Hindsight is twenty-twenty they say. Here we are at the end of Moses’ life and our attention is drawn to his vision. Standing on top of a mountain on the edge of the Holy Land, Moses, like Superman, sees it all. Canaan is one hundred and sixty miles in length and fifty or sixty in breadth. At 120 years old Exodus tells us that Moses’ eyesight was sharp. John Wesley mused that even so his sight must have been “miraculously assisted and enlarged.” Moses had good vision.
And as he was looking forward to the Land where the Israelites would finally call home, he also looked back. The Lord reminded him that Moses was on the brink of the fulfillment of God’s promise to give this land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, more numerous than the stars. Mountain top experiences are often times when we pause to reflect on our lives, to look back and see all the missteps, the hardships, the times of wonder and joy along the path we took along the way. Did Moses stop to remember his mother and sister, the kindly Egyptian princess who adopted him, the person he killed in his youth, the work he did leading flocks of sheep. Could he now see how earlier parts of his life prepared him for the bigger tasks that the Lord would set before him, to lead the Israelites out of slavery, to help them to become reacquainted with their Lord and learn to observe God’s commands? I suspect he could. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.
The vision of a life of freedom in the Land of Canaan that God gave to Moses was about to be realized. The time was at hand. And yet, Moses himself would not live long enough to make his home there, or even to step foot in the land himself. He died on that mountain. An honorable death, a well-earned rest, embraced by the Lord – Jewish tradition has it that Moses’ soul went out with a kiss from God both the kiss of death and the kiss of peace.
How unfair it seems to us that after all of his hard labor, fighting with the people when they grumbled and complained, reprimanding them when they rebelled, begging the Lord for forgiveness on their behalf – how unfair that Moses should not be allowed to join his people in their final destination.
I heard a student voice a similar complaint the other day. In the process of trying to line up a field placement sight she discovered a mistake in the process that would adversely affect anyone trying to work at a particular location. Her work at alerting the people in charge made a difference for the future. But she was not going to reap the benefit of the changes she initiated.
Yet this is often the way. It is indeed mysterious that “those who lead God’s people, intercede for them and reprimand them when they transgress, the true servants of the Lord (v. 5), do not necessarily see the fulfillment of God’s promise.” Take Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for example. He alluded to the last chapter from Deuteronomy in the last sermon he preached entitled “I See the Promised Land.” Like Moses, Dr. King was fairly clear at this point that his life was about to end. His sermon alludes to the many death threats that had been made in the spring of 1968. And like Moses, who gave a pep talk to the Israelites, Dr. King was aiming to encourage his followers to continue the work after he was gone. He said,
I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding – something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi, or Memphis Tennessee – the cry is always the same – “We want to be free.”…Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding.
Dr. King did not live to see his dream of little black boys an black girls being able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers realized. Yet because of his work and those who followed his lead in promoting not only civil rights, but caring relationships between peoples of different races two generations of American children have grown up with tv shows like Sesame Street where people with different races and genders and physical abilities, (not to mention different colored fur!) interact with one another in friendship and respect. Because of Dr. King’s vision and the vision of others like him our school curricula across the country have been rewritten with the purpose of writing in the lives of the women, the slaves, the workers, the Native Americans, the immigrants. Because of visions like this the year 2009 will see either an African American president or a woman vice president
It is a testimony to Dr. King’s faith in God, and his conviction that his vision came from God whose will, in the end, will be done, that he could honestly say.
it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Such vision comes as a gift from God. As John Wesley said, “Such a sight the Old Testament believers had of the kingdom of the Messiah. And such a sight believers have now of the glory that shall be revealed. Such a sight have we now, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which shall cover the earth. Those that come after us shall undoubtedly enter into that promised land: which is a comfort to us, when we find our own carcases falling in this wilderness.
These reflections on vision – the vision of the Patriarchs, the vision of Dr. King, the vision of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frances Willard – thinking on their vision begs us to pause and think about our own vision. What vision has the Lord given you and where are you in your life with that vision. Those at the end like Moses are invited to look around and find someone to share that vision with. Whom has the Lord put in your life who might carry on the good work you’ve been doing? Who is your Joshua, standing beside you, eager to receive your wisdom and continue your work? For those who are at the middle, or closer to the beginning of our lives it is fitting to ponder what vision is the Lord giving us. What work are we being called to take up as we move with God’s people toward the life in God’s kingdom that it may fully come here on earth as it is in heaven.
Let us pray for one another, that each of us, like Moses, may have twenty-twenty vision.
Sarah Laughs
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Have Your Eyes Seen the Glory of the Lord? - Sermon from October 19 - Based on Exodus 33
Glory, glory Lord, love come down.
Look, my chillun, glory comin’
See that glory in the sky!
For other verses substitute Faith and Hope. --- Words and music by Joel Hayden
Do you feel it? Have you seen it? Have your eyes seen the glory of the Lord? This might seem like a strange question when our God is invisible. We just sang a few minutes ago that God is inaccessible in light and hid from our eyes. So what do we mean when we say we have seen the glory of the Lord? What is glory anyway?
Kevin and I asked that question at Bible study on Wednesday. Use of some study books helped to clarify that the Hebrew word for glory is דבכ – kabad. Its original meaning is surprising – it means heavy, or weighty. In the Bible Eli was a heavy man and Absalom had heavy hair. Kabad is often used with a negative connotation. Though I usually think of glory as shiny and wonderful, kabad can mean dull, or insensitive like when God called Moses at the burning bush and Moses was reluctant because his tongue was kabad – heavy – he was slow of speech. And Pharaoh’s heart is often described as kabad – heavy or hard. Kabad can also mean severe; like heavy the work given by Pharaoh to the Israelites. The seventh plague God sent to Egypt was heavy hail. Very difficult work like the yoke that oxen pull is kabad. Moses’ father-in-law was concerned that helping all the people settle their disputes was too kabad – too heavy for one person.
If something kabad is severe, it can also be too much, very weighty, or even impressive. Now we are getting closer to what scripture means when it talks about God’s kabad – God’s glory. When kings are described as kabad it is usually because of their social position and their wealth. They have an abundance of goods, a large treasury and they wear beautiful garments that reflect the honor that such impressive people receive. This is how kabad is used to refer to God – God is honorable, worthy of praise, the owner of great abundance who demands respect and reverence. Have you ever seen God’s kabad, God’s glory? Have your eyes beheld the glory of the Lord?
In Exodus 33, Moses asks God to show him his glory. Moses asks because God does not usually show his full weight, his full self to anyone, not even to the children of God. God’s glory is a threat to our very lives. The Lord tells Moses that, “no one shall see me and live.” Trying to look at God’s glory is like trying to stare at the sun – it is blinding. In comparison to our sinfulness, God’s glory is so powerful it could incinerate us. Remember last week when the Israelites worshiped an idol. God’s glory burned so hot that threatened to consume them.
At Camp Farthest Out one of our favorite songs is about God’s glorious power. All the men and boys go onto the stage and sing a great base part, “Now let us sing” while the women respond with enthusiasm, “sing till the power of the Lord comes down” - “Lift up your voice, be not afraid. Now let us sing till the power of the Lord comes down.” We sing it at the top of our lungs and usually have three pianists at the keyboard. When I was young my grandparents would often leave the room during the song – in part because we were so loud. But I still remember the comment my grandfather made – that we really wouldn’t like it very much if the full power of the Lord came down – because it is too glorious, too awesome to behold. My grandfather was remembering what the Lord told Moses, “No one shall see me and live.”
But even though it is risky to see the glory of the Lord, we still yearn for it. Moses continues to ask for it until God finally agrees to at least let Moses gaze on his holy backside from the safety of a crevice in the rock. What spurs us on to behold God’s glory? When we turn back to Chapter 33 of Exodus we see that Moses made this request as part of a more general desire that God make his presence known not only to him but to his people. Being able to see God’s glory is what helps the people of God know that God is with them.
In chapter 33 God is still angry with the people for their disloyalty of forging other gods and worshiping them. God was still angry and had withdrawn his presence from all the people. No more pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day. God still wanted Moses to lead the people to the Promised Land, but now they would have to be content with following an angel, a messenger from God, rather than following the Lord God himself.
But Moses begs for God to make his presence known to the people once again. Remember that the only thing that made Israel a special people was their relationship to the Lord. “Once you were no people, but now, you are my people.” We need to have a sense of God’s presence with us as we journey through life, or we will loose our identity as children of God. Later on God concedes and makes his presence known by instructing the people to build a special tent, a tabernacle. And this tabernacle will be filled with God’s glory. Later the movable tabernacle was exchanged by king David for a Temple in Jerusalem. The splendor and honor of the Lord shone from it and like a king or queen, God’s train of glory will fill the temple.
As Christians we believe that God’s glory was most fully revealed, however, in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel – God present with us. Eugene Peterson translates the Gospel of John chapter one this way. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son.” We are reminded that Jesus is God’s glory made visible at Christmas. ”Gloria – in excelsis Deo!” Glory to God in the highest! As the people of God, even if we can’t look at God’s glory full on, we need to behold God’s glory every now and then. We need to be fully aware of God’s powerful presence or we will wither and die.
So I ask you again, have your eyes seen the glory of God? If you are not often aware of God’s glory are you bold enough to be like Moses and ask the Lord, “Show me your glory, I pray.” Are you eagerly looking for God’s power at work in the world? Are you aware of God’s abundant gifts of strength, and peace, hope and love available to you if you only ask? Let us pause now and ask God to reveal his glory, make his presence know to each and every one of us so that we may be strengthened to live as his children.
Sing glory, sing Hallelujah! Sing glory, sing Hallelujah! Sing glory, glory, Hallelujah! I know my Lord is here.
He calls me, to come and follow; He calls me to come and follow, he calls me, calls to come and follow; I know my Lord is here.
Christ Jesus, Your love surrounds me; Christ Jesus, Your love surrounds me; Christ Jesus, yes, Your love surrounds me; I know my Lord is here.
Lord Jesus, You live within me; Lord Jesus, You live within me; Lord Jesus, yes, You live within me; I know my Lord is here. --- Words and music by Joel Hayden
Look, my chillun, glory comin’
See that glory in the sky!
For other verses substitute Faith and Hope. --- Words and music by Joel Hayden
Do you feel it? Have you seen it? Have your eyes seen the glory of the Lord? This might seem like a strange question when our God is invisible. We just sang a few minutes ago that God is inaccessible in light and hid from our eyes. So what do we mean when we say we have seen the glory of the Lord? What is glory anyway?
