Written into Life
Epiphany Last
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
In the Bible, most often we see God’s Word shared through patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or prophets like Elijah and Isaiah, or through the authors of the Psalms, Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. We note their authority in our service when we say, “The word of the Lord...Thanks be to God.” The witness is usually brought to us through divine inspiration: inspired human witness, inspired human writing, inspired choice of which writings to include, and inspired human translation.
Along with divine inspiration, we recognize its truth because it has also stood the test of time. God’s Word holds up. It applies today, to our own times and circumstances, thousands of years later, as it did for the writers in their own time.
But the way God spoke to Moses and Israel in this morning’s passage from Exodus is not that. Everything about this witness and the larger story from which we’ve nipped out these seven verses, is a whole other thing.
God is calling Moses up to the mountain. to the same holy ground where Moses first encountered God in the Burning Bush, the bush burning yet not consumed. No one else, not Joshua, not Moses’s brother Aaron, can go there. This isn’t merely a voice or a dream or even an angel. It is a place which, for a time, the veil between heaven and earth has been opened.
God is giving Moses the Law and the Commandments. He’s not going to dictate the Law to Moses, to have him write it down like a prophet. God is writing it down himself. But God himself hasn’t just written the Law. God himself has inscribed it, he has carved the Law into stone. Can we possibly conceive of any stronger emphasis?
There comes a cloud, which is the glory of God that at once shows the intimacy of God’s encounter with Moses and protects Moses from the fullness of God’s glory, which is like a devouring fire. It shows God’s presence to Israel below. And also preserves God’s mystery.
No way did Moses go up there and make this up himself.
God has Moses wait six days, which signals that they are on “in the beginning” of a new creation. Moses is with God for forty days and forty nights, which signals that God is rebooting his relationship with humanity with the flood, but using his Word to Israel as his witness to wash the past away rather than water. Everything about this is magnified and glorified far more intensely than any and every other witness to God in the Old Testament.
This is the key formational event for Israel. They become a people defined by their relationship with the one true God. That relationship will be manifest, for better or for worse, by their faithfulness in observing the Law, the letter and spirit of it. It will give them the framework to worship God, a moral foundation for living with each other and among the other peoples around them. And it will give them guidance for resolving disputes among them.
There was and will be nothing like it, until Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on another mountain. This mountain is likely Mount Tabor, which sits solitary in the midst of the Jezreel Valley, which connects the coastal plain with the Jordan River valley. It is in view of Mount Carmel, where Elijah defeated 400 prophets of Baal. It sits above the fields where God used Gideon and 300 warriors to defeat 10,000 Midianites. It sits across from Megiddo, the fortress city of Armageddon.
Jesus takes them up on the mountain after six days, signaling a new creation. Jesus radiates God’s glory, not as a reflection but from within. His face shone like the sun and he’s dazzlingly bright head to toe. Moses is there, representing the Law, and Elijah is there, representing all the prophets whom God sent to confront and call Israel and her leaders back to the spirit of the Law, back to God’s own heart.
Peter, impulsive Peter, wants to honor the three by building dwellings for each of them, perhaps to preserve the moment. He means well. But then comes the cloud, that at once brings intimacy with God to this moment and protects Peter, James and John from the fullness of his glory.
Then comes the voice of God. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Jesus supersedes the Law and the Prophets. He doesn’t contradict them, he fulfills and overwhelms them. We are no longer defined by our ability to follow the Law, rather we are defined by whose we are, the Body of Christ, and following him as best we can.
Peter, James and John are overwhelmed, too, as in dropping to the ground. And the very first thing Jesus says once all this has been revealed to his inner leadership team is, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Everything we do in worship on Sunday mornings reflects this drama and its place in our own lives. We enter into worship with prayers sung and said. We share and reflect on God’s written Word. We drop to our knees in prayer and confession.
Then we ascend the mountain. The ascent is primarily spiritual, but we do have steps up to the altar. We don’t use incense here to represent the cloud of God’s glory, or the Holy Spirit, out of concern for people’s sensitivity, but we could.
Then everyone is called up to encounter his radiant presence in the sacrament of his body and blood. Up you come, in turn, to affirm him, to commune with him, which is the ultimate communication of Christ directly to you.
When we are blessed to have folks who cannot ascend the steps safely, we get to enact more of his promise. Jesus comes to you, where you are and as you are. The symbolism of the steps is helpful, but nothing can separate you from Jesus. We also deliver Jesus to those who cannot get here physically.
As Peter wrote, “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19)
Embrace it. Absorb it. Never take it for granted. God gave everything for us in the radiance of his Son. He has superseded writing his word in stone by sharing it from his heart. He loves you so very, very much.
AMEN!