I’m listening to this audiobook, and this section came up as I drove to a talk at my church tonight:
The cloud at the top of the mountain was so thick that even Moses could not see inside it. Anyone else who even tried would die, God said—and Moses went anyway. He took the full dose of divine darkness and lived to tell about it, though God would remain a tremendous mystery to him for the rest of his life. After all they had been through—the plagues, the parting of the sea, the pillars of cloud and fire in the wilderness—God prevented Moses from entering the land of promise…
It is hard to get from a story like that to a bumper sticker that says, “God is love.” What would Moses say to people who feel free to ask God for good weekend weather and safe travel to away games? The God of Moses is not the grandfatherly type, a kind old deity who can be counted on to take the kids exciting places without letting them get hurt. The God of Moses is holy, offering no seat belts or other safety features to those who wish to climb the mountain and enter the dark cloud of divine presence. Those who go assume all risk and give up all claim to reward. Those who return say the dazzling dark inside the cloud is reward enough.
– Barbara Brown Taylor in Learning to Walk in the Dark
And tonight, at my church:
If I hadn’t stepped in it, I wouldn’t have known it was there, that we needed a shovel.
– Rev. Laura Warner Gilmer