Kevin and I asked that question at Bible study on Wednesday. Use of some study books helped to clarify that the Hebrew word for glory is דבכ – kabad. Its original meaning is surprising – it means heavy, or weighty. In the Bible Eli was a heavy man and Absalom had heavy hair. Kabad is often used with a negative connotation. Though I usually think of glory as shiny and wonderful, kabad can mean dull, or insensitive like when God called Moses at the burning bush and Moses was reluctant because his tongue was kabad – heavy – he was slow of speech. And Pharaoh’s heart is often described as kabad – heavy or hard. Kabad can also mean severe; like heavy the work given by Pharaoh to the Israelites. The seventh plague God sent to Egypt was heavy hail. Very difficult work like the yoke that oxen pull is kabad. Moses’ father-in-law was concerned that helping all the people settle their disputes was too kabad – too heavy for one person.
If something kabad is severe, it can also be too much, very weighty, or even impressive. Now we are getting closer to what scripture means when it talks about God’s kabad – God’s glory. When kings are described as kabad it is usually because of their social position and their wealth. They have an abundance of goods, a large treasury and they wear beautiful garments that reflect the honor that such impressive people receive. This is how kabad is used to refer to God – God is honorable, worthy of praise, the owner of great abundance who demands respect and reverence. Have you ever seen God’s kabad, God’s glory? Have your eyes beheld the glory of the Lord?
In Exodus 33, Moses asks God to show him his glory. Moses asks because God does not usually show his full weight, his full self to anyone, not even to the children of God. God’s glory is a threat to our very lives. The Lord tells Moses that, “no one shall see me and live.” Trying to look at God’s glory is like trying to stare at the sun – it is blinding. In comparison to our sinfulness, God’s glory is so powerful it could incinerate us. Remember last week when the Israelites worshiped an idol. God’s glory burned so hot that threatened to consume them.
At Camp Farthest Out one of our favorite songs is about God’s glorious power. All the men and boys go onto the stage and sing a great base part, “Now let us sing” while the women respond with enthusiasm, “sing till the power of the Lord comes down” - “Lift up your voice, be not afraid. Now let us sing till the power of the Lord comes down.” We sing it at the top of our lungs and usually have three pianists at the keyboard. When I was young my grandparents would often leave the room during the song – in part because we were so loud. But I still remember the comment my grandfather made – that we really wouldn’t like it very much if the full power of the Lord came down – because it is too glorious, too awesome to behold. My grandfather was remembering what the Lord told Moses, “No one shall see me and live.”
But even though it is risky to see the glory of the Lord, we still yearn for it. Moses continues to ask for it until God finally agrees to at least let Moses gaze on his holy backside from the safety of a crevice in the rock. What spurs us on to behold God’s glory? When we turn back to Chapter 33 of Exodus we see that Moses made this request as part of a more general desire that God make his presence known not only to him but to his people. Being able to see God’s glory is what helps the people of God know that God is with them.
In chapter 33 God is still angry with the people for their disloyalty of forging other gods and worshiping them. God was still angry and had withdrawn his presence from all the people. No more pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day. God still wanted Moses to lead the people to the Promised Land, but now they would have to be content with following an angel, a messenger from God, rather than following the Lord God himself.
But Moses begs for God to make his presence known to the people once again. Remember that the only thing that made Israel a special people was their relationship to the Lord. “Once you were no people, but now, you are my people.” We need to have a sense of God’s presence with us as we journey through life, or we will loose our identity as children of God. Later on God concedes and makes his presence known by instructing the people to build a special tent, a tabernacle. And this tabernacle will be filled with God’s glory. Later the movable tabernacle was exchanged by king David for a Temple in Jerusalem. The splendor and honor of the Lord shone from it and like a king or queen, God’s train of glory will fill the temple.
As Christians we believe that God’s glory was most fully revealed, however, in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel – God present with us. Eugene Peterson translates the Gospel of John chapter one this way. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son.” We are reminded that Jesus is God’s glory made visible at Christmas. ”Gloria – in excelsis Deo!” Glory to God in the highest! As the people of God, even if we can’t look at God’s glory full on, we need to behold God’s glory every now and then. We need to be fully aware of God’s powerful presence or we will wither and die.
So I ask you again, have your eyes seen the glory of God? If you are not often aware of God’s glory are you bold enough to be like Moses and ask the Lord, “Show me your glory, I pray.” Are you eagerly looking for God’s power at work in the world? Are you aware of God’s abundant gifts of strength, and peace, hope and love available to you if you only ask? Let us pause now and ask God to reveal his glory, make his presence know to each and every one of us so that we may be strengthened to live as his children.
Sing glory, sing Hallelujah! Sing glory, sing Hallelujah! Sing glory, glory, Hallelujah! I know my Lord is here.
He calls me, to come and follow; He calls me to come and follow, he calls me, calls to come and follow; I know my Lord is here.
Christ Jesus, Your love surrounds me; Christ Jesus, Your love surrounds me; Christ Jesus, yes, Your love surrounds me; I know my Lord is here.
Lord Jesus, You live within me; Lord Jesus, You live within me; Lord Jesus, yes, You live within me; I know my Lord is here. --- Words and music by Joel Hayden
When We Forget God - Sermon from October 12 - based on Exodus 32
Many Christians today avoid thinking much about the wrath of God. We might sing about it once in a while - “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, his truth is marching on.” – but God’s anger is often far from our thoughts. We’d much rather think about God’s love for us; God’s mercy, kindness and patience.
Even the reading for today has been censored. When we stop where I just left off, the Lord is angry at first, and threatens to destroy the Israelites altogether with his fiery wrath. But Moses talks God out of such drastic action and we read, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.”
But if we kept reading we soon see that this is not a neat happily-ever-after story. For when Moses came down off of the mountain and saw for himself the sins of the people, he also became furious. Not only does he destroy the idol they have been worshipping, but also he smashed the two tablets upon which God had written the law. Moses, now angry on God’s behalf first made the Israelites drink a kind of golden calf Kool-Aid – made with the pulverized idol and water. Then he rounded up the loyal Levites in the camp and gave them God’s orders to kill all the worst offenders, numbering three thousand. And by the end of the chapter God punished the Israelites further by sending a plague their way. All this is to show that the Lord takes his covenant with his people very seriously. God will not be mocked. Exodus 20 tells us the Lord “is a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.”
In the heavenly courts the Lord is both plaintiff and judge. God charges his people with disloyalty. “They have acted perversely, they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said ‘These are our gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” I can almost hear God muttering, “after everything I’ve done for them, saved Moses from childhood death, prepared him for leadership, the ten plagues ending with the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven and water from a rock. They should be grateful and love me, but no, they can’t even wait a measly 40 days for me to finish giving my law to them.” Then he says to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stubborn and hard headed they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.”
If we were the jury of such a court we would have to admit that the Lord has a case. Not only did the people become impatient for Moses to return, but also they easily turned to worship a false god and attribute their salvation to this lump of gold. And they didn’t only think of this golden calf as a god – they gave a whole day to worship it, holding a festival, offering sacrifices and reveling.
When the thought of the wrath of God has me squirming in my seat, I am tempted to think, “Whew, I’m glad I’m not like those Israelites. I’ve never worshipped a golden calf and I can’t remember the last time I was at a wild party, reveling.” But then I realize I need to look deeper at myself, and fess-up to the ways and times when my unfaithfulness may be stirring up God’s wrath.
In Bible Study on Wednesday we noted that God called the actions of the Israelites perverse or corrupt. If we have Cecil B. DeMill’s film The 10 Commandments in our minds eye, and connect our common understanding of perverse then we are apt to think of wild orgies and drunkenness. But when we looked up the Hebrew word for perverse we discovered that it actually refers to something that has decayed, perished or wasted. And indeed these unfaithful acts of the children of God were destroying the covenant relationship between them. So the question Exodus 32 is asking of us is what in our lives causes our relationship with God to decay, or perish?
Certainly impatience with God is as common today as it was in Moses’ time. We don’t like it when God leaves us alone for a time, to wait and wonder what will happen next. It is hard for us to worship an invisible God and we don’t always have the spiritual maturity to perceive God in our midst. So we tend to rely on human leaders. Notice in verse one the Israelites didn’t even credit the Lord for leading them out of Egypt. They still thought Moses led them, and now that Moses has been gone for a few weeks they cast about for another leader. Impatience can cause our relationship with God to decay.
Aaron was apparently quite happy to fill in. With no objection, and absolutely no loyalty to God or his brother Moses, Aaron took the place of authority offered by the people. Rather than trying to correct them, or help them to be patient and loyal, he gave in to their demands authorizing their shift in loyalty, creating the graven image of a foreign god for them to worship and even leading the worship rituals. Such a story gives me pause to wonder about democracy today. Letting the majority select their own leaders and make their own laws does not necessarily result in the people doing God’s will. Though Jesus clearly instructed us to care for “the least of these” I am fearful that our individual selfishness may undermine our State’s good care of the poor, the elderly, the sick and the children when Massachusetts residents are given the opportunity to get rid of our income tax. When we live as if our neighbors matter less than we do, we let our relationship with God decay.
Like the children of Israel, we also make offerings to other gods. Exodus 32 names two kinds of offerings. The first are burnt offerings given in hopes that one will win favor. What do we do today in an effort to manipulate the life we want? I knew a man who offered his time and effort to enter the Publisher’s Clearing House every year – ordering magazines he didn’t really need or want in hopes that Ed McMann would one day come to his door. Workaholics sacrifice their time and energy to the god of success, hoping that all their effort will pay off and they will gain riches or respect or power. When we devote such resources for our own gain, we are worshiping idols and forgetting the Lord who abundantly provides all our needs.
The other type offerings mentioned in Exodus 32 are peace offerings. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” which refers to one’s total well-being. Though the end goal of life in covenant with the Lord is shalom, we often jeopardize this covenant when we make peace offerings to other gods. Think of all the money, time and energy that people give to fitness in hopes of warding off illness and improving their well-being. Or think of the rest of us, who give our resources to obtaining comfort food that makes us feel better for a time.
What other ways do we allow the false gods of this world overshadow, and chip away at our covenant relationship with the Lord? Are we willing to take a hard look at ourselves and see, knowing that our Lord is a jealous and wrathful God? We all have in one way or another exchanged the glory of God for dull images – like that of an ox that eats grass. We are called today to confess these sins, and turn back to the Lord our sovereign God.
The children of Israel had an advocate who helped them renew their relationship with God. In that heavenly court room, after the Lord made his complaint against Israel Moses spoke up for his people, begging God to think twice, to remember the covenant promise, which began with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and extended to their many children. Even after Moses returned from the mountain, after his rage he offered to go back to the Lord for them and make atonement. He asked God to forgive them – and if God refused and decided to blot out all of them from the book of life, Moses said he would rather stand with Israel and receive the same punishment.
