WEDNESDAY AFTER KINGDOM 2
6 November 2013
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Ex. 19:9: The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”
Luke 12:37a, 40b: “Blessed are those servants, whom the [L]ord will find watching when he comes… for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.”
Reflection
Cloud imagery is very prevalent in the appearances of God and the manifestations of his power. The Lord guides Israel out of Egypt with a pillar of cloud by day, and promises to come to Moses in a thick cloud, as in today’s reading. Indeed, in the next chapter, God gives Moses the Ten Commandments from a cloud atop Mt. Sinai, one of the many references in Exodus to the glory of God within a cloud. And in the New Testament, we find that Jesus too was “transfigured” in a cloud (Mark 9:7), will return with clouds (Rev. 1:7), and Christians alive when this occurs will be taken up in the clouds to meet him (1 Thes. 4:17).
As I write this, it’s a partly cloudy day here in New York City. Sometimes the clouds break and let the sun shine through, but it looks like the clouds will hide the sun and two-day old moon for the better part of the day. This makes for quite a gloomy day, especially in the beginning of November, when daylight is decreasing, and Daylight Savings has just ended. Ignoring the gloom, though, I think this double action of clouds—breaking and hiding—represent two fundamental and radical ways through which God seeks us and shows himself to us.
And I think Jesus understood this too. In today’s second reading, Jesus admonishes his followers to watch for him like servants waiting for their master to come home from a wedding banquet. The house is well lit; the master is out in the open, presumably with his entourage as he’s an important man returning from a formal party; the door is opened. Nothing done here is hidden. Everything is easy to see, like the sun breaking through on a clear day; like God emerging from the cloud and speaking to Moses as a friend, face to face, (Ex. 33:11).
But the Lord can also come like a thief in the night, after everyone’s inside, the lights are out, and the doors are closed. Oh yes, it’s disturbing to think of God as a thief, plotting to steal in secret, in the darkness of night, moonlight hidden by clouds. But God stole Israel out of Egypt overnight (Ex. 12:42), and led them away in cloud cover. Overnight, too, God stole his Son out of the grave and later took him up to heaven, again, under cloud cover (Acts 1:9). When God steals, it’s to take back what’s his own, not out of envy or selfishness, but to set free, to grant eternal life.
Christians confess that Jesus, being God the Son, offers humanity unveiled and unclouded access to the fullness of God. Amen!—but I’d argue that it doesn’t always feel that way. God often eludes me like the sun in today’s partly cloudy day. But I have to remember that even saints of old didn’t always ‘get it’ either. Countless others with me and before me have struggled with the experience of God. And when I think about it this way, I guess I really am surrounded by that “great cloud of witnesses”, those through whom God has worked his purpose, even if they didn’t always understand it. Maybe they are the cloud God wraps himself up in now, not to hide himself but to show forth even more his glory. If this is so, then the Lord truly is glorious in his saints, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it. They confirm that God’s glory is present both in sunshine and in cloud cover.
Prayer of the Day
Merciful God, gracious and benevolent,
through your Son,
you invite all the world to a meal or mercy.
Grant that we may eagerly follow his call,
and bring us with all your saints
into your life of justice and joy;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
—Collect from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Proper 31, Year C, p. 52.
(Words: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013
Tune: ‘Dundee’, melody from The CL Psalmes of David, 1615; harmony by Thomas Ravenscroft, 17th century)
Let saints on earth in concert sing
With those whose work is done,
For all the servants of our King
In heav’n and earth are one.
One family we dwell with him,
One Church above, beneath,
Though now divided by the stream,
That narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God,
To whose command we bow.
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
E’en now by faith we join our hands
With those that went before,
And greet the ever living bands
On Jordan’s timeless shore.
O Jesus, be our constant Guide.
Then, when you give your word,
Bid Jordan’s narrow stream divide,
And lead us safely, Lord.
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