The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, March 6, 2011, St. James the Less Madison

“On the seventh day God called to Moses out of the cloud” (Ex. 24:16).

When God gave the Ten Commandments he wrote them down, on tablets of stone inscribed with his own finger. God doesn’t tweet or blog the Commandments; I suppose he might today, but note that he doesn’t use a pen or even a chisel to deliver them then, but he writes with his own finger. The writing utensil (the finger of God) and the medium of inscription (in stone) signify permanence, things that cannot be changed, an immutable decree. That’s part of the scandal when God’s People are disobedient and Moses casts down the tablets and breaks them. They break the Law, and the trashing of the tablets is just the outward and visible sign of what’s happened. God has to supply a new copy later, though the problem of human disobedience remains. So later Jeremiah will prophesy the making of a new covenant, where God will write his law on human hearts, getting to the root of the problem.

So God writes down the commandments in our reading today, but it’s more typical for God to speak, to enunciate, to “call” his People. Our psalm repeats the theme: “He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; * they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them” (Ps. 99:7). So our reading tells us, “On the seventh day God called to Moses out of the cloud.” There’s a call from God, like the voice in our Gospel, where all hear the message that confirms the mission. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Matt. 17:5). Jesus himself now will deliver the message, become the voice that must be heard and obeyed. He is pleasing to God because he is willing to offer himself for our salvation. He’s writing the law on our hearts. He speaks, and we do well to listen.

A wise old priest once said in a retreat address I heard a number of years ago that God gave us one mouth and two ears, and that our communication with God ought to be in the same proportion. That is, we ought to have twice as much listening as speaking when it comes to our prayer, though I’m afraid that I fall far short of the mark. But I take the point that in our relationship with God we need to listen if we are going to hear what’s being said.

One final detail from our reading: God speaks from out of the cloud. There’s an obscuring element to the call, a sense of what cannot be seen clearly and of what must be approached carefully. The cloud limits the sight and perception of the People of Israel, who remain at the foot of the mountain while the fireworks take place above. But we are supposed to be like Moses, who enters the cloud, and not like the People who stay back. Moses has to enter the cloud in order to hear what the voice is saying. The cloud signifies mystery and majesty and even terror; God cannot be approached and heard by just anybody. He’s not accessible in that way, able to be “accessed” at our beck and call. It is God who calls, who speaks and calls Israel to be his People. But we will have to enter the cloud in order to hear.

There are some lessons for St. James Church here this morning, and for all Christian people. Our God is a God of call, who chooses and speaks and calls us to his service. Our response is meant to be like that of the prophet Samuel, who hears the voice of God while he is just a child. “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10). Now I am not talking about hearing voices, though of course I’m not ruling this out when I talk about the voice of God. Yet whether the voice is audible or not we have all been “called” by God; God has addressed us and summoned him to his service here at St. James. This is happening in “real time,” right now, here today in this church. One person among many is standing up before the congregation to be received into the Episcopal Church, providing a powerful witness for which we are grateful, but this witness is a simple reminder of the truth that we are all called by God. He is speaking, and we do well to listen.

Don’t forget, however, that God speaks from the cloud. In order to hear we have to enter the cloud, with its mystery and majesty and even our fright. There may be times when we cannot see or hear clearly, when we have to go carefully and wait for clarity. Moses entered the cloud and spent forty days within it. “Forty days” is the way in which the Bible signifies that a long time has elapsed. It certainly seemed long to the People of Israel, who thought it was insufferable to have to wait so long and went out and made their own gods in the meantime. God’s People want a quick and simple answer (who doesn’t?) but God speaks from out of the cloud and won’t be rushed or hurried or accessed except when he’s ready to speak. Perhaps our forty days of Lent this year will be a time when we wait for God to speak. What is he saying, to us as individuals and as St. James’ Church? We will have to listen in order to hear; we’ll have to enter the cloud in order to draw close to him.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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