Exodus 33:12-23
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.’ Now if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this nation is your people.” He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not bring us up from here. 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.”
The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 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. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 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; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
Sermon Text
Have you ever seen something so amazing, you just cannot find words to describe it? There was a particular sunset I saw once, when I was taking a trip to Maine, that I have never been able to find words for. Seated on an island near Bar Harbor, looking out as the sun dipped into the ocean, it was as if nothing existed but the burning globe ahead me, and the sea around me. Theoretically, I had seen all those pieces before, the sun and the water and the sandstone beneath me – together they had become something new though, something I can only begin to grasp in my memory.
All around us are reasons to be in awe. God has invested majesty in all of creation. The leaves that have started to color the ground and the forests, the rivers that carve their way through the earth, and the stars that shine above us – all are part of the wonders we see every day. I want to highlight the moon for a minute, because it has its own special glory. Besides just being beautiful, our moon is one of the largest in our solar system. When you look up at it, you see a unique gift of God – allowing for tides, lighting the night, reflecting sunlight upon our earthly bodies. Our moon is unlike any other, and chief among its many gifts is just how beautiful it is.
Beauty, majesty, and awe as a whole are approximations of what scripture describes as “glory.” Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish Philosopher of Religion and generally amazing writer, described God’s Glory as a unique physical presence of God. Specifically, “glory reflects abundance of good and truth, the power that acts in nature and history.”[1] In other words, when meet God and see God’s glory, you encounter something specific about God being with you. Glory is that feeling that comes from seeing God and knowing that God is capable of changing the world we live in, and that the changes made are for good.
What does that look like? It can take many forms. For some of us it will sometimes be something really transcendent. A moment when we feel, hot as a fire or heavy as the sea, something overwhelming surround us. We call on the name of God and we find an answer, but more than that we find something beyond explanation. Other times it may be something far softer that speaks to God’s glory, a moment of peace in the midst of trouble, a quiet falling over a person as they come close to death. As broad and as many as God’s gifts are, so does God’s glory appear to us. Sometimes that glory is like a fire that burns brightly, and sometimes like the silence that comes through cessation.
The most common way that we open ourself up to experiencing God’s glory is in prayer. Whether it is the prayer we offer in this sanctuary, at the altar, or in our homes, God comes to us and hears what we offer up. The words are not nearly as important as the simple act of opening our hearts to what God will do. We’ve have just finished our group reading, “Dynamite Prayer,” and the focus of that book was on understanding how God’s power is manifested in our decision to pray. When we pray, when we open ourselves up to God and we find that there is more to God than we could ever imagine. Fears, trouble, all obstacles, seem to melt away in the presence of God. Not as though life is suddenly without its struggles, but as if they fade away in comparison to God’s overwhelming light.
When Moses went to Sinai, and he went up that mountain more thana few times, he did so to speak with God. The relationship that Moses and God had was something that had not been seen since Abraham before him. Like Abraham, Moses sat and talked to God, speaking as friends do. Moses ate in God’s presence multiple times, sharing in the kind of talk only meals allow.
Despite all this closeness, our scripture shows that Moses had not seen God’s face. The divine presence was always obscured in some way. Moses wanted more of God, wanted to be closer than even their present relationship has allowed. God warns Moses that direct exposure to his face would kill him, but that Moses would be allowed to see God’s glory indirectly. All the presence of God that earth could contain was concentrated on Sinai, and Moses’s eyes were covered as it passed. Only once the fullness of God had passed by could Moses look at God’s “back.” The result was a blessing of light upon Moses, a reflection, like the moon of the sun, of God’s goodness.
A teaching I come back to often is from Saint Irenaeus, “The Glory of God is a living person, and the life of a person is in beholding God.” As Moses found God’s glory on the mountain we too can find God’s glory in our own life. We begin to resemble God, to shine out with God’s goodness, when we spend our time looking at God. This we do in prayer, in study of scripture, in the sacraments, and in living a Christian life together. When we gather here, when we love one another, we all look at God’s glory in action. God’s glory is the promise that God is good, God is true, and God has the power to affect change in this world, we must be a testimony to all these things.
Take time this week, however you do it best, to connect with God. If you do that while you work on something, then work intently and pray fervently. If you prefer silence, then find a quiet place and focus on God’s presence in that silence with you. If it is in service that you hear God the most loudly, take some time to serve your siblings in our community. We all can see the grace of God, and even the slightest glimpse can change us for the better. Open your eyes, open your heart, and let God’s presence lead you to a better tomorrow. – Amen.
[1] Abraham Heschel. “The Glory is the Presence of God,” in God Seeking Man. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 1976) 82
Teach us to Number our Days 