Pentecost 21A, Lectionary 29
Exodus 33:12-23 Matthew 22:15-22
Epiphany, Winnipeg
“I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”
When that story about Moses and God and the crack in the rock takes place, the people of Israel are still in the dark about what’s going to happen to them. It’s only a little while since they were set free from their slavery in Egypt, and they don’t know where they’re going. Honestly, Moses their leader doesn’t know either. They don’t know how to be free. Sure, they’ve received all kinds of instructions about every piece of their life together, but getting instructions is not the same as real life experience. And they don’t know that they will be lost in the wilderness for the next forty years.
When this story about us and our leaders and the world and the crack in the rock takes place, we’re all in the dark about what’s going to happen to us. Most of us don’t have a recent history of being slaves, and we haven’t just weeks ago been set free from something, but we’re still always figuring out how to be free. What’s the best and most just and loving and life-giving way to treat one another, and to organize our life together? How do we use what freedom we have for the good of all? What do we do in a world that is changing so quickly? We don’t know what’s going to happen with a referendum in Alberta tomorrow. Our own elections are on the horizon, and a strange president and his friends down there….well, you know all about that… and you know all the things that are happening around us, and you know how you’re never really sure what’s coming up in your own life. We’re a lot in the dark about where all this is going. And sometimes it does seem like we’re a bit lost in the wilderness and nobody knows how long it will last.
We’re a bit like a nation of people in that story we heard that’s thousands of years old. Maybe there’s an odd bit of comfort in that: If we’re feeling lost or unsure or afraid, people have felt that way for…for always…and still here we are, the world still turns, life just keeps right on going.
About two months ago we started to hear his long story that takes us to today, to Moses and God and a cleft in the rock. Back at the start we heard of Moses as infant, when the Pharaoh gave orders to drown all the male babies. Moses’ mother set him out on the river in a waterproof basket, hoping he’d be safe, and the Pharaoh’s own daughter found that baby Moses and had him raised as her own. There’s this God who hears the people crying out because they are so oppressed, and Moses hears God, as God calls out from a burning bush and tells him bring the oppressed people out of Egypt. There are signs and wonders and plagues, and the story continues as the people of Israel, with Moses as their leader, are set free. They complain and God hears their complaints and starts to lose patience with them. They build a calf out of gold and worship it because they think that God has abandoned them, and when God is mad and just wants to wipe out the people, Moses sits down with God and they have a little talk and Moses talks God out of acting on that anger.
Moses and God speak together, like friends. But now in this story we hear today, Moses wants some kind of clear sign from God that proves that God is with him and all the people. But the only thing that this privileged friend of God gets is this: “I’ll show you all of my goodness, but you can’t really see all of me. I’ll put you in a crack in that rock over there, and I’ll cover your eyes, and when I’ve passed by I’ll lift my hand away. Then you’ll see my back. But you can’t see my face. You can’t see all my glory.”
Moses, the great leader hero, has to settle for a place in a crack in the rock, and a passing glimpse of God’s back. And we join Moses in a crack in the rock, longing for certainty, but only getting a glimpse here and there.
Maybe that’s just the frustrating way that God deals with the world. We never get to see…all of God’s…Godness. There’s always something we’re not quite sure of, some pieces in the divine puzzle that don’t fit, some proof we never get. That’s just the way things are. We never get to pin God down and say, “There, God, now I’ve seen all of you and I can hang on and keep you in my grasp.” Instead, we come out of a gap in the rock, like Moses, and we open our eyes and we trust, and move on…. Or we open our eyes and we doubt, and we move on…. Either way, what we see is the back of God who goes on before us, but never away from us.
Maybe it’s good that Moses doesn’t get the whole picture and that we don’t get the answers to all our questions.
Maybe it keeps us humble. It’s like this: if I think that I’ve seen all God’s glory, or that God has given me signs and visions so I know something that you don’t, then you’d better listen, because I know what’s what. Or more ominously, we’ve seen time and time again that when someone in power gets the idea that they know better than the rest who God is, it’s not too hard to move on from there to organizing crusades and occupations and holocaust and catastrophe.
And maybe it’s good that we just get glimpses of God here and there. There’s always more mystery and unknown than there are answered questions and clear ideas, and when we realize that, we are set free from having to figure out God. We’re even set free from having to figure out exactly what God’s will is. If I can be paralyzed by trying to decide what kind of cheese to buy, can you imagine how hard it can be to try to sense what God’s will might be? We’re in a crack in the rock, getting glimpses here and there of God’s work in the world as God moves ahead into our future. And as we step out of the crack in the rock, instead of knowing everything, maybe one of us will say, “I think I saw this; what did you see?” And another will say “I didn’t see what you saw, but I saw this.” And our glimpses of God’s back become pieces of a larger picture that goes with us into an uncertain future in a wilderness that we don’t understand.
There’s just a little bit more to Moses and us and God and the gap in the rock. In the middle of it all, God is clear about one thing in this conversation with Moses and us: “My goodness will pass before you…I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” That’s the clearest word God gives in this whole exchange. “You can’t see all my glory, you can’t see my face, you won’t get just what you’re looking for, and everything won’t become clear. But I will be gracious and will show mercy – whenever, wherever, and for whomever, I will. I will be gracious and show mercy.”
That word of promise sets us free. We step out from the crack in the rock in the footsteps of this one who promises grace and mercy…. We step out of a gap in the rock that looks a lot like a tomb – and we follow after the risen Jesus, who promises grace and mercy and life wherever he goes. Jesus never says that we have to figure out impossible mysteries or uncover the secrets of impossible plans or understand all the inner workings of God’s mind. Instead, Jesus leads us out from that gap in the rock into the morning air and the crunch of the ground underfoot and only asks, as we move into the wilderness, that we love God and love our neighbour…as we have been loved all along.
And that’s enough. We catch a glimpse of the back of God, and we see where God has left signs of God’s goodness in the beauty of the world around us, in the grace and kindness and care that we’ve seen or tasted ourselves. We catch a glimpse of the back of God and we see where God has left signs of God’s goodness when we get it right as a nation – sometimes – or when old enemies, just like two former Alberta premiers – discover a little bit of friendship instead of trying to take each other down. We see a glimpse of the kindness of God in the kindnesses of people. We step out of the gap and see the back of God, some footprints of grace and mercy, leading to wherever we end up. We might not see the complete sign, the absolute proof, or the bolt from the blue. But there’s always this grace and mercy leading the way, always this gracious God, who goes before us and with us into the wilderness and into our future.