Readings: Haggai 2:1-9, Heaven & Hell #286 (see below)
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Photo credit: Francesco Ungaro on Pexels

This week we prepare ourselves, with one final text, to take a break from our Old Testament journey for a time. Last week we visited Joshua’s final chapter. As leader of the Children of Israel, he settled them in the promised land, and towards the end of his days, he guided them into a renewal of their ongoing covenant with God.

Now we fast forward again, several hundred years. In the intervening time, the Israelites coalesced into a nation with a succession of kings, some good some bad. They split into two nations, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom eventually fell to Assyria and the people were scattered. And then the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians, and the people there taken into exile in Babylon. Finally, Babylon was defeated by Persia and the Persian king allowed the people of Judah to return to Jerusalem. They are faced with the arduous work of rebuilding their society, and the physical rebuilding of the temple becomes a important part of that effort. Which brings us to Haggai. 

We don’t know much about Haggai. He was a prophet from around 520BCE and his existing writings take up a brief one page of the bible as we know it now. As joyful as the return from exile must have been, it also was a complicated process of reintegration and restoration, socially, economically, and spiritually.

In our text for today, Haggai speaks to the stakeholders in the new rebuilding process: the governor and the high priest, and to the people overall. After a seventy year exile, not many of them remember a time before the temple was anything but rubble. We can resonate if they were looking at a project that seemed insurmountable. Perhaps many wanted to give up. Perhaps many were not even sure what they were building for anymore. 

But Haggai reminds them to be strong, and to remember that God has been with them the whole time, and that their covenant with God remains in effect. Though ups and downs, though defeat and exile, and now on the precipice of the daunting task of restoration, Haggai reminds them that God remains present and that the ultimate destination is peace. And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

The Hebrew word for peace here is shalom. I won’t pretend to be an expert on how the notion of shalom is understood within the Jewish context. But I *have* always resonated with the way that shalom is used in the bible: to indicate a peace is not just about quietness, or the absence of conflict, but also about wholeness or completeness.

God does indeed promise us peace. and yet the journey we have been following these several weeks has seemed anything but peaceful. What seemed like the biggest main event: being freed from slavery in Egypt by Moses, was indeed integral but it turned out to be only the beginning. It didn’t bring peace, it started the journeying.

When we start to take steps away from the false ideas, narratives, allegiances, and habits represented by Egypt in our spiritual life, that doesn’t mean our journey will be smooth sailing from there on out. If there is anything we have learned from journeying with the Children of Israel it is this truth. In fact, coming out of Egypt can make us feel very vulnerable, and also impatient. I mean, come on, can’t we have the peace already. Where is the peace? Aren’t we there yet?

And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

What place then? Because, as much as we would love it to be so, the physical restoration of the temple spoken of here by Haggai would not be the end of the story either. The temple would indeed be rebuilt and eventually the Jewish people would have a few hundred precious years of self-rule. And then along would come the Roman Empire, and we find ourselves in the time of Jesus. Not long after that, the temple is destroyed once more, never to be rebuilt again.
So “this place” can’t be the physical temple. What is it then? I think the answer has to be contained within the notion of shalom itself. “This place” must be the wholeness and completeness that we are able to find in God.

It is two years now since we lost one of the most beloved members of our community: Millie Laakko. And this week, my mind kept being pulled to these words from her memorial sermon:

I think Millie is who we all want to be when we grow up. She was an angel but not because she was good, it was because she was whole. She combined love with discernment, compassion with clarity, intention with action. We will miss her so terribly, and not only because she was awesome and lovely, but because she reminded us, though her steadfast love and kindness, that we were awesome and lovely too.

She was an angel but not because she was good, it was because she was whole. Even as I wrote those words two years ago, I had no idea where they came from, they just felt true. Goodness is indeed a stepping stone, but goodness is also sometimes such a slippery creature. Good according to who? It is necessarily subjective, necessarily buried in the multitude of relationships that human beings have with other human beings, necessarily entwined with the nuanced question of what we owe to each other. Goodness is a difficult target to hit sometimes.

Wholeness though? Doesn’t that feel like a completely different game? Wholeness is something woven rather than targeted, it is something lived into rather than achieved. And in that way, I think it is much more a sibling to peace than goodness could ever be.

