We live in a reality that needs queerness. We need what lies beyond the violence and death grip of the status quo. We need the rupture of racial, ethnic, geopolitical borders. We need the curiosity and vitality of imaginations that move us collectively through and beyond the ache of Now into the possibilities of the Not Yet. This is queer existence, queer faith. This is queerness that gives life and queerness that might save us all.

One of the remarkable things about this story is that it flips the script on who is seeking who between humanity and God. There is no indication whatsoever that Moses woke up that morning thinking: Today is the day I learn the name of God. Rather, everything points to God who is in search of Moses, and finds him, and repeatedly invites him into deeper communion and courage.

Jesus once said: “Blessed are the meek, those who live with humility, for they will inherit the land.”  This is not how history tends to play out.  But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story.  Restorative justice offers a path that is ultimately healing and good for those who have been harmed, and those who have done harm or benefitted from that harm.  Blessed are those who keep this story alive. 

The way we choose to read this story, the origin story of the church, is that when the Holy Spirit shows up, or, rather, when people become attuned to the Holy Spirit that had been there all along, it seriously messes with prior categories of the holy and unholy. And, initially at least, it’s not those people out there who need to change and become like us, joining our group, speaking our language, but it’s we who are changed to learn new languages and cross boundaries.