Tuesday 24th March - Which mould will God fit into?

DAILY BYTE

Recently, I was filling out an online form full of places to check the box and fill in your answer with only a certain amount of space available. I spent most of the time, trying to make the answers abbreviated enough that they would fit, nevermind the fact that it might have taken a rocket scientist to decipher the code into which my descriptive answers were funnelled. I could not wait to be finished with this task because although it was necessary, it was constricting. Making life fit into certain spaces, boxes, and moulds is what we do. Because it makes life manageable. It means that we can analyze things with our human intellect, control them, and then make judgments about them.

Consider that this is a bit of what Aaron and the Israelites tried to do when they formed a mould and cast an image of a calf, calling it God.

If we step away from the story just a few steps, it begins to seem a bit ridiculous that people would so quickly toss off a God who had been faithful to them in freeing them from slavery and guiding them in their wanderings, even if that God was difficult to understand. And in place of that faithful God, they worship a golden cow?

From the holiest of holies the people sink to one of the most ordinary creatures. And if we look at it that way, it makes sense. The holiest of holies is difficult to describe and difficult to understand. It is impossible to mould so that it can be fully grasped by our human intellect. We cannot domesticate or “manage” it. It is entirely free from constriction.

But oh, how we try. Images in life do not get much more domestic and much more manageable than that of a cow. Cows are owned. They are herded. They work for us.

But, Walter Brueggemann calls the freedom of God “terrible.” It is so free that it can be frightening. We do not own God. We belong to God. We do not herd God. God shepherds us. God does not work for us. God provides for us freely out of the goodness of his grace and out of a deep desire to be in relationship with us.

God’s freedom may be terrible, but may also free us, as well.

In what ways do you need to allow God to break out of the mould?

Take a moment today to write down all of the words you would use to describe God. If you can, even draw a picture of your image of God, and ask God: How can you expand my knowledge and understanding of you? How are you trying to set me free?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Uncontainable God, you are so free that it sometimes frightens us, but help us to embrace your freedom. Encourage us to break out of moulds and resist the desire to manage our lives and manage you. Free us from the paralysis of fear and teach us to trust you, even when we find ourselves in wilderness. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Exodus 32:4-6

[Aaron] took the gold from them, formed it in a mould, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.