I have always loved Aristotle’s notion of the Golden Mean. In his philosophy known as “virtue ethics” Artistotle posited that in order for people to “flourish” as human beings, we should strive for a balance in virtues. Anger for example, should only be exhibited at the right time, in the right amount, for the right purpose. Too much, and we are volatile and cruel, too little and we are a doormat. Or generosity: too much and we do nothing but take care of others, never taking a moment for our God-given individuality, too little and we think of nothing but ourselves. Or courage: too much and we are impulsive, too little and we are cowardly. And so it goes for every quality a human being can possess.

The Golden Mean feels much closer to the idea of wholeness than goodness does, in the same way that the notion of “flourishing” is not the same as “happiness.” It hinges on a sense of balance, but more importantly, a sense of awareness. Awareness, or as it is sometimes called, mindfulness, is one of the most important practices that we can bring to our spiritual journey. It helps us to make space for reflection, for accountability, for nuance, for compexity, and to integrate those reflections and experiences into the way we live our lives. In terms of the Golden Mean, a commitment to awareness allows us to be flexible, to make the decisions that keep our virtues and characteristics in balance, even when or especially when our natures might tend in one direction or another. This feels much less about rightness, but rather about wisdom. And I don’t know about you, but the moment I start thinking about wisdom rather than rightness, I start feeling more peaceful. (Which I have to admit must be progress for someone like me who has always had a fair bit of teacher’s pet energy!)
And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” Rather than calling on the Israelites to build a physical space that could mediate peace, I believe that Haggai was calling the displaced and dispirited Israelites into an eternal space of wholeness, anchored in the ongoing presence of God. In their specific moment of personal and national restoration, he called them to remembrance, to strength, and to steadfast work. He called them to a sense of being shaken up, knowing that, in the spirit of wisdom and awareness, it would always bring them back to the glory of God, as it always had and always will.

During these days, these difficult and dispiriting days, let me ask: what is it that is keeping you whole? What is it that is keeping you in balance? What is it that is keeping you anchored in the ongoing presence of God? Our answers may differ, and they may change, but the asking will always lead us towards shalom.
For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. This is all we need to know. Amen.


Readings:

Haggai 2:1-9

1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:
2 “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them,
3 ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?
4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
6 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty.
8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Heaven & Hell #286

…Divine peace is within the Lord, arising from the oneness of his divine nature and the divine human nature within him. The divine quality of peace in heaven comes from the Lord, arising from his union with heaven's angels, and specifically from the union of the good and the true within each angel. These are the sources of peace. We may therefore conclude that peace in the heavens is the divine nature intimately affecting everything good there with blessedness. So it is the source of all the joy of heaven. In its essence, it is the divine joy of the Lord's divine love, arising from his union with heaven and with every individual there.

Readings: Joshua 24:1-3, 14-25, Secrets of Heaven 8560 (see below)
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Photo by Jeremy Boley on Unsplash


When we last left the Children of Israel, two weeks ago, Moses had just died, and the people were about to enter into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Now we fast forward to Joshua’s final chapter. The Israelites have spent many years finding their place in the land, and that has included many battles against various antagonists. As Joshua is about to leave them, he gives a farewell speech that is designed to reinvigorate their commitment to their covenant with God.

We will recognize this renewing of the covenant as an ongoing theme in the life of the Israelites, and of course, in ourselves. We, too, enter into covenants, we too make statements and stands and promises to ourselves and the people around us and to God. We might do so in particular and important ways on particular and important days: for example, when we get married, the day our children are born or baptized, our first day at a new job or our first day at school, a naturalization ceremony, or an election day, just to name a few.

But as important as each of those days are, days that establish a covenant, days when we actively make a stand or a decision that will dictate the shape of all of our future days, each of the days that come in-between are important as well. Days when we are tired and sad and distracted, days when no one is going to throw us a party for just showing up, days that feel like we might not be making progress, days that we feel we can just let slide.

We are making choices on those days too. Smaller choices, sure, more mundane choices, perhaps, repeated choices, definitely. But less important choices, I don’t think so. The point of a covenant, the way in which it becomes something that forms and shapes what our future looks like, hinges on whether or not we uphold that covenant in our each and every day. We are not necessarily going to do that perfectly all the time, of course, but what we do in the aggregate matters, the overall direction of our intention matters, and our willingness to put in the work matters.

