of God all along.
- Jacob builds an altar where he has plans to stay
- Jacob builds a final altar in the place where God calls him to be
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn’t hop on a camel to go worship on a schedule in the temple (which wouldn’t even be around for several hundred more years), but they built altars when and where they met God throughout their own journeys. And the descriptions we have of the kind of monuments these men were building were more like “Let me grab the tallest rock in my immediate surroundings and stand it upright,” or “I’m gonna just make a pile of rocks right where I stand.” Rocks. I mean, come on, really? Rocks? They were ordinary. But so were the moments before any of these guys simply realized they were already in the presence of God. Their altars were built from what they had. From what God provided for them, really. If worship is a response to God, then our responsibility is to be aware of just how much we are surrounded by His presence, providence, Grace, and love at all times. It’s to make altars from God’s gifts, ordinary as they may seem to us. From the arts, from friendships, from coffee, and from the very rocks and ground upon which we stand right now. God’s is present all around us even when we’re not in the sanctuary. Let’s pile up some rocks.
