Where is God active in your life?
When God first calls out to Moses from the burning bush in the Book of Exodus, Moses would have immediately understood fire to be a manifestation of divine power, but he might have been confused by the fact that God was appearing in Midian where Moses is living in exile, rather than in the land of the people of Israel, since that people believed that God was tied to their own land and would only work within it. But God has no limitations about where God works: I am who am is God’s way of proclaiming that God is always, that God exists always as an active presence in our lives, reaching into our human difficulty and changing it. Moses thus acquires a new understanding: God is always with him, kind and merciful, as Psalm 103 reminds us, calling us to relationship and showering blessings on God’s people. Moses is thus called to reclaim his identity within the people of Israel, that he might lead them out of the land of Egypt; Moses’ understanding of God’s active presence has grown immeasurably through his encounter with I am who am.
God is always with us, yet each encounter with God is different, because we change, because our understanding of our relationship with I am who am grows. During his journey to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus works to remind the people that their relationship with God requires an ongoing transformation of the way they live. But if we hold that relationship at bay, refusing to allow God to work in our lives, death will come: if you do not repent, he says, you will perish as the Galileans slaughtered by Pilate or eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Unlike the fig tree that bears no fruit and is threatened with destruction, we must keep deepening our relationship with God, continuing to bear fruit. Or, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. The Corinthians must be careful not to be like the ancestors whom God struck down in the desert, arrogant about salvation. Christ is a life-giving source to us only if we are open to him, only if we are willing to accept the life he calls us to, and live it.
The work of God happens among as we breathe; we must be open to it, cultivating and fertilizing the ground, that we might grow in faith. The Christian life calls us to grow in God’s presence, to live our faith that Christ – I am who am – is alive within us and among us. We are called to openly receive Christ in our lives, ever anew, never the same, and to allow him to work in us, every day, that we might reveal his presence to our world.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s 2013 Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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