But somewhere within the multitude of those ordinary days, we will all need a pep talk sometimes, we will all need a reminder as to why we entered the covenant in the first place. And this is what Joshua was doing for the Children of Israel. Our reading was only a portion of the speech, so we don’t hear everything he says in the reading, but one thing he does do is take them through their history, reminding them of what God has done for them. He reminds them about God’s call to Abraham, about how God brought them out of slavery and brought them to victory in the promised land. Joshua also brings it into the personal realm, saying…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, demonstrating solidarity and humility as a leader. 

And, as the people declare their loyalty to God, Joshua tests them a little. Are you sure? he asks. Are you really sure? Because there will be some risk to serving God, some cost to our selfhood and our comfort. Once we decide we want to align with divine love, we find that it is not just about warm fuzzy happy feelings. Making a stand for love, justice, integrity and righteousness is not always easy. All our worst impulses will find their way to the surface one way or another, and the demands of love will cause there to be conflict between our own selfishness and fear, and what God is calling us to. But the alternative is serving those other gods of selfishness and fear. The alternative is giving in to them, and letting that be our covenant, letting that be the shape of our lives.

If we don’t want that, then we must return to our covenant with God and renew it as needed. We say as Joshua did, as for me and my house—as for me and my actions, my choices—we will serve the Lord, and we do so as a remembrance of what is important to us. We do so as a remembrance of how far we have come. And we do so as an act of hope, an act of speaking into being the shape of our future days. As the text says, we do so in order to be witnesses both for and against ourselves…we draw our line in the sand to be visible on the days we are grateful *and* on the days we want to give up. “No, we will serve the Lord.” say the Children of Israel “Yes, we are witnesses.” We do our part. Then sometimes we forget to do our part. And so we remember to do our part again. We commit to showing up again and again and again.
What is key to remember though, is that God’s providence in our lives, God’s leading us forth, is not contingent of whether *we* renew the covenant or remember the covenant. God’s providence for us is already existent, already active, because God’s loving nature demands that it be so. The renewal of the covenant, choosing *this day* who we will serve, is choosing to step into providence that is already happening, choosing to respond as gracefully and as actively as we can to the flow, choosing acknowledgment and gratitude and conscious partnership.
The problem with this is that sometimes we think in transactional terms. Our earthly lives are largely lived in transactional terms: do this to get that. But God’s providence is different. It is already happening, and *not* just already happening in the good things, but already happening in all parts of our lives. When we renew the covenant we are remembering this important aspect as well. We are remembering that through God’s love and wisdom, *all* things can make a contribution towards a person’s life to eternity. We heard this from our reading:

God's providence is different from any other kind of leading or guidance in that it constantly has in view what is eternal and is constantly leading to salvation. It does so through various states, sometimes joyful and at other times miserable; and though these are beyond the person's comprehension they all nevertheless make a contribution towards [a person’s] life into eternity.

This is essentially what Joshua’s warning was about. The covenant is not about ensuring that only good things happen going forward, and we are not promised there won’t be miserable times. We are promised that God’s leading has an eternal view, and that all things move us toward our ultimate transformation, if we let them, if we keep our hearts and minds open to the possibility. Sometimes, the miserable things are even more instructive to us than the good things. (Which, let’s be honest, totally sucks!) But, when we know the point of the covenant is transformation (and not primarily comfort) then we have a greater chance of accepting this truth with equanimity. When things are going well, God is leading. When things are not going well, God is still leading.

You see, the covenant exists in perpetuity because of one thing only: God’s steadfastness. The one true God exists; and the choice is ours, whom will we serve? Whom will we serve on the day after election day, a month after the new year, five years after getting a new job, a decade after our wedding day, and so on. Will we continue to serve the cause of love, of inclusion, of truth, of honesty, of integrity, of courage?

In the words of Father Thomas Keating: we should begin a new world with one that actually exists.(1) This is what God does with us everyday, and the world through us. We renew and we renew, we say okay this day, and now this day, and now this day we will serve the Lord, and thus we make a new world each day with the one that existed before.

Amen.

(1)Thomas Keating, Fr. Thomas Keating’s Last Oracle (Contemplative Network: 2020), transcription (October 2018).

Readings:
Joshua 24:1-3, 14-25

1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.

14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” 19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” 21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.” 22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. 23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.” 25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws.

Secrets of Heaven #8560

God's providence is different from any other kind of leading or guidance in that it constantly has in view what is eternal and is constantly leading to salvation. It does so through various states, sometimes joyful and at other times miserable; and though these are beyond the person's comprehension they all nevertheless make a contribution towards [a person’s] life into eternity.

