Exodus 3:1-15
16th Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 17 (22)] – Year A
Pharaoh’s daughter was surprised in the midst of her daily life to find a baby floating toward her. Moses was surprised in the midst of his daily routine to find an unconsumed burning bush before him.
Any division between sacred and secular, holy and profane, or any other duality we might mention fades in the face of a mystery beyond all the sacred and secular, holy and profane distinctions we so easily draw or glibly pronounce.
Lived experience leads “holiness” in strange directions. Pharaoh’s daughter adopts a male Israelite her father has condemned to death before the little guy was born. Moses returns to face down the ruler who had condemned him and a whole people. He returns to bring those people out of slavery, to be “somebodies”.
In the midst of the daily we, ourselves, have been called to do what is right even in the face of power to the contrary. We, too, have wondered whether we could do what needs doing. We, too, have sometimes needed a sense of authority larger than ourselves (although, note that Pharaoh’s daughter didn’t have the same recorded reservation that Moses did).
Sensing that most of us are more in the situation of Moses, unprivileged or even less than that, we do look for a talisman to carry with us into the difficulties ahead. What we know about such is that if it is too specific it won’t hold up in changing circumstances and if it is too general it will float away before gaining traction. And so we hear the specifics of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the much broader I-AM-WHO-I-AM (in all its various tenses). Moses holds together these two gifts, the specific and the general.
May you hold your contradictory gifts together that you might further the models Pharaoh’s daughter and Moses offer you of doing the right thing to honor life—the life of a condemned child and the lives of enslaved relatives. Those same gifts are needed in today’s world. Of particular need is a move toward an integral worldview, where our current world-centric pluralism and relativism (seemingly too accepting and unwilling to stand against wrong) are transcended and included into a critically evaluated, more systematic, whole.
- - -
[collected from written background material of www.bodymindspiritworks.com and www.IntegralLife.com]
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
The world of Moses: Inexplicably not drowned because of the open heart of the rule-breaking daughter of the rule-maker; adopted alien; murderer; refugee; vision-of-G*D encounterer; excuse-maker to avoid said vision; knower of G*D's identity [I-AM-WHO-I-AM (and its several variations into past and future)].
This process could have been stopped at any number of points along the way. A less sly family, a hard-hearted king's daughter, palace intrigue, not empathizing with his roots, killing his own to cover up another murder so he could keep his perks, standing his ground and taking his punishment, giving up on justice and not rescuing the shepherdesses, been even more Gershom-like (an alien sojourner) and wandered further, lost his curiosity, insisted that future confirmation is no present proof.
As it is we get a murdering escapee who questions G*D. This is the one to lead us into a great story of freedom? OK, then what is to get in the way of your furthering that great story of freedom?
Whatever your, "Why me?" there is no reason given. It is to be enough that G*D will be present with you.
So, is that enough for you? If it is, there is great openness for your life and promise of great openness for the rest of us. Know G*D with you and the tentativeness of your past no longer determines your worth. Know G*D with you and you are free to aid others to freedom.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html
Moses has strange things to tell folks from his outsider position of being both the princess's boy and a self-exiled murderer. Jeremiah has strange things to tell folks from his insider position that is being spun against by loyalist prophets.
Which strange message would you prefer to be offering in today's world?
Our understanding of the situation we are in will determine whether we play or avoid playing Moses or Jeremiah. Are you called to work from the inside or the outside? It is important to identify this so you can come to terms with your disappointments and options when your message isn't heard. In such cases it is not enough to simply switch sides and think you can do any more from the other position. If called to work inside, work inside; if called from the outside, work outside.
Most likely, which ever way you come to the issues of the day, you won't be heard (Jonah seems to be an exception and remember how disappointed he was to be heard -- as much as Moses and Jeremiah and you for not being heard). So come to grips with that and do what you do do well. It would be helpful to work in concert with other insiders or outsiders. They can help with your spiritual health issues in a world that acts as though physical health trumps everything else.
Travel the I-AM-way and persistently sell an expansive love in the face of every argument to the contrary.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/august2005.html
Questions can be stronger than answers. Moses turns aside toward a burning bush to ask, "Why?"
Only after this question is asked does G*D move in.
A question about who is speaking might be asked of Exodus 3:9. Does the cry of the Israelites "now" come to G*D or is this an affirmation of Moses, confirming G*D's observation of the Israelite's misery?
Even as Moses asked, "Who am I that I should go on this journey to Pharaoh's?" so does Peter deepen that with a question of Jesus, "Who are you that you should go to Pilate's?" The sign of the appropriateness of entering the halls of power will come later - Sinai and Resurrection.
Are you willing to wait confirmation, of that where you sense you should be going, until after you have gone? If so, enjoy your journey. If not, don't go.
- - - - - - -
let love be genuine
live toward a better tomorrow
do no harm
live toward a better tomorrow
hold fast to good
live toward a better tomorrowone love added to another
leads to mutual affection
one honoring of another
adds up to more
an ardent spirit
lives toward a better tomorrowrejoice in hope
tomorrow has begun
be patient
tomorrow has begun
persevere in prayer
tomorrow has begunextend hospitality
live tomorrow today
bless rather than curse
live tomorrow today
live in harmony
today of all days
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Pharaoh's daughter was surprised in the midst of her daily ritual to find a baby floating toward her. Moses was surprised in the midst of his daily ritual to find an unconsumed burning bush before him.