Like the Israelites, Christians are not required to stand alone in our sinful state. We also have an advocate who stands with us in complete solidarity - Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor who goes to the Father on our behalf so that our sins of infidelity may be forgiven and our covenant relationship between the Lord and us may be restored. And as restored children of God we can once more gather around the throne of the Lord and worship him in spirit and in truth. May it be so.
Even the reading for today has been censored. When we stop where I just left off, the Lord is angry at first, and threatens to destroy the Israelites altogether with his fiery wrath. But Moses talks God out of such drastic action and we read, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.”
But if we kept reading we soon see that this is not a neat happily-ever-after story. For when Moses came down off of the mountain and saw for himself the sins of the people, he also became furious. Not only does he destroy the idol they have been worshipping, but also he smashed the two tablets upon which God had written the law. Moses, now angry on God’s behalf first made the Israelites drink a kind of golden calf Kool-Aid – made with the pulverized idol and water. Then he rounded up the loyal Levites in the camp and gave them God’s orders to kill all the worst offenders, numbering three thousand. And by the end of the chapter God punished the Israelites further by sending a plague their way. All this is to show that the Lord takes his covenant with his people very seriously. God will not be mocked. Exodus 20 tells us the Lord “is a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.”
In the heavenly courts the Lord is both plaintiff and judge. God charges his people with disloyalty. “They have acted perversely, they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said ‘These are our gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” I can almost hear God muttering, “after everything I’ve done for them, saved Moses from childhood death, prepared him for leadership, the ten plagues ending with the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven and water from a rock. They should be grateful and love me, but no, they can’t even wait a measly 40 days for me to finish giving my law to them.” Then he says to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stubborn and hard headed they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.”
If we were the jury of such a court we would have to admit that the Lord has a case. Not only did the people become impatient for Moses to return, but also they easily turned to worship a false god and attribute their salvation to this lump of gold. And they didn’t only think of this golden calf as a god – they gave a whole day to worship it, holding a festival, offering sacrifices and reveling.
When the thought of the wrath of God has me squirming in my seat, I am tempted to think, “Whew, I’m glad I’m not like those Israelites. I’ve never worshipped a golden calf and I can’t remember the last time I was at a wild party, reveling.” But then I realize I need to look deeper at myself, and fess-up to the ways and times when my unfaithfulness may be stirring up God’s wrath.
In Bible Study on Wednesday we noted that God called the actions of the Israelites perverse or corrupt. If we have Cecil B. DeMill’s film The 10 Commandments in our minds eye, and connect our common understanding of perverse then we are apt to think of wild orgies and drunkenness. But when we looked up the Hebrew word for perverse we discovered that it actually refers to something that has decayed, perished or wasted. And indeed these unfaithful acts of the children of God were destroying the covenant relationship between them. So the question Exodus 32 is asking of us is what in our lives causes our relationship with God to decay, or perish?
Certainly impatience with God is as common today as it was in Moses’ time. We don’t like it when God leaves us alone for a time, to wait and wonder what will happen next. It is hard for us to worship an invisible God and we don’t always have the spiritual maturity to perceive God in our midst. So we tend to rely on human leaders. Notice in verse one the Israelites didn’t even credit the Lord for leading them out of Egypt. They still thought Moses led them, and now that Moses has been gone for a few weeks they cast about for another leader. Impatience can cause our relationship with God to decay.
Aaron was apparently quite happy to fill in. With no objection, and absolutely no loyalty to God or his brother Moses, Aaron took the place of authority offered by the people. Rather than trying to correct them, or help them to be patient and loyal, he gave in to their demands authorizing their shift in loyalty, creating the graven image of a foreign god for them to worship and even leading the worship rituals. Such a story gives me pause to wonder about democracy today. Letting the majority select their own leaders and make their own laws does not necessarily result in the people doing God’s will. Though Jesus clearly instructed us to care for “the least of these” I am fearful that our individual selfishness may undermine our State’s good care of the poor, the elderly, the sick and the children when Massachusetts residents are given the opportunity to get rid of our income tax. When we live as if our neighbors matter less than we do, we let our relationship with God decay.
Like the children of Israel, we also make offerings to other gods. Exodus 32 names two kinds of offerings. The first are burnt offerings given in hopes that one will win favor. What do we do today in an effort to manipulate the life we want? I knew a man who offered his time and effort to enter the Publisher’s Clearing House every year – ordering magazines he didn’t really need or want in hopes that Ed McMann would one day come to his door. Workaholics sacrifice their time and energy to the god of success, hoping that all their effort will pay off and they will gain riches or respect or power. When we devote such resources for our own gain, we are worshiping idols and forgetting the Lord who abundantly provides all our needs.
The other type offerings mentioned in Exodus 32 are peace offerings. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” which refers to one’s total well-being. Though the end goal of life in covenant with the Lord is shalom, we often jeopardize this covenant when we make peace offerings to other gods. Think of all the money, time and energy that people give to fitness in hopes of warding off illness and improving their well-being. Or think of the rest of us, who give our resources to obtaining comfort food that makes us feel better for a time.
What other ways do we allow the false gods of this world overshadow, and chip away at our covenant relationship with the Lord? Are we willing to take a hard look at ourselves and see, knowing that our Lord is a jealous and wrathful God? We all have in one way or another exchanged the glory of God for dull images – like that of an ox that eats grass. We are called today to confess these sins, and turn back to the Lord our sovereign God.
The children of Israel had an advocate who helped them renew their relationship with God. In that heavenly court room, after the Lord made his complaint against Israel Moses spoke up for his people, begging God to think twice, to remember the covenant promise, which began with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and extended to their many children. Even after Moses returned from the mountain, after his rage he offered to go back to the Lord for them and make atonement. He asked God to forgive them – and if God refused and decided to blot out all of them from the book of life, Moses said he would rather stand with Israel and receive the same punishment.
Like the Israelites, Christians are not required to stand alone in our sinful state. We also have an advocate who stands with us in complete solidarity - Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor who goes to the Father on our behalf so that our sins of infidelity may be forgiven and our covenant relationship between the Lord and us may be restored. And as restored children of God we can once more gather around the throne of the Lord and worship him in spirit and in truth. May it be so.
Our Covenant with God - Sermon from October 5 - based on Exodus 20
When I was a girl my Sunday School class was challenged to learn a new passage of scripture every year. In fifth grade the assigned passage was the Ten Commandments. From the beginning of the Reformation, Protestants have held these commandments in high regard as something that all Christians should learn. Martin Luther included them in his catechism; John Calvin’s Geneva liturgy has the congregation recite them each Sunday morning. It is rather common for a pastor to choose the Ten Commandments as a sermon series, taking ten weeks to focus on each commandment one at a time.
Of course these Ten Commandments are only a small set of all the commandments in the Bible. The Old Testament alone uses the word commandment 180 times and there are many other laws instructing God’s people how to conduct business, how to cook, what to do in cases of illness and death.
But this morning I want to draw our attention beyond the list of rules, to the context in which they have been given. This is the context of covenant. This is the name we give to the special relationship between God, and God’s people. In a covenant two parties make a promise to one another. God promises to be our God and save us, heal us and bless us; and we, God’s people promise to live according to God’s will. The commandments are simply an attempt to articulate God’s will for our lives – a reminder of what we agree to when we entered into covenant with God.
The English-speaking members of this congregation have been reading through portions of Exodus in worship this fall so that we can remember the story of God’s salvation of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Today as we contemplate the commandments it is very important to remember that they were given in the context of God’s salvation. God’s grace had been at work with the children of God, setting them free from slavery long before God gave them a commandment.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called this kind of grace “prevenient grace” or grace that goes before. This is the assertion that God’s work of salvation begins long before we are aware of it. It’s not that we are to follow a list of rules and then earn God’s love and approval. God loves us dearly and reaches out to save us long before we do anything. This is why Methodists will baptize infants, long before they can profess their faith. We are emphasizing God’s grace that surrounds our children from the time they are conceived. Ironically John Calvin and other Reformers, wishing to lift up the importance of keeping the laws when one enters into covenant with God, obscured God’s prevenient grace by requiring that children be old enough to recite a catechism, including the Ten Commandments, before they could be baptized.
Methodists also see the commandments as an important part of our covenant relationship with God. It’s just that we are willing to recognize that God initiates this covenant as a free gift of grace without merit, and then instructs us in how covenant people are to live. These instructions are known as the law.
When you look carefully at these commandments you can see that the first four deal with the relationship between us and God, while the last six commandments all revolve around how we are to relate to one another – honor our parents, and five “shall nots.” As Jesus summed them up people who are part of the covenant are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. When we enter this covenant through baptism and reaffirm this covenant with confirmation, or reaffirmation of faith, or by joining a church like Wesley Untied Methodist we become part of God’s covenant people who have a special kind of relationship to God and to one another.
What does it look like when we begin to live our covenant relationship with God? What are our lives like when we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? When we have no other gods, no idols, we refuse to take the Lord’s name in vain and we honor the Sabbath? It makes me think of an old African American spiritual “I woke up this morning with my mind – stayed on Jesus.” People who are living the covenant make God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the number one relationship in our lives. We talk to the Lord when we wake up each morning, and before we go to sleep each night. We pray, not only telling God what we need and trusting that the Lord will provide, but also listening to God’s reply and God’s call on our lives. Covenant people also listen to God by reading his word, and studying it. We seek to know God’s will for our lives and invite the Lord to melt us, mold us, fill us and use us for his good purpose. Covenant people’s lives are so full of God that we can’t help but talk about our faith to our friends and neighbors. John Wesley encouraged Methodists to nurture our relationship with God by taking advantage of the means of grace, like Holy Communion, as often as possible.
And what about our covenant with one another? Through our baptisms we entered into this covenant with the whole Christian church. We became brothers and sisters with every other Christian around this world. Just think! That’s one big, beautiful family we belong to! Being in covenant relationship with God means not only honoring our parents, but also our children, our neighbors, the strangers among us and even our enemies. We are not only to respect our elders and our bosses, but the bus drivers, the garbage collectors and even the person that cuts us off on the highway.
Pause for translation
But the covenant also gives us a special relationship with our local congregation. When Zara and Kevin joined Wesley United Methodist Church last week their covenant included a promise to uphold our congregation with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their service and their witness. The full blessings of being in covenant can only come to us when we are present and engaged in our congregation. We have a unique congregation here, one with diversity, which at times can seem challenging, but has the potential to be a great blessing. As a new part of the Wesley community I have been wondering and praying about how we might more fully nurture our covenant relationship with one another.
