Mark
Twain: "It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that gives me
problems; it's the parts that I do understand about the Bible that gives me
problems."
This
quote seems apropos, especially when we have so many passages before us today
that we’ve always thought we understood. Yet clearly we’re being invited to
consider them more deeply.
We
understand that Moses was called, by God, to carry out a specific ministry. We
understand through Paul that the Romans share a communal call from God, to carry
out a specific ministry. And in the Gospel, Jesus reminds his disciples that both
he and they are called by God, to carry out a specific ministry.
Great!
Easy. Called, by God, to a task, NO PROBLEM!
Except.
Hmm. Problem indeed. The human factor plays in. But the lesson remains the
same: ministry is hard; faith is risky; being a true follower of God is not
always popular or how we want or expect it to be – but to follow our calling,
our God, faithfully, will provide spiritual riches we cannot even imagine.
I’m
going to spend most of my time this morning focused on this lesson from the
Exodus reading, while not ignoring the others. Moses: the one who would be
named as SON (the meaning in Egyptian); the one drawn out (which is what his
name means in Hebrew) of the river. The one who, as we heard last week, has
been saved as a baby; found by the Pharaoh’s daughter; nursed and raised by his
own mother for wages; then adopted again into the Pharaoh’s household and
raised as a prince. In the interim, Moses has been a spoiled child who, one day
after reaching adulthood, accidently kills an Egyptian (who was whipping Hebrew
slaves); and has fled into the wilderness of Midian, where he is taken in by a
community and marries the priest’s daughter, then is charged with looking after
the herds when he encounters the burning bush.
So!
The bush is aflame but not being consumed. Confusing, yes? It would stump me,
I’d be wandering closer too. And behold! The voice from the burning bush calls Moses
by name. Instructs him to take off his shoes. Wait, shoes? Why take off your
shoes in the middle of the dessert?
Firstly:
culture. In Biblical times one would remove their shoes as a sign of respect;
not unlike a gentleman doffing his hat upon coming indoors or in the presence
of a lady. So Moses is acknowledging and respecting God’s presence.
Secondly:
the ground is holy, so decreed from and by its creator. The mere presence of
God, in his created dirt, has made the ground holy. And through this, God wants
to be as close as possible to Moses. Take off your shoes, beloved, so that
literally nothing will be between us.
Then
God tells Moses who he is - that he is God – the God of the ancestors, the God
of the people Moses has come to realize are his true family. So, barefoot, awed, Moses turns his face away
– again a sign of respect and trust and amazement.
And
it’s then that the challenge is presented. God touches on the very thing that
shook Moses’ life up, which caused Moses to run away from home, from luxury,
from provisions, almost to the point of death. God speaks about injustice, cruelty
to people based on their heritage. It was this type of injustice, the Egyptian
beating the Hebrew slave, that Moses could not tolerate then, and God knows he
can not tolerate it now. It is to this emotion that God calls Moses into
action. “So come, I will send you to
Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
Yet Moses defers. “Why me?!” he asks.
And God says “But I’ll be with you. Go, that my
people – your family - can come and worship here.”
And again Moses defers. “Nope. I don’t even know
your name, I’ll have no credibility, I’m not going.” Really. Petulant child,
yes? Trying to refuse God. Riiight. Because that’s ever worked for anyone.
So God gives him the name. “I AM WHO I AM. I am God.
I AM has sent you.” In Hebrew, ehyeh ašer ehyeh – the first person of Yahweh. I will
be who I will be, I shall that I shall. I AM. In this one statement, there’s a
LOT of message from God. God’s stating “I am the God that is known by my works, by my mercy.
I am the God that will be referred to in every. single. statement. that Jesus
will make where he says “I AM” – the beginning and the end, the light of the
world, the living bread, the good shepherd, the way and truth and life. I AM
who I am. This is my name, this is my title, this is who I AM. So, dear Moses,
when you go to the Israelites, tell them that I AM indeed the one who has sent
you.”
Definitely a clear calling to a specific ministry
for Moses to hear. In words, no less. Direct from God via the burning bush. And
here our passage ends.
So, naturally, Moses immediately acquiesces, right?
