Note: This reflection is the second in a four part series of reflections I’m writing for my final in an exegesis and preaching course in seminary. As such, these reflections may have more of the cadence of a homily than my usual material does. The text we used for study was Exodus. This second reflection is based on Exodus 6:1-13.
In this text, we see Moses wrestling with what it means to be called by God. Again. This is the second call narrative we see for Moses in the Book of Exodus. Some scholars suggest that this is two separate accounts of Moses’ call stitched together. While this is certainly a possibility, I can also see a profound spiritual value to reading this text as a re-calling of Moses to his work. It comes on the heels of what feels like his first failure. Moses has gone to Pharaoh, preached all that God ordered him to preach, and the oppression of the Israelites has only increased. I can imagine Moses feeling discouraged here, almost as if he has made his people worse off than before. In the midst of this discouragement, in the darkness deepening around Israel before the dawn, God calls Moses again.
We often use the phrase, “hindsight is 20/20.” That we don’t always know the best course of action when a choice is in front of us. When we look back, with our new knowledge in the present, we see more clearly what we could have done, and maybe what we should have done. God’s call of encouragement to Moses draws on this same insight. Instead of the sigh of regret that “hindsight is 20/20,” however, God uses this idea to remind Moses of the good that God has done for them, and the good that God is still beginning to do. God encourages Moses to remember God’s saving work for his ancestors: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God reminds Moses that those ancestors didn’t know God by God’s truest and deepest name, like Moses now does. God reminds Moses that God made a promise to the Patriarchs that they would be given a land for their descendants to prosper and flourish in. Moses can look back and see with 20/20 hindsight that God was faithful to the Patriarchs in cultivating a covenant and a friendship with them. And now Moses and God’s people in the present have a relationship with God that is even closer. God encourages Moses to trust that this same pattern will continue into the future. “You will know I am your God, because I will free you from the Egyptian yoke, and I will bring you to the land I promised to your ancestors.”
In the St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a similar promise, one that also serves as a warning against impatience. Jesus is preaching about the Kingdom of God. Christ tells his apostles, “If someone comes to you saying, ‘Look, there’s the Messiah! In the wilderness!’ Or ‘Look, here’s the Messiah! in the inner rooms.’ Don’t believe them. When I come again, it will be like lightning, striking the sky from East to West. You won’t be able to miss it. Hindsight is 20/20.” In God’s words to the apostles and to Moses, God teaches us how to hope. We live in a world where authorities make promises that they can’t or won’t fulfill, where power and expediency are seen by many as the primary tools for accomplishing one’s desires. We are called to work for the Kingdom of God, certainly. We can’t be passive, and we can’t turn a blind eye to one another’s suffering. But we are also called to trust in the process of God’s grace working in synergy with us. God shows up in our long laboring for each other’s liberation. We can expect the road to liberation, the road to salvation to be slow. Ultimately, though, it is infinitely more life-giving and steadfast in the long run to partner with God, to work in faithfulness and love and hope, than to put our hopes on one mortal power to save us. And God reminds us that in the end, we will see the hope we yearn for. “You will know that I am your God, because I will free you. Because I will bring you to the place I promised.”
Let me share a few insights from Fr. Matthew the Poor, a wise elder of the Coptic Church. Fr. Matthew says that “we do not need to resort to fervent pleas and tears and emotional supplications that the Lord may come to us, for He is always present and is knocking even now. He will not stop, because He wants to enter our lives. He finds His own rest with us, and His greatest joy is to share with us our cross and our dark night, for He still loves the cross. […] The alert and simple soul notices the touch of His hand writing the story of its salvation through the years and the succession of events.”* Hindsight, beloved in Christ, is 20/20.
God calls Moses. God calls the apostles. And God calls us. God calls us to see where God has shown up into our lives. To see that as both a fruit and a future sign of the new and wonderful things God is looking to do in our midst, that God will do in our midst. God is working to “bring good news to the poor, to liberate the captives, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” God promises to work both through our concrete actions and in ways beyond our reach. Freedom’s presence in our lives as we look back on each step of the journey is a witness to God’s righteous power, mercy and love. And at each step of the journey, our loving Lord walks with us. Carrying our burdens, helping us to carry one another’s burdens, revealing to us deeper and deeper depths of God’s name. The Great I Am. The one whose mercy endures forever. Alleluia. Amen.
*Fr. Matthew the Poor, The Communion of Love (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984), 34-5.
No comments:
Post a Comment