Exodus 3.1-15
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| MLK Memorial in DC |
It is good to be with
you in this place. I am grateful
for the welcome Sey and I have received since arriving at St. Patrick's. I am excited about the opportunities I
find here to serve God and you.
And I look forward to getting to know you better as we move together
through this new season of ministry.
The
story we read today in Exodus has captured the imagination of artists, authors,
film makers, story tellers, and people of faith for generations. Most of you
have heard it taught and preached since you were very young.
Some
of us grew up with the image of Charlton Heston approaching the burning bush in
Cecil B. DeMille's epic, The
Ten Commandments and later Prince
of Egypt has given us a the
story of Moses and his wonderous
encounter with God. It is a
gripping, inspiring story of God's power and compassion, and of an unsuspecting
man whom God chooses to call into important service.
This
captivating story begins the life changing tale of the exodus, arguably the
central event of the Hebrew Bible and the pivotal narrative of the people of
God.
Last
Sunday we heard the story of Moses' beginning. How two midwives, Shiprah and Puah saved him at his birth by
refusing to kill him despite the orders of Pharoah. And how his mother and sister offered further hope for his
life by floating him down the river into the open heart and arms of Pharoah's
daughter. God indeed works through
an astonishing array of people.
Moses,
a Hebrew who grows up in the palace of the Pharoah as an Egyptian, is caught
between two worlds. He murders an
Egyptian slavedriver he sees beating a Hebrew slave. Forced to flee fearing for his life he goes to Midian. Resting beside a well, he responds
again with a passionate concern for those who are being treated with
cruelty. He comes to the aid of a
group of young women who are being prevented by other shepherds from watering
their thirsty flock.
In
gratitude, the women's father, Jethro, welcomes Moses into the family. Moses marries one of the daughters,
Zipporah, and settles into a rather ordinary, yet formative roll, of
shepherding his father-in-law's sheep.
On just another day, herding the sheep in the wilderness, God calls to
Moses out of a bush that is burning without being destroyed.
But
for us to truly understand the measure of this story, we need to back up and
look at the verses that precede it in Chapter 2. For it is here that God has begun working to save the people
he loves. In Exodus 2:23-25 we read
23 After a long
time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned
under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their
cry for help rose up to God. 24God heard their groaning,and
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
25God
looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of
them.
Before
Moses encounters God near Mount Horeb, God has already begun acting. God has heard the groaning of the
Israelites, has remembered his covenant with his people, and has taken notice
of them. God has begun to prepare
for the salvation of the beloved people and is actively involved in the steps
that will free them from their captivity.
GOD IS ONE WHO SEES,
HEARS AND KNOWS
In this reading we hear
the message that is repeated over and over again through the stories of the men
and women in the Bible who tell of God who never abandons us. We learn of God who sees our pain and
hears our prayers--God who is present in times of great joy and great
pain. In the verses just before
today's reading, we hear that God "looked upon the Israelites and (took)
notice of them." God
"heard their groaning."
God "observed" their misery and witnessed their oppression by
their Egyptian slave masters.
And this is not a
distant seeing and hearing. This is not some far-off God, but a God of
unimaginable intimacy--a God who knows us completely. God who sees and hears in a way that
seeps into God's very being. So
powerful is this feeling that God shares with God's people, that the verb
translated "know" is the Hebrew word yada.
"This verb signifies intimacy…of shared experience."
It is as one who loves
deeply stands beside the bedside of the beloved who is in pain. The parent, spouse, partner, child, or
dear friend, not only witnesses the anguish and misery of the one they love,
they feel the pain in their own bodies. They moan and struggle as if the
disease or injury had happened to their own flesh. And this is one infinitesimal window into our God who does
not stand at a distance watching the hunger of his children, the anxiety of his
beloved, the struggle of those whom He/She has created, but rather sees, hears,
feels, ---knows the pain of God's people.
For God to "know" the pain of Israel's suffering means for God
to respond to it in his own essential way. As George Coates says, "the oppression becomes his
own."(George W. Coats, Moses: Heroic Man, Man of God [Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press,
1988] 58).