Wrong. Moses is stubborn, and shy, and doesn’t really like talking in public, or
dealing with conflict, or going back from whence he fled. So, the passages
immediately following our reading today are quite telling. We hear God telling
Moses exactly HOW to exercise this ministry – who he should speak with, how his
message will be heard, etc. And Moses again tries to get out of it, suggesting
the elders of Israel won’t believe him. So God gives him the means to
demonstrate 3 distinct signs to the people to show them, beyond a shadow of a
doubt, that this is true. And STILL Moses tries to get out of it, using his
shyness/speech impediment as an excuse. And STILL God has the patience and love
to be calm with Moses, telling him that his brother-in-law Aaron can be his
attaché, as it were, to speak on his behalf. It goes on –
Moses tries to get out of it, God redirects him.
Why? Because this is not just a hobby; this is his
calling. This is what God has put Moses on this earth for. To work against
injustice, to speak for the voiceless, to lead friends and neighbours toward
God, to pray and praise the I AM who sent him.
Moses is called, by God, to a specific ministry. And
he tries to get out of it. Why?
Because it’s hard. It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable,
and it’s downright risky. Even knowing that God will be with him every step of
the way, he is afraid of what it means to answer that call. Yet – this is the
important part – he does (eventually) fulfill his mission. He will bumble and
stumble and only by the grace of God he will overcome his human failings and
will eventually become the leader of God’s people. But his human fear and
reluctance – there’s something we can relate to, of course. That’s the part
that we tend to overlook when we tell the story of Moses, despite it being such
a regular and normal and human reality. That’s the part we think we understand
– but when we go back to think a bit more about it, we may realize we didn’t.
That message is in our other readings, too, and in
our lives – each and every one of us. We’re called to ministry, but sometimes
our human-ness gets in the way of it.
Paul, in writing to the Romans, is highlighting for
them how easy it I to get caught up in the day to day stuff that can bring us
down. How we all can start making judgements and decisions based on what is
easy or popular, rather than what is faithful and right. He is identifying how we
as Christ followers ought to act, rather than how we often do
act. Don’t seek out vengeance, leave that to God. Don’t do evil to someone just
because they have done evil to you first. Don’t be jealous or petty, but give
all that you have – emotionally and physically – to those around you. It sounds
great – but it’s hard to do.
When was the last time we applied these lessons to
our lives? When was the last time we failed in these lessons? I myself have not
given as much as I could have, I’ve turned away from people in need, I’ve had
un-Christian thoughts – and that’s just this week!
The Gospel takes us in the same lesson, the sharp
reminder that to fully live out our faith is not always easy. Jesus is telling
his disciples that he will need to suffer – and Peter wants none of it. So
Jesus is harsh in his reply; he’s really driving home that even after ALL of
this, after all of the teachings and conversations and years spent traveling
together, Peter is still focused on the here and now, the earthly things, the
comfortable things. But ministry isn’t like that: Jesus reminds Peter – and us
– that truly following God means giving up some earthly comforts. It means
facing burdens and challenges. It means suffering may happen. It means giving
up the focus on THIS life, losing this earthly trap, in order to gain a
perspective on the coming of the kingdom. It means giving up the easy and
popular reality in order to exercise a calling, by God, to a specific ministry.
For Peter, it was helping to establish the church –
the institution which would forever memorialize the death and resurrection of
Christ. For the Romans, it was the calling to live in more loving and accepting
community as people of faith. For Moses, it was speaking against injustice and
leading people to the worship of God.
For us, then, who are still in our journey, we need
to examine the lesson. We need to consider where we have become comfortable,
complicit, earthly. We don’t yet have the luxury of looking back form the end
of our story; but we have the exciting opportunity to assess the story as it
unfolds, re-examining the parts that we think we understand. It’s a chance for
us to consider what we are afraid of, what we are reluctant to do, and what God
is calling for us to do. Is our ministry one of hospitality? One of healing?
One of teaching? One of inviting?
Whatever it is, when we are meant to do it, God will
make sure it happens. When we try to run away from it, God will re-direct
us. When we lose our focus, God will
remind us.
So we move forward – as a people of faith, as a
people of community, as a people following the great I AM. I pray our journey
is less difficult of those in our readings today, that we are less stubborn and
obstinate and reluctant. I pray that we all can move from a place where we
think we understand it all, to a place where we take off our shoes in respect
and simply delight in feeling called to God’s holy presence.
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