Holy Disability - March 18

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 31; PM Psalm 35; Exod. 4:10-20(21-26)27-31; 1 Cor. 14:1-19; Mark 9:30-41

But Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

The opening line of our Old Testament reading this morning points to Moses’s own understanding of his leadership capacity. Moses has reservations about his ability to lead God’s people. He has been called by God to lead his people and yet has concerns about his limitations. Other translations say he had “impeded speech.” Many see this as Moses naming his own disability.

In an article I read from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, professor Sarah Wolf arrives at the conclusion that “being created in God’s image then does not mean that humans are endowed with some kind of divine perfection, but rather that humans are granted both abilities and disabilities, and that this mirrors something essential about the divine as well.” Wolf further argues that this is a “powerful way to conceptualize a God who gave the Torah through a revelation that was incomplete and in need of human interpretation.” To be Godly is to have power and limitations. For Wolf, “a prophet with a speech impediment is not a person with a flaw to be overcome, but rather the truest representation of the divine voice.”

If I am honest with you all, I mostly try to mask my flaws or limitations of which there are many.  In human systems, when we are competing with others, we look to expose the perceived weaknesses of others. This passage could be seen as a passage on leadership, that part of what Moses is required to do is embrace his limitations by inviting his brother Aaron to help him in shepherding God’s people. And God’s lifting Moses up as the one to lead God’s people through slavery into freedom is such a powerful reminder that God does not require us to be perfect, but instead requires us to be faithful. 

We all have limitations and great gifts, disabilities and abilities, and these are all a part of who God has created us to be. May we embrace the gift of our sacred humanity and embrace it in others too. 

John+

Questions for Self-Reflection:  What limitations do you try to mask?  What imperfections do you struggle to see as part of who God has created?