Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 20 March 2022

                      

Exodus 3:1-15        Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever,

and this my title for all generations.”

Reflection       What is burning inside you today? The cries of the millions of Ukrainians being driven into exile if not killed? The fear of the Russian people oppressed by their Stalin-esque president? The prospect of a madman deploying weapons of mass destruction? Shall we pause and wonder how  God's fire might be speaking to us? Are we willing to listen to the cries of the people and let the course of our lives be changed?  Are we willing to step out of our comfortable ruts, planting our heads in our hearts and acting decisively to alleviate the misery of  God’s people today? 

It may surprise you that that most scholars agree, Moses, a prophet important in Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Ba’hai, is not an historical figure.    Which begs the question, “What is the purpose of this mythic tale?” Let me suggest this is a spiritual journey story, a story that can help us navigate the lonely, arid and volatile desert we find ourselves navigating today. 

The wind blows, the dust  moves, the smell of creosote tantalizes and out of the corner of his eye Moses notices something he cannot explain, a bush that is burning but not consumed.  How can this be? The desert represents Moses’ interior journey; seeking understanding in the inhospitable vastness  of  the desert.  Here we join Moses following the mystery of a burning bush from his head into his heart to discern if it is real or a mirage.

 “Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great (amazing (CJB), marvelous (JSB), remarkable (NAB)) sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’” Confronted by something that made no sense to him,  Moses stops what he is doing, turns aside and allows himself to stay with the unsettling experience, a non-consuming fire. This is the way our spiritual journeys progress. In the presence of mystery we turn our heads to our hearts, making ourselves available to discern God’s  (The Mystery's) real presence in our lives.

It seems God was waiting to discover how Moses would respond to the fire before proceeding; “When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see,  God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ Moses responds  ‘Here I am.’” God and Moses enter into conversation, and by implication, relationship. Moses’ willingness to engage the mysterious fire by turning his head to his heart opens the way for him to be in relationship with God.                                                  

God says,“Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground,”   then proceeds to identify God’s own self, “’I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’”  As Moses approaches, God establishes parameters for their relationship, providing Moses with a way to participate in the revelatory event.  Removing his sandals Moses embodies the holiness of this encounter.                                                                                                                            

What does the tale of Moses talking to a burning bush have to do with us? That depends entirely on how we choose to engage it. If we read this scripture briskly noting, ‘I’ve heard this story a million times,” we can walk right past the mystery, no effect. There is every reason to believe that Moses could have done just that.

Being a shepherd Moses had a job to do and could easily have justified sticking to his job and continuing on his way. No story. But, when Moses experiences the burning bush (in other words, feels the fire of wonder inside) he pauses to ponder the mystery. Paying attention to the incomprehensible mystery Moses is available to encounter, experience and answer God’s call . 

What is burning inside you today? The cries of the millions of Ukrainians being driven into exile if not killed? The fear of the Russian people oppressed by their Stalin-esque president? The prospect of a madman deploying weapons of mass destruction? Shall we pause and wonder how  God's fire might be speaking to us? Are we willing to listen to the cries of the people and let the course of your life be changed?  Are we willing to step out of your comfortable ruts, planting your head in our heart and acting decisively to alleviate the misery of  God’s people today? 

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Hebrew Testament & Gospel for Fourth Sunday in Lent 14 March 2021

Numbers 21:4-9        From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

John 3:14-21        Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Reflection        Poor Moses. After all the plagues he handled  to lead God’s people out of Egypt (bloody water, frogs, lice, flies, boils, hail, locusts), instead of being grateful for their newfound freedom the people “become impatient,” complain about their miserable food (who wants manna? we want meat), and “speak against Moses and God.” The poisonous serpents of faithlessness and unconscionable complaining corrupt the hearts and minds of the people Israel and they suffer in the poison of their own protests.

We know how this plays out. Someone whines and grumbles about the way things are. Pretty soon a chorus gathers around the complaint. Social media gets the message and ignites a match. And in a timeless second a protest is roaring with people swallowing their own poison and dying in the wilderness. This is the story of Moses and the moaning Israelites. This is the story of the fickle crowds in Jerusalem demanding, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” on the fateful day for Jesus. This is the story of our country today, with volleys of revolts erupting from the extreme right and flaring back from the far left. 