These monthly worship services are a great start. But I wonder what else we might do to come to know one another better as brothers and sisters in Christ? I haven’t kept my promise yet to roust myself out of the house early enough to attend morning prayer here – but I think that might help. Or perhaps we could have a study group of some kind, which includes members of both parts of the congregation. I also know how to lead a kind of prayerful movement to music an activity called “devotions in motion.” It’s a little bit like Tai Chi so I think we could do it together in spite of our language barrier. Maybe you have ideas – how could we be more fully present to one another, pray for and with one another, share our gifts with one another, serve one another and witness to one another as a whole congregation?
Another aspect of living in covenant as a United Methodist congregation is entering more fully into the United Methodist way. Similar to the Old Testament Law, United Methodists have a code of living together called the Discipline, which is amended every four years at General Conference. It is published in English and Korean and we should be ordering our new copies of the 2008 edition soon. In these first few years of being a bi-lingual congregation we have not been held accountable for following all the ways of the Discipline. We comply with some of it, like our Church Council meeting today, and our participation in mission shares. But there are other aspects of being a United Methodist congregation.
For example our congregation is entitled to send lay representatives to the meeting of the New England Annual Conference – a wonderful time when Methodists from all over our region gather for worship, fellowship and the work of setting policies. Our current lay member, Bill Cowens, is unable to attend Annual Conference any more. Who will we select to replace him?
Another event mandated by the Discipline is that every United Methodist Church hold an annual Charge Conference where the members meet to celebrate our life together and make plans for the coming year of ministry. This year our Charge Conference is scheduled for Thursday November 6 from 7 to 8:30. I encourage all members of this congregation to be present in keeping with our covenant promise.
Also related to the New England Conference, Wesley Church made a covenant to contribute $250 every month for five years toward the Together for Tomorrow Capital Campaign. This campaign supports the ministries of camping and retreats, missions in Nicaragua and West Angola, retired clergy health care, and money to help congregations grow stronger. Together with other churches our contributions can make a big difference for United Methodists in New England.
The Discipline also encourages us to send lay members for training in preaching and worship leadership and the Metro Boston Hope district offers such courses every spring and every fall. Kevin has already signed up for the fall sessions, which will meet on October 25 and November 15. Are there others in this congregation who would like to take advantage of this opportunity to grow in your faith?
And the Discipline designates six special Sundays when United Methodists are to focus our attention on special ministries. Today just happens to be one of those Sundays, called World Communion Sunday. Celebrated on the first Sunday in October, this day calls the Church to be the universal inclusive Church. It was first observed by Presbyterians in 1936 and was adopted by the Council of Churches in 1940. It is now a global and interdenominational event. On this day, Protestants all over the world join with Catholics in taking communion and remembering that our covenant extends beyond this local congregation, and beyond the United Methodist Church, to Christians all over the world. Part of the United Methodist observance of World Communion Sunday is to take a special offering which goes to support ethnic and minority U.S. and international students. Last year American United Methodists collected over one million, two hundred five thousand dollars on World Communion Sunday.
By the grace of God we are gathered for communion here and now, and we represent some of the wonderful diversity God has created in his children. So as we gather at Christ’s table to receive his good gifts on this World Communion Sunday, let us truly remember that through our baptisms and as members of this congregation we are members of his body, connected to one another, to other United Methodists and to the world wide church by such a strong and life giving covenant which began with Abraham and Moses and has been extended to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Of course these Ten Commandments are only a small set of all the commandments in the Bible. The Old Testament alone uses the word commandment 180 times and there are many other laws instructing God’s people how to conduct business, how to cook, what to do in cases of illness and death.
But this morning I want to draw our attention beyond the list of rules, to the context in which they have been given. This is the context of covenant. This is the name we give to the special relationship between God, and God’s people. In a covenant two parties make a promise to one another. God promises to be our God and save us, heal us and bless us; and we, God’s people promise to live according to God’s will. The commandments are simply an attempt to articulate God’s will for our lives – a reminder of what we agree to when we entered into covenant with God.
The English-speaking members of this congregation have been reading through portions of Exodus in worship this fall so that we can remember the story of God’s salvation of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Today as we contemplate the commandments it is very important to remember that they were given in the context of God’s salvation. God’s grace had been at work with the children of God, setting them free from slavery long before God gave them a commandment.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called this kind of grace “prevenient grace” or grace that goes before. This is the assertion that God’s work of salvation begins long before we are aware of it. It’s not that we are to follow a list of rules and then earn God’s love and approval. God loves us dearly and reaches out to save us long before we do anything. This is why Methodists will baptize infants, long before they can profess their faith. We are emphasizing God’s grace that surrounds our children from the time they are conceived. Ironically John Calvin and other Reformers, wishing to lift up the importance of keeping the laws when one enters into covenant with God, obscured God’s prevenient grace by requiring that children be old enough to recite a catechism, including the Ten Commandments, before they could be baptized.
Methodists also see the commandments as an important part of our covenant relationship with God. It’s just that we are willing to recognize that God initiates this covenant as a free gift of grace without merit, and then instructs us in how covenant people are to live. These instructions are known as the law.
When you look carefully at these commandments you can see that the first four deal with the relationship between us and God, while the last six commandments all revolve around how we are to relate to one another – honor our parents, and five “shall nots.” As Jesus summed them up people who are part of the covenant are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. When we enter this covenant through baptism and reaffirm this covenant with confirmation, or reaffirmation of faith, or by joining a church like Wesley Untied Methodist we become part of God’s covenant people who have a special kind of relationship to God and to one another.
What does it look like when we begin to live our covenant relationship with God? What are our lives like when we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? When we have no other gods, no idols, we refuse to take the Lord’s name in vain and we honor the Sabbath? It makes me think of an old African American spiritual “I woke up this morning with my mind – stayed on Jesus.” People who are living the covenant make God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the number one relationship in our lives. We talk to the Lord when we wake up each morning, and before we go to sleep each night. We pray, not only telling God what we need and trusting that the Lord will provide, but also listening to God’s reply and God’s call on our lives. Covenant people also listen to God by reading his word, and studying it. We seek to know God’s will for our lives and invite the Lord to melt us, mold us, fill us and use us for his good purpose. Covenant people’s lives are so full of God that we can’t help but talk about our faith to our friends and neighbors. John Wesley encouraged Methodists to nurture our relationship with God by taking advantage of the means of grace, like Holy Communion, as often as possible.
And what about our covenant with one another? Through our baptisms we entered into this covenant with the whole Christian church. We became brothers and sisters with every other Christian around this world. Just think! That’s one big, beautiful family we belong to! Being in covenant relationship with God means not only honoring our parents, but also our children, our neighbors, the strangers among us and even our enemies. We are not only to respect our elders and our bosses, but the bus drivers, the garbage collectors and even the person that cuts us off on the highway.
Pause for translation
But the covenant also gives us a special relationship with our local congregation. When Zara and Kevin joined Wesley United Methodist Church last week their covenant included a promise to uphold our congregation with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their service and their witness. The full blessings of being in covenant can only come to us when we are present and engaged in our congregation. We have a unique congregation here, one with diversity, which at times can seem challenging, but has the potential to be a great blessing. As a new part of the Wesley community I have been wondering and praying about how we might more fully nurture our covenant relationship with one another.
These monthly worship services are a great start. But I wonder what else we might do to come to know one another better as brothers and sisters in Christ? I haven’t kept my promise yet to roust myself out of the house early enough to attend morning prayer here – but I think that might help. Or perhaps we could have a study group of some kind, which includes members of both parts of the congregation. I also know how to lead a kind of prayerful movement to music an activity called “devotions in motion.” It’s a little bit like Tai Chi so I think we could do it together in spite of our language barrier. Maybe you have ideas – how could we be more fully present to one another, pray for and with one another, share our gifts with one another, serve one another and witness to one another as a whole congregation?
Another aspect of living in covenant as a United Methodist congregation is entering more fully into the United Methodist way. Similar to the Old Testament Law, United Methodists have a code of living together called the Discipline, which is amended every four years at General Conference. It is published in English and Korean and we should be ordering our new copies of the 2008 edition soon. In these first few years of being a bi-lingual congregation we have not been held accountable for following all the ways of the Discipline. We comply with some of it, like our Church Council meeting today, and our participation in mission shares. But there are other aspects of being a United Methodist congregation.
For example our congregation is entitled to send lay representatives to the meeting of the New England Annual Conference – a wonderful time when Methodists from all over our region gather for worship, fellowship and the work of setting policies. Our current lay member, Bill Cowens, is unable to attend Annual Conference any more. Who will we select to replace him?
Another event mandated by the Discipline is that every United Methodist Church hold an annual Charge Conference where the members meet to celebrate our life together and make plans for the coming year of ministry. This year our Charge Conference is scheduled for Thursday November 6 from 7 to 8:30. I encourage all members of this congregation to be present in keeping with our covenant promise.
Also related to the New England Conference, Wesley Church made a covenant to contribute $250 every month for five years toward the Together for Tomorrow Capital Campaign. This campaign supports the ministries of camping and retreats, missions in Nicaragua and West Angola, retired clergy health care, and money to help congregations grow stronger. Together with other churches our contributions can make a big difference for United Methodists in New England.
The Discipline also encourages us to send lay members for training in preaching and worship leadership and the Metro Boston Hope district offers such courses every spring and every fall. Kevin has already signed up for the fall sessions, which will meet on October 25 and November 15. Are there others in this congregation who would like to take advantage of this opportunity to grow in your faith?
And the Discipline designates six special Sundays when United Methodists are to focus our attention on special ministries. Today just happens to be one of those Sundays, called World Communion Sunday. Celebrated on the first Sunday in October, this day calls the Church to be the universal inclusive Church. It was first observed by Presbyterians in 1936 and was adopted by the Council of Churches in 1940. It is now a global and interdenominational event. On this day, Protestants all over the world join with Catholics in taking communion and remembering that our covenant extends beyond this local congregation, and beyond the United Methodist Church, to Christians all over the world. Part of the United Methodist observance of World Communion Sunday is to take a special offering which goes to support ethnic and minority U.S. and international students. Last year American United Methodists collected over one million, two hundred five thousand dollars on World Communion Sunday.
By the grace of God we are gathered for communion here and now, and we represent some of the wonderful diversity God has created in his children. So as we gather at Christ’s table to receive his good gifts on this World Communion Sunday, let us truly remember that through our baptisms and as members of this congregation we are members of his body, connected to one another, to other United Methodists and to the world wide church by such a strong and life giving covenant which began with Abraham and Moses and has been extended to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Working Out our Salvation - From September 28 - Based on Exodus 17 and Philippians 2
For the past few weeks we have been reading the Bible and thinking about salvation. God saved the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians, God performed a miracle of parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross on dry ground. And God saved them from hunger in the wilderness by providing manna from heaven.
And here we are again, still with Moses and the Israelites who are still in the wilderness and just as miserable as they were before. Now they were worried about their water supply and once again they began complaining, and quarreling with Moses, demanding that he save them with water.
I believe that we are seeing a very common aspect of human nature. When we are unhappy with our lives we wish for someone to come down like a fairy godmother and magically make everything all right. Our consumer culture understands our nature – it is always promising bliss and happiness if only we buy this gadget, or that medicine.
Christian teachings rightly point out that all salvation comes from God. But if we leave it at that, focused only on what God does, it can leave us with an image of ourselves as helpless Cinderellas and Pinocchios just sitting around wishing for our dreams to come true. And when we don’t get what we want we end up quarreling with God and those who represent God to us, or just giving up on faith all together.
I once came to know a congregation who had such a passive image of salvation. They were down to five active people attending worship. Though they had known one another for a long time, I noticed at coffee hour that everyone talked and no one listened, or responded to the other. They did not participate in any outreach ministry of any kind, or attend any conference or district events, or take up special offerings for the poor, or victims of disasters. They were not particularly cooperative with their pastors either. At the same time that they were getting ready to close the church and take the whole summer off, they had put in a request for the conference to give them enough money to pay for a full time pastor. Their expectation that someone would just save them, while they continued to focus on what they lacked - grumbling, murmuring, complaining and fighting all the way.
Can you visualize this congregation? Can you imagine being a visitor to such a congregation on a Sunday morning? No wonder a congregation like this was not growing in any way at all.
In contrast Paul urges the followers of Jesus to “do all things without murmuring and arguing so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars.” Can you now imagine a congregation like this? – one that feels like an oasis from the outside world. One that has members that shine like stars because they are filled with Christ’s love and they know God’s saving grace.
This is the kind of congregation Paul encourages the Philippians to become. A congregation that encourages one another, that offers one another solace, consolation, compassion and sympathy in times of need; a congregation that is united in heart both to Christ and to one another; a congregation full of the Spirit of Christ – and thus full of joy.
Such a congregation learns how to put each other first, and does nothing for selfish reasons of ambition or conceit. The members are not focused on their own individual needs, but on the needs of other members and seek to meet them. When I read this description in Philippians I think of Quakers, who have learned the art of making all decisions by consensus. This is a process whereby each person is asked to pray about a certain decision. Then the members discuss how they hear the Spirit leading them. If only one member disagrees with the path the group is setting, the group returns to a position of prayerful listening, and they seek to alter their plans until every member is at peace with them. If they can’t come to peace, then the group just holds off on any decision until later. This process takes time, and patience and a certain humility, which Paul lifts up here in Scripture. It also takes trust that the Spirit of God is at work in each member of the church. It is not easy to learn to let the same mind that was in Christ reside in us. But when we, as a congregation, begin to practice this discipline, we will find that we make better decisions, and have more unity of direction, because we are setting aside our own wills in exchange for following God’s will.
The kind of salvation presented to us in Scripture, rather than being a magical, instant cure that someone else gives us, requires our response. Yes, salvation comes from God alone, but God’s Spirit works in us and through us, empowering us and transforming us from people who sit around grumbling and quarreling, to children of God who shine like stars without blemish. Scriptural salvation begins with God, is grounded in God, and is motivated by God. Verse 13 says, “God is at work in you.” And not just me or you as individuals, but all of us. If Paul were a southerner he would say, “God is at work in y’all.” But the work God does in us is just the first part of salvation. The second part is that God’s work in us enables us both to have the will to stop sinning, and the ability to work for God’s good pleasure. We are called, therefore, to work out our own salvation.
John Wesley wrote a sermon on the topic of working out our own salvation and describes how we can do so. He said,
“Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” If ever you desire that God should work in you that faith whereof cometh both present and eternal salvation, by the grace already given, fly from all sin as from the face of a serpent; carefully avoid every evil word and work; yea, abstain from all appearance of evil. And “learn to do well:” Be zealous of good works, of works of piety, as well as works of mercy; family prayer, and crying to God in secret. Fast in secret, and “your Father which seeth in secret, he will reward you openly.” “Search the Scriptures:” Hear them in public, read them in private, and meditate therein. At every opportunity, be a partaker of the Lord's Supper. “Do this in remembrance of him:” and he will meet you at his own table. Let your conversation be with the children of God; and see that it “be in grace, seasoned with salt.” As ye have time, do good unto all men; to their souls and to their bodies. And herein “be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” It then only remains that ye deny yourselves and take up your cross daily. Deny yourselves every pleasure which does not prepare you for taking pleasure in God, and willingly embrace every means of drawing near to God, though it be a cross, though it be grievous to flesh and blood. Thus when you have redemption in the blood of Christ, you will “go on to perfection;” till “walking in the light as he is in the light,” you are enabled to testify, that “he is faithful and just,” not only to ‘forgive’ your ‘sins,’ but to ‘cleanse’ you from all unrighteousness.”
The baptismal covenant is the Christian’s way to enter into salvation. It is God’s gift, offered to us without price. But in it we are also asked to respond to this gift. God is like the river, and we are each a small mill. The river flows over us, but we need to put ourselves in gear in order for the rushing water of God’s grace to turn our water wheels and empower us to do great things. We put ourselves in gear by renouncing sin, by professing our faith publicly, by taking note of all the ways God has already saved us, and giving God thanks and praise, and by keeping our promise to support the Church, the community of brothers and sisters in Christ, by our prayers, our presence our gifts, our service and our witness.
As we prepare to put ourselves in gear once again through the renewing of our baptismal covenant, let us sing hymn 577 – God of Grace and God of Glory.
And here we are again, still with Moses and the Israelites who are still in the wilderness and just as miserable as they were before. Now they were worried about their water supply and once again they began complaining, and quarreling with Moses, demanding that he save them with water.
I believe that we are seeing a very common aspect of human nature. When we are unhappy with our lives we wish for someone to come down like a fairy godmother and magically make everything all right. Our consumer culture understands our nature – it is always promising bliss and happiness if only we buy this gadget, or that medicine.
Christian teachings rightly point out that all salvation comes from God. But if we leave it at that, focused only on what God does, it can leave us with an image of ourselves as helpless Cinderellas and Pinocchios just sitting around wishing for our dreams to come true. And when we don’t get what we want we end up quarreling with God and those who represent God to us, or just giving up on faith all together.
I once came to know a congregation who had such a passive image of salvation. They were down to five active people attending worship. Though they had known one another for a long time, I noticed at coffee hour that everyone talked and no one listened, or responded to the other. They did not participate in any outreach ministry of any kind, or attend any conference or district events, or take up special offerings for the poor, or victims of disasters. They were not particularly cooperative with their pastors either. At the same time that they were getting ready to close the church and take the whole summer off, they had put in a request for the conference to give them enough money to pay for a full time pastor. Their expectation that someone would just save them, while they continued to focus on what they lacked - grumbling, murmuring, complaining and fighting all the way.
Can you visualize this congregation? Can you imagine being a visitor to such a congregation on a Sunday morning? No wonder a congregation like this was not growing in any way at all.
In contrast Paul urges the followers of Jesus to “do all things without murmuring and arguing so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars.” Can you now imagine a congregation like this? – one that feels like an oasis from the outside world. One that has members that shine like stars because they are filled with Christ’s love and they know God’s saving grace.
This is the kind of congregation Paul encourages the Philippians to become. A congregation that encourages one another, that offers one another solace, consolation, compassion and sympathy in times of need; a congregation that is united in heart both to Christ and to one another; a congregation full of the Spirit of Christ – and thus full of joy.
Such a congregation learns how to put each other first, and does nothing for selfish reasons of ambition or conceit. The members are not focused on their own individual needs, but on the needs of other members and seek to meet them. When I read this description in Philippians I think of Quakers, who have learned the art of making all decisions by consensus. This is a process whereby each person is asked to pray about a certain decision. Then the members discuss how they hear the Spirit leading them. If only one member disagrees with the path the group is setting, the group returns to a position of prayerful listening, and they seek to alter their plans until every member is at peace with them. If they can’t come to peace, then the group just holds off on any decision until later. This process takes time, and patience and a certain humility, which Paul lifts up here in Scripture. It also takes trust that the Spirit of God is at work in each member of the church. It is not easy to learn to let the same mind that was in Christ reside in us. But when we, as a congregation, begin to practice this discipline, we will find that we make better decisions, and have more unity of direction, because we are setting aside our own wills in exchange for following God’s will.
The kind of salvation presented to us in Scripture, rather than being a magical, instant cure that someone else gives us, requires our response. Yes, salvation comes from God alone, but God’s Spirit works in us and through us, empowering us and transforming us from people who sit around grumbling and quarreling, to children of God who shine like stars without blemish. Scriptural salvation begins with God, is grounded in God, and is motivated by God. Verse 13 says, “God is at work in you.” And not just me or you as individuals, but all of us. If Paul were a southerner he would say, “God is at work in y’all.” But the work God does in us is just the first part of salvation. The second part is that God’s work in us enables us both to have the will to stop sinning, and the ability to work for God’s good pleasure. We are called, therefore, to work out our own salvation.
John Wesley wrote a sermon on the topic of working out our own salvation and describes how we can do so. He said,
“Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” If ever you desire that God should work in you that faith whereof cometh both present and eternal salvation, by the grace already given, fly from all sin as from the face of a serpent; carefully avoid every evil word and work; yea, abstain from all appearance of evil. And “learn to do well:” Be zealous of good works, of works of piety, as well as works of mercy; family prayer, and crying to God in secret. Fast in secret, and “your Father which seeth in secret, he will reward you openly.” “Search the Scriptures:” Hear them in public, read them in private, and meditate therein. At every opportunity, be a partaker of the Lord's Supper. “Do this in remembrance of him:” and he will meet you at his own table. Let your conversation be with the children of God; and see that it “be in grace, seasoned with salt.” As ye have time, do good unto all men; to their souls and to their bodies. And herein “be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” It then only remains that ye deny yourselves and take up your cross daily. Deny yourselves every pleasure which does not prepare you for taking pleasure in God, and willingly embrace every means of drawing near to God, though it be a cross, though it be grievous to flesh and blood. Thus when you have redemption in the blood of Christ, you will “go on to perfection;” till “walking in the light as he is in the light,” you are enabled to testify, that “he is faithful and just,” not only to ‘forgive’ your ‘sins,’ but to ‘cleanse’ you from all unrighteousness.”
The baptismal covenant is the Christian’s way to enter into salvation. It is God’s gift, offered to us without price. But in it we are also asked to respond to this gift. God is like the river, and we are each a small mill. The river flows over us, but we need to put ourselves in gear in order for the rushing water of God’s grace to turn our water wheels and empower us to do great things. We put ourselves in gear by renouncing sin, by professing our faith publicly, by taking note of all the ways God has already saved us, and giving God thanks and praise, and by keeping our promise to support the Church, the community of brothers and sisters in Christ, by our prayers, our presence our gifts, our service and our witness.
As we prepare to put ourselves in gear once again through the renewing of our baptismal covenant, let us sing hymn 577 – God of Grace and God of Glory.
Bread of Heaven - Sermon based on Exodus 16 - Given September 21
Last Sunday we began to think about salvation while contemplating the story of Israel escaping from slavery in Egypt and how God helped them by parting the Red Sea. The main theme of Exodus is salvation. Not only did God save Israel from the misery of slavery to the Egyptians who were harsh taskmasters and implemented cruel policies like drowning the baby boys in the river, but after Israel escaped from Egypt, the Lord spent 40 years saving them from themselves and teaching them to trust only in him. During this time the Lord used the wilderness as a tool for salvation.
In the second year after I graduated from college I had a miserable year. The recession of the early 90s had hit causing the preschool where I worked to close. I searched in vain for new work, finding only babysitting jobs for the summer, and then finally accepting a position as a nanny which paid only room and board for 20 hours a week. I soon discovered that this family was not so pleasant to work for and worse to live with, and I was unable to find any other work so I was very poor. This experience was very hard on my self-esteem – it is not where I expected to be after four good years of college. While I had clearly felt God’s hand leading me when I was in school, now I felt abandoned, rejected, aimless and alone.
But one day as I was talking with my friend Louise – who was like a second mom to me – she said, “Sarah, you are in the wilderness.” She proceeded to tell me about some of her wilderness experiences and helped me see the connection between our lives in the wilderness, and what the Israelites experienced as they made their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. After a while, I too began to see how the Lord was using my wilderness time to strengthen and teach me and help me grow in my faith.
There are many lessons to be learned in the wilderness, but the focus for today is on the bread of heaven. After wandering around for a while the Israelites’ rations began to run low. So the whole congregation began to murmur, grumble and complain to Moses and Aaron. They started to wish out loud that they were still in Egypt, where at least they had food to eat. Not only did they complain, but they accused the very ones who led them out of slavery of now trying to kill them. They had no trust in God.
What I find amazing in this story is that while the Israelites were being whiny, insolent, ungrateful brats, God only responded with grace and mercy. God’s response to Moses was to promise; “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you.” You are hungry, I will provide. Now many parents would not be quite so generous. We might tell our children, stop complaining, and apologize first. You won’t get anything until you behave better. But not the Lord, he hears the cries and provides for the needs of his people. This is the beginning of salvation – God’s providential grace given lavishly, with no requirement that we do anything to deserve it.
It is commonly thought that the wilderness period is a time when the Israelites learned how to live into being in covenant with the Lord. And while God gave the manna from heaven as pure grace, he also used this gift to teach the people. He taught them not only to trust in him and draw near to him, but also how to take only what they needed, and to observe the Sabbath day, for on the sixth day the Lord provided twice the manna, so that on the seventh everyone could rest, and simply eat what had been gathered the day before.
In the gospel of John chapter 6, after feeding bread to the five thousand, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from ever. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
While in Exodus the bread of heaven was for the salvation of the people God chose first to be in covenant with him, the life death and resurrection of God’s son, Jesus Christ, expanded salvation beyond the children of Israel, to all who believe. As followers of Christ we enter into this covenant through our baptisms, and from time to time we have opportunity to renew this covenant at confirmation or when we join a particular congregation.
Next week we will have the blessing of renewing our covenant with God, with the church universal, with the United Methodist church and with each other and celebrate God’s saving gifts in our lives as Kevin and Zara join Wesley. One of the vows Methodists typically ask new members to take is to support the church with their prayers, presence, gifts and service. But at General Conference last spring an addition was made. Our witness.
Witnessing is a very important part of being a Christian and it’s one that we sometimes forget to do. Witnessing simply means telling others what God has been doing in our lives. When Louise helped me understand that really hard year after college as wilderness, and told me about how God was with her in her wilderness, and pointed me to Exodus so I could read about all the blessings that can come to God’s people in wilderness times, she was witnessing. When the woman at the well ran back to town to tell everyone that she had just met the Messiah, she was witnessing. Witnessing doesn’t have to be hard – we don’t all have to be good at public speaking, we don’t have to try and convince a stranger to come to church. We just need to remember to tell the people in our lives about our relationship with God, our prayers, and how God has answered them. But our culture is not always open to witnessing, so we might have to practice a little to get into the habit. I think the safest place to practice talking about they wonderful things God is doing in our lives is here at church.
After we sing the next hymn I invited you to come forward and take part in a time of witnessing called a love feast. We will just gather together and share God’s love with one another over some good bread. We will remember that Jesus is the bread of heaven, the bread of life, and that in him and through him the Lord gives us everything we truly need. We will practice witnessing, telling one another how we have seen God at work lately. How has God fed you, renewed you, or comforted you? When have you been aware that the Lord was on your side, walking beside you? Or how has God been working in others around you? Let us sing praise, and practice giving witness to the salvation of our God.
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Glorious Triumph - Sermon from September 14 - Based on Exodus 14 and 15
When I began my study for this week’s sermon, I wanted to take a look at the epic movie The Ten Commandments. I have to confess that I’ve never watched this old classic before, and I wondered how the studios of Hollywood would depict the scene of the parting of the Red Sea. Since the public library’s version was out, I had to settle for a clip on YouTube. It starts with the Israelites and Moses trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea. Then after the pillar of fire separated the two camps, Charlton Heston, as Moses said in his deep, resonant voice “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Then, as if moved by an invisible zipper, the sea separated gradually and left the ground dry. And so the people passed through.
When Israel had nearly made it, the pillar of fire left the Egyptians and they started chasing after their enemies through the dry seabed. As the last Hebrew family reached the other side, one person turned and shrieked at the sight of the army in pursuit. Moses turned around and said, “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us; Behold his mighty hands!” And the zipper was pulled up again and the sea came together, covering the horses, chariots and Egyptian soldiers.
The YouTube clip stops there, but Exodus itself gives me a pretty good picture of the next scene. Imagine the camera sweeping the shoreline as you hear these words again. “The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained…Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” And the Israelites sing in the next chapter, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”
A glorious triumph. In some ways this story is so very familiar to us. Bad guy chases good guy into a tight spot, but in the end the good guy prevails. Just think of Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Popeye and Bluto, Indiana Jones and the Nazi’s, Superman and Lex Luthor, Batman and the Joker, 007 and the KGB. As long as we can identify with the good guy, we are entertained by the story line and laugh or cheer when the enemy gets what is coming to him.
But this morning I’m inviting you to take another look at this Bible story. Look at that scene at the end. A whole army of dead bodies, washed up on the shore. It raises a whole lot of questions for me and I’d like you to ponder them with me for a while.
First think about the power of the waters of scripture. A flood destroyed the whole earth except for those floating in Noah’s ark. The Red sea kills a whole army. No wonder Jesus’ disciples panicked when they were caught at sea during a storm. In other ancient religions the sea is a god who represents chaos, death and destruction. Such power is presented to us daily this time of year as we keep track of hurricanes Ike and Hannah and remember the devastating results of Katrina and the Christmas Tsunami of 2006. Does our loving God really use the sea as a weapon of destruction? And how can we tell when God is punishing people, from times when innocent victims are just swept away, or worse when victims are created by human systems of social injustice. Remember the Israelites had just escaped from Pharaoh’s policy of drowning every boy child in the Nile.
In Exodus God tames the sea long enough for the Israelites to escape, but then lets it come crashing down on the whole Egyptian army. Though we are clearly supposed to cheer at salvation for the Israelites and ruin and destruction for the Egyptians, I think about how the families of the soldiers must have mourned when they heard the news that their boys wouldn’t be coming home. I hear the news that America is much more reluctant to help the citizens of Cuba (still our enemy) from Hurricane Ike, than we are to help citizens of Haiti. And clearly we are giving far more attention and resources to the much wealthier people of Texas than we give to any of our neighbors. Do stories like the Red Sea help to contribute to this injustice? Somehow, the glorious triumph is tarnished, I have trouble singing to the Lord when I think of all the dead riders and horses along the sea.
As I continued to ponder, I remembered the work of Walter Wink called Engaging the Powers and I began to re-read it. It’s a dense scholarly book of over 300 pages with tiny print and many foot notes. His argument is complicated but he addresses my questions and agrees that there is something wrong when a scene of death and destruction is called a glorious victory for God. For Christians who believe that the One who created the universe loves it and sent Jesus to save it, the idea that the same God is responsible for the dead Egyptian soldiers on the seashore is problematic.
Walter Wink proposes that the perspective that good guys beating bad guys with violence is normal, is actually part of an evil domination system, often referred to in scripture as the “world.” This worldly view of life includes fictional stories like Tom and Jerry, Batman and the Penguin as well as the histories most commonly recorded were cowboys kill the savage Indians, the Union army beats the Confederate Army, and the Nazi’s were defeated by the Allied forces.
And the biggest problem with the domination system is that the violence is perpetual. Think again of Tom and Jerry, or Indiana Jones. The “indestructible good guy is unalterably opposed to an irreformable and equally indestructible bad guy. Nothing can kill the good guy, though for the first three-quarters of [any story] he suffers grievously, appearing hopelessly trapped, until somehow the hero breaks free, vanquishes the villain, and restores order until the next [time]. Nothing finally destroys the bad guy or prevents his reapparance, whether he is soundly trounced, jailed, drowned, or shot into outer space.” Another feature Wink brings to our attention is that in this drama of redemptive violence there is no real change or growth, no discipleship. “No premium is put on reasoning, persuasion, negotiation, or diplomacy.” “Repentance and confession are…alien” Wink quotes the final episode of the old spy thriller “Get Smart” when “the villain [is] tricked by a loaded cigarette and blown off a cliff to his death on the rocks below. Agent 99 watches in horror, then comments, ‘You know, Max, sometimes I think we’re no better than they are, the way we murder and kill and destroy people.’ To which Smart retorts, ‘Why, 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that’s good in the world.”
While Wink’s argument is carefully documented, and I find it persuasive, I admit that Wink moves into contested ground by claiming that God’s order, which is domination free, stands opposed to the domination system we all know so well. From this perspective Christ’s reign of the universe is domination free, non-violent, self-sacrificing so powerful that it sealed a new covenant in which God requires no more human sacrifice to accomplish the work of salvation.
