And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt.” +Moses was afraid to look at God. But God is never afraid to see the people.
Have you ever seen something that was just too much. Something that was just too powerful. Either too terrible or too beautiful or too something that you had to turn away. Something that was just too much.
Whatever it is, we’ve all had it. And we turn away before we even think of it – like shielding our face from bright sunlight when we’re coming out of a movie theater. Or how about accidentally walking in on someone getting undressed? Whoa! Our heads turn away and that hand shields our eyes before we can even think about it.
Or maybe not … I don’t know.
That’s what happens to Moses in the desert this morning. And who can blame him? He’s tending his father-in-law’s flock. That’s a solitary task. And he’s not even in the wilderness … he’s beyond the wilderness … he is really far out there, far, far away from everyone.
…But not from God.
Because suddenly, God is there. A voice calling “Moses! Moses!” telling him to take his shoes off. A burning bush that keeps on burning, never consumed. And just in case there was any doubt, the voice saying
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
And instinctively, Moses says “Whoa!” His head turns away and his hand shields his eyes.
God – Whoa! Can’t look at that! Too powerful. Too terrible. Too wonderful. Too something.
Moses was afraid to look at God.
And then God speaks again. And as Moses turns his head and shields his eyes from God, God lets Moses know that God is not doing the same thing. The very next words from God are these:
“I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt.”
God says “I have seen the misery of my people.”
“I see you.” God says.
Moses was afraid to look at God. But God is never afraid to see the people.
When we dive into the Hebrew a little bit, this contrast is even more incredible.
Moses was afraid to even “look at” God – that’s the Hebrew mê·hab·bîṭ, which literally means “to look at.” Like looking at my hand. Or looking at one of these banners.
But God goes even further. God says I’ll see your fear of me-hab-bit and I’ll raise you raah. I have seen the misery of my people. The same verb that Jacob uses after a night of wrestling with the angel when he says I will call this place Peniel because I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved. The kind of seeing that comes from wrestling with someone all the way through the long, long night. Knowing every inch of the other’s body, all of their tendencies. Knowing their mind. Knowing their heart.
God doesn’t just look at God’s people. God sees them. Raah. God sees us. Raah. Face to face. Just as the verb yada connotes intimate knowledge when God says a second later “Indeed I know their sufferings,” here God is saying I have not just glanced down at my people, checking to make sure they are still there. I have seen them. Fully. Completely.
I have looked deeply into their eyes even as they are shielding those eyes from me.
Moses was afraid to look at God. But God is never afraid to see the people.
I want you to turn to someone next to you or near you. Find a partner. Everyone.
Anyone not have a partner? Raise your hand.
Now, get close enough to that person so you are less than a foot or two away.
Now I invite you to look into each other’s eyes, and hold that gaze.
(Wait 5 seconds).
See each other.
Know that behind those eyes is a life of victory and tragedy. Of love and pain.
Know that those eyes have shed bitter tears and danced with incredible joy.
Know that those eyes have seen beauty and horror.
Know that behind those eyes are a million memories of battles fought, love shared and loneliness endured. Of hopes realized and dreams shattered and rules mischievously broken.
Know that those eyes are a window to a life that is full of fragility and power, pride and shame, certainty and doubt.
Just. Like. You.
OK. You can look away – if you haven’t already.
Let’s just sit for a moment. Sit and consider that experience.
Was it easy or hard?
Was it welcome or intrusive?
Was it beautiful or terrifying? Or was it beautiful and terrifying?
Did it seem to last forever or was it over much too soon?
Whether it was all of these things or none of these things I guarantee you one thing it was not and that is meaningless. When we see each other deeply, when we dive into each other’s eyes and search to see the life behind them, and when someone does the same to us it is powerful. It is holy.
I wonder if why God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground is not because God was on that ground but because Moses was on that ground. That even out beyond the wilderness, even so isolated and alone that Moses was days away from another human soul, God saw Moses, saw behind his eyes, saw into his heart, saw the beauty and complexity and ardor of Moses’ life journey and knew that the ground Moses was standing on was holy not just because God had shown up in a burning bush but because God’s child Moses was walking on it – and there is no holier ground in all the cosmos than our lives.
We have just felt that. Or at least I hope you did. I hope as you gazed into another’s eyes and had them gaze into yours through the discomfort and through the uneasiness and through the fear and the vulnerability you got at least a glimpse of the holy. I hope maybe you got at least a little taste of an urge to take your shoes off because you felt that holiness that is the life each of us have lived and are living even to this day.
This morning we hear the story of the beginning of the liberation of God’s people from slavery, and it begins with this truth:
Moses was afraid to look at God. But God is never afraid to see the people.
So three things to take away from this for our life together and our life out there.
First, to know that God sees you.
God sees YOU. Yes, you. Even when you are beyond the wilderness. Even when you feel that nobody cares. Nobody knows. Nobody sees.
God does.
God sees you face to face. God sees the beauty and complexity and joy and horror. God sees all of you – even the parts that you hide from yourself.
And God calls it holy.
And God takes off her sandals when she sees you because your life, your body, your soul, is holy ground.
God is never afraid to see the people.
God lives to see the people.
God sees and loves – you.
Second, to know that the knowledge that God sees us and loves us is the beginning of liberation.
Knowing that God sees us and loves us and takes her shoes off in our presence and calls us holy because how could we not be after all we are made in God’s image … knowing all this is the beginning of not only our liberation but the liberation of all of God’s people who are in slavery of every kind.
Because the holy is never meant to be in bondage. The holy is never meant to be oppressed. The holy is never meant to be treated with anything less than untied sandals, profound dignity and deep, deep love. And where the holy that is every human being created in the image of God is treated with anything less than that dignity and love, God knows that liberation is the only course of action. And God will not rest until it happens. God will not rest not only until you are free from what binds you but until all of God’s holy children are free from what binds them as well.
Finally, as God sees us, and loves us, God also calls each of us by name:
“Moses! Moses!”
“Ed! Ed!”
“LaToni! LaToni!”
“Myrna! Myrna!”
And even as we shield our eyes and turn away because God is so amazing and we can’t possibly believe this love and this light and this voice could be for us. Even as we shield our eyes and turn away, God is calling us to see one another as God sees us. To seek out the holy. To seek out the beauty. To not turn away from the tragedy and the pain and the suffering but to see it even more clearly, more deeply, more truly.
And when people try to gaze into our eyes, to seek out our holiness and beauty … to see the tragedy and pain and suffering in our lives, God asks us not to turn away then, either. To dare to be vulnerable. To let the other in. To trust that being seen is not the path to destruction but the road to liberation.
God is calling us to gaze deeply into each other’s eyes. To take our shoes off on the holy ground of each other’s lives. To see where each of us is in bondage and to reach out a hand and say follow me to freedom. Let me help you. We’re gonna get there together.
Moses was afraid to look at God. But God is never afraid to see the people.
Beloved people of God, God sees you and that is nothing to fear. God sees you and knows your heart, and God has taken her sandals off and called the ground of your life holy.
Believe it.
Trust it.
Rejoice in it.
Go and do likewise.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment