Bette Midler’s song became a hit. Why? Maybe because it spoke to people describing a God they could identify with. Some saw it describing a God who simply watches and doesn’t get involved. Most recognised a description of a God who was intrinsically / intimately interested in each of us, caring of us, worried for us and following us every day in our life journey.

 

Who then is the God we encounter in our lives? Who is the God we announce to those we live and pray with?

 

Midler’s song reminded listeners that God was not distant but was invested in all of creation. The same ‘watching from a distance’ God is a major actor in the Book of Exodus.

 

In Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 1 – 15 we come across Moses herding his flock for his father-in-law. Suddenly, on the mountain he encounters a burning bush where there were flames but the bush was not actually being burnt up. God calls him from the bush and reveals Himself as the God of his father, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

God tells Moses of the plight of ‘His people’ now slaves in Egypt; he reveals how he has seen their suffering and domination by the Egyptians. He declares that having seen this, he will now rescue them from captivity and misery; He has heard their prayers, and he tells Moses, “I am sending you as my messenger, to bring my people out of Egypt”.

 

Moses is overcome at such a task and God reveals that He will accompany him on bthe journey; “I will be with you; This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you”.

 

Remember, the Israelites are in Egypt because they sold themselves into Egyptian slavery in exchange for grain during a famine (Genesis 47:19). Ruthless Egyptian taskmasters oppress the Israelites and ultimately the new pharaoh initiates a genocidal program focused on killing Israelite boys at their birth. (Exodus 1:16).

 

The Lord explains to Moses that, as a result of observing the misery of the Israelites, He will deliver them from the Egyptians and continue to care for them.

 

God is not caught off guard, blindsided, taken aback, or startled by the condition of the Israelites who are living under pharaonic oppression.

 

God has indeed been paying attention. Importantly, even if God’s engagement has been beyond what is perceivable to the Israelites, God has been watching:

 

• When the famine struck and the Israelites feared their demise, God was watching.
• When the Israelites exchanged their money for grain, traded their livestock for food, relinquished their land for nourishment, and eventually surrendered their very lives for sustenance from the Egyptian storehouses, God was watching.
• When the new pharaoh arose in the land and enacted policies that resulted in the Israelites suffering under harsh taskmasters, God was watching.

 

When Pharaoh sanctioned the deliberate killing of Israelite boys, God was watching.

 

‘Hesed’, a word used to describe God’s Faithful Love, is used always in connection with the covenant established with Israel. But, even when Israel broke its side of the covenant, ‘hesed’ revealed its deeper aspect: God’s faithful love is more powerful than betrayal, grace is stronger than sin. God acts kindly towards his people “for the sake of my holy name.” (Ez 36:22). ‘Hesed’ is not God’s response to human merit, but God’s faithfulness to God’s own nature of faithful love.

 

‘Rachamim’ is another term used to identify the very nature of God’s love. At its basis it refers to a mother’s love (rehem = mother’s womb). This love begins in the deep and original unity that links a mother to her child. It is completely gratuitous love – not earned or merited but a necessary response of the heart. ‘Rachamim’ is tenderness, patience and readiness to forgive: “Can a woman forget her baby … or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you”.

 

There is a poem by Jan Richardson, called ‘Blessing for a whole heart’. This blessing is for when you cannot imagine. This is for when it is difficult to dream of what could lie beyond the fracture, the rupture, the cleaving through which has come a life you do not recognise as your own….

 

“Let there be a word of solace, a voice that speaks into the shattering, reminding you that who you are is here, every shard somehow holding the whole of you that you cannot see but is taking shape even now, piece joining to piece in an ancient, remembered rhythm that bears you not toward restoration, not toward return – as if you somehow become unchanged – but steadily deeper into the heart of the one who has already dreamed you complete”.

 

This is our God, the one who watches us and speaks to the damaged parts of our lives; who shares our joy in the journeys we take; who is calling us to our best selves?

 

 

Is this the God who is evident in our Parishes – in our Sacramental Prayer – our Masses – our meetings – our programs – our conversations – our welcoming?