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Resources - Meditations
This and That
Holy Pots and Pans...?
Harry Burggraaf
“A day of the Lord is coming… on that day ‘holy to the Lord’ will be
inscribed on the bells of the horses and the cooking pots in the Lord’s
house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in
Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come
to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them.”
(Zechariah 14:20)
‘Holy’ is one of those sacral, special, reverential words which we
associate with God and church. It seems almost sacrilegious to link
‘holy’ with sweaty horses and frying pans which have been on the stove
too long.
Smelly animals and dishes with left-overs are hardly candidates for
holiness.
When I think of my most ‘holy’ experiences it brings to mind those quiet
moments of prayer and reflection with an open Bible, a moving worship
service in an English cathedral with its awe inspiring vaults and
stained glass windows, solemn celebration of Communion and occasions
when I was deeply touched by some speaker or preacher.
We associate ‘holy’ with ‘other’ and the ‘sacred’ in contrast to the
‘profane’. Things which invoke reverence are holy.
There is a sound basis for this, for indeed the Old Testament word for
holy, ‘qados’, means to cut or separate. It denotes apartness and
separation. Holiness is used with reference to people and things that
have been set apart for God and his service.
How then can Zechariah speak of holy horse bells and cooking pots?
Even more dramatic are some of the images the prophet Isaiah uses when
he sees a vision of a holy world, a redeemed and restored universe. (see
Isaiah 60)
“Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises
upon you… look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with
joy”;
And what does the prophet see?
‘Wealth and riches’ – commercial enterprise, business, banking, in the
service of God!
‘Kedar’s flocks and the rams of Nebaioth’ – agriculture and the cattle
industry, the shearing shed and the stockyard, redeemed for God!
‘In the lead are the ships of Tarshish’ – the supertankers of the day,
international trade, the waterfront; no longer self serving and
promoting the profits of a few, but dedicated to God, for the benefit of
the whole community.
‘Their kings led in triumphal procession’ – politics, no longer the
domain of those who wish to exercise power for themselves or serve a
special constituency, but under God’s authority.
“Then you will know that I, the Lord am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the
Mighty One of Jacob…I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.”
In Jesus, this time of redemption of all things has come, in principle.
At Bethlehem and Golgotha the glory of God has shone and all things are
being made new. Christians are God’s agents for that renewal. We have
the exhilarating task of demonstrating how all things are holy;
dedicated to God’s service – work and worship, sport and Sunday school,
physics and faith, prayer and politics. Of course complete fulfillment
will only come with the return of Jesus, when there will be a new heaven
and a new earth.
Throughout the history of the church Christians have been tempted to
withdraw from some activity or other, depending on how evil it was
perceived to be, or what potential it had for evil – dancing, music,
films, certain foods (eg. people in Paul’s time), politics, a variety of
the arts (eg. Zwingli’s Reformation), modern technology (eg. some of the
Mennonite groups in the USA), even marriage and social life (eg. groups
in the monastic and celibacy traditions).
This inclination not to participate in various things because of their
non-Christian roots or potential for evil has generally come from good
and positive motives; to preserve the holiness, purity and sanctity of
the church and God’s people.
Some things indeed seem to be so evil that they appear beyond
redemption. Many people today believe that, for instance, nuclear arms,
or the whole Casino culture, belong to this category. Perhaps aspects of
the biotechnology revolution such as human cloning are another
candidate.
There is no doubt that many activities and social and cultural
behaviours are shaped by a non-Christian world view. Yet often
withdrawal from some area of culture has been driven by fear, or an
inadequate understanding of the scope of God’s activity and purpose for
the world – to make all things new in Christ.
Reformational churches draw inspiration from Abraham Kuyper, theologian,
educator, politician and at one time Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
His words, ‘that there is not one inch of human life about which Christ,
who is Sovereign of all, does not say, this is mine’, imply that
Christians are to work for the redemption of all of life.
Christians throughout history have demonstrated that they can honour God
in most areas of life – sport, art, music, politics, recreation,
building, commerce – and claim each as an area over which Christ is
Lord, and therefore, holy. We should not be too quick to abandon any
area as beyond redemption.
In the words of Luther and Cliff Richards, ‘why should the devil have
all the good music’, or good art, or powerful movies, or genetics
research, or technological innovation.
We would like to claim all areas of life as ‘holy to the Lord’.
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