Years ago I had a sort of political epiphany. I don’t remember which it election it was, but I do remember that one of the big themes of the candidates in the election was “family values”. It seemed that every time a candidate from whichever party expounded on running a campaign on “family values”, there would be a loud cheer from the crowd . . . after all, who doesn’t believe in “family values”. I know that it caught my attention, but then I started thinking about it . . . “family values”.
Whose “family values” were the candidates running on?
Were the candidates running on the “family values” that my wife and I embraced? Or were they running on the “family values” of the family down the street that seemed to be constantly in an uproar with yelling and screaming every night spilling out of their house? Or were they talking about the family down the other side of the street . . . the ones who had been married several times, had kids in each marriage, and a person needed a program just to know which kids belonged to which parents? Or were they talking about the single mother who was working two jobs and trying her darnedest to keep the family intact? Which “family values” were they actually running on?
That was my epiphany . . . “family values” does not mean the same thing to every person . . . each person has his or her own understanding of what “family values” means. Politicians just hope that most people don’t get beyond the impact of the phrase and really think about what it is that they are promising . . . they just want the vote. They project an image of something you want to believe, but that first moment when they step beyond that image . . . well, we are floored. We are floored because we thought we knew the individual . . . and, obviously, we did not. That is the ambiguity of politics.
Ambiguity is at the center of our scripture reading this morning. One dictionary defined ambiguity as “the quality of being open to more than one interpretation.” One of the synonyms for ambiguity is “uncertainty” . . . and, I think that is a good understanding of the word.
God and Moses have been through a lot together. They have faced Pharaoh and worked the exit of the people from captivity in Egypt. They have wandered around the wilderness and endured the constant whining of the people. They have faced a crisis in which the people turned against God . . . angered God . . . and, Moses pleads for their lives. Together they have seen the highs, and experienced the lows. They have grown close . . . become friends. Now, Moses pushes the boundaries of that friendship by wanting to know the core essence of who God is . . . to have God completely open to him . . . to know God in the most intimate way. Moses says to God: “Now show me your glory.”
Moses wants to know God.
Does this sound familiar . . . a sort of deja vu? Didn’t Moses want God to tell him God’s name in their earliest encounter? And, didn’t God answer Moses in a cryptic manner by telling Moses that God’s names was “YHWH” (YahWeh) . . . meaning “I am who I am”? Sure it does! But, now Moses thinks that because he and God had been through so much together, that God would be willing to reveal it all.
God’s response? Ambiguity.
God says to Moses: “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
As one commentator put it: “The power of the passage is in fact found in its ambiguity. Moses’ specific requests to see God’s ways and God’s glory are rebuffed, and all he, and we, are allowed to see is God’s . . . whatever! Wake? Train? After? So it is with this God. YHWH is holy and other and fleet and is not to be seen so easily or readily or clearly.” In other words, God is who God is . . . whatever glimpse any of us is afforded . . . God is a mystery. Just when we seem to think that we know and understand God, God goes and throws us a curveball . . . and, we feel as if we are starting all over once again.
I think that it is human nature to think that everyone is the same . . . that we all act and think the same way; but, the truth is we are all different. We act differently . . . we think differently. We are all unique and special creations created in the image of God . . . we are different. Yet, we think that everyone is just like us because we live in the same community, belong to the same clubs, and go to the same church. But that just isn’t true . . . that is not reality. Reality is that we are all different . . . if we were all the same . . . well, then . . . we sure wouldn’t have so many arguments, disagreements, and fights. Life would be pretty harmonious.
I don’t think that it takes a degree in rocket science to look around us and see that there is not too much harmony in our world and existence today. We are not the same. We do not act the same. We do not think the same. We are all different. And, when we are honest with ourselves, and take serious stock in our lives, we have to admit that there is a lot of ambiguity in our lives . . . there is a lot of uncertainty.
When it comes to life there is just a lot of uncertainty.
And, so it is with faith.
What is faith? For some faith is reading your bible, saying your prayers, and going to church each Sunday morning. For others it is belonging to a fellowship or bible study group. For others it is standing up to injustice, seeking peace, and seeking what is believed to be God’s will. And, for others it is going off to some beautiful place in God’s creation and sitting in the awesomeness of God. And, the odds are, each of you could add your own understanding of what it means to be a person of faith . . . and, you would all be right. Faith manifests itself differently in each and every one of us . . . after all, God created us unique and special unto ourselves.
This creates ambiguity.
We all want to believe that every person thinks like we do . . . is going to act like we act . . . is going to be like us. And, rarely, do we ever experience that. Instead we experience ambiguity . . . uncertainty, and this creates frustration. Frustration because we want others to be like us . . . to think like us . . . to act like us. But, they don’t.
There is no cure for ambiguity. But, there is a process in dealing with ambiguity . . . of dealing with uncertainty . . . of dealing with the mystery. That process is dialogue . . . dialogue with that which is creating the ambiguity and uncertainty in our lives. Think about it . . . through dialogue we are able to ask questions, listen, and come to some sort of understanding that opens up for us new possibilities . . . new relationships . . . and, new understanding of who we are, who God is, and who others are. Through dialogue we grow.
Ambiguity . . . uncertainty . . . is okay. It is necessary if we are to fully grow into who we are. We may never completely know whatever it is that is creating the feelings of ambiguity or uncertainty, but we will be that much closer if we take the time to dialogue.
Moses did not ever come to completely know God in all of God’s glory, but he did come to realize that the presence of God was always with him in ways that he understood . . . and, in ways that were a complete mystery to him. And, so it is with each of us.
May we bless our fellow sojourners in the journey of faith . . . each on his or her own journey . . . realizing that our paths are towards the same goal, but are not the same. May we bless our fellow sojourners with dialogue and openness to their experience of God. May we find peace in the ambiguity of faith . . . in the mystery of what it means to love God completely and to love others. May we find what we are looking for. Amen.
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