Lectionary Reflection
Year A, Last Epiphany
Standard (Episcopal) Lectionary – Revised
Common Lectionary
Old Testament – Hebrew Scripture
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Exodus 24: 12-18
(Standard and RCL)
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The
LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain,
and wait there; and I will give you the tablets
of stone, with the law and the commandment, which
I have written for their instruction." So Moses
set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went
up into the mountain of God. To the elders he had
said, "Wait here for us, until we come to you
again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has
a dispute may go to them."
Then
Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered
the mountain. The glory of the LORD settled on Mount
Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on
the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.
Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was
like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain
in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered
the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was
on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
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| New
Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989
by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Church of Christ in the
USA, and used by permission. |
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Reflection
on Exodus 24: 12-18
by the Rev Dcn Helen Hanten
When Moses went
up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone with the law
and the commandments, God spoke from a cloud and appeared like
a devouring fire. When Jesus and his three closest disciples
climbed a mountain, the three suddenly saw Jesus differently
– dazzling – and God's voice came from a cloud.
Mountain tops
are places we can see the farthest. We can sometimes see
in all directions. We see over the top of things nearby and
look to a horizon which is farther away than we see from the
ground. This describes a good place for a search for the divine.
We need to be able to see more than our own routine of places
to be and things to see. We need to be dazzled by the light
of some new understanding, a new way to envision who, what and
where God is. We listen, in prayer, for God to speak.
But even there,
in these accounts, God speaks from a cloud. Clouds keep us from
seeing clearly. Fog, a cloud on the ground, can keep us from
seeing much of anything. Flying above clouds prevents us from
seeing the earth beneath us. Reality is obscured. But the cloud,
as a metaphor for that which obscures our understanding of God,
also tells us that it is in ordinary things of creation that
we encounter the presence of the Creator. Those times that we
feel God's presence dazzling us, God's voice may be heard in
the gifts of creation.
NOTE:
This reflection ties the Gospel Reading together with the Hebrew
Scipture (Old Testament) Reading. Helens's reflection for both
readings is identical.
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The Rev Dcn Helen
Hanten is a retired deacon and was an active member of St.
Andrew's by the Lake Episcopal Church, Duluth, MN, when she
originally wrote this reflection in 2002. Helen and we welcome
your comments. Please address your comments or additional reflections
to Helen
Hanten or any MEESC
member, or mail them to:
MEESC
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