There is a paradox in life wherein when we meet the people that become important in our lives, we find out more about who we are through that relationship. Moses, who had a paradoxical identity in his youth – born a Hebrew slave, raised as an Egyptian lord – is overcome in his own existential malaise and mal être when he encounters the God of his people in the burning bush.
The text is filled with paradoxes: the identity of Moses, a bush that is burning but not consumed, a name of God that is unpronounceable or unplaceable, the God beyond time is known in a precise moment, one who cannot speak (it would seem Moses had a stutter) becomes the one who speaks for God, and finally the slaves will plunder their masters in their escape to freedom.
God is named as “I Am who I Am”: in the Hebrew it’s the consonants of the name Yahweh minus the vocalization points (or vowels). As such it’s a name that is the Name, beyond any one name, for it can mean “I am who I am”, “I was who I was,” “I will be who I will be,” or any combination of those – “I was who I am,” “I am who I will be.” The very name of God is sacred in that it is beyond time, beyond something you can pin down, it is life itself – eternal and past, present and emerging.
How have you known God in paradox? How do you struggle to know God in your past, present, or future? In what paradox do you find yourself now, needing God’s presence?
Prayer for the Day
Eternal One,
as I move through this day, from the now which becomes the past
towards the later that is my future,
open my eyes to see what truly is.
Give me the sight to see beyond what is around me,
so that I might perceive what is in front of me.
Illuminate and liberate me to glimpse your presence,
to perceive your footsteps in the paradoxes around me.
Amen.