Exodus 24:12-18
Last Sunday before Lent [Transfiguration Sunday] - Year A
We have so bought into the imagery of things being carved in stone, good for eternity, not transfigurable, no matter what else might change, including changes with the carver, that we don’t know how to keep that picture in tension with the experience of a devouring fire that could even dissolve stone tablets.
It turns out that much of the injury of the church (both to itself and others) has to do with this business of stone and fire. One set of folks is sure it is one while others are sure it is the opposite. To be caught between the devil and the deep-blue sea or a rock and a hard-place is kid’s play in comparison to finding oneself between stone and fire. Being in the presence of the symbols of the law and the prophets (Moses and Elijah) requires a transformation, a transfiguration, that life between these polarities might remain steadfast in the presence of faithlessness—that of calf-dancing or inept healing or whatever you are having to deal with. Blessings upon us as we deal with the building of new land from lava, burning stone.
So, for what purpose are the tablets of stone given to Moses? It is to build community. How might one tell a community has been built? Might it be the personal sense of belovedness experienced by each member of the community and a shared sense of compassion for one another? Between these two commandments—an experience of being loved/loving and mutual encounters with compassion—will lie the whole of the law and the prophets. Without them stricter and stricter laws will come. Eventually the goal is to live out of assurance and compassion.
As might be expected, it takes time for a community to become clear about its internal workings and external relationships. For Moses it was a 40-day slow-grinding-of-the-gods to come down a mountain and go to work engaging issues of assurance and compassion.
Other tales say it took a second try because the task looked so large while viewing life through the lens of a golden calf. But, first try, second try, or fortieth try, we look beyond a need for stricter laws to the over-riding issues of personal assurance and communal compassion. Look again, there is no law against these. Let’s nurture them.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
I expect that Moses had some sense of the communication media of his day and if he heard there were going to be tablets (plural) of stone regarding laws and commandments he might wonder about his physical strength to bring them back. Did brawny Joshua go along for toting purposes since Aaron and Hur were tuckered out from earlier holding up Moses' arms? Elsewhere it is recorded that there were two stone tablets. That might just be manageable. But do you see the rules and regulations of chapters 25-31. Were these just verbal commands not related to the two stone tablets of testimony, covenant, witness mentioned at the end of chapter 31? If they are part of the deal then, if Moses was to carry them, the writing was mighty small leaving folks to argue over whether that squiggle was of the writing or a crack in the stone and so one way it means one thing and the other, another. Or, the tablets were not the swallowable kind, but a huge, immovable tableau.
We have so bought into the imagery of things being carved in stone, good for eternity no matter what else might change, including changes with the carver, that we don't know how to keep that picture in tension with the experience of a devouring fire that could even dissolve stone tablets.
It turns out that much of the injury of the church (both to itself and others) has to do with this business of stone and fire. One set of folks is sure it is one and others sure it is the other. To be caught between the devil and the deep-blue sea or a rock and a hard-place is kid's play in comparison to finding oneself between stone and fire. This being in the presence of the symbols of the law and the prophets (Moses and Elijah) requires a transformation, a transfiguration, that life between these polarities might remain steadfast in the presence of faithlessness -- that of calf-dancing or inept healing or whatever you are having to deal with. Blessings upon us as we deal with the building of new land from lava, burning stone.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html
These passage can be played against what, in another year, would have been the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany:
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
A focus on Moses' appearance in Exodus is brought back to the content of Moses' encounter (Leviticus) on the mountain - Here's how to be holy, rather than here's what holy looks like.
Psalms 2 and 99 are again outwardly focused on causing trembling, if not blindness, in others. Psalm 119 here brings the issue to one's internal decision to act on one's understanding, rather than on naming another's source of vain plotting.
Peter has a leg up on prophetic messages. His experience trumps any other experience. Paul builds on a firm foundation in his fashion and others are encouraged to build according to their gifts. Is the faith hierarchical or communal? What is the place of the one with a spiritual gift of questioning or a baby in the faith or one in the midst of transition in their faith - subservient or welcomed?
