| March 18, 2001 Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 + 1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 + Luke 13:1-9 |
| Lent’s third Sunday takes us to Exodus and Moses who ascends the mountain. It is long before he stands on the same mountain and enters into Covenant. This is the beginning of his great task. He has fled to the wilderness after killing, and there he meets God who has something for him to do We tell this story not as a sentimental exercise of nostalgia, but because remembering is a way of experiencing and so the memory can do for us what it did at first. It makes actual, it retains in time and space the mystery of God’s presence. |
| A bush bums. Moses could have looked at it thought, “Oh, that bush is burning.” and walked on by; but he didn’t. He stopped and he wondered, and by doing so, he came in contact with mysteiy Out of wonder and mystery springs all creative human experiences. art and science, philosophy and theology They find their beginnings in wonder and mystery “Why?” asks Moses, and in that “Why?” is life long relationship with God, his creator and redeemer begins. This mingled sense of wonder, reverence and awe is what distinguishes religion from morals, it is what distinguishes faith from momentary infatuation. |
| He stands in front of God, curious and cowed, drawn by the mystery and yet overwhelmed by how insignificant he is and unworthy of such an experience. In that moment of mystery, God speaks revealing how He is to be remembered. I AM, he says. I am creator, I am liberator, I am redeemer, I am Father. I am Brother, Sister, Spirit. I am Bread, I am Life, I am the Way, the Truth. I am Shepherd, I am Love, Lover and Lord, I Peace, I am Justice, I am Light and Life. I AM, He says, I am with you. This is the God who has called each of us into existence, and because God remembers who we are, we continue to exist. |
| These Lenten days are for remembering. They are for telling again the stories of this God, for remembering what God has done for us. They are days to stand before the mystery in awe and humility They are days for asking “Why?” and days to recognize our unworthiness. Moses leads again instead of 40 years, it is 40 days. For those who follow his lead, there is Passover and Promise, Freedom from slavery, and the life among the chosen. |