Page 10 - Reading Between the Lines - Sample

Proper 23 Exodus 32:1-14
upon are “delayed” and out of touch? How does this happen in a nation, church, parish, business, non- profit or social welfare organization? What is the “delay” by the leaders that makes them anxious and leads them to search for “other gods” and answers?
Who are the Aarons in your world, who because they are frightened, compassionate, greedy, disloyal, or ambitious, are making other gods for the people? How is the dancing and revelry happening in government and religious institutions meant to ease the fear and anxiety of those who feel deserted and desolate?
How does this story happen in a family? In a marriage or special relationship between two people? Between a parent and child? How does the other get “delayed” with important things in ways that upset and make the waiting one uneasy? When we are left behind, or below, and the one who we count on is gone for “forty days and forty nights,” what are the kind of golden calves we make? Who is the Aaron who enables and encourages us to fashion other gods or loves?
3. When in your life did the one you counted upon most leave, promise to return only to be “delayed” for too long? What do you recall of the fears and anxieties over an absent parent, sibling, lover, mate, best friend? What did you do as the waiting intensified? What is the golden calf you turned to, to take his or her place? Who was the Aaron who helped you fashion your replacement and surrogate? What happened next?
What do you recall of being the Moses one who the other or others depended upon? How were you “delayed” doing what was important business on the mountaintop? What was it like to come down the mountain, hear the sound of revelry and dancing, and discover an Aaron who created for the other(s), a golden calf? What happened next?
4. What do you know of this story as an inner drama? How does the same plot continue to unfold in your dreams and anxieties, your fears and depressions, your anxieties and your longing? What do you know of a part of yourself that is delayed on the mountaintop, busy with important matters, while the rest of you waits, wonders and worries? What is your Moses so consumed and concerned with?
What of an inner Aaron who knows something about having to settle for second best and is skillful in turning your treasures and wealth into a golden calf that will still your fears and quiet your longings?
What do you know of a tension between your Moses and your Aaron? What do they have to say to each other? How might you experience a costly struggle between your preoccupied Moses and your fearful Aaron? What do you know of their tension with one another in your life each day?
BETWEEN THE LINES
Bill asks what Aaron might be feeling when the people come to him and ask him to make gods for them. I find myself wondering what the people are feeling as they come. What might it have been like if it was just one person asking? How do you imagine that conversation might have gone? How does that
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