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Be careful of burning bushes
During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.
Day 8 :: Moses written by Marsha
The Burning Bush, Ratner Museum
It was later that I began to realize the significance of what happened there. When Moses asks the “force” in the burning bush to identify itself, the name that God gives to himself is “I am that I am.” Other ways of translating this might be, “I am the one who IS,” or “I am the one who is BEING ITSELF!” “I am EXISTENCE” or “I am REALITY.”
Note: The word “Yahweh” means “I AM.” The Hebrew letters that spell that word are YHWH or JHVH (Y=J, V=W in the Semitic alphabets). There are no vowels. The translators of the King James Version of the Bible added vowels to the Hebrew consonants and came up with JeHoVaH. More recent scholars have rendered the same consonants as YaHWeH. It’s the same word. And it always means “I AM.” Note: Orthodox Jews even today believe that this word Yahweh is so sacred that it is never to be spoken, so they always speak of God with euphemistic epithets: “Master of the Universe, “The LORD,” etc.)
Until that revelation, human beings thought that gods were big, powerful beings, related in some way to the people who worshiped them, related to the forces of nature. But they could be managed, placated, bargained with. They weren’t reality itself.
But a God who is not “A” being, but who IS BEING itself, EXISTENCE, itself – that’s a whole other matter. For one thing, if this God is himself the very ground of being, the very essence of what REALLY IS REAL, (or as later theologians put it, “the First Cause”) then God could not be one of a set. Instead there could only be ONE basis of reality. So we have here the first glimmer of monotheism. We have a God who is much too big, much too powerful, much too terrifying to be bargained with, to be manipulated or control. How do you control what is REALLY REAL?
And what happens next is what always happens when humans encounter GOD. God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to SET MY PEOPLE FREE!
Jesus, beginning his ministry, reads from Isaiah – “I am come to set the captives free.” When we encounter God the Son, consubstantial with the God the Father, we find that this One God, the Creator, the First Cause, the very Ground of Existence itself has chosen to create and sustain his creation out of motives of love. And that he calls us to participate with him in the process of creation by cultivating and building and developing what we had been given – and to share in the task of setting captives free.
So: be careful around those burning bushes. If you recognize the holy, if you take off your shoes, if you listen, you may hear a voice that tells you God’s name and your own. And you may find yourself sent out to set captives free – those captive parts of yourself awaiting salvation, those broken parts of the world that need to be mended and set free. You, like Moses, may have to speak truth to power and take the consequences.
LINKS TO MOSES RESOURCES:
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{ 5 comments }
i love this post!
i always try to be respectful of the sacred, but i’m certain i miss the sacred more often than not.
the jewish people certainly have a grasp on that holy of holies, though, don’t they? i actually almost converted to judaism in my thirties for that very reason, but jesus kept getting in the way.
I, for one, am grateful, Marla, that Jesus got in your way!
So: be careful around those burning bushes. If you recognize the holy, if you take off your shoes, if you listen, you may hear a voice that tells you God’s name and your own. And you may find yourself sent out to set captives free – those captive parts of yourself awaiting salvation, those broken parts of the world that need to be mended and set free. You, like Moses, may have to speak truth to power and take the consequences.
SJ – Why should people be careful? If they are truly living Jesus’ command to love one another then they would welcome the chance to set the captives free and mend what needs mending. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers”, “Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, set the prisoners free” If more people spoke the truth of love and light to power and put those words into action in their daily lives the world would indeed be Holy Ground. I for one seek that burning bush and rise to the daily challenge to speak truth to power. I also teach my students to do the same. We will change the world, one loving, courageous heart at a time. Mireille
I love the connection between encounter and sending. It’s been a theme in my homily on occasion in the past months. To encounter Jesus, to become Jesus, to take up his mission, “I’ve come to set captives free to announce glad tidings!”
Hey, beloved Godson Fr. David Jaspers! Thanks for your comment on my blog! You ought to come visit us more often!
~~marsha