33:12 Moses said to the LORD, "See, you have said to me,
'Bring up this people'; but you have not let me know whom you will
send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have
also found favor in my sight.'
33:13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your
ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider
too that this nation is your people."
33:14 He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will
give you rest."
33:15 And he said to him, "If your presence will not go, do
not carry us up from here.
33:16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in
your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way,
we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the
face of the earth."
33:17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing that
you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you
by name."
33:18 Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray."
33:19 And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before
you, and will proclaim before you the name, 'The LORD'; and I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy.
33:20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for no one
shall see me and live."
33:21 And the LORD continued, "See, there is a place by me
where you shall stand on the rock;
33:22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft
of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed
by;
33:23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my
back; but my face shall not be seen."
verse 33- "...and you shall see my back"
I believe it was Fred Craddock, the southern preacher, who said one
time (about our proclivity to wax too familiarly about God) words to
the effect that "to hear some people talk, you would think they
circled God three times and took photographs!"
To me, Craddock's satire is illustrated by formulaic Christianity
expressed in such things as "the four spiritual laws," the "plan of
salvation," and our sometimes too tenacious insistence that our
dogmas and doctrines are "right on" (read "infallible") about God.
Perhaps our proclamation about God is sometimes better served not by
our certain and cocksure claims, but by our hesitancy and
reservedness, by the sharing of our hints and glimpses of divinity.
When I see someone I think I know from the back, I am sometimes
right...it really is who I think it is...and sometimes I am wrong,
having misidentified him or her because I have seen only partially.
Back to Craddock's statement, perhaps Micah 6:8 is an apt
commentary. "What is required of you, O mortal, is to do justice, to
love kindness, and to walk HUMBLY with your God."
Tom in Jamestown, New York
If we have no image of God, if we cannot see his face, if we have no
way of recognizing him, how do we know he is with us?
(No wonder they made a bull, a graven image, to give them some
security.)
What kind of security does the emperor/the President give us? Is he
an icon of the divine presence and will? How do we distinguish
between temporal and spiritual power and presence?
Where is God in the midst of domination? How do we follow him whose
presence is hidden in the ordinary, everdayness of life?
tom in ga
The question for the Hebrew people was, would they go forward,
serving the living god who delivered them from Egypt, but whose face
they could not see? Or would they turn to worship idols (like the
golden calf of last week)?
You can be sure whether or not a golden calf is with you, just as we
can know whether or not we have money. We can count our money, add
and subtract the monthly statements and come up with a number. Even
if it's a negative number, we know where we stand. But how can we
know if God is with us or not?
God remains hidden, even when present, because to do otherwise would
be to destroy us. (We would be consumed, or killed by God's glory...
not exactly the kind of God you would want to pray "now I lay me
down to sleep" to...)
We can know God, only as God restrains or holds back her power, so
as not to obliterate us.
In Jesus Christ, God puts aside his power, even puts his power into
our hands, to accept and love, or to reject and crucify. We see the
face of God in Jesus.
some random ramblings - DGinNYC
To DGin NYC: The points you offered in your post were of great help
to me in my thinking process. Does anyone have suggestions on how
this scripture lesson might correspond or go with the scripture from
Matthew? Thanks. Mike in MO.
Mike in MO In response to your question about connecting this text
with the Gospel: I think tom in ga has given a point from which to
begin the connection. "What kind of security does the emperor/the
President give us?" The face on our money is an icon just as the
news photos of the current president (in whatever year) show us an
image not unlike the Roman coin in the Gospel. We know what the
"emperor" looks like and demands of us. We DON'T know what God looks
like, but we do know what God demands of us. All things considered,
it often seems easier to do what the emperor asks of us than what
God asks of us.
I am musing about ways to connect that very idea with my intended
title and original direction. My working title for the moment is
"Covered" -- thinking about the comfort of being "covered" as in
cozy and warm and safe. God covers us in just those ways, yet God
also demands certain things of us that don't make us feel cozy and
warm and safe.
Don't know where all these musings will lead as yet, but Tom has
given me some food for serious thought this week.
StudentPastor in KS