There is not time in one sermon to fully deal with these complex ideas, so I plan to come back to this theme again as we move through Exodus over the next few weeks. But one idea I offer for you to ponder, according to Wink’s line of thought, is that we must read the stories of the Old Testament differently than we read the stories of the New. The blueprints for Christ’s domination-free order can be found most clearly in the Gospels and among the early followers of Christ. When the world runs according to the way God ordered it through Christ then power is used to give, support and nurture life, to seek win-win situations. Equality and partnership are lifted up, exploitation and greed are replaced with sharing and sufficiency. The image of a jealous, wrathful, punishing God is replaced by Christ who is both loving and judging, compassionate and severe, merciful and demanding. Thus the good news of the New Testament directly challenges the idea that Exodus 14 depicts a glorious victory.
While many stories of the Old Testament seem to promote a domination system where God chooses the side of Israel, we can also see many places in the Old Testament where God’s domination free order shines through. Look at creation where the entire universe came into being, not through battle, or struggle or death as other ancient cultures believed, but through God’s strong and peaceful word. “Let there be light! And it was so.” We remembered five strong non-violent women when we first started reading Exodus a few weeks ago. Shiphra and Puah, Moses’ mother, sister Miriam and the Pharaoh’s own daughter committed acts of civil disobedience in order to preserve live. Even the story of crossing of the red sea makes clear that the Israelites were not saved by their own might. They did not fight the Egyptian army in any way, but trusted fully in God who protected them.
The church names the issue I’m asking us to consider here Salvation or Redemption. It is the question of how God saves God’s people and it also has become a question of which people God will save. Some people read the Bible and see evidence that God chooses to save some, but not others. God saves the Israelites, by killing the Egyptians soldiers. God saves those who have faith, but condemns others to outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many Christians, like John Calvin have read the Bible and been convinced that God decided at the beginning of time who would be saved, and who would be damned. This is called pre-destination.
But other Christians, including Methodists, read the scriptures and see in it the love of God and the hope of salvation for all the world. They see how Christ passed through this violent world in a non-violent way, embracing especially those whom the world had condemned. They hold fast to the promise that all who come to faith, all who learn God’s way of love can be saved, and that God’s compassionate heart is yearning to save all of creation. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” In this view the glorious victory of God is shown in the image of all of creation gathered in peace around the throne of Christ singing our praises, “Holy, holy, holy!” and worshipping our loving God with joy and abiding love.
I’m sure by now you can see my own bias. I am a pacifist, and I am deeply concerned about these matters. But I don’t expect everyone to stand where I do. I only hope that my reflections will lead you to reflect some more on your understanding of Jesus Christ and his work of salvation, and that you will share your perspective with me. Let us pray…
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wedding at Wesley - September 6
On Saturday September six, Joeseph Elewononi and I were blessed to be wed at Wesley United Methodist church, surrounded by church members, friends and family. This lovely altar arrangement was created by Mrs. Kim.
Standing on Holy Ground - Sermon from August 31 - Based on Exodus 3
“Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” When I was a child at Camp Farthest Out we would gather on a lush grassy field in the late summer sun for devotions in motion – a time of prayer combined with music and movement – The woman who led us in those days, Anne Allen, would always quote this verse as we gathered. A few moments latter, after a wonderfully relaxing spine stretching exercise, Anne would instruct us to walk very tall, milling about with each other and greeting each other by name. “Good morning St. Sarah, Good morning St. Anne, Good morning St. Jean, Good morning St. Paul…. Other times at camp I would hear about the miracles God had done in some people’s lives, and witness others being deeply touched and healed through the power of God’s Spirit. All of this together gave me the impression that when I was at camp I was in a holy place, surrounded by saints and angles. It was a powerful feeling. “Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” I gladly kicked them off, and planted my bare feet on God’s good earth, and felt the power of holiness all around me.
When we experience the holiness of God, standing in his presence on holy ground, it is thrilling, amazing, and wonderful. This is what Moses experienced at the burning bush. He was witnessing a miracle – the bush was blazing, but was not turning to ash and soot. The angel of the Lord appeared to him – he saw the angel in the bush and had to stop what he was doing and take a closer look. He was drawn to the place that had become holy with God’s presence. Some people are attracted to such a holy experience because it is thrilling, it make your heart beat a little faster – makes you feel alive. But the thrill of standing in God’s holy presence is not all we are meant to learn from Exodus chapter three.
Moses also heard God speak to him directly, call him by name. Moses! Moses! And God told Moses that he had come to Moses’ people, the Israelites to be with them in their suffering and help them out of their troubles. Do you remember the old popular tv show, Touched by an Angel and the inevitable moment in every episode when the music changes and Roma Downey begins to glow, her hair gently blowing and the character in front of her display their wonder and amazement when she proclaims “I am and angel, sent from God.” Students of the Bible know that the Hebrew and Greek words for angel simply mean messenger. And in the tv show, the message is always the same, “God loves you.” It’s a wonderful thing to stand in God’s holy presence and know that God loves us and will help us out of trouble. But I don’t think this is all this passage of Exodus is trying to say to us today.
Another aspect of standing on holy ground is becoming aware of the power of God. The first instruction the Lord gave to Moses was “Come no closer!” In Old Testament days it was thought that if humans were too close to God, or looked directly at God the power would overwhelm and destroy them. God’s holiness is truly AWE-SOME in that when we become aware of it we are both attracted, and a little afraid. In the Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis depicts Christ as a Lion, Aslan. The children in the story were so attracted to him - that soft, warm mane and beautiful face – but they were also always keenly aware of his powerful muscles rippling under the fur, and his very sharp claws and teeth. It was the power of God that caused Moses to hide his face.
But it’s also tempting for humans to try to harness divine power for our own purposes. We want the holy power of God to rub off on us. In the 70s there was a children’s show I used to watch called Shazam. Every Saturday when young Billy Batson got into trouble he would call on to the godlike elders Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury – Shazam! - and they would send their power to him, transforming him into Captain Marvel, able to meet any challenge and defeat any enemy. Some Bible scholars speculate that Moses, like Billy, might have gone intentionally to the Mountain of God and had the desire to know God’s name so that he could tap into God’s holy power and use it. Sometimes humans fall into this same mindset when only turn to God in prayer, or make our way to certain holy places when we want something from God. But I don’t think Exodus three means to encourage us in such a one sided relationship with our God.
I think Exodus three become much more clear when we notice everything God is doing in this passage. God is the active one in the story. Moses was just shuffling along with his sheep when all of a sudden the angel of the Lord appeared. Then God called to Moses, gave him instructions and made an introduction “I am the God of your ancestors. I have observed the misery of my people. I have heard their cry. I know their sufferings and I have come down to bring them up out of Egypt and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.” God is the active one here, not Moses.
There are two really important aspects of Moses encounter with God. First God teaches Moses who God is. Yes, God is holy, and powerful. God is too awesome for any human to take full strength. But this God is a particular God, not Mercury, or Atlas or Zeus. Our God’s name (show card). When Christians try to say this Hebrew name for God they usually pronounce it Yahweh, or Jehovah. But the Israelites and even Jews today never actually pronounce this name, in respect for God’s holiness. Instead, when they see these letters in they say Adonai, which means Lord. This is why so many of our bibles us the word Lord – all in capitals, for the name of God. In Hebrew these letters for God’s name look like the verb “he is”. And so when Moses asks God, what his name is, God replies. “I AM who I AM or I Will Be who I Will Be. Tell the people, “I AM has sent me to you.” But God doesn’t just give Moses his name. The Lord makes sure Moses knows that he is the same God who chose a particular family, a certain people and made a covenant with them. “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. This is also my name, the title you shall know be by for all generations.” Furthermore the Lord is not just a God of long ago and far away, a God of faded memories and old stories. The Lord is alive and is acting today. As we just noted, the Lord is a God who acts. He appears before us, he calls to us, he gives us instructions, he teaches us his name. He also watches us, hears our cries, knows our sufferings and comes down to bring us up out of our troubles and lead us to a better place, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
But the second very important thing God wants us to know today is that our holy encounters with God are not just meant to give us a thrill, or to assure us we are loved, or we will be saved. When we become aware that we are standing in God’s presence, on holy ground, we can be sure that God is also giving us a vocation. God appeared before Moses and called him by name because God had a plan for Moses’ life. And this plan was not just for Moses to find a job, get a wife, settle down and live happily ever after. No, just like last week when God called Shiphrah and Puah, Moses’ mother, sister Miriam and the Pharaoh’s daughter, the plan God had for Moses involved using Moses himself as an instrument of salvation.
The experience of standing on holy ground, in the presence of the Almighty God is the preparation stage for our vocation. It is a time to experience God’s power, God’s love for us and God’s assurance that God is and always will be with us, just as God was with our ancestors. It is a powerful way for us to gain trust in God, and God’s promise to stand by us. I think all human beings need such a time before we can ever dare to accept God’s mission. Like Moses most of us resist the call of God on our lives when we first hear it. We don’t feel worthy, we think we are inadequate for such an important task. For that matter it takes time to get used to the fact that God is calling us. Such a calling is usually an intrusion, disrupting our plans, making us redefine whom we are and what our lives are about.
If I am completely honest, I can remember God’s call on my life going way back. God blessed me greatly, gave me wonderful Christian parents and teachers along the way and probably gave me more than a normal share of holy experiences. Yet I still resisted God’s call on my life. I was ready to serve God’s people and after college took jobs as a preschool teacher, a nanny and a houseparent at a boarding school. But I resisted the call to ordained ministry. I kept telling God that I wanted him to let me settle down and be wife and mother before I started thinking about seminary and ordained ministry. For four years after college I hung around Amherst and Northampton, doing everything I felt I could morally do to find a husband, in an area full of young single people. But God was not answering my prayers. When, in desperation I turned to my pastor Gregory for counsel, he actually was angry with me, accusing me of waiting around for God to act like a fairy godmother and make all my dreams come true.
But it took an especially holy experience, the experience of keeping watch a couple of years latter, as Gregory died before I said yes to my vocation – God’s call on my life. The holiness of God is mysterious, very hard to put into words. The time we spent in the parsonage during Gregory’s last days were holy. I could palpably feel the presence of saints and angels, more clearly than ever before, every time I walked through the parsonage door. Our friend Lisbeth matter-of-factly stated that she sensed the presence of Gregory’s beloved grandmother in the corner, near his bed. It was a time of waiting, and watching, of prayer and singing and though I was sad, I also felt extremely peaceful – the peace that passes understanding. I still have trouble describing just how that holy experience led me to finally accept my call and tell my church, my family and my friends that I was going to seminary. Perhaps it was the reassurance of experiencing God’s abiding presence even in death. Perhaps it was my slow realization of how God had worked in Gregory’s life, even though he was not perfect, to spread good news of salvation to God’s people. Perhaps it was the experience of ministering to the other members of my church during the early weeks of our grief together. I still can’t quite explain it, but I am sure that this experience of standing in the holy presence of God was key to my ability to say “Here I Am, Lord.”
