Who Can See God s Face and Live? Pastor Andy CastroLang October 7, 2018 Scripture (ERV): Exodus 3:1-6 Moses father-in-law was named Jethro. Jethro was a priest of Midian. Moses took care of Jethro s sheep. One day Moses led the sheep to the west side of the desert. He went to a mountain called Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 On that mountain, Moses saw the angel of the Lord in a burning bush. Moses saw a bush that was burning without being destroyed. 3 So he decided to go closer to the bush and see how a bush could continue burning without being burned up. 4 The Lord saw Moses was coming to look at the bush. So he called to him from the bush. He said, Moses, Moses! Moses said, Yes, Lord. 5 Then God said, Don t come any closer. Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground. 6 I am the God of your ancestors. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Exodus 33:17-23 Moses at the tent outside the camp 17 Then the LORD said to Moses, I will do what you ask. I will do this because I am pleased with you and because I know you very well. 18 Then Moses said, Now, please show me your Glory. 19 Then the Lord answered, I will show my love and mercy to anyone I want to. So I will cause my perfect goodness to pass by in front of you, and I will speak my name, YAHWEH, so that you can hear it. 20 But you cannot see my face. No one can see me and continue to live.
21 Then the Lord said, Here is a place for you to stand by me on this large rock. 22 I will put you in a large crack in that rock. Then I will cover you with my hand, and my Glory will pass by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back. But you will not see my face. Exodus 34:29-30 The Shining Face of Moses 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he carried the two stone tablets of the covenant agreement. Because he had talked with the Lord, his face was shining, but he did not know it. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw that Moses face was shining bright. So they were afraid to go near him. Sermon: Moses hides his face in fear at the first meeting of God in the midst of the burning bush that is not consumed. Then, Yahweh says to Moses in Exodus 33:17 at a much later meeting, I am pleased with you, I will allow you to see my back, but not my face. No one shall see my face. Yahweh also says, I know you very well. Another way to translate this, is to say, I know your face. But Yahweh s face, Moses will not know. Finally, in Exodus 34:29, Moses returns from 40 days on Mt. Sinai, living in the presence of God, and yes, in the presence of God s face. His face is transformed. He is too bright to look at and he must veil his brightness. Now, we also have the psalmist calling out with the desire to behold God face to face, longing to be intimately close, held in a tender embrace that presumes seeing one another, close up, as lovers gaze at one another. Memorizing one another with our eyes. As a mother gazes at her baby. The psalmist also declares that we are meant for this closeness because God has made us this way made us for love. Page 2 of 5
Now, the testimony of Scripture, and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, who is my Christ, teach me that we are made for this. That we are hungry for this. That this, the look of love, staring into our beloved s face this is what we are meant to be about. Paul wrote soaringly of God s love, in I Corinthians 13. And yet he also said that now we see as in a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face. Now I know partially, then I shall be known in full. Teresa of Avila likened the experience of closeness to God as the wild and delicious intimacy of the wedding night. The Roman Catholic church calls this bridal mysticism a polite name for a profound encounter! St. John of the Cross, who always was the bride to the encounter with God as the bridegroom, considered the darkness of deep night as the place to be lost in the beauty of God s presence. Hildegard von Bingen, a German mystic, was profoundly aware that God breathed in every green and growing thing, and in every bodily part, and in all creation; every mountain, every water, cloud, dust mote, or insect. Meister Eckhart, another German mystic, (1260) felt sure that the best way to see God s face was to admit that one could never see it completely because of the clutter of mind. That to see God, you must get rid of God in your head and be nakedly open to mystery, to being utterly confounded, your mind silenced, your senses still. Who would want any of this?! Clearly, there are many who seek nothing of this kind, and want only to live a life, then die and call it an end. There are those who would say that seeking such an illuminating, such an awe-filling experience of God might indeed be like death. But we are not to fear death, and I believe, we are not to fear the face of God. Both these realities will change us forever, but that change might be the greatest experience of all. For some of us, there is the lure of something more. We can t let go of the pull that says there is more more brightness, more luminous darkness. More possibility of being wrapped in love so great that we feel nothing but bliss, peace, joy. Page 3 of 5
There is more of shining brilliance, just on the edge of our seeing. There is more of an eternal brightness so great that St. John of the Cross calls it immutable darkness. I cannot help but be drawn to the little sentence in Exodus 33, when Yahweh says, I know you very well. I know your face. This this every spiritual tradition, every mystical path every ecstatic poem or song this is what the child inside wants to hear. This is what the soul sings. This is what the body yearns for. To be known. To be seen. To be held. To be reassured. To be at peace. To be beyond the reach of fear, and despair. Beyond our current sense of profound betrayal. So many of us feel it so deeply right now. There is a seemingly black and bottomless well of female rage and pain right now. And fear. What will happen to us, and to our daughters? What will happen to this experiment, the republic of the United States of America? What will happen to refugees and immigrants, to my friends and family in the LGBTQ+ community, to Black and Hispanic citizens, to mentally ill, poor or disabled, old or hurting people around me??? I have groaned and cried, my body aches and I have strange pains because I am mad, and sad, and afraid. And then I hear that little sentence: I know you very well. Yes, I know it was Yahweh speaking ages long ago to that mystic forefather Moses. But it is for me and you, too, I am certain of it. I know your face. Page 4 of 5
In my lifetime I have listened to, read, or somehow collected about me, a thousand voices from the Christian story, the Jewish story, and the stories of other spiritual paths to God And they say again and again God knows my face. I am precious. I am held. God delights in me. I can delight in the Holy One. Trust this. Rest in this. They sing again and again to me, body and soul: God is as close as my lover naked in my arms, as precious as my infant held to my breast. As near as my breathing, as distant as the farthest star. And depending on the day or the hour, you and I may be blinded by the beauty of beholding God s face, or stilled in our frantic busyness by the vast silent darkness of God s quiet. Just listen, listen to your soul as it sings, come, let us seek the Lord s face. I do not believe that you will die. I do believe you will perhaps, learn to live anew, changed by the touch of God in your soul, changed by the light of God s countenance upon you. We, we were made for this, this communion. Seek it. Do not fear it. Listen to Hildegard, writing 900 years ago: Good People, Most royal greening verdancy, rooted in the sun, you shine with radiant light. In this circle of earthly existence, you shine so finely, it surpasses understanding. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God. Alleluia! Page 5 of 5