Called by Cross and Flame
August 31/2014 Exodus 3:1-15 and Matthew 16:21-28
School begins in two days – the summer of 2014 is almost over – at least
for those of us that have school aged children this weekend is the passageway
to the next school year. We will begin
on Tuesday morning with our litany of final instructions as our children head
out the door… “Do you have your lunch? Don't forget your jacket.
Remember to wait your turn. Say please and thank you. Raise your hand and wait
to be called on. Your snack money is in the outside pocket of your backpack.
Don't wait too long to ask to go to the bathroom. Tell an adult if someone
bullies you. Don't pass notes or text during class. Call me when you get home.
Make sure you cover your mouth with your elbow if you sneeze. Did you wear
clean underwear? I love you!" It's a final call of our voice in a way
trying to assure ourselves that our voice is the one in their heads and that
the pressures of peers will not overtake them and they will be able to fight
off all the bad influences that they are bound to run into in the big wide
world of academia – and we know that what are children really are thinking
about has less to do with us and more to do with the new year's adventures. And yet we hope – we hope that the call of
the family will be louder and stronger than the call of the culture.
Our stories today focus on call – the call of
Moses and the calling of Jesus to follow him.
We use the word ‘call’ or ‘calling’ is used in a variety of ways,
·
As a vocation, profession, or
trade
· Or as a summons
· Or a strong
impulse or inclination
·
A sound that comes out of
our mouth when we want people to come in for dinner
It is an evocative word, and
biblically, calling is powerful moment when God get in and speaks in ways that
profoundly impacts those who have the encounter. This morning we listened to probably the most
famous call story of all, that of Moses…
We are introduced to Moses today in our Exodus reading fully
grown and living as shepherd in the Midian desert but much has happened in the
two short chapters before this morning’s story – this man – this full grown
adult male – has already lived a lifetime full of adventure and undertakings, before
he became a shepherd of Midian – before he has his holy encounter this
morning. For this is the Moses the one born into a
time when all of his baby brothers in the faith had been destined to perish in
the pogroms of the pharaoh where all boy child’s born to Hebrew mothers were
exterminated in an attempt to control the burgeoning population of the Hebrew
slaves. An unsuccessful attempt as was
witnessed by the midwives who in their act of subversion, indicated that the
Hebrew woman had such and ease of birthing that the babies were born before
they arrived and so they could not dispose of the boy babies as the pharaoh had
decreed – and then another act of subversion by Moses mother and sister – as they
too defy the pharaoh’s plan when after the birth of the baby – they take the
elements that surround them – a basket and some pitch and create a vessel that
protects and ultimately saves this baby boy from the execution orders.
The basket flows down the river of life and the baby ends up
in the court of the Pharaoh, the very dictator that that sought to destroy all
the babies has one of the condemned float into his palace and meet up with the
woman of the court – and this child, this Hebrew born baby boy is taken by
another woman who again subverts the system and is plucked from the river, and
raised in the palace and given the name Moses.
All of these circumstances, all of these woman’s choices
conspire together to create the backdrop for Moses to grow up and become – well
– MOSES, but there is more in his growing up that prepares him for his
encounter at the bush this morning.
For the land of the Pharaoh that Moses grows up in, from the privileged
position of the palace he witness to the cruel and punishing treatment of the
Hebrew people and begins to recognize that injustice and discrimination and
unfairness that surround him in the as he witness the Pharaoh’s building
program, constructed on the backs of the Hebrew slaves. Until finally, witnessing he beating of a
weakened slave, seeing the cruelty and the oppression that is integral part of the
daily life of the Egyptians – Moses steps in – and in an attempt to stop the thrashing,
he in turn, using his strength –in and act of perceived justice, he destroys the
other, and the slave master lies dead at his feet.
This is not good – this is an act that will change Moses life
forever, for from this moment, Moses life of privilege and prestige in the
court of the Pharaoh ends – and Moses in order to save his own life must flee –
must run for his life – and so off he sets out of the city and across the
dessert, running for his life, running until he can run no farther, and when he
looks up, he finds himself in the midst of the Midian dessert.
Here he will make a new life for himself; here he will shift
his identity from a privileged palace person, to a shepherd, a man of pastures
and sheep. He will find love, and create
a family with Zipporah and his two sons, and he will find contentment and
purpose in this new life – but alas all that is about to change, and the
catalyst for that change – God – is about to introduce himself to Moses in a way that will forever change Moses
life.
It’s an ordinary day – much like this one – and a shepherd is
watching over his flocks – standing guard, leading them to water, checking to
make sure that they are all accounted for.
When just off to the right, out of the corner of his eye, this shepherd
notices something strange – it’s a flicker or a flash of something bright, like
when the sun catches the corner of a shiny object– he turns and goes to check
it out, to see if there is any danger for his flock and maybe just a bit of
idle curiosity to see what this flashing in the sun, and the closer he gets –
the stranger the site is and as he
approaches this bush that is burning but is not burning up – he reaches out his
hand to touch and feel – as he does – he hears his name….Moses
Moses ….Moses… take off your shoes ---- you are standing on
Holy Ground
Moses….