And now, after allowing God to use me to spread his good news of salvation through my ministry and through my studies, and has caused me to grow even stronger in my faith, God has also granted my prayer for a husband. Neither Joseph nor I would have been ready for marriage 20 years ago. God had to work on both of us to prepare us for each other, and for our vocation as husband and wife. When we were ready, God answered our prayers and put us together. Our vocation now is to travel through life together, even when the destination is as unclear to us as it was to Abraham and Sarah, trusting that God will guide us.
After a period of resistance to God’s call on his life, Moses also returned to his initial response to God, “Here I Am, ready to obey, to submit my own plans and will to God’s perfect plan and will for his life and serve as God asks. Here I Am is the common response of many people in the Bible who, after standing in God’s holy presence are empowered to take the risks. As God’s beloved, chosen people, the Lord has given each of us a vocation to serve him and our neighbors in our own unique ways and be instruments of his plan of salvation. The experience of standing on holy ground in God’s presence is given by God to empower us to say yes! Here I am Lord. Let us pray,
The Risky Will of God - Sermon from August 24 - Based on Exodus 1 and 2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When I hear these words I always remember Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church in Durham, NC. This is the church I attended for the whole last semester of my seminary days at Duke University. The head pastor is Rev. Dr. William Turner, my preaching professor and the one who also taught us about the history of the Black church in America. While I attended Mt. Level I joined an adult bible study class focused on the Mind of Christ. This twelve-week course is devoted to helping Christians learn to think the thoughts of Christ, to have the mind of Christ as we are instructed to do in Philippians Chapter two, “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.”
The authors, T. W. Hunt and Claude N. King see three scriptural stages in developing the mind of Christ. First we set our minds, as Colossians 3:2 says “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Philippians 4:8 also shows us that we have the ability to set our minds. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Hunt and King call this stage the Will Principle. “[We] must set [our] mind. [We] must decide, choose, or determine the focus of [our] mind. That is where [we] start in developing the mind of Christ.” Unlike animals, we human beings have the will to control what we do. This enables us to obey God in spite of our feelings or intuitions.
The second stage Hunt and King call the growing stage. This is when we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. After we give our will to God, we “must continue to allow [our] minds to be changed (transformed) by a renewing process.” This is when we, as disciples of Jesus, grow. When we are in this transformational stage we experience newness; new thoughts, new insights, new strength and energy, flowing ideas, new ways of looking at the same old problems, and new ways to resist our temptations.
The third stage is when we become ready for action. This is when we gird up our minds so that we are ready to move. Men and women wore long robes in Jesus’ day, and if they wanted to run, they would have gird them up, or lift up the edges and tuck them into their belt. I often think of girding up, being in a state of readiness as keeping my tennis feet. Remembering that the ball might come from any corner and being ready to move quickly and agilely to face and meet whatever comes my way. Jesus was like this, mentally ready and alert at all times to meet challenges of life, such as the shrewd questions of the scribes, chief priests and Sadduccees, without getting flustered, or unduly angry.
I agree with Hunt and King that when our wills are set and our minds have grown through constant renewal, we will be ready for any test God allows to come our way. It is also important to remember that we are not expected to do this on our own. Paul doesn’t tell us to go transform ourselves, right? He uses the passive voice, be transformed, that is, let God transform you by renewing your mind. “God wants us to develop the mind of Christ. He causes you to want it. He enables you to do it. Then one day Christ perfects the work that God began.”
Our stories from Exodus show this principle at work. Though the main characters in Exodus may not have known Christ as Jesus, we can trust that since Jesus assures us that he is one with the Father, Christ was at work in their lives helping them to have his mind and to do the risky will of God.
First we have the midwives. I love these two women, Shiphrah and Puah for their faithfulness in the midst of adversity. While last week we left Joseph in Egypt reuniting with his father and brothers and protecting them from the famine in the land, now we have jumped many, many years, until the Egyptians have forgotten Joseph, and the children of Israel have multiplied in the land. Like many powerful governments, the Pharaoh started to become fearful, even paranoid of the immigrant population, and this fear propelled a policy of greater and greater oppression. But God was good to his people, and the more they were oppressed by Egypt the more they multiplied and spread. This increased Egypt’s fear and the Israelites were enslaved, forced to do the hardest work and treated ruthlessly. Such hateful measures never work, the king was still afraid of the Israelites and ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the Israelite boys at birth.
Shiphrah and Puah knew better, they knew God and they knew that killing babies was never God’s will. It was such a daring act for them to disobey the king, that they must have had their minds set on God, allowed God to renew and transform their minds. They clearly discerned the will of God and were ready to meet the king’s challenges. With their minds set, transformed and ready, Shiphrah and Puah were enabled to disobey the king’s command, and continue their work as midwives should, striving to help all the mothers safely deliver all of their children. Their state of readiness is seen in their answer when the king asked, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” “The Hebrew women, they are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous! Before the midwife can get there, they’ve already had the baby!” God was pleased with the midwives and because they honored God, they were blessed with families of their own.
Next we are introduced to three more heroines in Egypt, two Israelites and an Egyptian princess. The Hebrew mother gave birth to a fine baby boy in the time when the king made it a policy to drown every boy child in the Nile river. Knowing that it was God’s will for this child to live, the baby’s mother disobeyed the law of the land and kept him quietly hidden for as long as she could. After three months she was inspired to give her son up to God’s care alone. Like Noah, she made a boat, just big enough to protect her boy from the deadly water, and placed it among the reeds along the riverbank. In this case the mother didn’t just have to break the laws of the world, she also had set her mind upon God’s will to even be able to fight her own maternal instincts of trying to keep her son safe with her. With nothing but trust in God’s mercy, she let him go in his little boat.
The other Hebrew heroine of this story was a girl, the baby’s sister Miriam. She was brave enough to stand by the river and watch and see what would happen to her brother. And her mind was ready for action, so that when the princess found the basket, Miriam bravely appeared, encouraged the princess to keep the child, and shrewdly offered the baby’s own mother as a nurse. If this mother and daughter had let their minds be conformed to the world, they would have never in a million years thought it would be possible for God to use the Pharaoh’s own daughter to keep their boy safe from harm. Not only did the princes adopt the baby, name him Moses, and unwittingly pay his own mother to nurse him. She also insured that he would have a fine education, enabling him to do the work God ordained for him of helping lead the Israelites to freedom. Our minds are not big enough to fathom the ways of God. But when we allow ourselves to be transformed by God so that we can discern and do God’s will we can be sure that blessings will follow.
And even the Egyptian princess, in some way, must have been open to the transformation of her mind in the act of defying the laws of her land in order to save one precious life. Her willingness to take a holy risk, inspired by God, enabled God’s plan for the salvation of his people to unfold.
American history is very similar to the history of Egypt found in Exodus. Like the rulers of Egypt, the white rulers of this land became fearful of the immigrant workers they had “imported” from Africa. In 1740, in the colony of South Carolina, a law called the Negro Act was passed that made it illegal for slaves to gather in groups, earn money, raise food and learn to read. The act permitted slave owners to kill any slave that rebelled. Similar laws were adopted in many other parts of this country. In spite of terrible oppression, through what can only be the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, many black people in this country accepted the religion of the white oppressors and came to Christ. As they did so, they came to know the mind of Christ, which made them strong enough, and free enough to defy evil civil laws. Many black Christians would give up precious hours of sleep in the evenings to gather for worship. And there were many Americans, black and white who defied the prohibition of teaching slaves to read and write.
Sophia Auld was one such woman who taught her slave Frederick the alphabet when he was about twelve. When her husband Hugh discovered this, he strongly disapproved. But Sophia had opened the door for the boy who was able to continue his education by trading bread to the poor white boys of Baltimore in exchange for their knowledge of reading, and by carefully observing the writing of the white men where he worked and copying the letters in his dictionary. Frederick latter wrote, “I wished to learn how to write, as I might have occasion to write my own pass.”
Upon finally learning how to hold a pen, his immediate response was to write three passes for himself. One pass stated, “I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my servant, full liberty to go to Baltimore, and spend the Easter holidays. Written with mine own hand, &c.”
Frederick Douglas went on to teach other slaves how to read the New Testament at a Sabbath school on a plantation. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that on any week over 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed until one Sunday a group of white men burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones to disperse the congregation permanently.
But Douglas’ writing career did not come to an end. After he escaped to freedom, Douglass wrote a book about his life as a slave, which was promoted by the abolitionists until he became famous. Fearing the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who might try to get his “property” back Frederick’s friends sent him on a book tour to Ireland and England. The people there were so inspired that they soon raised the money necessary to pay Mr. Auld, who gave a signed manumission to Douglas in return.
This story is just one example of how God will bless us when we refuse to be conformed to the ways of the world, and let our minds be transformed to have the mind of Christ, so that we may both discern and do the will of God – those things that are good and acceptable and perfect. Can you think of example in your own life when God has done this work in you? When have you set your mind to doing the risky will of God, which defies the ways of the world?
Two cases I can think of in my life are the choices I had of which college and which seminary to attend. In both cases I had safer options. I could have gotten my degree from an Ivy League university that cost less and was closer to home. I could have attended seminary where I was pretty sure most people thought and felt the way I did about the world. But God also gave me options with more risks; an expensive but innovative college where I would be free of tests and grades could design my own major; a seminary where I would be forced to consider very different points of view and stretch in new directions. Through careful consideration and prayer, after weighing the risks I could see, and listening to the tug of my heart I opted each time for the risky choice; the choice which would push me farther, give me more opportunity to grow, and stretch in new directions. Both times I was strengthen to take these calculated risks in favor of what most seemed like God’s will by the assurance that God would be with me, and that God was arranging my life so that I would meet fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who would help me overcome the challenges involved. As a result both educational experiences offered me far more blessings than I could ever have imagined. In college my faith was challenged in a way that made me both much stronger, and wiser and I began to face the ugly, judgmental part of myself and be transformed. In seminary, not only was I stretched in ways that made me much more balanced as a pastor, but also I was given the blessing of spending a whole year of study in Germany for free. Something I would never have imagined beforehand.
The next time you are faced with a choice about what to do, remember to let your mind be like the mind of Jesus. Stop and pray about which choice is most in line with the teachings of the Bible. Remember that the will of God often seems risky from the perspective of the world. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When you open yourself up to the risky will of God you will be amazed at what the Lord will do with your life.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we are hungry and thirsty after Your righteousness. We do want to be like You. You are the Bread of life itself. Fill us with Yourself so that we may experience the abundant life You came to give. Give us the ability to set our minds, to allow you to transform our thinking and our actions and help us to be ready to meet any challenge or test that comes our way. Lord Jesus Christ, give us your mind so that we may more fully live our lives according to your will. We ask all this in your precious name, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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