As if standing in a pit of poisonous snakes, we are split into feverish corners until a crowd is bent on an arc toward destruction. From the ten thousand feet above the ground perspective we can no longer distinguish one side from the other because we are all pointing poison fingers and looking for someone to blame for being stuck between the way things used to be and the promised land. Still, we are not condemned to this agony.

Looking to Moses we discover a way out of this hopeless hostility. Praying on behalf of the Israelites Moses first turns to God then offers the snaky masses something new to look at. Lifting up the bronze serpent Moses invites the cranky crowd to turn their eyes to healing rather than complaining and yearning for yesterdyear.

This was the first time the image of a serpent entwined on a pole enters humanity’s imagination. The Israelites are stuck between Egypt and the promised land, looking with longing backward to the way things used to be until Moses gives them something new to look at. The image of a serpent wrapped around a pole came to be associated with the Greek god Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine.* Today we see the symbol associated with the World Health Organization, The American Medical Association and on the sides of ambulances. What does this perennial symbol have to do with us? I believe it invites us to turn our eyes to healing rather than complaining and yearning for the way things used to be.

Four hundred years after Moses Jesus is still trying to get God’s people to stop protesting and see something new. Much like Moses lifting the serpent in the wilderness Jesus offers himself to be lifted up as something new to look at and be healed. I can almost hear the duet, Moses and Jesus pleading, “People, don’t you see? If you choose to look at the bronze serpent instead of the miserable food and your thirst to arrive at the promised land, if you choose to look at Jesus’ walk through suffering in the company of God, you choose life. You are healed.”

What do we choose to look at? To what do we give our attention?

As social beings in the twenty-first century we can protest forever about our rights; economic, social, cultural, civil and political. We can whip ourselves into frenzies, wag our biting fingers like so many venomous snakes or we can choose to look at something new, something risen from our wilderness journey between the idealized way things used to be and the promised land. Let us not forget, the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians before Moses led them into the wilderness. Why would they want to go back to that?  Likewise, when we remove our collective rose colored glasses we must confess, our past is not pristine. 

Here is the thing, poisonous protests rise on both sides of the aisle and sing every note on the scale. Since the beginning of the beginning this has been our story. Do we really want to continue suffering in the poison of our own protests? Do we really want to choose death and listen to ourselves speaking against God and Moses and crying “Crucify him?” How many hundreds or thousands of years before we choose to look at something new rising in the wilderness between the way things used to be and the promised land? 

 Today is a turning point in our journey. We are being led out of Egypt, out of the reach of Covid-19 into the wilderness where we will either find or lose ourselves while wandering between the way things used to be and the promised land.  It is time us to open our eyes to see something new. This is a matter of life or death.  

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*  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius

Gospel text for 3rd Sunday of Lent 7 March 2021

 John 2:13-22           The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Reflection        It was this time last year, as the Passover of the Jews was near and Christians were fast approaching Holy Week that the coronavirus erupted in the United States and across the globe. Much like Jesus’ whip of cords wrecking havoc with the commerce and routines of temple life, Covid-19 burst onto the scene overturning the tables of our personal, social, political and religious lives. 

Here we are, one year later, standing in the ruins of the way things used to be with rampant disease, raging hunger, homelessness, helplessness, dislocation and virulent fear masking itself at every corner. Even if we have managed to carve out a comfortable cave for ourself in the midst of all of this turmoil, the unimpeded commerce of our lives has been curbed. 

This, I believe, adds substantial weight to Jesus’ words. “Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!” The truth is, much like our ancestors we strive to stamp certainty onto our fragile lives by identifying with external expressions of piety and  fashioning false gods that we can see and hold onto. But woe to us who try to secure our lives with paper decrees,  hallowed halls and hollow deities. Woe to us who set our selves up to be scammed and seduced. Woe to us who put our faith and fealty in institutions and possessions that tempt and pervert us. Still, there is a way beyond this.

