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BREAKTHROUGH
Open-ended, Life-centred, Gospel-Focused Explorations of the Hebrew Bible Eucharistic Readings from the Australian Prayer Book.
  Exodus 34:29-35... The Transfiguration, Year C ....(For Lk 9:28-36 scroll on site.)

NOTES: 1] Always read the Hebrew Bible in the light of our Christian understanding of God revealed in Jesus in the New Testament. 2] The Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt probably took place c.1250BC (some think earlier), but the dating of the Book of that name is unknown, certainly centuries later.

WARMING UP:  Who has the brightest, shiniest, face we can think of?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
29-31 
Is the reality of Moses' encounter with God on Mt. Sinai more important than questions such as how the 'tablets' with the Commandments on them came into being (e.g. burned in by lightning a la Cecil B De Mille? What is the reality of M's encounter with God? What is the reality of our own encounters with God? Are any encounters we have simply an extension of the one Moses has? Does this passage help us feel more connected in any way to Moses as one of the 'giants' among Jesus' & our own spiritual ancestors?

Given anyone can claim an 'encounter' with God, & that many don't ring true, what marks of any God-encounter should we look for today to authenticate such a meeting? Or don't they happen now? Might one issue be whether they come 'down from the mountain' broadcasting what's happened to them abroad, or like Moses, seemingly  unaware of any change in themself? To what extent is fear still a factor in our handling those who claim holiness, those who disclaim it but whom we discern to have it, or others who discern us to have it? What should be our main rule of thumb for discerning a person with a genuine experience of God from a pious fraud? Are there people who steer clear of us because they think we're either genuinely or self-righteously 'holy'? How might we go about bringing someone like that closer to us - or us closer to them?

32-35   Whether we think of the Commandments as those here in the Hebrew Bible, or as the 'Two Great Commandments' of Jesus, are we close enough to people in general to be able to point them to these expressions of how God wants us to live? Or does something about us keep people at a distance, or about them keep us at a distance, in either case lessening the possibility of our influencing them for God? What might we be able to do about such a situation? Can we see any particular symbolism in Moses veiling & unveiling his face here? Is there something we can learn from this for our own life & worship today? Or is all this so removed from the reality of life & worship today that it seems a kind of 'fairy story'? Are there aspects of ourself that might be better veiled if we're to serve God as effectively as He calls us to do? Is there a difference between 'veiling' aspects of ourself & covering them up (in a bad sense)? Do we present ourselves before God & our fellow human beings differently? How? Why?

What connections, if any, can we see between what happens to Moses here in EX & to Jesus in his Transfiguration in today's Gospel? Might this be a groundwork being laid to be built on much later? Is that the way God works? Just back then, or still today? If the latter, can we identify any such groundwork in our own life?