October 16, 2005 - God's Hidden Presence

It is very easy in the midst of tragedy or challenge to wonder where God could possibly be for us. In our pain, in our anger, we wonder why God doesn't do something to make it all better. I'm always moved and amazed when I hear people approach difficulty by putting their trust wholeheartedly in God. What a gift to let go and let God in. I think one of the most important implied teachings in the Bible is for us to stay in relationship with God during all the times in our lives, but especially the challenging ones. Moses models this in the text today. This passage portrays Moses having a conversation with God. The context is still in the desert with the fledgling band of believers. There has just been the Golden Calf incident - where the people got tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain where he is talking with God. Instead, they take their gold, melt it down in the fire, fashion a golden calf and make it the object of their devotion. Both Moses and God are distressed when they find this out. God calls them a stiff-necked people and refuses to dwell with them for fear that God's own anger will consume them. So, here is Moses, caught in the middle, our in the middle of nowhere - a group of people on one side, side-tracked, unrepentant, impatient; and God on the other side, angry and unwilling to communicate with them. Have you ever had this experience - being caught between two warring factions?!!!

I love Moses' response - instead of giving up or wringing his hand, he decides to confront God. I call it his "what gives" speech. Moses asks God for assurance that God will deliver on God's promises. "If I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways," says Moses. "If you aren't coming with us, let us know right here and right now." Pretty bold if you ask me. Moses doesn't go the next step. He doesn't remind God that God had led them out of Egypt with promises, that God had chosen Abraham as the patriarch of a great and glorious people, that God has sent them manna from heaven and urged them to have faith. No, Moses just says, are you with us or not? Cause I really need to know now and not two months down the road.

And God responds to Moses. God says, "Yes." "I will do the very thing you have asked? I will make my goodness pass before you and I will be gracious to you and show you mercy." With this, God places Moses by a large rock with a cleft in it. God has Moses stand in the cleft and covers Moses with a protective hand. Then God's glory passes by and Moses, with his back turned to God, sees a glimpse of God's back but not God's face.

There are cultural explanations for why God does not let Moses see God's face. There was a belief that one could not see the face of God or utter God's name and live. This story reflects that ancient belief. But I wonder if Moses is satisfied with his glimpse of God. Is a partial view of God enough? You know when you purchase a theatre ticket and they say "partially obstructed view?" That means that you are going to spend the play looking around a pole or some other object. I find it distracting. I want an unobstructed view of the stage and the actors, for this is a visual event. Don't we also want that with God? But so often, what we get is what Moses got - a glimpse, a partially obstructed view.

I wonder if we could handle an unobstructed view. What if we were not only to see God fully, but what if we were also to hear God fully - and to know what God's vision for the church is, what God's vision for the world is, what God's vision for our lives is. Would we be comforted by that? Would it overwhelm us with its seemingly unattainability? Would we find the view too daunting to live up to? I wonder sometimes when we are given more than we can bear, if it is not an unfair thing - sort of like trying to explain a concept to a child that is beyond their ability. Take math for example. Here they are just building up their confidence in basic addition and subtraction and we, in our excitement, jump ahead and say, "Oh, wait till you are able to multiply - you not only will know how to add 5+5 but you'll be able to do 4x5 which is just four fives!" You know you've gone too far, too fast when you get that blank look from the child. It almost destroys their ability to get 5+5 because you've given them a glimpse of the future, which is just a black hole of incomprehension to them. I wonder if it is the same with God. Here, we're trudging along, paying our pledges, trying to live out our faith at work and at home, being kind and appropriate, and then we get a look at what God really wants us to accomplish -can we handle that?!! Maybe God doesn't make those mistakes. Maybe God knows exactly who to give those visions to and when: certainly God gave the vision, the bigger plan, to Martin Luther King Jr., to Gandhi, to Nelson Mandela, to Mother Teresa and to many other unknown visionaries in our world. These are the people who are way ahead of the typical person - they see God's vision of the world and have some advance knowledge that propels their vision. God has to trust some people with the advance knowledge so that we have visionaries in our midst. Sometimes they are dismissed by the pragmatic parts of us, or described as "People before their time." But we need them. I'm guessing that Moses got just enough to keep him going with that early group of Israelites when nothing was assured and they were just a possibility.

I've had friends seek out Psychics when they wanted to be told more about their lives. I've listened with curiosity as they report on their sessions with the psychic who read their auras and made predictions about their future. I'm not that brave nor that curious about my own future. How do I know if they're the read deal? What if I hear something I don't want to know? Nah, I'd rather trust that God will reveal to me my path as we go along. Not that I wouldn't like an occasional preview!

In 1983, an art dealer approached the Getty museum here in Los Angeles with a marble statue dating from the 6th century B.C. "It was what is known as a Kouris - a sculpture of a nude male youth standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his side." (from the book Blink). There are only about 200 of these in the world, most recovered damaged from grave sites or archeological digs. But this one was "almost perfectly preserved." Standing 7 feet tall, it was an extraordinary find. The price tag? $10 million. The Getty of course moved cautiously. It took the sculpture on loan and investigated it thoroughly. The art dealer and owner gave the Getty legal documents that were in order. A geologist examined it with the most sophisticated of instruments. A core sample from the statue was even removed and analyzed to confirm that it was truly an ancient statue. They were extremely careful and cautious. Their conclusion? It was not some contemporary fake, but an ancient statue that was miraculously preserved. After 14 months of tests they agreed to buy it.

Evelyn Harrison, a foremost expert on Greek sculpture happened to be in L.A. just before they finalized the deal. The curator took her down to see it, "swished the cloth off the top" for her to have a look. In a moment, Harrison had a hunch that something "was amiss" and said so. A few months later another museum director had a chance to see the statue. His name was Thomas Hoving, and he always made a mental note of the first word that came to his head when he saw a new work of art. The first word that came to him when he saw this Kouros was "fresh." He thought of the digs he had done in Sicily and he never saw anything that came out of the ground looking like that. "The Kouros looked like it had been dipped in the very best caffe latte from Starbucks." "Have you paid for this?" he asked. The museum curator from the Getty was stunned. As a final step, the Getty shipped the statue off to Greece for one last group of experts. Others in Athens took a look at the statue and were also dismayed. So, here we have "lawyers and scientists and months of painstaking investigation" saying it was authentic. On the other hand, you have a handful of foremost experts on Greek sculpture saying that just by a look at it, that it was a fake. You can imagine their dilemma (Ibid.).

Long story short, the Kouros came from a forger's workshop in Rome in 1980. Only the single glance from a handful of people prevented the Getty from spending $10 million on a forgery.

How do we know that God is a real presence in our lives? We can't prove it scientifically. We can't measure it or take samples and look at it under a microscope. In fact, sometimes evidence points us to the opposite conclusion: we ask God a question and the silence feels deafening; bad things happen to good people, evil seems to triumph over good. How can we know whether or not God is real, God is here, God is active in our lives and in our world? And then, we have our Moses moment. We are looking into the cleft and we feel what seems like a comforting hand on our back. We turn our head to take a peek, because like Moses we just can't resist, and we get just a glimpse of God's grace, God's forgiveness, God's love that can be none other than God's presence. For a moment, we know that despite appearances at the time, that God is really here. May you have your glimpse of God this week that stokes the fire of your faith once again. Amen.