Seeing God’s Back and Seeing God’s Face
by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
October 19, 2014
Matthew 22: 15-22
Exodus 33: 12-23
Moses is disgusted. He was up on the mountain, receiving the tablets of the Law, the Ten Commandments, from God. When he came down, he found, to his horror and outrage, that in his absence the people had constructed a Golden Calf, a false god that they worshipped because they thought Moses would never return; that he was consumed by the fire and smoke on the Holy Mountain. In his rage, Moses threw down the two tablets of the Law thus becoming the first person to break all Ten Commandments at the same time. He orders the ringleaders killed. Then, perhaps most painfully for the people, he turns his back upon them. They watch Moses walk away from the Tent of Meeting toward the mountain, away from them. They are horribly, horribly ashamed.
It’s a feeling we know well. We do something incredibly stupid, and someone we admire, someone we respect, someone whose opinion matters to us, simply turns away. We want to win them back, but we know all too well what we did. We feel like we deserve what we’re getting. It’s that “Gone With the Wind” moment, you remember, where Rhett, Scarlett’s love interest, is disgusted with her shallowness and manipulation, and turns away. “Where shall I go, what shall I do?” she cries; and he says, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
As Moses turns his back to them and walks back to Mt. Sinai, walks back to see God, his action is crushing visual reminder that God in Person is disgusted with them, that God has pronounced the Israelites “a stiff-necked people” and warned, “If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you” (Ex. 33:5). The Israelites have hoped, and often believed that God is with them. Now, God has made it clear, no way.
What a crushing, soul-shattering blow.
What they don’t know—what the forlorn Israelites can’t see—is that Moses isn’t leaving them forever. Not at all. Moses has wrestled with God’s call to him to lead the people, and for some reason, now more than ever, he seems determined to do it. Maybe, like a lot of people who have a calling, his sense of what he is supposed to do is so deep it never even occurs to him that he should resign. But he lays out an ultimatum to God: “If I am to lead these people, God, then I can’t do it without you. In fact, I need you more than ever. I demand, God—I demand—that you show me your face.”
It’s an extraordinary request, made all the more extraordinary because God seems to take it in stride. But God adds a caveat—to see God’s face is to die, therefore, I will hide you in a crevasse, and cover your face with my hand, and I will pass before you, and you will see my back.
Scholars have debated this for millennia. Was this God insulting Moses, by showing God’s back rather than God’s face as requested? Or was it, rather, what it appears to be—an act of compassion, with God tenderly placing his hand over Moses to protect him, but still showing God’s self to him? I think the tradition is clear, because Moses is remembered, as the man to whom The Lord “would speak… face to face, as one person speaks to another” (Ex. 33: 11). For Moses, even to have seen God’s back was to see God’s face.
But God’s face is far more complex, and that complexity is hinted at in the famous story of the attempt to discredit Jesus by asking Him about paying taxes to the Emperor. Here’s the issue: Rome ruled Palestine, and lots of Jews didn’t like it. When the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor,” they’re trying to get him into trouble. If Jesus says “yes,” then the people will be outraged, and Jesus’ poll numbers will drop into the single digits. He’ll lose all credibility. But if Jesus says “No,” then He’s apparently fomenting rebellion, and He’ll be dragged off to jail. His questioners think they’ve got him trapped with no way out.
But Jesus finds the way out. “Whose face is on this Roman coin?” Jesus asks. “The emperor’s,” they respond. “Then give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor—but give to God what belongs to God!”
Pages have been written on what Jesus means. Does He mean Christians support the government or that they don’t? Actually, Jesus means something far more radical: He means it is all irrelevant. Pay taxes to the emperor, because both money and the emperor are unimportant. They don’t matter. Instead, give to God that which bears the image of God: Give God you. All of you. And Jesus’ point is this: just as the emperor’s image is on the emperor’s money, so it is that God’s image is on us. You are the face of God.
What a powerful message that would have been for Moses to have taken back to his humiliated people: you are the face of God. You, who have mucked things up so terribly, you, this terrible, stiff-necked people—you are the face of God. We are the face of God.
Can we see that? Can we see God’s face in ourselves?
Can we see that? Can we see God’s face in the neighbor, the stranger, the enemy?
We’re all looking for the face of God. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my heart for thee, O God,” cries the psalmist. Moses was the most extraordinary man who lived, because he saw the face of God. But that face, you see, was really God’s back. The true face of God is on each of us, and on all of us. That’s how God ordained it.
For a lot of us, St. Stephen’s recent troubles may feel as if God has turned His back on us. These Scriptures offer us so much hope in a challenging time. It is precisely when God turns his back on Moses that Moses is closest to God. And likewise for St. Stephen. Never has God been closer to St. Stephen than He is today.
But also—God’s face is always with us—because God’s face is us. By God’s grace, we who feel dejected, downhearted, confused, at a loss, are precisely the ones who have the power and grace and wisdom of God at our fingertips—if we only believe. And look at the person next to you. That person bears the image of God. If you need to see God’s face, then there it is, right next to you. Show each other compassion and kindness in this time. Respect each other’s opinions, the way each of you struggles with what has happened, and what will lie ahead. If we see the face of God in one another—if we are the face of God to one another—we will forge ahead to the Promised Land, just as the the Children of Israel did.
It’s Stewardship Season and I’m supposed to say something about giving. And I will. It’s simple. THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT. We are called to give to God what is God’s, so we’re called to give. It is what it means to be a church. It’s what it means to be Christian! When a church is in crisis, what God expects us to do is not hide away in a cocoon, but to step out boldly, and be the church and give. Let’s forget a moment about giving to st. Stephen and think instead about giving THROUGH st. Stephen. St. Stephen has served this community 130 years, giving compassion and hope to a dozen generations. Its greatest leaders, both professional and volunteer, have always put giving first and foremost. One of the things that often strikes me as humorous is that people look at this amazing edifice and say, “That’s a church for rich people.” It’s not. This is a church full of normal people, with normal size bank accounts. What this amazing building stands for, what our unique worship style is all about, is so much larger than ourselves–the glory, grace, and majesty of God. That’s what draws people to St. Stephen. That’s what Mr. Scott and so many of our greatest church leaders have always emphasized–all this pomp and circumstance, all this architectural beauty, it isn’t about us. It’s about God. That’s why you find homeless men in the Parish Hall on Tuesday nights on the hottest and coldest months of the year. That’s why every month you’ll find St. Stephenites serving dinner to HIV-positive folks at Samaritan House. That’s why we’ve offered the most respected day school program in the area for over fifty years. It’s not about us. Our worship, our way of being, everything that we are–points away from us and toward the awesome mystery, wonder, and love of God.
We are called to give to God what is God’s. That means giving to neighbor, enemy and stranger–giving to the community–and giving freely in our worship and service to God. We give because we seek God’s face and come nearest to it at St. Stephen. We give because God calls us to be God’s face in the world. That is the legacy of St. Stephen and its leaders and members for a dozen generations. We have given to God, community and neighbor for 130 years and we will continue to do so for 130 more. We will not turn our backs on God.