This being Lent, the season of self examination, it is time for us to stop, look into candor’s mirror and admit we look much like the Israelites who when tired of waiting for Moses to return from his meeting with God on Mount Sinai, forged their infamous golden calf and worshipped it. It behooves us to ask ourselves, what are our gods? jewelry? juicy 401K? multiple homes? comfortable retirement? youth? vacations? cars? career? collections of everything from old vinyls to books, boots or art? It is time to blow the smoke off of our mirrors and be honest with our selves. 

This is a fundamental message of our year living with Covid. The zeal that we have shown for the houses built, portfolios secured, positions attained, privileges gained, traditions maintained, our zeal for our social, political and religious institutions has imprisoned us. Sequestered within the walls of our own construction we are separated from the trustworthiness of God. 

Our passion, our ardor, our zeal is meant to be for the One, Holy and Living God. God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. God of Moses that is forged in the mystery of our hearts and can never be captured in anything fashioned by our hands. If only we would order our lives according to the wisdom that must have informed Jesus heart. Please hear in the words of Deuteronomy, the Second Law of the Hebrew Testament,  words that tradition tells us were spoken by Moses to Israel, words that anchor Jesus’ life and ministry in God. 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. “ Deut 6.4-6

How easily our mouths move to make these words, words spoken six hundred years before the current era and drawn from sources centuries older than that, ageless words straining to explain the meaning of the frequent disasters met upon humanity.  Yes, we can say these words but when it comes to acting on them we tend to be weak willed and easily seduced by specious promises of stability.  Three thousand years later we still wrestle with waiting at the edge of uncertainty and strain to recover the familiar. We do not notice our hardening hearts until Jesus’ words shatter us. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  We protest. “What? Destroy this temple? this institution? this lifestyle?  this comfortable rut? It has taken forever to construct and it is all that we know.” 

Perhaps today Jesus would elaborate. “Your hearts desire will never be sated by the bricks and mortar of your establishments. Your passion, your ardor, your zeal is misplaced.”  And there we have it.  

The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Our zeal for the things of this life is misplaced (which is not to say we cannot appreciate and care for them). But the passion, the ardor, the zeal of our hearts is meant to be directed toward and absorbed in God and God alone. Our thoughts, feelings, attentions and affections; all that we say and all that we do are meant to begin, continue and end in the One, Holy and Living God.  

It is not easy to watch the tables of our personal, social, political and religious lives turned upside down but until we let what is impermanent die we will not rise in the trustworthiness of the Lord, our God, the only One.

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Hebrew Testament text for Sunday 26 October 2020

 Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Reflection        Tuesday afternoon I watched as University of Arizona researcher Dante Lauretta’s audacious dream born in 2011 came true. Nine years, 1.16 billion dollars and the devoted collaboration of thousands of individuals kissed the asteroid Bennu with the Osiris Rex spacecraft 200 million miles away from Tucson, Arizona precisely on a spot the size of a couple of parking spaces. When the spacecraft touched down for a mere few moments and grabbed a sample of what might be the original grit of creation,  the ground crews eyes teared above their masked mouths as they pumped their arms and shouted celebration with a singular voice. “We did it. We did it!”  Sometimes this is exactly what we humans need to be set on fire and inspired to be more that we ever imagined; a dream, a big, audacious, adventurous, impossible dream.

Which makes me wonder if this is what God has in mind when compelling   Moses to deliver an even more audacious call to all of humanity, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Please pause and chew on these words, swallow them, let them have their way with you. “You shall be holy.” There is no equivocation, You SHALL be holy. You MUST be holy. Now let me be clear, the injunction to holiness is not limited to a few special people called to holy orders or set aside for religious life. The you of “you shall be holy” refers to “all the congregation of Israel.” This second person point of view belongs to all the people being addressed, whoever hears these words. Today, this is you. YOU shall be holy. You MUST be holy.

We cannot escape it. We are created in the image and likeness of God. We are meant to be a holy people, people whose lives individually and collectively are conformed to God’s audacious call to to be holy. 

You may well argue, does not God make it patently clear that God is God and we are not? Surely our righteous ancestor Job, with whom neither the devil nor God could find fault, was quaking on his ash heap as God bellows out of the whirlwind to Job’s sick and suffering soul.

⁷ ‘Gird up your loins like a man;

   I will question you, and you declare to me. 

