Before the Burning Bush

Introduction

The many I am’s of Jesus

The gospel of St. John abounds with ”I am’s” coming from the mouth of Jesus. In the 6^th chapter he says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. The one who eats this bread will live forever”(Jn 6:51) In the 8^th chapter: “I am the light of the world. Who follows me will have the light of life and will not walk in the darkness” (Jn 8:12). In 14^th chapter: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). In the 10^th chapter: “I am the gate to the sheepfold. Whoever enters through me will be safe and sound, and will be able to come and go and find green pastures” (Jn 10:9). Last Sunday in the 10^th chapter, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep”” (Jn 10:11). And today, on this fifth Sunday of Easter in the 15^th chapter of John, he says, “I am the vine and you are the branches and my Father is the gardener “ (Jn 15:5).

The one great I AM of Jesus

But then one day, Jesus simply says, “I AM,” “EGO SUM.” Period! No longer, “I am the bread of life” or “I am the way, the truth and the life” or “I am the sheep gate” or “I am the vine.” No… just “I AM.” On that occasion he is engaged in a heated verbal scrap with the religious Jewish authorities who simply refuse to believe in him and his words, and who are even trying to murder him. “You people claim that Abraham is your father, “ he says to them, “but I tell you your real father is the devil, and you love to do the evil things that he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and a hater of the truth”(Jn 8:44). They snarl back at him saying, “Why you dirty Samaritan! We’ve said all along that you’re possessed by a demon” (Jn 8:48). The bitter exchange ends with Jesus claiming, “Whoever accepts my words will never see death” (Jn 8:51).

That’s too much for them. “Now we know that you are crazy,” they cry out. “Why Abraham died and the prophets died, and yet you say, `Whoever accepts my words will never see death.’ Are you greater than Abraham who died and the prophets who died? Who in the world are you making yourself out to be?” “Let me tell you something about your father Abraham,” Jesus replies. “His great joy was that he would one day see my coming. He saw it and rejoiced. “ “What! they exclaimed. “Abraham died forty-two generations ago and you’re not even fifty years old, and you say that Abraham has seen you and you have seen Abraham” (Jn 8:52-56)? Then comes this cryptic reply out of the mouth of Jesus: “I tell you in all truth that before Abraham came to be I AM” (Jn 8:58). Jesus is telling the authorities that he was in existence even before Abraham was ever born.

The great I AM of Yahweh

Now God’s name is I AM. The Hebrew word for I AM is Yahweh. Recall the day when Moses is tending the sheep and an angel of the Lord appears to him in a fire burning out of a bush, and he is surprised to see that the fire isn’t consuming the bush. As he draws near, God calls out to him, saying, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy ground.” Then the Lord God says to Moses, “I have heard the cry of the Israelites and have come to deliver them out of the slavery of Egypt, and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. And I have chosen you, Moses, to lead them out.” “What!,” exclaims Moses. “Who am I to lead them out? And furthermore, if the people should ask, `What is the name of the God who has sent you to lead us out?’ What shall I tell them?” And the Lord God says to Moses, “I AM THE ONE WHO AM. Go and tell the Israelites that the ONE WHO IS has sent me to you” (Ex 3:13-15).

When Jesus says to the people, “Before Abraham came to be, I AM,” he is seen as claiming for himself the holy and unutterable name of God. Now that’s blasphemy. So some want to take up stones to kill him, saying, “It is not because of some good work you do that we want to stone you, but because you, who are just a man, are trying to make make yourself God” (Jn 10:33).

Refusing to tell

Scripture scholars and theologians have busied themselves over the meaning of the sacred name. Some say the name Yahweh, I AM THE ONE WHO AM, simply means that God is the cause of whatever is. That doesn’t turn me on. But there is another interpretation which my peculiar frame of mind cherishes. Some think that perhaps God’s answer to Moses isn’t an answer at all. That it tells Moses nothing. That it actually hides God in a cloud of unknowing and in a veil of incense, and that it protects the best there is in God to protect, namely God’s mystery. Some think that I AM WHO I AM is actually a refusal on God’s part to betray God’s name to humans, and especially to theologians. It is as though God were saying, “You ask me my name and I’m not going to tell you, because if I do, you’re going to work all kinds of mischief with it.”

Mischief in the name of God

Militant Muslims (sometimes called Islamists), whose God’s name is Allah, claim that Saudi Arabia is sacred soil for true believers, and that no feet of Western infidels should ever be allowed to desecrate that holy ground. The coordinated car bombings that ripped apart three compounds inhabited by Western infidels in the Saudi capital of Riyadh last week was the work of seven suicide bombers. The mischief they worked in Allah’s name murdered 29 people, eight of them Americans. Their mischief now bestows the crown of martyrdom upon them and gives them a whole harem of virgins to boot. That whole bloody mess at first glance looks so political. At the end of the day, it’s really religious; it’s the work of people who know the name of their God. See why God refuses to betray God’s name to humans?

Militant Jews (sometimes called Zionist), whose God’s name is Yahweh, claim that God has personally given them the “Aretz Yisrael,” “the Land of Israel.” They fire themselves up with the eschatological belief that reclaiming the land will hasten the coming of the Messiah. So they settle in territories not their own, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and refuse to budge in God’s holy name. See why God refuses to betray God’s name to humans?

