Sermon Notes for October 22, 2017
Read Exodus 33:12-23, where Moses asks to see God.So, we need a bit of background for our scripture here in Exodus. Last week we heard the scripture that comes before this, which was when Moses was up on the mountain with God, the people were upset because they couldn't see God. So they asked Aaron to help them out. Aaron took all of the gold and melted it down and made a cow, and said "Here. Worship this" And the people did! And they were happy.
Then Moses came down with the ten commandments and saw what they had done, and was so mad he smashed the tablets. Because the very first thing God had said was worship only me, and here they are, worshiping a golden cow. So he told them all what they had done wrong and melted down the cow again, convincing all of the people to repent for what they had done.
But God was still mad and told Moses "I'm done. I have done everything for these people and they keep turning away from me. I got them out of slavery and they will still have the Promised land, but I'm getting an angel to lead everyone in in. If I stay with you I may take my anger out on you and I don't want to do that. If they want a God you can carry around like that, fine. They are on their own."
Now, there was a tent set up in the camp of the Israelites where Moses would go and talk to God. And when God was there to talk to Moses, there would be a pillar of smoke before the tent. So Moses, trying to fix this mess, goes to the tent to argue with God.
Moses has argued with God more than once, and is willing to do it again. "Look God, as I remember it, the Exodus was your idea, not ours. These people are your people. You invented them. You called them. They're your problem. I want you to assure me that you're going to take care of this. You have to promise to be with us every step of the way."
And God responds, "I will be with you every step of the way. You will get the rest you deserve."
But that's not good enough for Moses, who pushes as he always pushes. "God, I need to you to come with us. Not with me, but with all of your people. Otherwise we might as well just stay put in the wilderness."
Moses wants assurance on who will accompany the people on their journey. God's assurance that God will be with Moses, is not enough. No, Moses wanted to hear God promise to be with all of his people. His messed up and flawed people who don't have the attention span to wait until he gets off the mountain. Those people will be God's people and he wants God's promise to stay with them.
And he gets it! God says "I will do it, because I like you and I know you." God continues to go with the Israelites because of Moses and his willingness to argue for his people. It's not enough to have God to go with just me, I need God to go with everyone else too.
Then, Moses, whose relationship with God is closer than anyone's before him, demands to actually see God. He asks for something that no one had gotten.
He asks, because in Hebrew thought to see another's face is to see all that they are. To see God face-to-face would be to know God absolutely, to exhaust the mystery of God's being, to understand everything about God. Moses wants that for himself. And on some level, don't we all?
There's a story about a kindergarten teacher who asked a boy what he was drawing. Without pausing to look up, he said, "A picture of God." The teacher smiled and responded, "But nobody knows what God looks like." The boy carefully put down his crayon, looked her squarely in the eye, and declared, "After I'm finished here they will."
Don't we all want to see God face to face? Don't we want that proof, that confirmation in our lives? Even at our most believing, we'd still like some proof. Who hasn't wished for a sign from God because some days it seems like the world has explained God away? Yes God. Let me see you face to face, just once. Then I'll know. Then I won't have to wonder any more.
Yet God tells Moses when he asks, "You can't possibly see my face because if you do, you'll die." The face of God is beyond human understanding and human reach. We literally cannot see the full glory of God because we cannot handle it.
Instead, God offers a compromise. "I'll tell you what. You hide in this crack in the stone and I'll pass by it, covering you as I do so, and after I do, I'll move my hand and you can see then."
Our English texts usually say that Moses could "see his back," but that's an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the "body" of God, because again, that's the glory of God and he can't survive that. Instead, the translation of the word most closely means, "where he passed."
In other words, Moses saw the place where God just was, and that's the closest he could get to seeing God. And, therefore, that's the closest we can get to seeing God. We can see where God just was.
In the busyness of life, I rarely notice God's Presence in the moment. I'm answering emails, making calls, writing sermons, walking the dogs, washing the dishes, ect, ect. But instead, when I look back over my day, with intention, I can see where God is at work. In the dark places of my life, I rarely saw what God was doing, but when I look back at my life, I look back at those places, and God's Spirit is all over it.
People can so rarely see God's coming. We can, however, see God's going. You and I don't yet see God face to face. But sometimes we see God's back, as it were, disappearing around the corner and realize that God has just acted for us.
Which is why we need to remind ourselves of where God just was. We need to take the time to notice where God is at work. There is a tool created by Saint Ignatius which I have found to be particularly effective in doing this. The Examen prayer is meant to be prayed at the end of every day to reflect upon it.
There are five steps to the Examen prayer:
- You begin by asking God to open your eyes to see your day through God's eyes.
- Then you give thanks for the day, be it thanks for having a good day, or thanks for making it through a bad day.
- Next you start looking back over the day and try to see where God might have been at work in it.
- You look at the things you have done and ask forgiveness for the times you got it wrong.
- Finally, you ask for God to go with you tomorrow.
Once you start praying the Examen on a regular basis, you become good at noticing where God just was in your life. You can see God's presence over and over again and come to understand that God goes with you, this day and every day.
Abraham Maslow wrote, "The great lesson from the true mystics is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's back yard." On our very best days, God is with us. In the worst moments of our lives, God is there. And on even our most mundane, ordinary days, God is present.
God's graciousness passes before us each day. May we keep our eyes open, so that we might see where God has been.
