And so breakfast, ceremonial washing and dressings, and the setting out of the procession, me, along with the young boy and girl, up at the front, only the priests in front of us.  

What a day.  Walking.  Climbing higher and higher.  My mind awhirl with thoughts and fears -- and wonder.  Yet at the same time my eyes taking in with renewed clarity the grass, trees and flowers.  The birds flapping noisily out of the trees at our approach, frightened by the now hypnotic beat of the drum.  

As we climb higher I feel breathless, the lack of oxygen at this rarefied atmosphere making me feel lightheaded.  The cold making my exposed arms and legs tingle.  And yet, somehow, it seems all like a dream.  Tomorrow I will wake up, in my own bed.  The familiar sounds will be all around me.  Mum kneading the bread.  My little brother and sister fighting.  The smell of the cooking fire.  The noise of the chickens in the yard.  

Yes, it's all a dream.  Tomorrow will be alright. . . .  

But tomorrow was not alright for the young girl, barely in her teens, who is now known as "The Ice Maiden."  Her story is recounted in the June 1996 National Geographic Magazine.  For after her climb, and a nights sleep, dressed in rich festive robes she was pushed off a precipice on a Peruvian peak, 20,700 ft above sea level.  At the base of the precipice she was mummified by the ice -- and 500 years later was discovered by Johan Reinhard, an expert in Inca life and artifacts.  At a lower level on the mountain were the graves of her two child companions, struck by lightening, yet buried alive and again mummified by the intense cold of the Andes.  

The reason for such sacrifice?  Appeasement of the mountain gods who were said to supply water to their villages and fields.  A sacrifice of children in return for good harvest and security.  

The "ice maiden's 500 year old body will tell the scientists much about Inca life in those days.  Tests on the rich fabrics she wore.  DNA and other tests on her actual body will reveal secrets of the past.  Scientists of many disciplines are lining up to carry out research and unveil another chapter in the history of mankind.  Discoveries about diet, disease, hereditary characteristics and so on.  

But the saddest part of the chapter is that this young girl, just entering into the prime of her life should have to die, along with so many other children, so needlessly.  What kind of god would demand such sacrifice?  

What kind of fear did such people live in as they farmed in the valleys surrounding the mountain?  How must it have been in those days of yore.  What fears and superstitions provoked the need for such appeasement of the gods.  And the story can be repeated not just with the Incas in the Andes.  Travel to the Lebanon – and visit the high alter at Baalbek, in the Becca valley – where worshippers of Baal practiced human sacrifice.  

Or travel to Petra.  One of the most fascinating places to visit in the Middle East . {ad lib 13 pics including entrance, treasury, view from High Place, place of sacrifice & 3 way pic of sacrifice} Why would a middle eastern maiden in Petra need her heart ripping out of her chest at sunrise?  Why would her counterpart in the Andes succumb to the privilege of being pushed off a high cliff, while younger children lower down the mountain were buried alive?   

Padstow. 

Why, just up the road from here, near Padstow,  would there be an ancient Iron Age burial site, with human sacrifice under the boundary wall?  Were the two who gave their lives there a sacrifice to evil spirits -- they go to the devil to save the rest of the cemeteries residents from a disturbed afterlife?  

And what was in the hearts of those about to be sacrificed?  Fear?  Pride that they had been chosen?  Dread?  Or a sense of fate.  What about their parents?  How could they wish to part with their precious child?  Or was it the sacrifice of one for the hoped survival of the many?  Would they be proud that their offspring had been chosen?  

Many questions.  Many thoughts.  But for all the research many answers still unknown.  

The saddest part to me was the futility of it all.  To try to appease a God who does not need appeasing -- but who dearly cares for each of us.  For that is the kind of God I have discovered in my Bible.  

Sitting here comfortably this morning we could write this off.  What relation is there between a 500 year old human sacrifice to appease an angry mountain god -- and the fact that we are here to worship the God of Heaven.  

And you are right to ask the question.  Perhaps Pastor Hulbert is just getting sensationalist this morning?  Well let me have my say and then you can decide! For I believe that there is a very important message that it is essential for us to understand. I am concerned about the picture that many people have of God.  

I am concerned that down through the ages many people have misunderstood God and so done atrocious things in His name.  

When we think of torture and persecution in the name of Christ our mind perhaps naturally thinks of  the Spanish Inquisition.  Why did zealous and committed priests seek out, torture and persecute so called "heretics"?  

While there were doubtless many unworthy reasons the principle underlying reason for such barbarism was a wrong picture of God.  They believed that if you were not right with God you would burn in the eternal fires of hell in agony and torment.  And if you look in the picture books of the time you will find graphic portrayals of how incredibly horrible that hell was going to be.  The illustrators minds ran riot in conjuring up new and painful ways for the evil demons to squeeze a little more pain out of the perpetually suffering sinner.  

So from this horrendous misunderstanding of what God would do with the wicked arose two other concepts.  

The first was purgatory.  A stage between hell and heaven for those who were almost, but not quite, right with God.   Thus you would be purified by just a few thousand years of pain before entering the eternal joy of your Lord.  And such pain could be reduced by the prayers of the faithful -- and a whole list of other practices that developed with time.  

The second concept was that if sinners were going to burn for ever in the most cruel and grotesque pain, then it must be essential to do all possible to convert them to true Christianity.  -- True being your own form.  

Thus to torture a heretic until he confessed his ways was a good thing.  The pain he went through now in the process of "repentance" was small compared to the pain he would suffer if he burned for eternity.  