⁸ Will you even put me in the wrong?

   Will you condemn me that you may be justified? 

⁹ Have you an arm like God,

   and can you thunder with a voice like his? 

  ^…

‘Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish-hook,

   or press down its tongue with a cord?” (Job 40.7-9, 41.1)

Hearing that would be daunting but I say, acknowledging the distance between God and us is rather like reckoning the 200 million miles between the University of Arizona space lab and the asteroid Bennu. By daring to seek the unreachable, unspeakable fulfillment comes near. 

We are called to the audacious dream of holiness and just in case we get bogged down in details or derailed by arguments of what is just, lawful, merciful or true, our text from Leviticus graciously concludes with a succinct summary statement. “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”  In other words, to be holy as God is holy we are not to hate one another, not to hold grudges, but to act with mercy and love toward one another. 

We answer God’s call to live holy lives by treating the aged, the infirm and the poor with care and consideration. We speak truth and do not profit at the expense of others. We do not nurture resentment or seek retaliation. Rather, we show thoughtfulness, grant forgiveness and volunteer hospitality, even, and perhaps especially to those whom we believe occupy space 200 million miles away from us.

God compels Moses to deliver an audacious call to all of humanity, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Although the dream of holiness may seem to be 200 millions miles beyond our reach, being made in the image and likeness of God,  nothing is  impossible for us when we direct our hearts and minds, our actions and resources to make God’s dream come true together. If we can kiss an asteroid 200 million miles away, surely we can be kind to our neighbors. 

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Hebrew Testament Text for 3rd Sunday in Lent, 15 March 2020

Exodus 17:1-7        From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Reflection        Is the Lord among us or not? As it was with our ancient Israelite ancestors, this seems to be the default question when we find ourselves wandering in the wilderness of Sin, when life tosses us a curve ball, or a coronavirus.

How do we proceed from COVID-19 to hope? How do we ride out a roller coaster stock market? How do we face armed guards in Walmart doling out toilet paper? How do we submit to social distancing? How do we brave the grave uncertainties of our time without succumbing to fear? In short, how do we endure?

Let me suggest, in this time of great unsettlement,  moment to moment we must choose in which direction we will walk.  Like Jesus, do we turn our face to Jerusalem, consent to our suffering and put our faith in God with us declaring, “Not what I want but what you want?” Or do we join the ancient people of God in the wilderness of Sin, anxious and testy, quarreling among ourselves, looking for someone to blame? 

Decades ago during a retreat with the late Thomas Keating, the Cistercian monk responsible for bringing the practice of Centering Prayer out of hallowed  monastery halls to the general public, I asked Keating about suffering. This gangly six foot six inch tall man threw back his awkward arms and exclaimed with the glee of a giggling two year old, “Welcome, welcome, welcome!” Keating taught, it is in welcoming our suffering that it is redeemed. **

We find the crowning example of welcoming or consenting to suffering on the night that Jesus shared his final Passover meal with the disciples. After supper Jesus took Peter, James and John with him to a place called Gethsemane, “Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’” (Matt 26.38-39)

Many of us are “deeply grieved, even to death.” Anxiety pumps our blood and our imagination finds no place to rest. We want to throw ourselves onto the ground and plead, “O God, make this stop! I don’t want coronavirus. I don’t want my loved ones to contract COVID-19.” Of course we do not. But are we willing to stay with Jesus face down in the dirt?  Are we willing to go the next step and submit (which by the way, means endure) are we willing to consent with Jesus, “yet not what I want but what you want?”  

Ours is not a religion that promises if we follow the rules and do everything right, check all the boxes, pay our pledge and say the right prayers, nothing bad will happen to us. Frankly, that is magical thinking. Ours is a religion that asserts, bad things are likely to happen even to good people but do not be afraid because God is with us, right in the midst of our suffering. Knowing God is with us gives us the strength and courage to endure. And the place in which we are most likely to meet God is face down in the dirt when we surrender saying, “Not what I want but what you want.” Or in Thomas Keating’s words, “Welcome, welcome, welcome.”

