By Debbie Blue
Old Testament Reading: Exodus 32: 1-14
For Sunday, October 9, 2011: Year A—Ordinary 28
I can’t really blame the people for enjoying the golden calf. They eat and drink and “play” around it. But if they even “touch the border” of The Mountain where God is (God mentioned a bit earlier) they will be “stoned or shot.” Sinai is a scary place wrapped in smoke and clouds, and God up there is a consuming fire. This God led them out of Egypt, but they don’t trust him yet. It’s not hard to understand why. He’s enigmatic. They are afraid of him. The calf? Well, it’s a statue of a young cow or maybe a young bull—but it’s not threatening to eat them.
Blundering Lovers
God seems to feel pretty bad when he looks down and sees the people enjoying the calf. God says they are a ‘stiff-necked” people, implying a sort of rigidity. They are stuck in some old way of seeing and doing and being, like there hasn’t even been an exodus from Egypt—like all they know of god is statues and tyrants. They don’t have the imagination for a living loving God that can be trusted. They edge in and out of this all during the “sojourn,” claiming God hates them—promised liberation only to lead them out in the wilderness where he will kill them.
Maybe God isn’t quite sure how to proceed with the relationship either. God seems to be a bit of a blundering lover throughout these texts. At moments—gracious and tender, at moment (even Moses points out) he could be perceived as doing evil.
Moses, the Brave
Moses has been a little reluctant from the beginning to be in the position he is in. But he does seem brave, or stalwart or something—trudging back and forth, crossing boundaries left and right. He climbs the pathway through the thick darkness, gets right up next to the consuming fire and he stays there for forty days. I’m not saying he got comfortable with God, but you do get the feeling that the two have established some sort of intimacy. He certainly gets to the point where he’s not afraid to talk back and question.
“Why,” Moses asks, “are you angry with the people you freed?” Rabbi Abbahu said: “if this were not written in the text, it would be impossible.” Such audacity. It’s almost like Moses is trying to coach God (who seems a little petulant) through the relationship: don’t act out of anger. Remember your promise. Remember love—cuz your on the edge of looking evil, here.
Dialogue, Intimacy—Passion
But God is really opening it up, too—this space for a God that is neither tyrant nor statue. God says,” Let me alone that my wrath may burn against them.” As if this is only possible if God is alone. Maybe he hopes that Moses won’t leave him alone. Maybe God doesn’t actually want to be left alone.
Maybe God really does love the people deeply and passionately and this whole scene demonstrates the possibility of a God that is completely other than a tyrant or a statue—a god who is vulnerable, who feels, who invites relationship. God desires god’s people. They desire the calf. God feels it. Moses presses for his desire. God is deeply affected. And the covenant between God and God’s people somehow endures through the mess of anger and hurt and passion.
The Hardest Question
This story seems to turn out nicely, but in the next moment things shift. When Moses goes down and sees the people loving the calf, he’s mad. He has 3,000 calf worshippers killed. He pleads with God not to retaliate in anger and then goes down and does it himself. Why doesn’t God do for Moses what Moses did for him—talk him down, plead for him to resist violence, prevent the slaughter?
