Mu, sere alos Pewrotng wrorn a 32
AN ADEQUATE GLIMPSE OF THE TRUTH
April 9, 1989

8:30 a.m. Worship Services

John M. Buchanan
St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh
scripture

Exadus 33:17-23
Luke 9:28-36

The tevt i OK, BRU
a |
"Then I will take away my hand, and you
shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
-Exodus 33:23

Among_the wisest words ever said to me are
[inca eet

these...

"What the Christian Church needs is more

belief, not more beliefs."
SE

. It was said to me by a retired Presbyterian
— eww (Se ee ey ‘
I

minister on an auspicious occasion in my life.

had just completed my Ordingtion trials, including

preaching a sermon, submitting a paper on Biblical

exegesis and presenting a statement of faith,\ which

was pead and then defended orally in front of the

ee

entire Presbytery. \ Preparing that statement of
: 3) whe
faith was a harrowing experience. I_had doneTmost
—o-

candidates do, I have discovered.} Namely, cover a

lot of ground,\ touch every base from creation to

human sin and salvation, from Bible to Church
eS Stem Sry

Per)
History to Eschatology, \illustrating each point - beds
Sy fc cay ‘packed vr w\ s maeascnd, “)
with a broad range of historical references, ne faa tingeimy setu\ers .
I recal] hoping that I could @azzle them and
Grace aeDou nde &
in fact, they were generous and did vote me in. [1

was feeling pretty good when among the wel] wishers

afterward there was this retired minister. \ ave

remembered what he said with more gratitude than

anything else that happened that day. \ He said he
qe

heey

1iked ked_my stat statement of faith A but thought_it_ it was

|
+06 bv V: actual iy too b: too bjg.| He said that it was his
experience fence the Jonger he lived, that nCoatieved

\ wee yu} —had been a refining and sharpening. { “Your

by statement of faith was good,’] he said, |"but you

t ‘wo don't have to believe al] that. \ Focus on a few
aha =< Ear ae

\o (wr things and really believe in them... \ vr the

Christian Church needs,"7 he said, z more belief
and fewer petiefs." |
There is in religion an aimast irresistible
inclination to explain everything, \to reduce the
= ey a
infinite to finite, understandable terms; \to reduce

iE,

the great unknowns, the unfathomable mysteries of

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our existence to manageable dimenstans. \ tat is

the theme of a wonderful story in the Book of

Exodus which is detightful in its playfulness but
ner ae ee

profound in its humanness and its integrity.
al

The scene is Mt. Sinai in the middle of the
eA aA.

witderness. \ The children of srae | recently aie

escaped from Pharach at the Red Sea, Neeley are

on the move, | wandering through the Sinai desert.
er,

When they come to the mountain, God and Moses meet
| ie

and talk. | Far thirteen chapters or so God and
eee
Moses converse and negotiate. \ Moses receives God's

law 3 When he takes

the two tablets on which the Jaw is inscribed dawn
a.

to the peopie,|ne discovers them worshipping an
—, ‘iii

idol, a golden caif.\ in a fit_of rage Moses cashes

the tablets to the ground, | goes back up the
mountain to resume the conversation with God and
Gh ee

makes a simple request: Give me some proof that

I'm on the right track. [ T badly need some
ae

ce sredibil oom these people. \Do something to
show how 6eriod ber ids you are and howUCegitimate I am.

At least tel me your p] plans \ God's nesponse to
ese \

Moses is wit | 90 with you, and I will give you

ey

Pewrittaas

That wasn't the question. \ so Moses _ tries
SSS Sp

again_and gets an equally evasive answer. |Moses is

nothing if not determined, so he tries again but
reduces his demands a bit. G vou won't do
mes

=

something to give yourself ~- and me — some

credibility, at least give me something to hold on

or,

to, some certainty. [tet me see your glory — which
([RlSE ee eae

the translators tel] us means Kithe dazzling light

of God's presence.) And then Moses gets an answer

Se
“of sorts...

| "T will make al1 my goodness pass before you,
and will proclaim before you_my rane, but you

cannot see my face."| And then this wonderful

Sees

little vignette, which can easily be missed -

a

"there is a place by me where you shall stand
upon the rock;

and while my glory passes by I will put you
in a cleft in the rect,

Sn

gk, and I will cover you with my hand unt71
I have passed by; 1“

then IT will take away my hand and you shall
see my back; but my

face shall not be seen.” | (Exedee—J3221223]

It wasn't such ial unreasonal le request,
reat ly..| not unlike what we want from our

aaa
religion. (a Jittle certainty.\ He simply wanted a
Saas Ep

Cleatpicture of who he was following and obeying.

He wanted te be sure of himself at lees before he

worshipping=peep4e—er—thes

none-of thenmmtracever-seer. It wasn't to be. | Wo
ET

face-to-face encounters with God for Moses — yet.
Reagent, =>

Moses_was going to have to settle for the back side
of God...\\a less than complete theology. \ Moses was

going to have to be content with some poor symbols
area, ERE oe
of the reality of God instead of the_real thing —
EEE a casera:
the memory of_a burning bush, \\two tablets of stone,
Sane eee a)
a voice that_was maddeningly silent when he wanted

to hear it...

There is in religion an i almost irresistible
SSE

inclination. to try to see God's face, \to reduce the
infinite to the finite.

eae, Penge soy

Reinhold Niebuhr once noted that there is
more religious confusion generated by\""those who
claim to | know too much about the mystery of life

ore

than by those who claim to know too little." / CIhe
—

Essential Reinhold Niebuhr, Mystery & Meaning, Pp.

