A Holy Kiss

Within this larger story of the relationship between God and God’s people in the Exodus that we have been tracing over these many weeks, is the story of the smaller, more intimate relationship between God and Moses. In fact, the relationship between God and Moses and the intimacy they share is really unparalleled in scripture, save for perhaps Mary in the Gospel of Luke. Ellen Davis, a wonderful Biblical scholar, has said that “if God has a best friend (and why not?) then surely it is Moses.”^[1]

If we follow that the Exodus, which we’ve been tracing over these last several weeks, is the creation story for God’s people, then it’s only a matter of time before we get to the fall; the point in the story when the ideal of God and humanity dwelling in covenant community with each other comes crashing down, or at least is severely complicated.

Most weeks in the sermon—for better or worse and surely some weeks better than others—I try to tell it to you “slant,” as Emily Dickinson puts it.^[1] Offer a different angle, a fresh thought, a weird poem that I force you to read with me…