Militant Christians, whose God’s name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, marched off to the crusades of the 12^th and 13^th centuries and became huge unruly mobs and masses plundering and pillaging their way to the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus in Jerusalem. Militant churchmen ignited the fires of the Inquisition to burn heretics at the stakes for not having the rote answers which these inquisitive people expected of them. In the name of God they burned Joan of Arc at the stake in 1431, and soon after in 1450 repented and reinstated the poor lass, though dead she was. Finally in 1920 the Church declared Joan of Arc a saint and made her the second patron saint of France. See why God refuses to betray God’s name to humans?

Jesus, who are you?

Jesus, we ask, when we tell the people that you sent us and they ask us, “What is his name and who is he?” what should we tell them? He doesn’t say to us, “Go tell them that I am light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, who together with the Father is adored and glorified" (Council of Nicea 325). Not only does that carry almost no meaning for most of us who are not theologians, but it also bears the seeds of mischief in the wrong heart and head, for Christians have been fighting theological wars over Jesus of Nazareth for centuries.

Instead Jesus says to us, “Go tell them that I am the Good Samaritan journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, who comes upon a man waylaid by robbers, and pours the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, and hurries him off to the nearest inn, where I provide for his care and cure”(Lk l0: 25-37). No mischief in that answer.

Or Jesus answers us saying, “Go tell them that I am the Prodigal Father who awaits the return of his prodigal son who has gone off to squander his inheritance upon wild living and loose women, and when he hits bottom and returns home, I squander my forgiveness upon him, placing a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet, and killing the fatted calf to feast a son who was lost but now has been found” (Lk 15:1-32). No mischief in that answer.

Or Jesus says to us, “ Go tell them that I am the good shepherd who goes in search of the one sheep who has gone astray, and when I have found the little guy I hoist him on my shoulders, and he bleats with joy all the way back to the flock” (Lk 15:4-7). No mischief in that answer.

Or he says to us, “Go tell them that I am the vine and they are the branches, and that the sap of life flows from me into them, and that with me, in me, and by me they can bear much fruit” (Jn 15:1). No mischief in that answer.

Jesus, when we tell the people that you sent us, and they ask us, ”What is his name and who is he?” what should we tell them? Above all, Jesus says to us, “Go and tell them what God told Moses. Tell them that I am who I am.’ Go and hide God for them in a cloud of unknowing. Go and protect both for them and for God the best part of God: God’s mystery.

Destroying the mystery

When we have God down pat--when we know not only God’s name but also God’s gender (he’s a male), and know also his petty dislikes (he can’t stand gays), and know also his sexual preference (men over women), and know also his favorite religion (the Christian religion over all others or the Islamic religion over all others))—when we have God down that pat, then we have destroyed the best part of God: God’s mystery. When we have God down that pat, then we make many things impossible for the God for whom “nothing is impossible” (Lk 1:37). Then it’s impossible that God be female, impossible that God accepts gays, impossible that God ordains women, impossible that God accepts Jews or Muslims or even Lutherans.

But when we don’t have God down pat and when we have protected the best there is to be protected in God-- God’s mystery, when we have removed our sandals before the Burning Bush and have wrapped God up in a cloud of unknowing and in a veil of incense, then everything is possible not only for God for whom nothing is impossible but also for ourselves as well.

A not-down-pat event

Last Friday night an inconsiderate friend of mine called me in the middle of the night around 7:30. He was very excited about a remarkable event that had happened that day. That morning in the Church of St. Benedict the Moor on 9th and State (an old stomping ground of mine) friends came to celebrate a funeral Mass for Sister Barbara Ann Kutchera (of the BVM Order). She died of ovarian cancer at the early age of 66. She was buried from St. Ben’s because she chose to worship there in the Sunday Assembly. People came from all directions. The parking spots were all taken. The church was packed. Her own religious Order came fifty sisters strong--not one of them dressed the way sisters are supposed to dress. Some of them actually wore earrings, I’m told.

Then at the homily there came a real shocker. The preacher got up to preach, but the preacher wasn’t a he. The preacher was a she: the Rev. Linda Hansen. And what’s more, the preacher, who was born and raised a Catholic, years before left the Church for good personal reasons of her own and became an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. Rev. Linda was chosen to be the homilist for the funeral because of the warm personal relationship between Barbara, a good Roman Catholic nun, and Linda, a good Unitarian minister. The homily was carefully crafted, and it softly alluded to the strange twists and turns of the human journey.

Towards the end the Mass, despite the fear that it would go on and on and on, people were invited to come forth and give testimony. They didn’t go on and on, but they did give joyful testimony to this great lady. A non-Catholic (but a minister of music at St. Ben’s) told about the time when he was on a retreat with Sister Barbara and in a reflection session admitted that he found it difficult to express his emotions. “You know,” Barbara chimed in, “that’s when you wish you had a tail to wag.” Testimonies like that made people laugh and rejoice, and turned the funeral into a celebration, which came to an end with a soul-filled Afro-American singing that powerful Negro spiritual, which a gung-ho liturgist might not approve: ”Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.”

Conclusion

Look at what can happen

The point? Look at what can happen when we don’t have God down pat. Look at what can happen when we have taken off our sandals before the Burning Bush. Look at what can happen when we give God all the freedom to do all the things that God can do. Look at what can happen when we don’t have birth and burial and everything else in between down pat. Look at what can happen when we don’t have God down pat: it allows the finest imported wines to flow, and it sends us forth, even from a funeral, inebriated with joy.