Readings: Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Secrets of Heaven #5757 & #1413 (see below)
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Photo by Konstantin Kleine on Unsplash

Today we come to the end of Moses’ journey. The children of Israel are close to the promised land, and Moses climbs a mountain in order to get an unimpeded view. He can see the sweep of the entire land before him. 

And in one sense, this is a sad story. Moses will not get to step foot in the promised land. This is because of an incident in Numbers 20, a time when God was displeased with Moses and enacted this particular consequence. And in another way, it is a perfect time for a transition in leadership. Joshua has already been designated by the Lord to be Moses’ successor, and Moses has commissioned him in the presence of the people. A new leader to take them forth into a new land. It is implied in the text that it was God’s own self who buried Moses; a tender and intimate gesture.(1) The people grieved for thirty days, and Moses remains the greatest prophet of the Jewish tradition. 

We’ve been following the Israelites on their journey toward the promised land for six weeks now. This seems like a good time to talk a little bit about the promised land and what it represents in the Swedenborgian worldview. For Swedenborg, all things in the Bible represent an aspect of our own interior, spiritual landscape. These representations have levels of meaning; levels that through their connected significance, work to bind us to each other, to heaven and ultimately, to God. So therefore, most things in the bible will have mulitple internal meanings: a personal or individual meaning, a communal meaning, a heavenly or spiritual meaning and then finally, a meaning relating to God’s self.

And so it is with the notion of “land,” and specifically, the promised land. The Israelites spent a long time heading towards that “land” that was promised to them, a holy land, a land of milk and honey. When we think about what “land” means to us, there are several things that come to mind. Land is something we walk upon, something that we enter into, that has boundaries, that gives shape and form to our journeys, that connects us to our ancestors, a place where we might make a home, a place that might inform our character, a space we inhabit as we live our lives.

Moses climbed the mountain and the Lord “showed him the whole land.” and said “this is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob….I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes…” The land is both promise and destination.

And it is in this metaphorical and poetic, yet concrete, sense that Swedenborg talks about all the different things that the “promised land” means in these stories. In a personal way, the promised land represents the potential of our spiritual journey, the mature internal space to which we are heading, our angelic shape that is revealed through the process of spiritual growth. In a communal way, the land represents the earthly communities that we all seek, that shape and guide our journeys, support our growth. In a concrete terms, this means the church, or whatever other kind of spiritual community in which we gather. In more mystical terms, it means the Lord’s kingdom, the embodiment of justice and love in all human community in this world. 

And the meanings continue: on a spiritual level, the promised land represents heaven; the ultimate formative community, the force that shapes us into angels, the destination of our soul, the place where we will find active and peaceful belonging. And finally, in an ultimate way, the land represents the Lord, the elemental love and wisdom that we are all heading toward, from whom all these subsequent levels flow, and not just in a top down way, but as a loving vibrant pulse of life from the inside. (2)

This multi-level promise and opportunity of “the promised land” is the way that God shows up for us, the divine intentionality and vision that God has for us and our lives. The journey that the children of Israel have taken in these past weeks, represent aspects of *our* ongoing journey in relationship to God’s vision, a path away from that which enslaves our thinking and our feeling, and towards the promise of the land: a spiritually mature selfhood, beloved and just earthly community, supportive heavenly community, and a resilient connection to our God.

But, I found one little addition to all this talk about land that seems to take it even further. Swedenborg mentions that the inner meaning of “land” is different to that of the “ground.”(3) The land is the community or the spiritually mature person who is still yet to exist, it’s what we are working towards, while the ground represents when that reality comes into being. And that really resonates for me. When we see the land, when we think of the land, or even of *our* land, we think of it in a broad sweep, like when Moses is on the mountain top, but the ground, the ground is something we touch and interact with. We put our hands in the ground, we work the ground, when we speak of someone being in touch with their own life and selfhood, we call them “grounded.” If we are going to live our lives in the promised land, if we want to inhabit the land, really inhabit the generative opportunities that God is giving us, we have to pay attention to the ground, to the everyday details and relationships and structures of our lives. To bring the reality of God’s vision for us into being, we are going to have to get to know the ground of our lives, till it and plant it, water it and nurture it. In Swedenborgian terms, the process of becoming an angel, or regenerating, is pictured in seeing land become ground, or seeing faith growing through love. (4)

And I find this a really useful way to picture the difference between vision and actuality. There are times when we need to be inspired by a grand vision, to know that there is somewhere purposeful and hopeful in the direction that we are heading. This is seeing the land from the mountaintop, like Moses. And then there are the times when we just need to get to work to make that vision happen. The children of Israel were not going to be able to inhabit the promised land by staying up on that mountain. They were going to have to come down to the ground and engage with the realities of inhabiting that land. And they would find plenty of challenges ahead for them.