The conversation Jesus has with Moses and Elijah (Mt 17) might be overheard with Jesus' comments about, "You have said, but I say" (Mt 5). This moment of shift is transformative in a person's life as they move to a next stage - transfiguring, even. When the new perspective comes, it becomes difficult to return to the prior picture with equanimity. A culture shift has occurred and this is a time of danger for the new vision. Fortunately transformative moments are ultimately irradicable and are confirmed in later resurrections into a new community.
- - - - - - -
buildings can break new ground
built on a new vision
they rise in new shapes
reflecting a new daybuildings can trap new ground
repeating an old vision
ticky-tacky on a hillside
restraining a new dayirrepressible Peter
reflecting restraining
needing yet a clear voice
assuring belovednessfrom fearful restraint
comes a word to get up
to move beyond reflection
to practical healingpractice loving enemies
here lies new community
resist eye gouging
there lies old feuds
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
As Moses, following G*D's invitation, ascends a mountain, the number of folks with him dwindle. Finally it is Moses and Joshua (aide/assistant/minister) who are left. Before spending a moment with Moses entering a cloud of unknowing in order to further ascend the mountain, there is the business of the usefulness of "disciple" language in today's world.
Try on these descriptors:
I am Jesus' disciple.
I am a disciple of Jesus.
Which of those is the stronger for you? Which is clearer for those you meet?
I am Jesus' assistant.
I am Jesus' aide.
I am Jesus' minister.
I am Jesus' partner.
How do these descriptions change your involvement with the various aspects of your life?
It may be time to reclaim Joshua's relationship to Moses as we encourage and support one another to enter G*D, a cloud.
How might Jesus' Transfiguration scene be different if Peter, et. al., were there as assistants to Jesus, not disciples? How might your own on-going transfigurations be different if you claimed to be a partner with Jesus, not a disciple, where you mutually encouraged and supported one another to enter deeper into G*D?
The deal here is not to focus on the results of tablets, which will vary in syntax according to the context being addressed, but on the journey – entering the cloud, entering G*D.
While we can track time before an encounter with Divine, six days and seven, entering a Cloud G*D shifts our perception to the immeasurable, forty days times forty nights. This can be a scary shift so we need all the encouragement and support assistants, aides, ministers, and partners can give; so we need to give all the encouragement and support we can to others.
Make the most of these days of preparation. Help and be helped to be ready for the invitation to enter a cloud that will call out, "Beloved!", and, in a moment, create another Big Bang, another Transfiguration – you – set loose in the world.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html
For what purpose are the tablets of stone to be given to Moses? It is to build community. How might one tell a community has been built? Might it be by the personal sense of belovedness by each member of the community and a shared sense of compassion for one another. Between these two commandments - an experience of being loved and mutual encounters with compassion - will lie the whole of the law and the prophets. Without them stricter and stricter laws will come. Eventually the goal is to live out of assurance and compassion.
As might be expected, it takes awhile for a community to come clear about its internal workings and external relationships. For Moses it was a 40-day slow grinding of the gods to come down a mountain and go to work engaging issues of assurance and compassion.
Other tales have it that it took a second try because the task looked so large while viewing life through the lens of a golden calf. But, first try, second try, or fortieth try, we look beyond the need for a new vision of community and stricter laws to the over-riding issues of personal assurance and communal compassion. Look again, there is no law against these. Let's nurture them.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/03/isaiah-2412-18.html
This is a cloudy passage.
1) Moses ascends mountain and cloud covers mountain for six days
2) G*D speaks to Moses from cloud on the seventh day
3) Moses entered cloud and ascends mountain
4) Moses was on Cloud Mountain for forty days
Here we have a mysterium tremendum et fascinosum all jumbled together. A cloudy ascension occurs both before and after a “Seventh” day and is included in some “Forty” day package. Mythic stuff, through and through.
Having a cloudy life might be one way we describe a dark portion of our time; a dark night of the soul, so to speak.
This very same cloudiness is also a locus for insight, direction-setting, and vision-questing.
Trying to put all this into words fails us, time after time.
Immediately after this numinous affair we have the building of a portable Cloudy Mountain. Sometimes this Ark of Covenant is understood as Jesus, a new Law-Maker. On a Mount of Transfiguration folks make much of a Jesus shining rather than the cloud speaking. Working in images is always interesting. Do you try to hold Moses and Jesus together or not? If so, why? If not, what do you do with the six days and seven, the mountain and cloud, the law and prophets?