Covid-19 is spreading. As of March 11th there are nine cases in Arizona. Mindful measures to stop its spread have cost many their hourly wages, have kept elders confined, students out of school and parents out of work. We are anxious, deeply grieved and must choose. Do we turn our face to Jerusalem, put our faith in God with us saying, “Not what I want but what you want?” or do we join the ancient people of God in the wilderness of Sin, anxious and testy, quarreling among ourselves, looking for someone to blame? 

** To learn more about Welcoming Prayer, a method of consenting to God’s presence and action in our lives,  click on

https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/welcoming-prayer

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Hebrew & Gospel Texts for Feast of the Transfiguration Sunday 5 August 2018

Exodus 34:29-35        Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Luke 9:28-36        Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

Reflection        Bursting through pillars of cloud my plane descended to skirt the snowy ridge of the Washington state Cascade Mountains and the crowning vision of their holy hill, the fourteen thousand foot Mt. St. Helen. Tears of awe and wonder wrung my throat and washed my eyes. Surely it was sunset scenes such as this that tuned Michelangelo’s brushes to paint the hand of God reaching across the sky to touch the hand of humanity. Like many folks who have confessed, “I feel closest to God while admiring the vast night sky, wandering in the wilderness, or inhaling the desert after the rain…” last Sunday evening while peering through the postage stamp plane window, I felt aglow in the presence of God. And when my friend met me in the airport the first thing she said to me was, "Your face looks so bright, full of life." Hummm?

Recently another friend sent me an article written by Robert Barron, a widely respected Roman Catholic Bishop who ministers to people who identify themselves as “Nones,” people affiliated with no religious tradition. Barron argues that to speak effectively to this rapidly growing group of people, (according to a Pew Research survey, fully twenty-five percent of the country or eighty million people), we need to speak more fluently about God. Barron writes, “I would suggest the best biblical image for God is the burning bush - on fire, but not consumed - which appeared to Moses. The closer the true God comes to a creature the more radiant and beautiful the creature becomes. It is not destroyed nor is it obligated to give way; rather it becomes the very best version of itself.” (First Things, January 2018, p33) 

When Moses came down from his encounter with God on Mt. Sinai the skin of his face was shining such that the people who “saw him were afraid to come near him” so Moses covered his face with a veil. When Jesus took “Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray,”  while he was praying “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” When people people get close to God they become spiritually illumined, they become the “very best versions of themselves.”

The story of Moses and the burning bush is a story of the radiance and beauty of creation in communion with God. The story of Aaron and the Israelites who saw the skin of Moses’ face shining and were afraid, is a story of the awe inspired radiance and beauty of humanity coming close to God.  The story of Peter, James and John witnessing the dazzling transfiguration of Jesus is a story of the radiance and beauty available to faithful disciples in intimate relationship with God. Each of these is a story of the radiance and beauty available to anyone who is open to receive spiritual illumination and be changed, transfigured. 

Here is what I believe about transfiguration. A real event happens in the physical world, toward which we turn, pause and pay attention and through which the hand of God reaches to touch and transform us. Should we long for such an experience all that is required is our willingness to pause, pay attention and be surprised by God. The illumination we receive freely.  “The closer the true God comes to a creature the more radiant and beautiful the creature becomes… it becomes the very best version of itself.” I believe this is transfiguration, available to all of us.

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 28 February 2016

Exodus 3:1-15        Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.”

Reflection        What does the tale of Moses talking to a burning bush have to do with us today? That depends entirely on how we choose to engage it. If we read these lines of scripture briskly noting, ‘I’ve heard this story a million times,” we can walk right past the burning bush. It will have little effect. There is every reason to believe that Moses could have done just that. In fact, there is a bush that grows is Northern Africa and Southern Asia named Dictamnus. It is commonly called ‘the Burning Bush.’ The Dictamnus plant produces volatile oils that cover the entire plant. In very hot weather the bush sometimes spontaneously combusts and burns in a flash. 

Being a shepherd on the desert it is likely Moses had some knowledge if not experience of ‘the burning bush’ and could easily have decided to stay focused on his business of shepherding and continue on his way. No story. But when Moses saw the burning bush he paused to ponder, to inquire. “I must turn aside and look at this great sight…”  He was receptive to the cloud of unknowing, the incomprehensible mystery before him. Moses’ heart and mind were open to look with wonder. He was willing to set aside what he knew (what he was doing) in order to engage what he did not know.