And this is why Moses will often also signify divine truth (5). It is the purpose of truth to show us what is possible, and what is real, to be up there on the mountain and show us the whole of the land. And perhaps, like me, you are feeling overwhelmed by being up on the mountain these days, by seeing the broad sweep of what is happening in our country, seeing the truth of incompetence and cruelty and a naked desire for power. There is beauty on the mountain top but sometimes we also find fear, for the purpose of truth is to communicate reality, and the reality is that human beings sometimes ignore the promise of God’s vision for us.

Sometimes, maybe even each day, there will be part of us up on that mountain. We need those big picture moments. Moses was the vision, he saw the way out of slavery, he connected the people with God and translated God’s vision of the new land for them. He gave shape and reality to the covenant. 

But the mountain top is not supposed to be our home, the promised land is our home.
And so another part of us will need to scrabble down that mountain, cross into the land and get busy tending the ground so that it can bear nourishment, so that it can be a place where our choices do some good, where our heavenly natures can start really coming into being. Knowing the mountain top truth alone won’t make the promised land our home, won’t make it so we know the ground, and won’t make the ground fertile and nourishing. Only embodied, active love at the ground level of our lives and our world can do that. And it takes time, determination, courage to bear fruit. But it will, because the promised land is God’s intention and vision for us all.

So, this really is a sad poignant story. A great man passed and the people mourned. Sometimes we would prefer to stay up on the mountain, stay in the anticipation of God’s kingdom. But, Moses’ death also marks the next important part of the journey: turning the land into the ground. We need to be able to see and appreciate God’s divine intention for us, and then we need to be able make it our own. To turn hope into love, truth into justice at the ground level where it makes a difference in people’s lives.

Amen.

1. Commentary by Sara Koenig, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2213
2. Emmanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven #1413 and #5757
3. Ibid #566
4. Ibid #662
5. Ibid #7796

Readings:

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

1 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” 5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. 9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. 12 For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Secrets of Heaven #5757 & #1413

5757 The land of Canaan symbolizes a range of things…It symbolizes the Lord’s kingdom and it symbolizes the church, so it also symbolizes someone in the church…

1413 Because it represented the Lord's kingdom, it also represented and symbolized spiritual and heavenly qualities of the Lord's kingdom and, here, of the Lord himself.

Readings: Exodus 33:12-23, 34:1-2, 4-5, 8-10, Secrets of Heaven 10579:9 (see below)
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Photo credit: Harry Cooke on Pexels

So, I need to be completely honest with you this week. I’m feeling conflicted about this text. I’m owning it, because it’s my own stuff. I’d always remembered this text out of context, just the final section about seeing God’s glory, about Moses being put in a cleft of the rock and seeing God’s back as God passes by. And I had always interpreted it in a kind of warm, safe, protective way, like when for a little child the whole world is just their parent’s legs and their face is so far away, and that it was more about Moses safety than anything else.

But, it takes on a different cast when seen in the context of the whole story. It seems a little more withholding, a bit more about God enacting a boundary, and that’s different than I remembered. So, let’s recap. We find ourselves in chapter 33 today, very close to where we left off last week. The children of Israel had made and worshiped the golden calf. Moses then comes down from the mountain enraged, and throws down the tablets on which the ten commandments were written and they break into pieces, a heartbreaking picture of a covenant in shambles. There are excuses made and punishments enacted. When Moses returns to the Lord on the mountain, the Lord says that Moses and the Israelites are to continue the journey but that God will send an angel as God’s proxy to lead them. This feels like a blow, and the people mourn God’s actual presence with them. They are now starting to truly understand how they have damaged the covenant.

