Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the
Third Sunday of Lent, and we have the privilege
of reading one of the most important texts
in the Bible, period. We're in the third chapter
of the book of Exodus. It's the text in which
God gives himself a name —if you want,
defines himself, but as we'll see,
in a way that's really no definition at all. But God's manifestation
of his own identity. And so we're on very holy
ground with this story. Let me just get into it by rehearsing a little bit
of the narrative. The biblical authors,
with typical laconicism and understatement,
will often just sketch a character in
a few deft strokes. Moses, what do we
know about Moses? Well, he's found by the
daughter of Pharaoh, this little baby
in the basket. And so he's raised among the
Egyptian gentry upper class. We don't have to give into
all of Cecil B. DeMille's imaginings, but Moses was raised in the
very high culture of Egypt, that seems clear,
and probably like a lot of aristocrats was used
to having things his way. And so when he sees this
Egyptian who's mistreating one of his fellow Hebrews, he just promptly kills
him and buries him. This is not exactly a man
who's under control emotionally. And then when he finds out
the word has gotten out, he then leaves the country and
he goes off into the desert. So you see this
aristocratic figure, certainly, a man used to
having things his way, suddenly in trouble. And now he has to go through,
as so many biblical figures do, a time of trial and testing. And the typical
place for this —we saw it a few weeks
ago with the Lord himself— the typical place for
this is the desert. So Moses, for years,
this Egyptian aristocrat, lives the simple life of
a shepherd in the desert. What's happening? Well, the refinement
of his personality, the limiting of
his sinfulness. Think of Joseph having to spend
years in an Egyptian prison before he was ready to assume
his role as vizier of Egypt. So now Moses,
before he can take on the task of
liberating his people, has to have the rough edges
of his personality smoothed. And it's only after this
long time of trial that the Lord
appears to him. And here's this famous and
beautifully told account. “An angel of the LORD
appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on,
he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.” We have to pause there. Such an important moment. The fire of God's presence,
yes indeed. But it doesn't
consume the bush. In fact, it simply makes
the bush more luminous and more radiant
and more beautiful. So it goes, everybody,
with the God of the Bible. Unlike the gods of the
ancient Greeks and Romans who, when they broke
into human affairs, destroyed things,
incinerated people, because they were
in a competitive relationship with this world. For the gods to
assert themselves, something in this
world had to give. That's not the
God of the Bible. Why? Well, it's very clear. Because God's the
creator of all things. There's nothing in this world
that can compete with God. God gave whatever
the world has. God is not one more
item in the world. So I can look around this room
and see various items in it. What don't I see? The one who
designed this room. He's not here,
he's not in the room. And so God,
the Designer and Creator of the whole universe, is not competing
with us but rather
—listen to me, now, listen— as God gets closer to you, you become more luminous and more beautiful
and more radiant. That's the God now who
manifests himself to Moses. But now, watch this very
interesting dynamic, which encapsulates
in many ways a dynamic you can see throughout
the biblical narratives. “When the LORD saw him
coming over to look more closely . . .” Moses said, "Look, what's going on?
Let me find out." Well, there's the
aristocratic Moses used to having
things his way. “Here's this weird sight.
Let me go and investigate.” “When the LORD saw
him coming over, he called out from the bush,
‘Moses, Moses.’" Well, here's the Lord
who knows this shepherd, this nobody who's tending
sheep in this mountain range in the Sinai peninsula. Boy, this God must
be a very local, very intimate deity. Very close. Yeah.
True. Moses answers, "Here I am." And God says, "Come no nearer! Take off your sandals,
for you are on holy ground." Now here's the rhythm
I want you to see. Is God close to us? Yes. See, we don't believe
in a deist God, which is to say a distant
cause of the universe that way back then
or way up there somewhere did his causal thing and
then went into retirement, who doesn't really
know the world. Look at a lot of mysticisms
where the divine is sort of a principle
or a force but doesn't really know us. Look at the Star
Wars mythology, which sums up a lot
of the spiritual traditions of the world. Sure. There's the force out
there which can be used for good or evil, but the force
doesn't know me. The force doesn't
know my name. The distant deist prime
mover doesn't know my name, but God knows the name of
this little nobody tending sheep
in the Sinai Peninsula, because the true God,
Augustine put it this way, is “intimior intimo meo,” closer to me than
I am to myself. Now, see, why?
Why? Because God is here and now
bringing all things into being. The Creator didn't do
something long ago then retire. No, no. God continually
creates the universe. All things, moment to moment,
depend upon the causal
influence of God. So of course God knows me
better than I know myself. Of course God knows my
name and knows your name. What does Jesus say? Every hair on your
head is numbered. That's how intimately
God knows us. Beautiful.
Beautiful. But now wait, but wait. Lest this draws me
into a kind of too chummy intimacy
with God, “Back off, Moses. Take off your sandals because
you are on holy ground.” Mind you, why would you
take off your shoes when you're on holy ground? Well see, what do
shoes enable you to do? Well, they enable
you to go anywhere. If I got shoes on,
I can walk confidently over all kinds of terrain. I am in command. Now take your shoes off,
well you're much more vulnerable, right? Rocky terrain. You're not going to be
climbing that in bare feet. Take off your shoes, Moses. You are not in control here. You're on holy ground. Now that word, holy, “kadosh”
in the Hebrew. The angels in Isaiah six, “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh,”
holy, holy, holy. You know what it means? It means “other.” Other.
