What Do You See?

We continue reading the Bible with a passage from Exodus 33 wherein Moses and God are conversing, and Moses asks God for reassurances about the mission God has directed him to do. Moses asks to see God’s “glory,” and God hides him in a crevice and passes before him, not allowing Moses to see God’s face. The Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries in United Methodism’s Discipleship Ministries division, is the guest preacher. Derek begins by giving his personal historic connection to the church, as he is descended from Fountain Pitts, West End’s first appointed minister. Pitts was an officer in the Confederate army and a slave owner, and he was a gifted preacher. The quest for Moses to see God’s glory with God denying a glimpse at the divine face means that Moses, in God’s service, turns out to be the face of God, and Derek presses us to examine our church and ourselves to see how we serve as the face of God. Much as the slavery in our history may be distasteful to us now, it is our mission under God to reinterpret God’s mission for us and to serve as the face of God so that when others see us carrying out that mission, they will see God’s face in our faith and actions.