To See God - An Ash Wednesday Sermon

  

He went up the mountain…

          Our gospel lesson this evening begins on a geographical note. “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain.” We might be inclined to overlook a detail like this, thinking that the really significant details are WHAT he said, not WHERE he said them. Indeed, this passage which is regularly referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount,” is recorded in Luke’s gospel as “The Sermon on the Plain.” Surely the gospel writers must have been more interested in the sayings of Jesus than the locale of their utterance?

           Not so fast, for as far as Matthew’s depiction of these events is concerned, the geography tells us exactly what kind of story this is. Where Jesus delivers that sermon, it turns out, is key to understanding what is going on here. For in Jesus’ ascent up the mountain we hear an echo of another mountain long ago in Israel’s history from which the Laws of God came forth. That mountain was Sinai, and with all of Israel assembled before him, Moses went up that mountain to stand before the God of Israel and descended with laws carved into stone tablets.

And the cloud covered the mountain…

                The story of Sinai is a long one, and I won’t go into too much detail retelling it here, but you can read about it from Exodus chapter 20 and onward. After escaping Egypt through the Red Sea and wandering about for a bit in the wilderness, Moses and the people came to Mt. Sinai. When they arrived, “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’ Then the people stood at a distance while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Ex. 20.20-1). As the narrative progresses we get a number of accounts of encounters between the people, God, and Moses. The thick darkness that Moses enters here is presumably the result of the pillar of cloud that had settled upon the mountain, having led them through the wilderness to this place. We are told that, at times, this cloud would land on the tent of meeting and there, Moses would speak with God as one speaks with a friend, face to face.

 

          After Israel arrives at the mountain, and Moses has entered the thick darkness of God’s glory to receive instruction, God invites Moses to bring up Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel to enjoy a feast that will celebrate the covenant that is being reaffirmed between God and God’s people at this sacred place. During this feast, the people look up “and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.”

 

          What a sight that must have been! But, what exactly did they see? For as the story continues, the people pretty much immediately abandon this God in favour of a golden calf they built with their own hands. Did they see a golden calf standing on that sapphire pavement? While the Israelite religion expressly forbids the creation of graven images of their deity, at least according to the scriptures, nevertheless, archaeologists have dug up images that, by their inscriptions, apparently depict Yahweh and his wife. They appear to be some sort of giant cattle-type beings with who stand on two legs and have prominent genitalia. Was that what those elders saw standing on that mountain?

          I would suggest not. For as much as the story of Sinai is full of references to seeing God, near the end of their time in that place Moses begs God to let him see God in all of God’s glory. God refuses saying,

 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said ‘you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’ And the LORD continued, ‘See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.’ 

The LORD is not apprehensible by human senses. The name, “The LORD” that God announces as he passes Moses by, literally translates to something like “I will be who I will be.” The God of all creation is not limited or defined by creaturely terms of reference. God is free to be who God will be. Reflecting on this divine freedom, the 6^th century mystic theologian, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite observes that Moses “meets not with God Himself, yet he beholds–not Him indeed (for He is invisible)–but the place wherein He dwells.” What Dionysius realizes is that this narrative has not been primarily about “seeing” God in any sort of straightforward way, but rather it has been a lesson in what knowing God entails. Moses’ request to see God is denied, but he is allowed to see the place where God’s presence is. Dionysius’ insight here is crucial for understanding all the various curious accounts of Moses and the Israelites “seeing” God. Moses sees God “face to face” in the tabernacle, we are told, yet he does so in the midst of a pillar of cloud. He talks to God on the mountain, but only shrouded in thick darkness. The people see God standing on sapphire pavement, bright and clear, see-through, if you will. In each case, sight is confounded in a veil of ignorance of God’s being as such, yet inevitably it is directed to a place, and via this way of ignorance, both Moses and the people of Israel come to know God, to know God’s laws, and to truly be identified as the people of God. 

