POINT 1: Last week the Gospel from Matthew challenged us to answer a question which Jesus posed to his disciples: "Who do "YOU" say that I am?" Following up on that, this week's reading from the Book of Exodus (3:1-15) poses two further questions: - Who am I? - Who is God?God pushes you and me continuously -- sometimes gently, sometime with a shove -- to "turn aside", as Moses did, and to "see": to see who we really are ourselves; and to see who God is for us. In every case, it is God who speaks to us. God confronts us with God's own mystery, and also with a call to some kind of service to one others amidst the mundane routine of our lives. God speaks to us a Name which defines Godself: who God is, and in the revealing also calls us to declare who we really are and what we're committed to do.As with Moses, it's a sensitive, compassionate God who speaks to us, One who has seen, heard, and who knows what's going on in our lives, but also a dynamic active Being who makes it very clear that God is ever "with us", right in the thick of all the "action".Typically, like Moses, when you and I are called aside to face who we are and who God is in relation to us, we tend to react in two ways: 1) "Not me -- I can't." 2) "Prove it."God's response, in simple terms, is: 1) "Yes, you can, because I will be with you." 2) "I AM WHO "[I ]"AM and I am with you."God's response is both an answer and an evasion to Moses' and our questionings. But God makes clear that it's only through faithful "living" -- "being" what God wants us to be and "doing" what God wants us to do -- that the full meaning of God's Name, which really stands for who God is, becomes known to us. And this always has to do, in some way, with compassion towards others, with justice, liberation from oppression, and love.POINT 2: Neither you nor I really enjoy being confronted with questions like the one which Jesus asked last week and which the Scriptures raise for us this week. What unnerves us even more, as followers of Jesus, are the nitty-gritty specifics of being and doing, such as those which St. Paul proposes to us in the Epistle today (Romans 12:9-21). While Paul wrote them down as a sort of catalog of compassionate, justice-making, liberating and loving acts to which the Living God in Jesus calls us, we, fully aware of our inadequacy and selfishness, may tend to view them more as a list of horrors: really love one another, outdoing each other with honesty and generosity; hate evil; act with focus and passion; bring to others the joy of hopefulness; accept suffering; keep praying even if you're spiritually dry, or it's boring, or you see no results; let your first impulse be: "How can I help my sister/brother?"; welcome everyone. Period. No exceptions; be gracious even to those who give you a hard time; be empathetic and sympathetic whatever the occasion; let unity always guide how you live with one another; be humble and realize that you don't know everything; never take revenge or avenge yourself; to the best of your ability, be at peace with everyone; give food and drink to the hungry regardless of who they are; refuse to let evil direct your life, but only what is good. Paul says that such a rule of life defines who you and I really are, or can become, in relation to the Living God -- not by oneself, but in the power of the God who assures us: "I will be with you."POINT 3: You and I don't always "buy" this: whether out of fear, or laziness, or selfishness. We're much like Peter in the Gospel (Matthew 16:21-28) who, misunderstanding what God is really up to in our lives, is shocked and appalled -- scandalized even -- when Jesus acknowledges that his mission and ministry is taking him to Jerusalem, and to certain suffering and death. We moderns don't like the theology of the cross, and we seem to make every effort to shove suffering and dying into the background of our lives, and to "prettify" and dress it up so that it isn't so....you know,...such a "downer". But Jesus, knowing that God is calling him to the supreme act of compassion, justice, liberation and love -- giving his life for us on the cross -- literally puts Peter in his place: "Get behind me, Satan!... you've set your mind not on the things of God but on human things." Then Jesus throws down a challenge: "If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." It comes down to this: when you and I answer God's call to turn aside to "see", how much do you and I really trust God and accept God's word, especially if there seems to be no apparent human reason to do so. Even here, God continues to call us to respond by being and by doing, and that will cost us as dearly as it cost Jesus.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th century Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis, in his beautiful book "The Cost of Discipleship", wrote from prison about "cheap" grace and "costly" grace. He describes "cheap" grace as "Grace without price; grace without cost!" We assume that, because Jesus has "paid" our account in advance, we can live our spiritual lives without it costing us much. "Costly" grace, he says, "is the gospel which must be "SOUGHT" again and again, the gift which must be "ASKED FOR", the door at which a "[person] "must "KNOCK"...Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of "[God's]" Son...it is grace because God did not reckon God's Son too dear a price to pay for our life..."CONCLUSION: Perhaps a simple story, called "The Diamond Necklace", can say all this more succinctly:"The cheerful little girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a foil box. '"Oh mommy please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?"' Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. '"A dollar ninety-five. That's almost 2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."'As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her piggy bank and counted out her pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores, and she went to her neighbor, Mrs. McJames, and asked if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. And sure enough, on her birthday, Grandma gave her another new dollar bill. At last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere: to Sunday school, to kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said that if they got wet, they might turn her neck green. Jenny had a very loving Daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night as he finished the story, he asked, '"Jenny, Do you love me?" '"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you." "Then could I have your pearls? Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Princess, the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She's my very favorite." "That's okay, Honey, Daddy loves you. Good night."' And he brushed her cheek with a kiss. About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's Daddy asked again, '"Do you love me?" "Daddy, you know I love you." "Then let me have your pearls." "Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can even have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper." "That's okay. Sleep well, little one, and God bless you. Daddy loves you."' And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. A few nights later when her Daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian style. As he came close, he noticed that her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. '"What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"' Jenny didn't say anything as she lifted her little hand up to her Daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. Her voice quivering, she finally said, '"Here, Daddy; this is for you."' With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's Daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case which contained a strand of genuine pearls, and gave them to Jenny. He had had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so that he could give her the genuine treasure."
Source: wicca-teachings.blogspot.com
