Moses is model for convenantal friendships

“It is good to be friends
with the friends of God.”
- Teresa of Avila

I have just returned from the Clergywomen’s Retreat at South Padre Island. We had wonderful worship, an excellent retreat leader in Beth Abel, and enough time together to renew old friendships and initiate some new ones. Two of the women who were there for the first time remarked at how welcome they felt and how much they enjoyed the time together. Two others brought their children, who were coddled and spoiled by the whole group.
Walking the labyrinth drawn in the sand under a full moon shining on the breaking waves was a holy moment for me. As I reflect on the retreat, its power was in our building friendships with others who are pilgrims on this journey of ministry. In one conversation I had, my friend and I agreed that our friendship overcomes our very different theologies and political views. We disagree on the war in Iraq, the recent Judicial Council ruling and the Council of Bishops’ letter about the ruling. Nevertheless, we are still good friends who trust and value the other.
I suspect our ability to be Christian friends is in direct proportion to our ability to be friends of God.
In the April 2004 Interpretation Jacqueline Lapsley wrote about God and Moses. True, no one can see God and live, but it also true that Moses and God developed a long-term relationship. In Exodus 33 we read: “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp.” That is not a onetime event but an habitual action. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Like human friendship, divine friendship is not about a once-in-a-lifetime encounter or even about casual, occasional meetings. Rather, it entails a commitment to regular encounters that form the habit of spending time together. What for Jacob and Gideon was a once-in-a lifetime experience of intimacy becomes a regular experience for Moses.
I am intrigued by using the model of Moses as a friend of God but also the core theological paradox at the heart of divine friendship. For Christians, the logical conclusion of this friendship leads ultimately to the incarnation and to the cross. The friendship of Moses and God creates the possibility of a covenantal friendship in which questioning, cajoling and demanding, sometimes in anger, are part of a normal, corporate friendship with God that makes covenant faithfulness possible. The expression of Moses’ anger toward God makes this relationship real.
Only a covenantal friendship with God could sustain Moses, Israel and us.