OCTOBER WHO ARE YOU?
Exodus 3: 1-6; 13-14
(If you can, you might like to read all of the first 14 verses of Exodus 3. And a caveat. Don’t think of the current secular state of Israel but, rather, go deeper to the reality of God calling a people, aeons ago – and calling us, to awaken to his presence, to be his beloved.).)
It was just another ordinary day for Moses. For forty years he had been a Prince in Egypt. For the next forty, having had to flee for his life from the wrath of Pharoah, he had been tending his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness near to the mountain of Sinai. Little did he know it, but the following forty years were to be the most significant of his life. When others at the age of eighty, would have been settling down into the comfort and relative ease of old age, he was setting out on an incredible adventure for which, unknown to him, he had been being prepared through all that had preceded this moment. He would be charged with leading the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, through forty years of wilderness wanderings, to a land that was to be their home. The journey itself was crucial. Not only were they, very stumblingly, often rebelliously, being moulded into an identifiable community, but also slowly becoming acquainted with a God who could never be fully known. This was Moses’ journey also. He would have heard of the God of his ancestors, but it would have been a knowing ‘about’ rather than a deep knowing. All of that was to change on this particular day when he led his flock deeper into the wilderness than ever before. Surrounded by a pregnant stillness, his attention was caught by a bush that appeared to be burning, so vibrant was its colour, and his curiosity led him to investigate. There followed what can only be called a sacrament of encounter, where God, on this holy ground, called Moses by name and commissioned him with a task whose ongoing outcome continues to change the course of history to this day and beyond.
Moses was disturbed, perplexed, confused, afraid. At the same time, his heart was on the very cusp of awakening to a Presence that to date was beyond his experience. It was something that his larger self, the unknown and mystery part within him, could not ignore. “Here I am”, he said. There follows a dialogue in which God told Moses what he was commissioning him to do. Naturally, Moses objected, feeling totally inadequate. “I don’t even know who you are”, he said. “What will I say to these people.” God replied, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
How well acquainted are we with ‘the God of our ancestors?’ We know about him and, perhaps, have journeyed quite a distance along the path of awakening to a deeper knowing him. But there’s always more. We may be at the point where we are in the upper age bracket, (don’t forget Moses was eighty when he had this encounter), and feel those days of faith exploring are over, that we ‘know’ all that is needed. We may be younger but, in this turbulent world, are a bit confused as to who this God really is and how is he manifesting himself in such uncertain and chaotic times as these. Sometimes, whatever stage we’re at, we, too, just like Moses, can cry out to God, “Who are you?” Whatever ‘wilderness’ we currently find ourselves in, individually or collectively, could it be that God is on the cusp of revealing himself – again – to us? It could happen on an ordinary day when, right in the middle of our humdrum yet necessary tasks, our attention is suddenly diverted and then arrested by something that we may have seen or heard a thousand times before but is, at this moment, different. It is as if there is some sort of communication directed towards us from our own ‘burning bush’. Whatever it may be, it is accompanied by a feeling of a third dimension, an unmistakeable sense of Presence. We are on the cusp of another awakening and for a moment we experience the ‘I Am–ness’ of God, the one whose heartbeat of love is at the centre of all that is – and is, incredibly, also intimately central to the depths of our being. And we ‘know’ him a little bit more.
But the thing about such a sacrament of encounter is, as it was for Moses, that God never ever reveals himself simply for ourselves alone (however special that is) but always that others may be blessed as well. As we are open to going deeper ‘into the wilderness’ of our collective and personal lives, be prepared for a few surprises and be reassured that the I AM is always with us.
Suggestions for Reflection:
Have you ever had a burning bush experience – an unmistakeable awakening?
Does the ‘something more’ of God resonate with you?
