• Exodus 3:1-15

One of the most significant occasions of God’s Self-revelation in the Hebrew scriptures begins with Moses going about the daily task of tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. The import of the coming revelation is signaled by something impossible– a bush that is on fire but not consumed by the fire!  Having got the attention of Moses, God calls to Moses, instructing him to come closer and remove his sandals, “for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob speaks and tells Moses that the plight of their descendants has not gone unnoticed and God intends to liberate this enslaved people, bringing them eventually to their own land.  Moses is also told that he is the one to deliver this message to Pharaoh.  Moses is stunned: “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  Although God assures Moses that God will be with him, Moses wants God to provide an identity more specific than the God of the “ancestors.”  God’s response says everything and says nothing: “I AM WHO I AM.”  The text then repeats the more traditional identity: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

• Psalm 63:1-8

The psalmist alludes to a time of “wilderness,” alienation and isolation when his longing for “God, my God,” was so intense it left his mouth with a dry, parched taste in it.  He also recalls another time when he felt God’s intimate presence.  He admits that he loves to roll God’s  name around in his mouth and to “sing” it.  This quenches his ‘thirst’ more than anything else he can recall.

• I Corinthians 10:1-13

Paul retells the wilderness account of “all those who were baptized into Moses” as a cautionary tale for followers of Christ.  Do not succumb to temptation as they did, he writes.  “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with testing he will provide the way out so that you will be able to endure it.”

• Luke 13:1-9

Only Luke’s narrative includes this specific rejection of the preoccupation of some believers who want to identify others who are in more need of repentance than themselves.  While the two examples of the consequences of sin that Luke provides must have been of intense interest to his readers, they are lost on us; his intent is perfectly clear: “unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”  Luke follows this unique teaching with a “parable,” which seems to offer the possibility of a reprieve, because the “gardener” continues to try to nurture a dead tree back to life and productivity one more time.

Biblical narratives positively refuse to answer some of our most urgent questions but answer others questions in simple, direct explicit detail; and invite poetry and singing as the only appropriate response to others.

In response to Moses’ persistent questioning about God’s identity, God only says “I AM WHO I AM.”  Many writers dubbed post-Modern treat this event in the Hebrew scriptures as critical.  God’s refusal to satisfy the human need to know/understand/manipulate God highlights alterity, the insurmountable human incapacity to capture the other/Other.  (Mark C. Taylor alters the spelling to “altarity” to designate a specifically religious emphasis.)

In utter contrast to such passages of defiant lack of clarity and transparency, other biblical narratives are clear, precise and explicit about justice/love.  Among the gospel writers, Luke is particularly focused on the treatment of others, especially the most in need.  In the interlude in his narrative, which is today’s appointed gospel, only Luke addresses that all-too-human tactic of making something more complicated than is needs to be, especially when it could be used to deflect attention away from  our own failures.  Apparently some of his readers wanted to wander off in speculative arguments about theodicy, but Luke yanks them back to what he wants to write about– being honest with ourselves.  And, to sharpen his point, Luke adds a “parable” about a “gardener” who is always ready to try one more time to revive even the most barren “tree” to make it productive again. 

Because God refuses to provide answers to some of our most urgent questions, but answers others about our relationship/obligations to others explicitly, we can abandon the former and embrace the latter with enthusiasm.  We can cancel our membership in the debating club and instead join a movement, a celebration, a campaign that is full of like-souled people chattering and singing about the same things, which the psalmist identifies as the only thing that has ever quenched his ‘thirst’.

In The Way of Love, Luce Irigaray determines that because “God… escapes our gaze and our hold, truly seems to be the guarantor of the memory that the other exists.”  God is “the guarantor of alterity as such.”  (p.159)  Hence, we shift from futile attempts to define God or read God’s mind when it comes to the worth or fitness of others.  “I am not you and you will forever remain other to me,” writes Irigaray, such is the necessary proposition for the entering into the presence of one and the others.” (p.168)

When God speaks to Moses, a relationship, not a debate, is initiated.  It is a relationship that will not lead to answers about the other/Other, but it will lead to the creation of a community, a people, that will make the journey together from slavery to freedom.