September 29, 2019 - God Promises: "I Will Be with You" - Exodus 1:8-2:10, 3:1-15

God Promises, “I Will Be with You.”

Exodus 1:8-2:10, 3:1-15

Pentecost + 16 – September 29, 2019

Moses and the Burning Bush

Intro: “Speak the truth even if your voice shakes”

·     See these words of advice floating around the internet a fair amount

·     Idea that sometimes it’s a scary thing to speak up, to speak out, to share the truth with another who may have a different point of view

·     And yet – the call comes to speak the truth, even in uncomfortable situations

TT: People in the biblical story we hear this morning might have resonated with this on a deep level

·     Not just a matter of shaking voices and feeling embarrassed or causing conflict with another, creating a rift in a relationship

·     Lives were at stake here right from the opening words

·     We’ve skipped over from Jacob and his 12 sons several generations down the line – 400 years later

o  Joseph: Jacob’s favorite son; sold into slavery by jealous brothers, taken to Egypt, where eventually he became Pharaoh’s right hand man, set over all the land of Egypt – stockpiled food for the coming famine (revealed in a dream)

o  And eventually family came seeking help, ultimately there’s a revelation and reunion and the whole extended family comes to live in Egypt

o  Which is all well and good until now, where we enter the story

·     New king arose who did not know Joseph – threatened by the numbers of Israelites

o  In fear, seeks to oppress them, to consolidate his own power

o  Enslaves them, works them ruthlessly, to the point of collapse

·     That doesn’t work, so plan B: midwives to kill the boy babies

o  Imagine them shaking a bit as they choose to defy this command

o  And yet they are bold with their reason/excuse as to why

·     Moses’ mother – who does not speak, except that actions speak louder than words

o  Love for her fine baby compels her to hide him until she can’t any more

o  Places him in a basket and sets it among the reeds of the river, fingers crossed, hoping for a good ending to this traumatic story

·     Miriam, Moses’ sister – who is set to watch over her baby brother floating on the river

o  Who sees Egyptian princess discovering Moses and dares to speak out, volunteering to find her a nurse

·     Pharaoh’s own daughter – speaking out in compassion as she ultimately adopts this child her father considers one of his enemies

·     And then Moses – the beneficiary of all of these courageous women who spoke in words and deeds, even with shaking voices

o  Who grows up a Hebrew in the Pharaoh’s household

o  Who murders an Egyptian for beating an Israelite and has to flee from Pharaoh who seeks to kill him

o  Makes new life in the land far across the wilderness, marrying, becoming a shepherd

·     And there sees a bush that burns but it not consumed

·     And encounters God, who tells him that God has heard the cry of God’s people and has come down to deliver them, and that Moses will be the one to go to speak the truth to Pharaoh

·     And Moses’ voice is surely shaking! “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

TW: It is a scary thing to find yourself the one anointed to go and speak the truth, especially to power. (this is a different pharaoh, by the way, the one he grew up with has died…)

·     To speak up and tell the Pharaoh that the time of slavery and oppression is over – terrifying

·     And we can relate

o  B/c the call to followers of Jesus is to hear the cries of those around us longing for hope, desperate for justice, and to act as Christ’s body in the world

o  To work for justice, to stand at the side of the vulnerable, the weak, the oppressed

o  To go and speak out on their behalf

·     And that’s not necessarily attending a march or demonstration, though it might be; could mean writing letters to govt reps, maybe even running for office!

·     It could be confronting a co-worker or boss or family member or neighbor about racism or sexism or homophobia or fear of the other

·     It might look like listening to a person express their point of view and then daring to share a different way of looking at the situation, knowing that it may cause discomfort in the relationship

·     It is not easy; sometimes even harder when it’s someone we are close to; there’s a lot at stake

·     We may ask God, “Who am I to go…?”

·     God didn’t let Moses off the hook, and God doesn’t let us off the hook either

GT: But when God sends Moses, God sends him with a promise: “I will be with you.”

·     God is sending Moses back into a fear-inspiring situation, but God doesn’t send Moses alone

·     God promises to go with Moses, just as God promised to be with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob, just as God promised to be with Joseph

·     This name for God is a reminder of the one who has stood by Moses’ ancestors, one who has a history of following through, of leading each of them through struggles and trials, never abandoning them

·     The work God gives Moses to do won’t be easy – Pharaoh doesn’t let the people go without a struggle (you remember those stories!) – But no matter how scary it gets, God stays with Moses to fulfill God’s plan to deliver the people from slavery into freedom

·     And God sends Moses with others – like his brother Aaron and sister Miriam – to help him and support him along the way

GW: The promise is for us too. When God calls us into uncomfortable situations and places when our voices shake and quake as we speak truths that are hard for others (and sometimes even ourselves!) to hear – God says, “I will be with you.”

·     We aren’t called to follow God into these places alone

·     God promises to be with us – to lead and guide, to encourage and inspire, to empower our voices when we would rather stay silent

o  Jesus final words in Matthew: “Go, make disciples… and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

·     God never sends us to do work without God’s presence right there beside us

·     And God sends us with one another to proclaim God’s love, to live out God’s mercy, to share God’s good news of a coming kingdom

·     May we speak of God’s vision of freedom and justice to those who need to hear it, even if our voices shake, knowing that God is with us, just as God promised.