In the midst of daily rituals, holiness can still be experienced. The division between sacred and secular, holy and profane, or any other duality we might mention fades in the face of a mystery beyond all the differences we so glibly pronounce. This holiness leads us in strange directions. Pharaoh's daughter adopts a male Israelite her father has condemned to death before the little guy was born. Moses returns to face down the ruler who had condemned him and a whole people, to bring those people out of slavery, to be "somebody's".
In the midst of daily rituals we ourselves have been called to do what is right even in the face of power to the contrary. We, too, have wondered whether we could do what needs doing. We, too, have sometimes needed a sense of authority larger than ourselves (although, note that Pharaoh's daughter didn't have the same recorded reservation that Moses did).
Sensing that most of us are more in the situation of Moses, unprivileged, or even less than that, we do look for a talisman to carry with us into the difficulties ahead. What we know about such is that if it is too specific it won't hold up in changing circumstances and if it is too general it will float away before gaining traction. And so we hear the specifics of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the much broader I-AM-WHO-I-AM (in all its various tenses). Moses holds together these two gifts, the specific and the general.
May you hold your contradictory gifts together that you might further the models Pharaoh's daughter and Moses offer you of doing the right thing to honor life – the life of a condemned child and the lives of enslaved relatives. Those same gifts are needed in today's world. Of particular need is a move toward an integral worldview, where our current world-centric pluralism and relativism (seemingly too accepting and unwilling to stand against wrong) are transcended and included into a critically evaluated, more systematic, whole [collected from written background material of bodymindspiritworks and Integral Life ].
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
We forget that Moses was a lay person. It was his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest. Moses knew enough to follow his curiosity rather than box it in to follow a ritual or doctrine that would discount such mystery as a bush that burned without being consumed or one hand clapping.
Even here, mystery is both something to honor, don’t come any further, and experience, take off your sandals and wiggle your toes in it.
What is mysterious is how miserable people are for no good reason. Suffering because others have power is not acceptable. Deliverance is findable in the midst of folks who will no longer be silent or fear only for themselves.
Deliverance is always quite personal and risky. It is a mystery why such as Moses or you or I finally respond to the need to stand up to power, no matter what the cost. There is no explaining it, only a thankfulness when done.
It is no mystery that we would try to wriggle out from the need to decide to follow where mystery leads. One of our wriggles is to get things defined sufficiently to reduce the risk. However, mystery won’t settle for our wriggling thus. A mystery based on inclusion and communal action rather than representative, personal power, never settles for denotations, but revels in connotations - who am I? I am who I was when I’m not who I am or will be. Go ahead, give in now before your head spins off.
Who will be a next Moses? No telling. All we know is that it won’t be a priest.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/08/exodus-31-15.html
Moses was good at noticing what was going on around him. He saw abuse and tried to put an end to it (he just chose the wrong vehicle—vigilantism won’t do what community reorganizing can do). He saw a bush.
If we connect the bush with Pentecost through flames of fire that did not consume those evidencing them, we can ask about the going into the streets to speak different languages, engage different experiences. The same is going on here with Moses being pushed out of his locked expectation about his own call and gift. A wonder is to be told. (In fact a wonder is still expected to be told by you and me and all of us together.)
Things are always more complicated than they seem. Does Moses’ response of “Here I am” trigger YHWH’s playful name of presence?
One of the more creative lookings at this passage is by Rabbis Arthur Ocean Waskow and Phyllis Ocean Berman. May it free you to look again. When Moses Burned Inside the Burning Bush
It is always good to listen in to poets talking about their choices. Here is what Everett Fox has to say about his translation of verse 14 in The Five Books of Moses
God said to Moshe:
EHYEH ASHER EHYEH/I will be-there howsoever I will be-there.
And he said: Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel:
EHYEH/I-WILL-BE-THERE sends me to you.“God’s answer is one of the most enigmatic and widely debated statements in the Hebrew Bible.... What does ehyeh asher ehyeh mean? One’s suspicions are aroused from the outset, for the answer is alliterative and hence already not easy to pin down; the poetics of the phrase indicate both importance and vagueness or mystery. There is some scholarly consensus that the name may mean “He who causes (things) to be” or perhaps “He who is.” Buber and Rosenzweig, taking entirely different tack (of which one occasionally finds echoes in the scholarly literature), interpret the verb hayoh as signifying presence, “being-there,” and hence see God’s words as a real answer to the Israelites’ imagined question—an assurance of his presence. The B-R interpretation has been retained here, out of a desire to follow them on at least this significant point of theology, and out of my feeling that it also fits the smaller context. For of the several times that Moshe tries to wriggle out of his mission, God answers him all but once with the same verb, in the same meaning: “I will be-there with you” (note the parallel between Moshe and the people again).
As you proceed to wrestle with the scriptures, don’t forget to look at things in the small picture of your experience and that of your Neighb*r as well as some imagined big picture of G*D and eternity.