PROPERS: 3 LENT, YEAR C
TEXT: EXODUS 3:1-15; LUKE 13:1-9
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019.
ONE SENTENCE: God will be who God will be – regardless of our efforts to define and constrain the divine being.
It has been said that the best theology today is being done on the silver screen. That may well be true.
Also, some of the most memorable.
I suspect that most of us here have seen the memorable Cecil B. DeMille production of “The Ten Commandments”. The lead role of Moses was, of course, played by the late Charlton Heston.
The movie is essentially a depiction of the life story of Moses – born into a Jewish family in Egypt when Pharaoh had ordered the death of all Jewish infants; hidden in a basket amid the bulrushes of the Nile River; found by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted into the royal family; he became a prince of the powerful nation.
But life did not go well for him, and he took refuge in the Wilderness – becoming a shepherd, living a life of solitude. Until the moment depicted in the first lesson today.
We are to assume that this desert God has pursued Moses. That desert God has found Moses at the foot of Mt. Horeb – what will become known as Mt. Sinai. It is foreboding-looking volcano rising out of the surrounding desert floor and will later figure prominently in the Exodus story.
Moses, tending his father-in-law’s flock, sees a bizarre sight on the side of the mountain – a bush that is afire, but is not being consumed. And drawn like a moth to a flame, he approaches this mysterious apparition.
A voice speaks to him out of the flaming bush – and that voice calls him to deliver God’s chosen people from slavery in Egypt. Moses, reasonably, asks, “Whom shall I say sent me?”
It is at that moment that we reach the high point – the climax. Moses is asking this God’s name. It was believed that having something or someone’s name gave you control over that person or being.
The flaming bush sidesteps the question: “I am who I am… Tell them I amsent me.” That is known as the Divine Tetragrammaton – the four Hebrew letters yud-hey-vav-hey. The Latin letters are YHWH, from which we draw the name Yahweh. Faithful Jews will not pronounce the word. The name of God is too sacred.
My Old Testament professor was named William Augustin Griffin. He was a modern version of an Old Testament prophet. He said those four Hebrew letters could also be translated as “I will be who I will be.” Other ways – equally faithful – of translating those four letters include “He-who-is”and “He-who-calls-into-being.”
God is sidestepping Moses’ question. He is telling Moses, “I will not be controlled. I will not be put in a box. I am the ground of being. I am the source of all things.”
God is making the most profound self-revelation to be made before the incarnation of Jesus as Christ. And he makes it clear to Moses – and us – that “I will have my own way.”
+ + +
I heard an interview with Barbara Brown Taylor this week. She is a well-known Episcopal priest and internationally-famous preacher living in Georgia. She was asked by the interviewer how she defined God.
Her response was much more profound and articulate than I could quote, but the essence was, “God is the glue which holds all things together… The mysterious force of creation… The uniting spirit which intends good… The force which unites creation and cares for each of us.”
I thought of the great theologian Paul Tillich who described God as “the ground of being.”
God’s self-revelation to Moses… Barbara Brown Taylor’s attempt to describe God… Paul Tillich’s theological definition… all tell us the same thing: “God will be who God will be. Do not try to put God in a box.”
+ + +
One of the great issues in theology is theodicy – God’s justice. It raises the question of Why bad things happen to good people.
We profess belief in a God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and all-present. Yet, evil still exists. Illness still wracks human lives. Disasters strike various places. Humans are inhuman to others. On and on…
The questions of theodicy resist answers. Perhaps God is telling Moses – and us – that “I will be who I will be.”He will not be constrained. He will not be second-guessed. He will not be put in a box. He will not be limited by human definitions. He remains beyond our ability to understand fully.
That was the essential point being revealed to Moses. Yes, Moses was being called into a cauldron of trouble. Yes, the task would be daunting. Yes, the years ahead – wandering in the wilderness – would be difficult.
But remember this: “I am the one who calls into being… and I am calling you to rescue my people.”
+ + +
Think of the gospel lesson for a moment. The passage from Luke tells the story of a man who has a non-bearing fig tree. The landowner is frustrated after three years of the tree being barren. He tells his gardener to cut down the tree.
We might be tempted to do the same – or, figuratively, to give up on a person.
But, the gardener takes a different view. “Let’s give it another chance. Let me work with it. Let me tend it a bit. Then we will see what happens.”
I am convinced that is what God does with us. He gives us another chance. He tends us. He loves us. And he loves those that we might give up on.
Perhaps… just perhaps… God is being who God will be. And he is letting the world have a chance to work things out. Sure, that is hard for us. We would like for everything to be resolved right now. We would like for figs to be on the tree when we want them. We would like to understand.
But God stands astride history, time, creation, and all levels of being. Ultimately, he will be who he will be. And we rest, forever, in his hands.
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