FACE TO FACE WITH GOD
The title of my
homily for this 17th Tuesday in OT is, “Face To Face With God.”
Today’s First
Reading from Exodus, especially the words about the tent and the cloud and
Moses seeing God face to face, is very ancient - around the 9th
century BC. [Cf. Exodus 33: 7-11, 34:5b-9, 28.]
Because of their
sins and their sinfulness, Moses set up his tent outside the camp. The people’s
tents were set up inside the camp.
The cloud would
settle over Moses’ tent and the people like little children got the message
from Moses - through his words and body language - that God was not happy with
them because of their sins.
Moses - like God - distanced himself from the people - and only met with God
outside the village. They were not worthy of God. They would stand outside
their tents and worship God from a distance - unlike Moses - who is described
as seeing and being with God face to face.
In yesterday’s first reading from Exodus, we heard how they sculpted a
golden calf and said this was their god - from their golden rings and
things. We can do things like that.
I was thinking
that the basic instincts going on here are wanting to be close to God - good -
and to get God under our control - according to our image and likenesses - not
good.
IN THIS HOMILY
In this homily we
could look at our relationship with God.
When we were little kids, what was our relationship with God like? Does every parent - like Moses - use God to
get their kids to be good? Where do people pick up that when things go wrong,
they ask, “What did we do wrong?”
Answer: sometimes
yes - sometimes no. Obviously there are things we can do to stop global warming.
In the meahwhile we can bring an umbrella when it really looks rainly and wear
a cool t-shirt when it’s going to be hot.
When did people
pick up that God gets angry with folks? Where do people think that when
anything goes wrong, it’s God punishing people?
In the New
Testament we’re going to hear Jesus countering this thinking in various stories
- especially ‘The Story of Man born Blind” - Chapter 9 of John.
FACE TO FACE
I think the
solution is to ask the Lord to have an intimate, face to face, relationship
with him - and to let go and let God be God - however the mystery of God works.
Yet to still
strive to be with God….
Yes, to be like
little children, who see their father in the corner reading the paper and they
go over - climb up on his lap and pull down the paper wall - or to get up into
their father’s face and climb closer - face to face - nose to nose - and to look into God’s face and say hello.
In fact, if we
have a relationship with a distant God -
we might tend to be way off when it comes to knowing God.
LIFETIME EXPERIENCE
God is a lifetime
experience.
The Jewish
Scriptures - give us many people’s perceptions of God. That’s why we read them.
We read them - we hear them - and we act and react to them.
The Jewish
Scriptures - the New Testament - give us the gift of Jesus - and how he
struggles to tell us who he his - and who his Father is - and what they are
like - and to pray to and for their Spirit - as we slowly move deeper and
deeper into the mind of God.
It’s a lifetime
experience like any close - face to face relationship - we have with each other
- not from a distance - not outside our tent - but inside the tent called our
family and the bigger tent called our places of worship - and hopefully
somewhat before we die - but definitely after we die - the cloud with disperse
and we will be with God - in a face to face eternal experience - or however
eternity works.