227)

(rey banish the mystery,” he said. \ Ancl

then, with a twinkle in his. eye, I am sure, “They
Sie,

Know the geography of heaven and hell, eg the

furniture of one and the temperature of the other."
Sasa

There is, of course, great_appeal to a

rational religion which has an answer for
Sa

everything.

In John_Updike's novel, Roger's Version, a Drak
aoc NAMA
young computer wegaepaie Comes to a divinity school

professor with a peculiar request. [He wants a

divinity school grant to prove the existence of God
at |

Hecause it eliifinates faith from religion, it takes
ae Say RE
away our freedom to believe or doupt.| A God you

could prove makes the whole thing immensely, oh,
lS

uninteresting | Pat.\ Whatever else God may be, he

cepa

7

shouldn't be pat,”

= "But sir, #hink of the comfort to nose

who want to bejfieve but don't e, because they've
been intellectyally jatimidated. Think of the
reassurance al] those in trouble or in pain and

want4

There is enormous appeal] to a religion that
reduces mystery, makes the infinite finite and
SE sag
encompasses the whole terrain of our humanness in a

| nee |

sequence of formulas everyone can understand.

One time Jewish comedian, WoodyAllen and

Billy Graham were on the same television talk show.
aa,
Allen was asked if he might convert on camera.
SE

(rn open to it.\ Life, it seems to me, is
— ory = So,
much easier if you're a beTiever.\_ You can_ always
come up with easy answer (cited by Martin E.
Marty, Context, “14, 1989, from Eree Inquiry]

But it doesn't work. There is a mystery
en Sy

about us that defies explanation. \ If you_have. been

in love_you know that the experience is not

Ww Wiclywel OF Psyclvleginl term oh
adequate ly described QGemigginieiesaiadas ae)

hoemeres.” |x you have been privileged to witness
‘(Gi
human birth or human death you know that there is a

moment when science is no longer adequate and that
SES ey

you are in the presence of mystery, -Hormgemmbure,

SSeS ea

Capeble—ot-exauisttesbeatityanc_the grossest evi 1,

CppRet-be~emeletned=s imp ly.

My menopy ofthe last funeral I attended as a

worshiper and mourner, \not as the presiding clergy,
SSE ay

is one of irritation at the minister, \a friend of
Se - ,

SE,

mine, for talking too much, \ He said so much more
SS ap

than he had a right to say, I thought | much, much
more than I wanted to hear\ What happened was not
ESE Ea |
simple. \The life we were remembering was anything
— EES

but simple. \ What the mourners were experiencing

was not simple. \ It was offensive to be told that

—

it is al] really uncomplicated ~ when_one knows one

is in the presence of mystery.

= * The stugffof your life and mine is loving,

yeagping, hoping, dreaming, stretching, reaching

beyond our grasp, \somet imes succeeding and

je,

sometimes falling flat on our faces, suffering,
fee Bad

doubting, despairing, but also rejoicing,
—_——Z ae,

Sr
celebrating, praying, dying...{ Mygtery, all of it;
OE, ‘eer

redAvucelble

none of it a to sipple,
understandable formulas or platitudes.
ee |
And that is copsistent with our religion.
Popular religion may try to know too much.\ but

Biblical religion doesr- see God's face.

are your ways my WA
(Isaiah 55:8}—. ..
isthe way the prophet IsaiahNgut i
sagan The God of the Bible makes a point of it, it

would seem. \ God doesn't give Moses a good look for

Moses' own sake. \in the Bible, if you see too much
SSS SSSR EEE ==,

of God you die.\ If there is no mystery left you

are no longer human, it would seem. \iF there is no

mystery left you no longer have the option of

ce al

faith.

andile 26a cai & Ij does not appear
that our Lord's disciples eveyr totally understood Kin ’

meee SE
Wecabemges. \ Their Lord - they believed, was God's

—_—! = —
good and Toving word to the human family, but there
is a sense in which he always stood apart from the
= Ss
family, never fully understood. \ These wes clwoe Mua waster
"Who do you say that I am"yhe asked them

ee, Lo eg

once, and Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the

son of the Living God,"Jbut then showed that he

didn't understand.
On the Mt. of Transfiguration, \when if anyone eVve/7—
nr ee,
had a chance to look into the face of God, it was
them. | @nd they didn't understand. \ They _were
distracted, bored and sleepy.
And so it goes throughout, until this one,
hasiadbcniligan
against al] the{Common sense advice of his best
aaa —————————

friends, follows his sense of God's will and walks

—

1]

into the valley of the shadow of death and

literally climbs up onto a cross and dies. There,
ee See

this faith of ours proclaims, at that final
[= oY n_~~ iO
mystery, | the death of Jesus4Christ on the cross,

there the reality of God is unveiled, the truth
Oe Ra SS

about God and about us is disclosed.
SSS 00S ee

these days of Eastertide - we live in the presence
of ultimate mystery, (Hu vichory Ni & \ite ee eat, Ne pager

Jour ~v

In this life we may never see qx.) St, “Sefe -.
my ——_

Paul, who was more sure of some things than anyone
~ confessed the mystery with a poignancy and
integrity we have come to love...
("Now we see ina mirror dimly, but then face

to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall understand
fully,

even as I am fully understood.” {£1 Cor.

13:12]

The promise of the Gospel is not that we will
See Sey

12

have answers to al] our questions and that a1] our

quandries and dilemmas will be solved. | the promise
hy ——

of the gospel is that ultimately we will see God...

In the meantime, like Moses, we'll] have to do
with the back side of God, {a glimpse of the truth,

a hint of the gtory.\ In the meantime, there is
this man who lived and loved and died for us.) anc

until that day when you and I see face to face, it
Pa ey, =

is an adequate portion of the truth simply to allow
him to love us,\and to hold_tightytp hin. \ Amen.
— a

hey rer

Creel

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