This is a strange story, but then the Bible is no stranger to strange stories. A burning bush, a plague or ten, fire and smoke on a mountain, a glowing face; the Holy shows up and things happen that can’t be explained and people change. That’s the whole point of a theophany or a close encounter of the Holy kind. You are supposed to change and people are supposed to notice. But we tend to take the unknowable, indefinable, indescribable and contain the Holy in a nice neat dogmatic box. Like the veil that hid the effect of the Holy on the less than, all our musings on the mystical are ways we come to God on our own terms. With the effect of Holy on the less than hidden behind the veil we can keep our religion hidden less we practice it and people notice. But when in an encounter of the Holy kind we catch a glimpse such that we see as we are seen, and know as we are known, if only for a moment, then like Moses we are changed and people are supposed to notice.
Phil - very true. And sometimes it's worse than trying to contain the Holy in a box. I think we shut off the Holy to a point where we forget there's such a thing as the Holy at all. We become blind to it.
ReplyDeleteGood thing the Holy comes to open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, make the lame to walk and the dumb to shout for joy. That is if you believe Isaiah caught a glimpse of what was and would be.
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