The Mountain of Sapphire Light and Thick Darkness

         So, we return once again to our initial geographic observation in our Gospel lesson. Before we can get at the content of Jesus’ sayings, we must first reckon with the One who has taken up the place where God is. For Jesus is not simply another Mosaic type, this is the Son of the Living God. Here, available for us to truly see and survive that vision is the LORD himself, the one who will be gracious to those whom He wills. Once again, as we climb up this mountain with the disciples, we see the place where God is, and this place is the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Before we are to come to terms with the sayings of Jesus, we need first to venture by way of ignorance, darkness, and strict preparation to the place where Jesus is.

We read these texts on this Ash Wednesday for a reason. We have entered into the great and Holy Lenten fast. During this time it is customary to abstain from some item of pleasure, or to take on additional practices of charity, mercy, or devotion. This year, many object to the very notion of such a fast or extra imposition of discipline saying, “We’re in a pandemic! We’ve given up so much already! Don’t force us to suffer more.” And if this is you, I understand. I said the same thing last year as I flew home from England to hide out at my parent’s farm for two months in this strange and difficult time of the virus. But this year I found myself craving the disciplines of Lent, not to revel in suffering, but to make some space, to create some intentionality, around how I use my time and how I treat my body in a world that has become quite strange indeed. We have all found ourselves stranded in our homes this year, cut off from much of what we love and hold dear about this world and we are ignorant of how much more is to come.

Near the beginning of the pandemic, I came across the words of a monk who lived in Egypt many centuries after Moses led his people out of that land. This monk, also named Moses, said to his disciples, “Stay in your cell, for your cell will teach you everything.” I’ve pondered this saying a lot this year, as I’ve spent the vast majority of my time in a little home office just a few feet wide in either direction.

A rough contemporary of Abba Moses was another monk named Evagrius. Evagrius was captivated by the idea that the LORD of hosts had been revealed to Israel through the paradoxes of sapphire blue light and thick darkness. He taught that through much prayer, discipline, and meditation, we too could ascend a certain internal holy mountain and learn to “see” God’s sapphire blue light in the midst of the thick darkness of this world. But we would not do so easily, or straightforwardly. For Evagrius knew that the life of discipline, study, and prayer that was required was very difficult, he identified 8 “thoughts” that could tempt monks to abandon their pursuit of pure prayer. For Evagrius,“…the first thought of all is that of love of self (philautia); after this [come] the eight” (Skemmata, 53). The eight thoughts are as follows:

1.     Gluttony

2.     Sexual immorality

3.     Love of money

4.     Sadness

5.     Anger

6.     Acedia

7.     Vainglory

8.     Pride

For Evagrius, these thoughts are not as yet, sins, but if entertained, give rise to mortal sins, thus they must be resisted. All manner of techniques were developed out in the desert to resist these thoughts, not simply because it is good to resist sin, but because it is worth it to catch a glimpse of God’s sapphire blue light. It is worth it, to see God. Moses, before he approached the mountain at Sinai, prepared all of Israel, they washed, they purified, they consecrated, and only then did Moses ascend into the thick darkness of that mountain top. He remained there for forty days, and in the end, he saw the place where God’s glory was.

          In a moment, we will receive the sign of the cross in ashes upon our forehead. You will hear these words, “Remember O Mortal, that dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” With this thick dark cloud of ashes upon our brows reminding us of our mortality and our finitude, we enter this season of Lent. We enter this season of fasting and penitence each of us still basically stuck in our little cells, alone, bored, frustrated, mourning, struggling, and anxious. But I would invite you to receive these ashes as a first step into the thick darkness of God’s glory. As we journey together through this season of Lent, perhaps you will fast, perhaps not, perhaps you will perform acts of mercy or charity, perhaps not, but each of you, in your own way, through the strange pathways of the way of ignorance, have been invited to start climbing up the holy mountain. The 8 thoughts may try and discourage you, and I’ll be the first to admit that I am daily afflicted by everything on this list, but you will persevere. You will persevere because at the summit of that holy mountain is not an indifferent deity who delights in our suffering. NO, God is the one who has determined to be gracious to His people. And it is none other than this gracious God who himself climbs up the mountain on our behalf, sits down, and begins again to teach us, his disciples. And what is it that this God says? What word do we find coming out of the place where God’s glory sits? What do the sayings of this Jesus of Nazareth have to offer us? Simply this, he declares to you “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Amen.