neither changeless nor unchanging ,,,
and certainly not dispassionate.
Beginning defiantly and ending with an apology, that few who click on this blogpost and see that it starts with a Bible story will bother to read it bothers me not in the least!
Exodus 32:1-14 (RSV) The Golden Calf
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; 8 they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; 10 now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.”
11 But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.’” 14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.
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There is far, far more in our Old Testament reading for Sunday than the title “The Golden Calf,” which focuses on the sin of the Israelites, normal human beings who have simply given up on Moses, assumed he was dead or had abandoned them, and resorted to their own devices to meet their need for a god, in an age when families and peoples fabricated their own household gods. For indeed, the essence of the story focuses on the quintessence of יְהוָ֑ה the Lord himself; not some sloppy sentimentality about “see how merciful is our God of grace and God of glory,” but the heart, mind and soul of him, his Being: he is not dispassionate, he can love and feel jilted; he can be offended; he can rage, fulminate against perceived insult; he can be tempted; he can think to do evil; he can be talked out of it; he can be persuaded to look in the mirror and see himself; he can see things from another’s perspective; he can learn from us; he can see how foolish he will look if he acts precipitously in a fit of anger; he can realize that he is wrong; he is not certitudinous, not changeless and unchangeable, he can change his mind; he can repent as surely as anyone appearing before a priest for confession, penance and absolution. Theologically, this story, to me, has always been an epiphany of Good News about our God, indeed a theophany in which God shows himself, his true nature, the glory of the Lord. When I’m getting dressed this morning I will say as I always do, but with renewed earnestness, Right Shoe First and Praise the Lord.
There is far, far more in our Old Testament reading for Sunday than the title “The Golden Calf,” which focuses on the sin of the Israelites, normal human beings who have simply given up on Moses, assumed he was dead or had abandoned them, and resorted to their own devices to meet their need for a god, in an age when families and peoples fabricated their own household gods. For indeed, the essence of the story focuses on the quintessence of יְהוָ֑ה the Lord himself; not some sloppy sentimentality about “see how merciful is our God of grace and God of glory,” but the heart, mind and soul of him, his Being: he is not dispassionate, he can love and feel jilted; he can be offended; he can rage, fulminate against perceived insult; he can be tempted; he can think to do evil; he can be talked out of it; he can be persuaded to look in the mirror and see himself; he can see things from another’s perspective; he can learn from us; he can see how foolish he will look if he acts precipitously in a fit of anger; he can realize that he is wrong; he is not certitudinous, not changeless and unchangeable, he can change his mind; he can repent as surely as anyone appearing before a priest for confession, penance and absolution. Theologically, this story, to me, has always been an epiphany of Good News about our God, indeed a theophany in which God shows himself, his true nature, the glory of the Lord. When I’m getting dressed this morning I will say as I always do, but with renewed earnestness, Right Shoe First and Praise the Lord.
Like many a sermon that reaches a good stopping place but goes on and on anyway, RSF&PTL seems like a good stopping point, but I’m not quite finished, either with Trinitarian God or with myself. At Mark 1:40-45 there’s the story of Jesus being confronted by a man with leprosy. In the setting, Jesus has been busy, is tired, exhausted, he needs to get away and rest, but always the needy come banging at the door, ringing the rectory doorbell at the most inconvenient time. I know how it is to be worn out with God’s people, I’ve had transients bang on my door at two o’clock in the morning wanting a motel room, a tank of gasoline, a bag of food, “holy alphabet moley,” I’ve murmured awakened from sleep to a banging and ringing at the front door downstairs, “gardenia it to heliotrope.” Just so, in the case of Mark 1:40-45, our English translations cave in to what is to me the obviously rethought and edited Greek manuscript that says Jesus was filled with compassion (σπλαγχνισθεὶς), which is certainly what we prefer to think, read and hear in Sunday School; but some few, at least the NIV, go with what a reasonable NT scholar would regard as not unlikely Mark’s report of the original tradition, later edited to reflect what we prefer to know, that Jesus was ὀργισθεὶς, angry, indignant, lost his temper, momentarily enraged and showed it, blew up at the man who was bothering him. So that, ἰδοὺ, see, lo, behold and look: like father, like son, even Jesus can lose patience with us.
RSF&PTL
DThos+
with apology but not regret for missing a blogpost yesterday, busy from dawn to dusk, and exhausted when done, I was helping a loved one with the purchase of a new car from my favorite dealership. TW+