GOD
IS ONE WHO ACTS
And
our God is One who acts. God who
knows the suffering of the people also, longs to remove the burdens from these
beloved creatures.
So
God dangles a burning bush in front of Moses. Moses, out for a walk with his father-in-law's sheep, sees
out of the corner of his eye a bush that is on fire but is not being
destroyed. Moses turns aside to
see this "amazing sight" and it is then that God calls to him. God does not put a flaming angel in
Moses' pathway blocking his steps.
But rather, in God's boundless love where there is perfect freedom, God
waits for Moses to turn aside. God gives Moses the opportunity to stop and
respond.
Moses'
response "Here I am" echoes through the Scriptures. When faithful
people respond to God's call in humble obedience, opening themselves to the
love and mercy of God, they become intricately involved in God's saving acts .
But when Moses
realizes who is calling him, he hides his face. He begins to question God's purpose for him. God tells Moses
that he has "observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt." Good news! God has taken notice.
God continues,
"The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have seen how the
Egyptians oppress them."
Again, good news!!. God of all creation, God of great power is going to
act on the oppression of the Hebrew
people. But then comes the
kicker. God says to Moses, "and I am going to send you to bring my people, the Israelites, out of
Egypt!" What??
Moses responds, "Who
am I to go to Pharaoh and bring
the Israelites out of Egypt?"
But God is faithful and
patient. God who sees, acts, and
remembers tells Moses "I will be with you." You will not go alone.
I, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be with you." And as a sign of this covenant I make
with you, you will bring the freed people of Israel back to this mountain to worship. I will lead you
back to holy ground.
GOD
IS A GOD WHO FAITHFUL / REMEMBERS
But
Moses will not accept this mantle readily. He asks to know the name of God. He wants assurance. Can God truly be trusted to deliver on
these promises? Moses wants a
formidable calling card. He
asks God, "What name shall I give them?"
God's
response to Moses is, "I am who I am." In Hebrew this ay-hee ahcher ay-hee. "I will be who I will be." "All
you need to know is that I exist." God will reveal Godself to Israel in
whatever form God desires. God assures Moses in this name that there will be no
detail he will encounter as he reenters Egypt and leads the Israelite people
out of slavery that God has not taken into account and made the necessary
preparations. God's sign in this time will be the liberation of the people of
Israel.
Today
is the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where
250,000 people peacefully gathered to claim their rights to justice as children
of God. We honor and give thanks
for the people who came together on this day and for the God filled and God
guided life of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who delivered a message of hope and promise. Dr. King, a modern day prophet,
preached, wrote, and lived so that all people in this country could live
lives of dignity and freedom. Hurricane Irene has postponed a dedication event
of a National Memorial in his memory located on the edge of the Tidal Basin,
but there should be no postponment of the rededication of our lives to God who
infused and empowered Dr. King's life.
We should use this day to reflect on our burning bushes. Moses saw it near Mount Horeb. The Rev. Dr. King saw it in the faces
of black children. How and where
is God calling us?
God
who spoke to Moses is the One who has remembered and kept his promises to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses, to Martin Luther King, Jr., to you and to
me. Indeed, God who is the breath
who enlivens all creation, who enables all things to live and move and have
their being, continues to move and act and be faithful.
While
much has been written about Moses, the great prophet and leader of his people,
the story is about the character and authority of God who comforts the
rightfully terrified chosen liberator of the Israelite people. God, who sees the people in pain, acts
through a flawed and reticent human being to continue his promise of love and
salvation to creation.
God
who sees us and knows us, who continuously acts in history to redeem the
beloved creation, and who is faithful to the promise to be with us in every
aspect of our lives, will lead us into the fullness for which we were created
and walk with us as we bring about a new creation for all of God's people. Let
us give thanks for this unending love that continues to transform our world and
calls us to share in this work.
May
the people say AMEN
Exodus 3:1-15
Proper 17 Year A
Janet Whaley Zimmerman
August 28, 2011
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