Exodus  
God reveals a Name

Exodus 3: 13-15

The voice from the bush gives Moses a mission - but does not at once identify itself. Moses is, understandably, non-plussed. How can he undertake a mission on behalf of someone he does not know. How does he know that this really is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

In response, God gives Moses a name "I am who I am" - which can also be translated as "I am who I will be" - a God who cannot be defined - but who will gradually be revealed ever more fully through succeeding generations.

God is God - but during our lives, we give God different names - or see God in different ways. God is beyond all the names we can use. God is beyond any definition we try to impose. God is God.

Reflection

What names have you associated with God?

What images have you had of God?

You may like to try an exercise based on "I am who I am" "God is God".
Jot down your definitions - images - names for God: God is... God was for me...
Now add the word "not" - closely followed by "God is God".*
How does this help you to grasp something of the transcendence - the utter "beyondness" of God?

*Note: Meister Eckhart got into awful trouble for doing something similar when people took his statement that "God is not good" as limited to what it said - rather than what he meant. "Good" is only a human word - and to an extent we can say "God is good" - but the "good" that God is cannot be held by the word! We are not saying that God is not good - loving, etc - rather we are opening ourselves to the mystery - the wonder -  that these are very little words in comparison with the reality that is God.

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