Is our God too Safe?

There is a place, in Africa, wedged between Kenya and Uganda … a little town called Busia, which forms the quintessential "Borderland". He describes it as a place of "double crossing" – both Kenya and Uganda each have their customs buildings, and it is essential to go through both in order to travel between the two countries. There are two borders, two crossings to make … and between them a small strip of land, perhaps 100 by 300 meters, thronged with people … peddlers, hawkers, beggars … in a place which no-one claims, where law is suspended, no-man's land … Borderland!
But for those who choose to live there, it is safe. It's safe because it's predictable, it's small and limited, the boundaries are clear and in sight, they hold some things in, but a lot more things out, tomorrow will be the same as today, and there are very few decisions (if any) which are required, Living in Borderland is safe!
It’s familiar. It can be traced out. It keeps things in and denies things entry. It is the place of perpetual knowing. We always know what is to come because borderland doesn’t change.
If you think about it, we do the same thing with God. There is a blood feud that divides Christ’s domain with the world’s, and the cross is marks the crossing.
It’s a way of life that is hard to learn. This new land is dangerous, with difficult terrain. It calls us to constant dying. Borderland seems safer so we refine an aptitude for lingering.
Take, for example, Uzzah the priest, whose brief story we heard in the first bible reading earlier. Uzzah and Ahio were escorting the Ark of the Lord to set it up in its new home, in the city of David … Jerusalem, which David had recently conquered, and declared as the capital of the new kingdom. The band was in full swing, the procession was moving slowly and majestically towards its destination, "and the whole house of Israel was celebrating with all their might before the LORD". It was a moment to be captured (if only they could have) on video footage, and replayed over and over, to re-experience the celebration and joy.
Suddenly there was a problem. One of the oxen stumbled, the cart jumped, and the ark began to slip. Quick as a flash, Uzzah reached out and grabbed the ark, to prevent it from slipping right off the cart and onto the road … clearly the right thing to do, to save embarrassment, to protect the moment, to maintain the sense of celebration. And suddenly, without warning, he was dead! Right there and then, at that moment, beside the ark, Uzzah died!
And the text says it was because God was angry …
"The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God." (2 Sam 6:7).
Yet you and I would say that Uzzah had done the right thing! Surely it was better to stop the ark from slipping, than to allow it to drop onto the pathway, risk damage, stop the whole procession, interrupt the worship and the celebration! But there was something deeper at stake here.
Years earlier, God had given very specific instruction as to how the ark was to be carried.
"Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. 13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it." (Exodus 25:12-14).
It was the role of the priest to ensure that things were done God's way. It was the Philistines, who had captured the ark during the time of war with Saul, who first thought of the method of transportation by ox cart, so this whole procession, organized, no doubt, by Uzzah and Ahio, was dishonoring to God, rather than being the worship they thought they were engaged in. It was their idea, not God's!
And isn't that what we all do, much of the time? We think we know best. We do things because it suits us that way. We've become comfortable and safe in our religion, keeping the traditions, or even breaking them, and forming new ones, maintaining the safe and predictable cycle of our lives and relationships, and making space for God when and where it suits us … living in Borderland!
And God struck Uzzah dead!