As we entered ‘our’ garden this afternoon, we heard the distant church bells tolling the faithful to come and worship! What a fond remembrance of the peaceful scenes now largely history in many parts of the Christian West. Yes, it is our garden but actually belongs to the nearby monastery which we frequent for some place to walk or merely meditate in the peaceful surroundings. It was good to see that the fruit has largely been picked from the citrus trees and the olives have long since been harvested. The new signs of spring are starting to etch themselves on the winter landscape as newly tilled spaces between the rows of olive and citrus trees keeps weeds and grass from encroaching on the fruitful season which lies in anticipation. Yes, the hedges are showing signs of growth after their brief period of winter dormancy in which many leaves fall leaving some trees barren while others retain them only to find that they are replaced with the emerging signs of new birth. Yes, our garden is showing signs of another season!
Marian and I part ways as she explores for the more subtle signs of rejuvenation and I find a place near the fountain just outside the monastery complex of buildings but within the garden enclosure.
As I sit and watch the fountains I come to realize the struggle which exists to present such beauty to those who would stop and behold. Each of fifty different fountains combine to make the man-made pond, blue with its tile, seem to welcome the observant passerby. Here each plume of water fights against the forces which would keep it earthbound in reaching toward some higher expression - each fount unique and changing with a myriad of forms as the water so soon released is brought back within the clutches of physics control. I am reminded that together the sound of rushing water drowns out the noise of nearby vehicles rushing to some destination while here is the place where peace envelopes the one who would sit and wait. Ever changing yet always the same - ever the same yet always changing - like God. Just when we think we have come to understand who God is, we are surprised that our definition does not fit, our grasp is only weakly able to hold a part of that which is infinite! God - ever the same yet always changing - ever changing yet always the same. How can we understand something which seeks to elude our human capacity to know, when we struggle to capture that which seems so close yet so far away?
As the thoughts echo through my mind, I reach for one of the books which I have brought for such a time as this - thoughts by Rabbi Russel Resnick, Messianic interpreter of things Biblical - and there I find that God has demonstrated Himself to be like the fountain which captures my attention in the fading afternoon light.
It is Exodus 6 where we read words of God’s self-revelation which confuse and confound our understanding - “I am Adonai. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Adonai I did not make myself known to them.” Yes, El Shaddai, the Almighty One, the All sufficient One - that is how God was known to the fathers of our faith! But as Adonai, the I AM, he had not been known? Scripture would tell us differently because the text testifies to the fact that this disclosure was part of the Genesis account! So how can this be true? We need to look deeper, as so often is the tease which Scripture places before us - glance and pass on or linger and seek to find that which appears to be elusive. Like the fountain where a passing glance says, “I have seen the fountain” while an hour’s lingering says I only start to know what is pictured here as a corollary of life.
A closer examination of the text in Exodus and Genesis does confirm that the words I Am, Adonai were known to the patriarchs so how can the scribe of Exodus be so categorical, certain and conclusive about his perspective? Therein lies the mystery which we seek to unfold!
Yes, the words had been uttered, but the experience of the patriarchs was not God in action rather as God the discloser and provider of things needed - guidance, direction, confirmation. But it remained for the experiences of bondage, of slavery for His chosen people to not only hear but ‘see’ what it meant for Adonai to say I AM - I am now what I was and always will be…! For God to say that he would make Himself known as Adonai meant that they would now directly experience his nature and activity in a way heretofore unknown to the patriarchs; to know in a way which incorporated something or someone into one’s life in such a way that one’s own behaviour is changed - this is the new revelation of God in His name - Adonai!
What lay before the children of Israel was the experience of deliverance, of redemption through no effort of their own. This would be to experience God in a new and as yet undisclosed way captured in two verses in Chapter 6 of Exodus: “I am Adonai, I will bring you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people and I will be your God. The you shall know that I am Adonai your God who brings you out from under the burden of the Egyptians.” I will bring you out … I will rescue you … I will redeem you … I will take you as my people!
Herein lies something which is at the heart of our soon to be celebrated Pascha, Passover, Easter … these four statements become the four cups of wine which make up the seder supper. He is the God who redeems, who visits us in our times of need and lifts us to a position of favour in his sight. When we experience, rather than just know about this redemption, we gain an insight into God’s revelation of Himself as Adonai - I AM! When we experience bondage and subsequent redemption, our knowledge of God becomes a little more complete - ever the same, yet ever changing.
Thank you Father for the glimpse into the fountain! And as the power behind those plumes of water ebbs away and the fountain becomes the stillness of calm water, we are reminded that without you the noise of this world intrudes into the peace, the shalom which you have come to give us in abundance. And, as the lights of the fountain dim to nothing, the extinguished light allows the darkness to encroach on our lives. How we need your power! How we need your Light! May you use us to be that light and power in this world where darkness and the noise of life crowd you out so often. Come, you are welcome!
posted by David & Marian Sloss @ 11:51 AM
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