As we pass by this mythic tale, shall we pause? Might there be an invitation to look at whatever is before us and wonder how the eternal flame of God might be speaking to us? Are we willing to “turn aside” from the ordinary course of our life and “see” something extraordinary? Are we willing to engage something we can neither understand nor control? Are we willing to step out of our comfortable ruts and admit God’s Presence? Are we willing to let the course of  our life be changed? Are we willing to do what is humanly impossible, make a difference in peoples lives, perhaps even leading a whole nation of oppressed people to freedom? 

Before he knew what God would ask him to do Moses responded to God’s call saying, “Here I am Lord.” Moses stepped onto holy ground, into holy relationship. And by the grace of God with him the simple shepherd did what was impossible, led the oppressed Hebrews to freedom.  

Are we willing to listen to the cries of people suffering in our midst? The aged, disabled, infirm, addicted, imprisoned, homeless? The impoverished, the foreigner, the refugee? African Americans, Native Americans, South Americans? Are we willing to answer God’s call to deliver all of God’s people to a “land of milk and honey?” If there is a burning bush standing in our way, perhaps it is time to pause and ponder it. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictamnus accessed 25 Feb 2016.

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 12 December 2015

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter Jerusalem!

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you,

he has turned away your enemies.

The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall fear disaster no more.

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

Do not fear, O Zion;

do not let your hands grow weak.

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,

a warrior who gives victory;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you in his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing

as on a day of festival.

I will remove disaster from you,

so that you will not bear reproach for it.

I will deal with all your oppressors

at that time.

And I will save the lame

and gather the outcast,

and I will change their shame into praise

and renown in all the earth.

At that time I will bring you home,

at the time when I gather you;

for I will make you renowned and praised

among all the peoples of the earth,

when I restore your fortunes

before your eyes, says the LORD.

Reflection        What will it take for us to believe and live into the promise of the prophets, “Do not fear?” Moses, Muhammad, Amos, Samuel, Deborah, Elijah, Huldah, John the son of Zechariah, Leo Tolstoy, St. Mary Magdalene, Brigid, Agnes, Martin Luther, Perpetua & Felicity, Martin Luther King, Jr, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wilberforce, Lao Tzu, George Orwell, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry…. the list goes on and on. At the root of their messages is the admonition, “Do not be afraid.” Do not allow fear to subjugate you to wrong thinking and wrong acting. 

But peek into the window of any human’s life from 13 centuries before the common era to today, and what do we see? Natural disasters, disease, human oppression and exclusion. Not much has changed in the category of human suffering in the past 31 centuries. So why do we keep expecting things that we see in the world to change? Why do we expect some singular apocalyptic event to erase disasters, disease and every form of human suffering from the earth? 

What the prophets then and now promise is, “the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more… Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst…” Whatever the trial or challenge we face, God is with us. That is what we hear in the First Song of Isaiah; “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.” (Is 12. 2-3) And if for some reason we still can’t hear the voice of the prophets speaking into our heart, and we don’t remember Jesus’ promise to the disciples and us, “I am with you always to the end of the age, (Matt 28.20) we can turn to Pau’s letter to the Philippians,  “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4.5-7)

What if we believed Gandhi’s words, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate’ but, it is fear?” What if we understood that fear respects no borders, religions, ethnicities, political parties or states? Could we admit how vulnerable we feel in the face of the unspeakable tragedies and suffering in the world? Might we recognize that the people we call enemies are just like us, afraid? What if instead of debating who is to blame for our inevitable suffering we listened to each others fear? What if we admitted we are one in our vulnerability  and inability to escape suffering? What if we changed our minds and our hearts and instead of seeing one another as enemies we saw each other as the sensitive and defenseless creatures that we are? Might we extend our hands in compassion instead of raising our arms in fear?

Sports psychologist Dr. Rob Bell suggests simple, but not easy, steps to aid our journey to live without fear having “confidence and trust in yourself and your team…” and, I would add, faith that our team includes all people and God with us. Click on Dr. Bell’s link above to hear his story. 

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