So Moses once again tries to advocate for the children of Israel. He petitions God with an insistence that God’s presence remain with the people, and God eventually acquiesces. But Moses goes even further, and desires to see God’s glory. He is intent that things should return to as they were before the golden calf. God even agrees to this and says: I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. This is in a sense, a complete reset, recalling the other time, the first time, that the Lord proclaimed God’s name, I AM, Yahweh in Hebrew, in Moses’ presence, all the way back at the burning bush. But, God also adds this final word: “But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Turning now to our Swedenborgian interpretation, we are brought, as always, to a recognition that these interactions are a picture of our own internal processes. Swedenborg speaks of a rock being our faith, and a cleft in that rock being our experience of obscurity. God’s face represents Divine Truth, but in those obscure and uncertain times when we are focused on external things, when we are unwilling to ground ourselves in the practice of goodness, love, mercy, and peace, we won’t be able to see the truth of how necessary these things are. In those moments when we can’t connect with the practice of goodness, when we are confused about it, when we are resisting it, we won’t be able to see God’s face because God’s essential nature will always be Divine Truth given soul and life by Divine Goodness. (1)

And so that doesn’t make me feel any better about the way I used to understand this text either. It is still a picture of *not* being in connection with God, and less so a picture of God’s protection and care.

Or is it? Perhaps I am wrong?

Because the very next thing that God says is: “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets that you broke.” The very next thing that God does is to re-establish the covenant. Once Moses does this, he bows to the ground and says: …forgive our wickedness and our sins and take us as your inheritance.” And God replies: I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people, I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.” (Exodus 34:1-10)

Well, that last bit certainly is enthusiastic on the part of God! I don’t know about you, and it’s not a good look, I admit, but I know I personally tend to be a little more tentative when repairing a relationship. I’m maybe not going to proclaim how amazing it is going to be when it is already failed before. But here God is all in. And I’m realizing of course, that God is always all in, and that it is us who need to learn how to be ready for that. 

Because, I hadn’t realized until reading this text within the whole of the narrative that until Moses said “forgive our wickedness” there had actually been no apology for the golden calf, well at least not one that didn’t seem mired in excuses, and triangulation, and defensiveness. Restoration is a process, and God showed up to that process in a way that inspired the children of Israel to repent, that little by little inspired them to do the self-examination that was required for them to be able to re-enter the covenant.

Sometimes when we have done something wrong, knowingly or unknowingly, it does feel like we are thrown into a cleft of a rock. It feels uncomfortable and cramped and pokey. And repentance and self-examination isn’t easy. God knows this. If seeing God’s back is all we can manage at that time, that is all we will see, if we need a hand covering over the intensity of God’s glory and God’s call, it will be there for us. But the trajectory is always going to be to get to the renewal and the continuation of the covenant. We are not supposed to get cozy in the cleft. The cleft and God’s hand are protecting us in the moment, modulating whatever of Divine Truth we can understand, accept and absorb, but ultimately the goal is to stand up on the rock of our faith. To stand up on our own two feet so that we can then choose to bow down with a full knowledge of our shortcomings and a real desire to make restitution. Perhaps we can understand the communion we are able to take together, as a ritualistic way to, once a month, climb out of the cleft and pay attention to where God is leading us.

Knowing as we do, that the literal sense of the bible tells the story of God from a human point of view, when we wish to show up half-heartedly and tentatively to the covenant, then it may seem that God does so as well. We receive what we make space for, and God won’t force us to accept God’s presence unwillingly. But God is very patient. There are times we need a holding pattern, and so God holds us. Which I guess does seem like protection and nurture after all. We just can’t see God’s face in these holding times because God is leading us out of the cleft and into the covenant. And so thank goodness God is facing forward on our behalf.

In the words of Father Thomas Keating: God is not just with us, not just beside us, not just under us, not just over us, but within us, at the deepest level, and in our inmost being, a step beyond the true self.
Amen.

1. Emmanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven #10579 and #10582
   
   

Readings:

Exodus 33:12-23, 34:1-2, 4-5, 8-10

12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” 14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 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. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

34:1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD.

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
10 Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.

Secrets of Heaven #10579:9

Anyone can understand what 'Jehovah's face' serves to mean in these places, namely the Divine and everything which is an attribute of the Divine. Thus His 'face' serves to mean mercy, peace, and every kind of good, but in the universal sense Divine Truth since Divine Truth encompasses every kind of good. Both among people in the world and among angels in heaven Divine Good is embodied within Divine Truth; without it Divine Good does not exist, for truth is the receiver of good, thus also of mercy and peace. From this it now follows that where Divine Good does not exist within Divine Truth, neither does Jehovah's face. It also follows that where evil exists within falsity the Divine is not seen. This is what Jehovah's hiding His face and turning it away is used to mean…