Other. Different.
Transcendent. Well, you just told me
he's intimate to us. He knows us better
than we know ourselves. True. And at the same time,
as Augustine put it, he is “superior summo meo.” He's higher than anything
I can possibly imagine. Now, do you see why? The Creator of the universe is not an item
within the universe. That which gives rise to
the whole being of the finite world is not himself
a being among beings. Huh. The true God who appears in
the burning bush in such a way that he enhances
and makes beautiful that to which he comes close,
that God is both intimior intimo meo
et superior summo meo. Closer to me than I am
to myself and greater than anything I can
possibly imagine. Now we're talking.
That's the true God. Now, this play of imminence
and transcendence continues. Listen to what the Lord says. "I am the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Well, I know your name. I know the name
of your ancestors. I know the name of the
patriarchs of your people. More to it, "I have witnessed the affliction
of my people in Egypt. I have heard their
cry of complaint. I know well their suffering." Now think about
this for a minute. Who's the most forgettable
people in the ancient Near East? It would've been this
poor enslaved tribe of the
Hebrews in Egypt. They're not some
great empire. They're not some
great cultural force. They were enslaved nobodies. And yet God knows them
and has heard their cry. And furthermore, “I have come to rescue
them from the hands of the Egyptians,
to lead them into a land good and spacious and
flowing with milk and honey." Wow. How intimate, involved,
how aware of the people of Israel this God is. Okay. So Moses might be thinking, "All right.
He told me to take off my shoes and I'm on holy
ground and all that, but now he seems again,
pretty, pretty intimate." And so what does Moses do? And here we come to the
climax of the story. He says, "All right,
if you send me to Egypt to lead these people
out and they ask, ‘Well, what's the name of
this God who spoke to you?’ What will I tell them?" Now, it's a
reasonable question. What name? That means, who are you? What kind of being are you? If you ask my name,
I'm going to specify. I'm a very, very
particular human being. I'm Bishop Robert Barron. I was born at this time and
this place and I live here. I'm specifying exactly who
I am when I give you my name. So Moses is asking a
reasonable question. All right Lord,
what's your name? And then comes the line now,
which is the most famous line. It's the hinge, in many ways,
everybody, upon which the biblical
revelation turns. What does God say? "I am who I am." Now, you might say
it's a bit like “Take off your shoes,
you’re on holy ground.” It's a bit like saying, "Hey Moses, stop asking me
such a stupid question. I am who I am." But see, press
it even further. What's your name?
Who are you? How can I specify you? Which being are you among
the many beings of the world? Which god are you? There's a god of the river,
god of the mountain, god of this people,
god of that people. Well, you're a god clearly. Well, which one are you?
What's your name? No, no. No, no, no.
No, no, no. The God that Moses is
dealing with is not one of those
little petty deities, not one little divine
potentate among many. The Creator of the universe,
as I've said, is not an item
within the universe. “I am who I am.” See, I am a human being.
I am Bishop Robert Barron. I am someone who lives
in Santa Barbara. I am someone giving
you a sermon. See, what I've done with
that “I am” is I've specified and defined precisely
what kind of being I am. That's what God won't do.
That's what God can't do. “I am who I am.” To be God is to be “to be.” That's Thomas Aquinas. In God, Thomas says,
essence and existence coincide. Now what does that highly
abstract language mean? Well, think of there's
this camera in front of me I'm speaking into. That's a type of being. It exists. It exists in a
particular way. It's got the form of camera. There's all these items
around me I can see. There's people around me
I can see who are typical, they're types of being. I can look up at
the planet Mars, the planet Jupiter,
I can look at the Milky Way and I can say, all
these are types of being. I can name them.
I can define them. Their existence is received
and delimited according to certain
essential principles. Excuse the philosophy,
but that's the way that our tradition has
translated this language. They're all beings
of some type. And then there's God. “I am who I am.” To be God is not
to be this or that, up or down, here or there,
big, small. To be God is
to be “to be.” Now. Now, where is this
being itself? Well, everywhere in
this room, of course, because nothing in this room
would exist apart from God. Where is God? He's in you in the most
intimate way possible. Okay. Where is this God
who's being itself? Nowhere. Nowhere, because nothing
in this room is God. Nothing in this
whole cosmos is God. He's intimior intimo meo
et superior summo meo, closer than we
are to ourselves, greater than anything
we can imagine. And see, everybody listen,
it's that God whom we can
neither control nor hide from that addresses Moses
in the burning bush. The two paths of sinners,
by the way, and we walk them
all the time, is we try to control God
for our purposes or we try to avoid him. Give up. They're both hopeless paths. And rather surrender
to the God closer to you
than you are to yourself, greater than anything
you can possibly imagine. And you know what
he wants to do? You know what
he wants to do? He wants to set you
on fire with his own presence to make you as radiant
and beautiful as possible. That's the God who
addressed Moses. That's the God that
we're talking about. And may that God bless you. Thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video,
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