Sinful Man Before a Holy God

Many of you will remember that terrifying scene in the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when Dorothy and Toto, along with Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion first come into the presence of the Great Oz. There was smoke and fire, a thunderous voice, and there was the sense that the threshold was shaking. Dorothy and her friends were surely shaking. It is only much later that they find out the Great Oz was only a ruse. I think of that scene when I encounter our First Lesson for this morning...