SCRIPTURE: Exodus 33:12-23
TEXT:19b ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. THEME: Knowing God INTRODUCTION God passionately loves the Israelites, but that makes their offense, fashioning a metal idol to worship, all the more hurtful. God’s passionate love fuels a passionate rage. If not for Moses, who was the non-anxious presence, who spoke to God, we would have a very different story, with Moses as our forefather in faith (Exodus 32:10). Using his prefrontal cortex, Moses calms down the omnipotent’s anxious presence, and amygdala’s response of wrath. Moses is logical, reminding God of their past, the promises and considers a different course of action, more aligned with God’s loving passion for the Israelites. Calmer minds come up with a reconciliation plan instead of destruction. This passage of the negotiations for reconciliation reveals more of the character of God and further develops the relationship between God and Israel. SCRIPTURE Moses has become quite the negotiator. First with Pharaoh and now with God. After the ‘Holy Cow’ incident, God wants to be distant from the Israelites and was planning to send them out on their journey to the Promised Land with an angel instead of God’s self. What???! That is Moses’ first tick point,” Hey God, if I have found favor with you, God you gotta come with us! Show to all, that we have favor with you and your presence is with us.” God says, “Okay”. The second tick point is for God to acknowledge the Israelites as God’s people. To make them distinctive from all of the nations of the world. That through the Israelites, all can come to know what it means, to be loved by God. God is okay with that too. Then Moses has a couple of tick points for himself. He wants to know God’s name and to see God’s glory. God’s character cannot be contained by a single name. God is vague in answering Moses, wanting to be addressed as “Lord”, and then God gives a description of what God does, rather than a name; gracious to whom I will be gracious to and mercy on whom I will show mercy. We don’t have to call on God by name, just call upon God’s grace and mercy to help us. God will not show God’s face to Moses, but compromises with an opportunity to get a glimpse of God’s glory, walking away. Accommodations were made for Moses’ life to be preserved as a witness to this stunt. When we negotiate with God, we get to know God by the answers we receive or don’t get. We sharpen our understanding of the will of God with what God is willing to do or why God will not do as we ask. This is part of our discovery of God, by being in relationship with God. More than the God and mortal relationship, and more like Parent and child. God makes accommodations for our idiosyncrasies, our vulnerabilities, and our curiosities as we journey with God. I just completed this class on Christian Education from Pacific School of Religion’s CTEL program. The instructor Michael Campos spoke about how our relationship with God spirals, upward with our experiences of God, our analysis of what has happened with God, our learning from those experiences that shape our lives with new behaviors and new actions and repeating the cycle again with more new experiences with God. Through this cycle we continue to refine our understanding of God’s face, seeing and experiencing more of God’s grace and mercy. APPLICATION God reveals a passionate love for the Israelites, but when God seemed distant, they revert to their old ways and offend God. God’s passionate love burns with wrath that is redirected to rebuild their relationship. God wants to be called ‘grace and mercy’ to do the work of reconciliation with us. How does God’s reconciling grace and mercy change our living and shape our community? God’s passionate love for the Israelites defeats Pharaoh and his army as they escape Egypt and flee into the desert. God’s passionate love for the Israelites provides food, water, shade and warmth for them as they travel through the wilderness. God’s passionate love for them is laid out in healthy boundaries, of a common understanding of respect, honor, freedom and care. God’s passionate love for the Israelites burns with anger because of their betrayal and hurtful apostasy. But after the initial hurt, God’s passionate love for the Israelites moves towards grace and mercy. That through this passionate relationship with the Israelites, there will be forgiveness, reconciliation and grace to cover their flaws and gives to them what they do not deserve, peace with God. God offers them mercy and love, over and over again, because there is an innate enjoyment in their relationship together, so much so, that when invited, God jumps at the chance to travel with them. They are distinctive in all the world because they know and live with God, who is passionately in love with them. Our lives as a community of God must display welcome, grace and mercy more than the rules and laws of being with God. God’s mercy and grace is more powerful than our ability to obey the rules, and will work to reconcile with us, each time we move beyond the boundaries of our relationship with God. This pattern of betrayal and reconciliation with grace and mercy will get repeated, over and over again, because of God’s love. Reconciliation is better than estrangement. Being passionately in love, God will risk being hurt, over not having love. Grace and mercy, also moves us into deeper cycles of intimacy, of knowing and relationship with God. We live with a profound confidence, based in the hope of a Godly grace and mercy for us. God will always seek to reconcile with us no matter what we have done. In God we have a freedom from the guilt of betrayal, a liberation from bondage, an acceptance as family and are heirs to what only mercy can provide. We can live humbly, we don’t have to make amends with God, but for the relationships that we have hurt along the way, we have the work of trust building and healing to do. Our work of grace and mercy must also extend towards those who have hurt us. Our lives with God Spiral upward. CONCLUSION I want to see God’s face. I want Jesus to appear before me, so I can believe with certainty, but that has never happened. I have seen grace given to me that has made me feel humbled. I have seen mercy extended to me in ways that I didn’t deserve. I have watched numerous sun sets, and peered into the Grand Canyon and got a view of space that only NASA could provide of what God has created. Being able to see God’s face is not as important, because the view from the back is pretty substantial. Just that little bit, reveals a Passionate love for us, reflected in God’s relationship with the Israelites, that is full of grace and mercy. You still want to see the face of Glory? This time you don’t have to be cleft in a rock and have the hand shield you as God passes by, God comes to us in flesh and blood. ♫ Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his Glory and grace. ♫ CH340
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