Likewise, it lent a certain impetus to missionary work.  If these ignorant peasants are not baptised then they will burn in hell.  Better therefore to baptise them -- even if it is at the point of a sword.  * This picture is from Petchenag in Hungry and portrays Tonuzoba, a tribal leader, being buried alive with his wife and horse for refusing to convert to Christianity. *  

-- You might be surprised to know that such thoughts are still in some peoples minds today.  Budapest, the capital of Hungry is a wonderful city – and well worth visiting.  A place full of history.  

When I was in Budapest last year I visited St. Stephen's Basilica.  St. Stephen was not only a saint, but was the first king of Hungary, converting the masses as much by the sword as by prayer.  In a side Chapel, for a small fee, you can have the privilege of viewing the mummified remains of St. Stephen's right hand -- and if you pay an extra fee they will even switch on a light to let you see it better.  

While there getting photographic evidence of this relic I got into conversation with two ladies -- a mother and daughter.  I think they were both Hungarian although they spoke quite good english and were currently living in London .  

Mother was obviously more devout than the daughter and praised St. Stephen.  "What  a good and dedicated man he was bringing Christianity as he did to Hungary ."  

"Yes," I replied, "He certainly did.  But I understand he was quite a tyrant as well and that there was a lot of blood shed."  

"Oh yes, but they were only barbarians.  But just think.  He brought Christianity. He was a saint."  

There is an important question for us then.  What kind of God do we serve?  For the kind of God we serve is going to determine the way we relate not just to him -- but to our fellow man, to our fellow church members, to our families -- It is indeed going to influence every single part of our life.  

Are some of the pictures of God we see portrayed in the world correct?  

Do we serve a God who needs to be appeased in order to give us good things?

Do we have a Heavenly Father who says, "Love me or I'll burn you forever"?

Do be have a Judge as God who says, "Keep my law or Keep Out!"?

Do we have a God who works on whims and fancies?  "I think I'll answers Joe's prayers -- he's a nice lad -- but I'm not sure I can bother with Ethel today."

Or have we created God in our own image -- fickle and as untrustworthy as the gods of the Greeks that we read about in the ancient legends.  

All these and many more are pictures held by people of the God they serve -- or because of such a picture, choose not to serve.  Not only that, many people have been put off God all together because of a false or muddled understanding of who God is.   Thus it is indeed vitally important that I know who God is and have a correct and balanced picture of Him.  

So what kind of God do I serve?  

From Genesis to Revelation I find a picture of God that portrays him as concerned, interested, loving, merciful, forgiving and hard working to help us in our human situation.  

In the Genesis account of the fall of man and the entrance of sin I find a God who is not angry, but saddened by Adam and Eves failure.  A God who, rather than despising them a failures, plans a whole course of action to save them and their descendants from the dire consequences of their own mistakes.    

Talking to Satan through the serpent in the garden God says:  

And I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers,

He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heal.  (Gen 3:15 NIV)  

God had a plan that ran its course over thousands of years and culminated in the only human sacrifice ever needed.  A sacrifice not to pacify an angry God, but rather the loving God taking on himself the penalty for human sin -- Death.  

That is the Good News of the Bible's best known verse, John 3 :16:  

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

 In Petra, on the Andes, in the iron age cemetery, it was man who gave to appease an angry god.  In Christianity it is GOD who gives to restore a broken relationship.

Is it any wonder that the accounts of this sacrifice are called "Gospels" -- literally, Good News?

 And the Good News continues in the next verses, John 3:17-18

 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned. . .

 That is why I can be happy and assured as a Christian.  I have a God who is interested in me.  Who is my friend.  Who understands my needs and my cares, who has provided for me in this life and made promises I know he will keep for the life to come.  

I love the description that God gives of Himself as He passes before Moses:  

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." ‑EXO 34:5‑7

 Yes there is a strong side of justice to God.  Yes, if we refuse to listen to his loving ideals for us he does let us go our own way -- and we reap the sad consequences of our own poor decisions -- and often those consequences reflect down the generations onto our children.  Sometimes our choices are so bad that his most gracious alternative is a flood, fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, or, in terms of the future -- the total annihilation of the wicked -- those who realise that they would never be happy in a heaven or a re-created earth where they could not sin -- but equally could not be left for ever in sin or eternal punishment.  That would bring no pleasure to God or to the righteous.  Thus we have the final judgement.  The picture of the lake of fire totally consuming all wickedness and sin -- and the devil himself.  A fire not eternal in its torment, but eternal in its consequences.  Wickedness and rebellion will be no more.

 But that negative side is not God's ideal.  

His ideal is that we understand his true character.  Love him for who he is, rather than respect him our of fear of what would happen if we made other choices.  

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin."  

The whole Biblical record demonstrates the truth of God's statement.  The truth that was revealed most fully in Jesus Christ.  The disciple John, after spending three years in close proximity with Jesus, after having his own life and character radically modified by association with the Lord could write with great excitement:

 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14 NIV)  

Rather than our needing to appease God, we have a God who has done his utmost to come close to us, to understand our need, to pay the penalty for our sin, and to encourage and help us back into a fully restored relationship.

 Isn't that good news?  Ours is not a God that we have to approach in fear.  There is no need for appeasement.  No need for penance or pilgrimage.  We can approach him directly and with confidence.  We have a God who cares.

 And what does he ask?  What gift must I give him?  What price must I pay?  No price at all, except to say, "Lord, I love you.  I know I've made mistakes.  I know I've done wrong.  But I'm just delighted to know you love and care for me all the same.  Please accept me as a part of your family.  I want to be your friend."  

We may not understand everything about our God.  Indeed there are many things that I am sure we will be astonished and blessed by as we learn more of Him though eternity.  But even though I do not understand as much as I would like to, I understand enough to know that this God, the God of the Hebrews, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses, David, and so many more faithful people.  This God is a God I can respect, trust and love.

 This God -- I worship now and for eternity.     

End.  (C) 2006. Victor J Hulbert

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