But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ – Exodus 3:13-14
Dear People of St. David’s,
Four weeks ago, I encouraged us via this letter to remember that summer and the liturgical season of Ordinary Time is a time that God is still profoundly at work in our lives. I reminded us that there are practices, wrestling and withdrawing, that can help cultivate the presence of God in our lives. This week we encounter a fiery glimpse of the God whom we seek: a God that is active and inexhaustible, a God who hears the cries of his people, a God known through mysterious encounter.
In our lectionary reading this week, Moses encounters the ineffable mystery of God. In fear and trembling Moses comes to the mountain of the Lord. He removes his sandals and comes face to face with one of the most enduring mysteries in our scriptures: a burning bush that remains unconsumed, the voice of God, a promise of deliverance, the revelation of the divine name.
In his seminal book on the practice of Christian contemplation, titled “New Seeds of Contemplation,” Thomas Merton writes of the foundational importance of this mysterious encounter with God for the life of faith. In the revelation of God as “I AM WHO I AM,” Merton writes that both Moses, and we ourselves, discover that God is not a thing to be controlled or placed in a box. This is not a God we would have expected or imagined up! This God unsettles and disturbs our assumptions. Moses hides his face, afraid to peer into God’s holy presence. Merton writes that this fear—what the mystics often called the dark night of the soul—reminds us that “there is no such thing as God because God is neither a what nor a thing but a pure Who. He is the Thou before whom our inmost I springs into awareness.” The God whom Moses encounters is the God whose name can only be mysteriously told and known as living encounter—I AM WHO I AM. When we recognize that God cannot be contained by our simple characterizations or predetermined ideas, we realize that it is no trivial thing to encounter the fire of God’s love and presence. Sometimes this burning fire must first reduce to ashes our worn-out words, cliches, and slogans; we must take off our sandals and encounter the Holy One afresh. However, when we learn to abandon ourselves and encounter the Living God—through prayer, meditation, scripture, community, and service—we awaken to the depthless love that pervades all things. This awakening encounter with God is not easy, but it is worth it. As Jesus puts it, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Amen.
Elliot VanHoy
Pastoral Associate
Published on August 26, 2026.