Being seen

 

Exodus 33: 12-23
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
October 22, 2023

Photo of a partial solar eclipse as seen through special disposable sunglasses. A tiny red-orange crescent can be seen through the dark lenses held against a blue sky with wispy cirrus clouds.

Every week in our doxology we sing the words “Praise God made flesh with Jesus’ birth” and yet the idea of God having a body was not born with Jesus. Throughout the Hebrew scriptures God protects God’s people with a strong arm, God’s hands enfold us, God’s eye watches over us, we are held in safe in God’s bosom.



In the book of Genesis, God is introduced as El Shaddai, which has been traditionally translated as the Almighty or God with the power of a mountain. A more accurate translation tells us that the mountain is actually breasts, The Many-Breasted One or God with Breasts. Whenever we read of God’s mercy, God’s compassion, the word used is the Hebrew word for womb, as in before we were born, God loved us and knew us.



Moses has been tasked with leading God’s people through the wilderness and wants to know who this God is who liberates the oppressed but does not reveal the divine Presence. In this intimate conversation between Moses and God I hear a more modern, well-known plea:



My sweet Lord,
Oh my Lord,
My sweet Lord

I really want to see you
I really want to be with you
I really want to see you, Lord
But it takes so long, my Lord

My sweet Lord,
Oh my Lord,
My sweet Lord

I really want to know you
I really want to go with you
I really want to show you, Lord
That it won’t take long, my Lord

My sweet Lord



Moses wants reassurance that he does not do this hard thing alone and yet built into this relationship is this feeling of God is too awesome, God is too vast, God is too much for human beings to hear, to see, to comprehend. The people want Moses to speak to and for God because they are afraid that if God speaks to them directly, they will die. After all, this is the God they invoke upon waking and before sleeping with the prayer called the Shema: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. That Lord being the Creator of the heavens and the earth and their very lives. The psalmist says “who are mortals that you should be mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” It is a humbling place to be, a tiny speck in an infinite universe.



Moses on the other hand wants a full reckoning, like Job in the whirlwind, like Mother Teresa in her dark night of the soul, like any of us when we are going through the worst we’ve lived with, when we feel utterly alone on a planet with 8 billion people. But instead of revealing the divine Presence, instead of a face-to-face encounter, God places Moses in the cleft of a rock and covers Moses with the tender part of the hand until God has passed by so that Moses sees only God’s back but not God’s face.



God’s face cannot be comprehended in just an instance. God’s face is the face of every child, every woman, every man, every person that has ever been, that ever will be. God’s face is in every animal, every creature of the sea, every bird and insect, every tree and blade of grass, every root and flower, vegetable and fruit, every rock and grain of sand, every star and planet. God’s face is in clouds and rain, snow and wind, storm and calm, sunlight and moonlight. Where else would we find God if not in all that is but also beyond all that is?



Mahatma Gandhi said, “If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking any further.” All of us want to be seen for who we are and yet not seen for who we are. We carry around so much shame and fear yet also so much yearning and hope. Wouldn’t we all like to pull back the veil and know something more of the how and the why of it all and our place, our part in the story. It’s daunting to remember, to embrace that on any given day we might be someone else’s glimpse of the divine presence.



A little over a week ago I had the honor of officiating at the wedding of two women. When I asked them to provide a word to describe their relationship, they replied with the word “natural”. Naturally I responded with “You make me feel like a natural woman” but I also heard something more than that. I heard authentic, trustworthy, true. What a gift to be in a relationship, whether it is friendship or marriage, at work or school, at home or in community, in which we can be our natural selves, we can be seen, without fear, all of who we are, and know that we are safe and we belong. By the way, that’s the gay agenda right there. It’s the same one we all have, the human agenda. What a gift that is to give to someone else, for them to know that with you they are safe and they belong. What a gift that is to give to ourselves, to know that within ourselves we belong. As I have said and will keep on saying, the unbreakable, unshakeable covenant of being human together.



Being human together can mean being joyful together but it can also mean being flawed together. Does humanity have the courage, do we in our small corner have the deep love to not only see all God’s beloveds for all of who they are, but to allow ourselves to be seen in all our imperfect glory?



Violence and conflict are the language of the oppressed when injustice goes unseen, when cries go unheard. Violence and conflict are also the language of the oppressor when we refuse to see the humanity in those we seek to control. What we human beings will do to each other rather than look at ourselves, look at each other, see each other, see ourselves as no better, no worse than anyone else, all of us images and reflections of the divine presence, the mystery of life and death and love.



I found this piece of wisdom on the internet. I have no idea who wrote it but it sounds like they’ve read 1 Corinthians: “The truth is that the more intimately you know someone, the more clearly you’ll see their flaws. That’s just the way it is. This is why relationships fail, why some marriages fail, why children are abandoned, why friendships don’t last.” (I’ll add, why some faith communities and clergy go their separate ways, why some people leave faith communities.)



“You might think you love someone until you see the way they act when they’re in stressful situations, when they’re out of money or under pressure or hungry, anxious, or when they’re under depression.



“For goodness’ sake…Love is something different. Love is choosing to stay and try your best to work it out. Love is choosing to be with someone in spite of their unstable, filthy, yet caring and loving heart. Love is patient and kind, love is deliberate. Love is hard. Love is pain and sacrifice. Love is choosing someone to struggle with. It’s seeing the darkness in another person and defying the impulse to jump ship.



“It’s seeing the imperfection in someone and yet you’re choosing to love every bit of their soul, one day at a time.”



It may be the hardest thing we do, to see others and allow ourselves to be seen, without control, without coercion, without judgment. Yet when we do, there is a joy and a hope from which nothing can separate us, a good that we realize is worth fighting for.



I see you, Church. I hope you see me. Beloved, I hope you see yourselves and each other the way God sees you. What a gift to give each other. Amen.

Benediction – Karen Drucker


Look at one another and repeat these words after me:

You are the face of God.
I hold you in my heart.
You are a part of me.
You are the face of Love.
Amen.