St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

I am continually struck by what it means to have communion with God and to know God’s friendship. It is outrageous if you think about it. When I was in Egypt I walked through the second largest ancient temple in the world, in the city of Luxor. It was called Karnak Temple. It was built during the time of the Pharaohs, when Egypt was an ascendent power. It represented what any and every ancient culture seemed to grasp intuitively—there is a great chasm between human beings and the divine. I saw the same thing in ancient sites when I was in Ireland. The gap between God and people was so great no one would have the audacity to just approach the deity without temples, priests, sacrifices, and offering. God is big and we are small. God is perfect and we are flawed. In fact, temples, priests, and sacrifices were present to bridge this gap. Yet even with all this elaborate rubric no one actually thought that friendship with the deity was possible, the best you could do was appease them, manipulate them, or keep the