Who Are You?

"Who Are You?

If you want to watch this episode of Godspell, click on this link (and scroll down)

The encounter with God comes in ways that may surprise you. For Moses, it was at the burning bush; for me it is in the keeping of my daily journal. For both of us it is a matter of urgent and immediate concern. 

Moses had seen the way the Egyptians treated the Children of Israel. One day when an Egyptian was abusing one of his kinfolk, Moses flew into a rage. He killed the taskmaster and and hid the body in the sand. But word got out somehow, Somebody saw what happened and Moses fled for his life and went into the land of Midian. There he tended the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. Injustice and guilt weighed heavily upon him and he had plenty of time to be alone with his thoughts. 

He came to the mountain of God where an Angel appeared to him out of a burning bush which was not consumed by the fire. And God spoke; “remove the shoes from your feet Moses, because the very ground on which you are standing is holy ground.” 

God launched immediately into the presenting issue; “I have seen the misery of my people and I have come down to deliver my people and I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will tell him to let my people go.”

Moses, of course, shrank away from the task. Who wouldn’t! The dialogue between Moses and God is compelling and honest. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” 

God replies “You will go for me and I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you…when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Moses needs more than that. He needs to know what to tell the Israelites when they ask for the Name of God. 

He must have wondered “how am I to face Pharaoh? How am I to persuade the Israelites that I have been talking to the living God?

Moses continues; “Who are you? What shall I tell the people? What is your name?” 

Every other people in the Ancient Near Eastern world had a god with a name. The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and the Egyptians: they all had gods with names.  What about you?

What is your name?

Who are you?

You and I might add; “Are you?”

As with Elijah, so with Moses, I imagine a sheer silence as Moses contemplates this awesome encounter with the Living God. 

Then comes the answer to the question “who are you?”

“I AM WHO I AM.” God said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

This reply resonates in my very soul. “I AM.” The ancient manuscript writes the Hebrew letters JHWH. There are no vowels between the consonants. The word presents a verb in what the Greek language calls the aorist tense; thus the manuscript presents the Holy Name as undefined and with infinite possibility. And remember; the Holy Name is a verb; not a noun. We have nothing equivalent in English grammar. Thus God is not definable and of infinite possibility. That makes sense to me especially if we are talking about God. This is the moment of encounter between Moses and God. Therefore we can render the Holy Name:

“I AM or I AM THAT I AM or I AM WHAT I WILL BE or I AM WHOEVER I WILL BE.” 

It is as if God speaks and says; “YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM? I AM WHO I AM, THAT’S WHO I AM”,

In other words God is and was and always will be whoever God chooses to be; as in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. 

And more besides. My meager attempt to describe God cannot be contained any more than the Holy Name can be contained in the encounter Moses had in the Burning Bush. Nor can it be contained merely in language.

God is infinitely present and real for us no matter who we are or who we become or for that matter, whatever predicament we find ourselves in.

God is there for us; real and present in the specifics of our lives. Whenever presented with injustice and oppression of any sort God is there. When presented with sickness, life or death; God is there too. Gods acts and sends us to act. God is a verb, not a noun!

In Moses’ case, God saw the misery of the people. God brings the people out of slavery into freedom in the Promised Land. God gives the people a Law to live by. And Moses was God’s chosen servant.

Throughout history God does the same time, after, time after time.

God gave us Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and more. God gave India Mahatma Gandhi. God gave the folks in South Africa Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. And on and on it goes.

So when I ask God; who are You? I discover you are the “I am who I am.” The “I am with you”. The “I have always been with you. I will always be with you”. That is God’s Name for ever, and more besides!”

The great Jewish thinker Martin Buber postulated the thought, that the best way to think about God is in the nature of our relationship with God. It is best understood in dialogue. He used the German “Ich-Du”, or “I-Thou”. The English doesn’t quite have a word for it, the “Thou” is not so formal but intended to be intimate. In German the pronoun “du” is used for family and relatives, close friends, young children, and God. In other words, if you seek God, go deeper to that “Honest to God” place within your own heart. There is where the dialogue with God best takes place. The deeper you go into your heart of hearts the more likely you will delve into the heart of God. That is where you will find God’s love for you; your love for God and moreover God’s guiding hand in the specific reality of your life. God will lead you to love others as God loves all. 

And then there’s me. Some years back, I was recovering from a severe manic break; or what we used to call a complete nervous breakdown. In the helping professions, self care is often overlooked. We’re so busy taking care of others, we forget how important it is to take care of ourselves. Both my therapist and spiritual director agreed; it was time for me to keep a daily journal. In it I would pour out my soul. I would record the events of my life and describe them; especially those that seemed to be the most concerning. In short, the presenting issues of my life. Then I would reflect on the feelings these events would generate within me. I came to understand what my spiritual director meant; feelings are angels God sends to invite us into further growth. Unbeknownst to me, I was tracing the face of God on the pages of my journal. I was practicing the Presence of God, as Brother Lawrence described in his little masterpiece in Christian Spirituality. My life became much more manageable. Between the meds and the journal and my prayer life, I was discovering that the Burning Bush for me was is and always will be the fact that God IS WHO GOD IS. God is there in the bleakest mornings. God is there in every joy, every sorrow and every moment of my life. I began to keep a journal faithfully on St Patrick’s Day, 1990. That’s 29 years of Practicing the Presence. Almost three decades of standing in wonder at the Burning Bush in conversation with my heart of hearts. When I go back and read some of my journal entries now, I marvel that i would let myself be bothered my such trivial matters that used to bother me.

Moses at the Burning Bush

Jesus and the Fig Tree

Me and my Journal

It is one and the same; it is the sacred name.

The still small voice of God speaks if we but take the time to listen.

I AM. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. I ALWAYS WILL BE.

With you. In you. Above you. Under you. Around you.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end

Amen.

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen

Fr Paul