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]
TheExodus 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?