·     Amen.

March 11, 2012 - Lent 3 - Blessing, Not a Burden

Blessing, Not a Burden

Exodus 20:1-17

Lent 3 – March 11, 2012

The Ten Commandments are a curious thing. So basic to our faith. Shared across Judeo-Christian traditions. We encourage our Sunday schoolers to learn them by heart. We teach them along with Martin Luther's explanation of what they mean to our confirmation classes – and I'm proud to say that this year's 8th graders still remember a lot of them and how they apply to our lives even though we did the Small Catechism last year.

It wasn't until I got to seminary that I learned that Christian groups don't all number the 10 Commandments the same way. The content doesn't change, just the way we divvy up the verses to total 10 commands. And it wasn't until this week that I learned the Jewish faith numbers them yet a different way. You would think that for as basic, as foundational, as these verses are, we wouldn't have any controversy or disagreement about how to number them.

That's just one of the challenges in the way that we view and understand the 10 Commandments. But a more telling and pervasive one is the way we understand what they are there to do, regardless of how we divide them up and assign them numbers. Beyond being a list for kids and youth to memorize, we tend to envision them as a burden. We hear them as a never-ending series of “no”s to our personal freedom of choice. In the King James English, “Thou shalt not” - over and over again, even if we would be hard pressed to remember all 10, let alone in order, we know that that is at the heart of them, what we cannot do!

It makes you wonder a bit how the original receivers of these commands responded to them, how the ancient Israelites reacted when Moses came back down off the mountain with these words from the LORD. Now, to set the stage a little bit, we need to back up. We hear at the very beginning of this passage what we really need to know: “Then God spoke all these words:  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...”

It has not been too long ago that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. It's not so many days into their journey into the wilderness, they arrive at Mt. Sinai, where God makes this dramatic appearance, descending to the mountain in fire, so that it is wrapped in smoke, and it shakes violently, and Moses alone is called to speak with God, whose voice sounds like thunder. And here on this mountain, days into their journey into freedom, God calls them into covenant. God has led them out of slavery under Pharaoh and brought them himself, and promises to be with them. And in return, God asks that they follow God's words that he gives to them – and they say, “Everything that the LORD has spoken, we will do” (Exod. 19:8) And yet barely are these words out of their mouths, while Moses is back up on the mountain and they start to wonder if he will ever come back, and they fall away. They come to Aaron, Moses' brother, asking for him to make a god for them to worship, and so they proceed to make the golden calf (Exod. 32). There's goes commandment #1 for us Lutherans: I am the LORD your God, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol...you shall not bow down to them or worship them...” Whoops!

It's easy to not keep the commandments, even when we want to, even when we're trying, even if we don't see them just as a super-strict God laying down the law just to spoil our fun.

But the 10 Commandments are more than just a list to memorize, more than just rules to follow, more than just directions for how to live. The 10 Commandments tell us about who God is, and invite us to grow toward becoming the people God created us to be, to help us to live in relationship with God and with each other the way God envisioned it from the beginning. The 10 Commandments are not only a prescription for living, but a description of what it looks like when God is in charge, of how life under God's gracious reign will be! Imagine with me for a few minutes what it would look like if we actually lived in a world where God's commands were followed.

Imagine a world where God has first place and final authority, where we respected the holiness of God and God's name, out of love and reverence, not fear.

Imagine a world where we actually took a sabbath. Not just a morning to come to church, but a full day where we did no work, but instead took time to be refreshed and renewed in the presence of God and of our family and friends and loved ones. Think about what it would feel like for one day a week, every week, to have no obligations, to appointments, no errands to run, no to-do list to do – not because there's nothing that needs doing, but because we choose to trust God that we can take a break and the world will go on! Imagine what creating that space one day a week to be unhurried, uninterrupted, to just be – with God, with yourself, with others – would be like. Think about how it would make the rest of the week, how it would affect your work, your relationships, your health... Aaaahhh.

Imagine a world where parents and those in authority are respected. Imagine a world where life is honored, where we would not have to worry about one person taking the life of another – whether through guns at school or terrorist bombs or domestic violence; where people would not tear each other down, but instead would try to lift each other up and looked out for the well-being of others as much as we look after our own.

Imagine a world where relationships are held sacred, where commitments made and vows spoken are kept, where we wouldn't have to worry about adultery or betrayal; a world where lock-makers and safe-makers would have to find new jobs because stealing would no longer be a threat, a world where we not only did not steal, but tried to help each other to hold on to what is rightfully ours.

Imagine a world where we could trust what others say. A world where we were content with what we have and could rejoice in what others have, instead of being consumed with envy and jealousy and greed, because we know that what we have is enough and that God provides us with what we need.

This is the world God has been calling into being from the very beginning, forming order out of chaos, light out of darkness, wholeness out of fragmentation. This is what God seeks in making covenants with Noah and Abraham and Sarah and all the generations that follow them. This is what God wants the people of Israel to represent to the rest of the world, a model of how it can be when God is really, truly our God, when God is in control. It is a world of wholeness, of joy, of peace. These commandments aren't given to hem us in and enslave us, they are given to set us free! The God who gives them is the God who liberates us, who leads God's people out of slavery into freedom in the promised land, the God who is not content to let us be enslaved again to the things of this world.

May we learn to live in the freedom God gives in these commands.

Amen.