Out With The Old, In With The New

A Reflection on the First Reading for March 24th, 2019:
Third Sunday of Lent

​Exodus 3.1-8a, 13-15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; Moses looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”

When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

God said further, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this my memorial for all generations.”

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​I used to believe the Old Testament was irrelevant because God had given us a shiny New Testament. Out with the old, in with the new, as they say. In time, I learned God gave us the Old Testament as a proof, a predictor, a prayer; an aperitif, stimulating our appetite for the next course. Observed through the lens of Jesus, the Old Testament orients us to Him. And our God is a God for all ages. He is the God who was, who is, and who is to come.
 
The life of Moses is a powerful example of how the old and new can rhyme; they sound the same. Adopted into royalty as an infant, Moses eventually came to recognize the tension that existed within him because of his physical and spiritual separation from his true self: a chosen son of God. He eventually walked away from his privileged life as a Prince, to live the humble life of a lowly shepherd among his own people. He shifted into a position from which he could truly lead—not above his people, but among them.

"He shifted into a position from which he could truly lead—not above his people, but among them."

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In this reading from Exodus, Moses travelled beyond the wilderness into the realm of holiness where God revealed His plans for him. An unheralded hero, an orphan, steps down from his throne and sets his people free. Of course, this was not laid out for Moses in a neatly written mission statement. God called Moses into holiness one act of obedience at a time.
 
He first commanded Moses to remove the sandals from his feet as he approached sacred territory. As though God was calling him to lay bare his very being before he was to receive the Lord’s word in truth and be set into action. And then God said, “I am the God of Abraham” (Holy), “the God of Isaac” (Holy) “and the God of Jacob” (Holy), and Moses hid his face, as I do, when I have been laid bare before God, my sin and weakness exposed. But God came not to look upon the sins of Moses, but to cleanse him and magnify his gifts so that those who were enslaved could be set on the path to freedom. This seemed like a tall order to Moses, so he questioned God, fearing the backlash of the Hebrews. But God assures him of His sovereignty—over the great spiritual leaders of the past, over the present situation as He commands the fire in the bush to blaze, but not burn, and over the future of Moses and his people. Their future lies not in the hands of Moses, but in his submission to the great I Am.
 
We too are called to lay ourselves bare before God. We are called to cast our transgressions into the fire of God’s great glory, trusting that His grace will cleanse us of our iniquity and illuminate the path to freedom before us. Out with the old, in with the new, as they say.

​Lori MacDonald

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