The voice of God in a bush – in a moment where the ordinary
became extraordinary, the commonplace became amazing, the everyday became unexpected…
Moses….take of your shoes….
In a name, in a breath, in an instant, Moses the shepherd
transformed in to Moses the Prophet of God
One of the commentators I was reading this week reflecting on
this passage asked a question that I wonder if we need to consider before we go
much farther into this sermon – when we think about this passage – of Moses and
the burning bush – when we listen to this story – who do you see? what
do you see? what do you hear?
Does Moses look a little like Charlton Hesston? Is the burning bush a bit like a Hollywood
sound stage? Is there swelling music in
the background as a deep base voice bellows:
“Take off your shoes, you are standing on holy ground”? I don’t think we should be too grateful to
Cecil B Demille – I suspect that he has restricted our understanding of this
holy encounter to look a lot like Hollywood, and not very much like the Midian
desert were a man has an encounter with the holy.
Because a holy encounter such as this one, a God moment
frozen in time in scriptural words is actually not a been there done that kind
of encounter – a moment such as the one described by the writers of Exodus – is
a profound sacred moment – when God gets in the world shifts and transformation
happens – it is numinous – it is about liminal time – that time when things are
thin between this world and the next – moments are sacred and God is as close
as our very breath….something shifts with in us – and our lives are never the
same again
This burning bush God call – has little to actually do with
the burning bush – it was just a vehicle to Moses to pay attention – it says “hold
up Moses” pay attention Moses –
something is happening here. This is
Holy
This is sacred – take off your sandals – this ground is
sacred – the earth is sacred and holy ground – connect to it – connect to me –
feel me here – not in the bush – but feel me in you – in your very breath – I am
– says God
Call – God’s call is not a Hollywood moment with the voice of
God coming down from a speaker mounted in the ceiling..
God’s call
Is unique for each of us as we are unique – for there was
only one Moses and only one burning bush – we will not see one because it was
not for us to see – but we will see something, or hear something or feel
something – for God is calling us too – and God will call to us in our language
that only we can understand, should we choose to listen –
So our question is – what are our burning bushes, where are the
devices that God uses to get our attention.
Are they spectacular sunsets or fathomless starry skies where in the awe
and majesty of the created world – we breath and realize that God is all around
us – and that we are all deeply connected to each other and the whole created
world??
Is our burning bush the voice of another saying – you know
you would be good working with children, or helping the sick or planning an
event – I see gifts in you…you have this ability…
Or is the burning bush in our lives a burning issue that
calls us to respond, that will not leave our minds – that compels us to
transform our lives
Or the place of deep discomfort where changing is our only
options because staying were we are hurts too much…
I believe that we all have a burning bush or two or three or
sixteen that we come upon in our lifetimes where God is trying to get our
attention – to shift our live, to shake us up, to call us home, to transform us. God calls us, each and every one of us to
become more, to live more fully, to love more and to be loved more. And how do I know – well it is in the words
of God himself – words spoken to Moses when he asks – who shall I say sent me –
and God says: I AM who I AM
the name God gives to Moses I AM – is
tantamount to saying ‘I’m utterly sufficient for all your needs’…and the
motivation to be sufficient, to liberate, to comfort, to provide…is that at the
heart of God’s self is love…that love which is real, authentic, and which is
our model, as God’s beloved – to love…even when it hurts.
The great I AM, God our creator calls us in
love –
God’s saying, in the giving
of his name : I Am ... completely
me -
here is a sense of the
utter integrity of God...
I will be who I will be -
He’s saying: I never
change... this God is ...reliable, faithful
but also, this God, this name-giving
God is saying: I Am... sufficient, enough,
able to supply all your needs...not wants
- needs...
·
needs spoken and unspoken,
·
needs known and unknown.
The name given, demonstrates
that this God - this passionate God
who wants to liberate his
people - is enough - more than enough,
more than a match for
Pharaoh,
more than a match for all
the gods of Egypt combined.
And then, thousands of
years later, this God comes yet again in a new way as baby in a manger who grew
up to be part of another conversation we heard this morning
The prelude to the story is
that Jesus was asking his friends and disciples:
‘who do people say I am’
and Peter’s response
- 'you’re the messiah...'
And then, Jesus does
something extraordinary -
Jesus gives him a new
name - from Simon, which means ‘pebble’,
to ‘Peter’ the
‘Rock’...steadfast, firm.
The giving of a new name, is
also the implied giving of new qualities,
new characteristics, to
Peter....But how quickly things change.
In our gospel reading
today, Jesus begins to talk of his mission and ministry,
and of what that will
cost... suffering and death...and resurrection.
And suddenly, Peter’s given
another name, Satan
when he recoils in shock to
what Jesus is saying:
when he rejects the message
being spoken, about the
cost of following,
when he shows that
he’s not yet understood
the full implications of being
a disciple,
just how costly it
is to follow him. Take up your cross
says Jesus – and follow me
Karoline Lewis reminds us that: “Taking up your cross is not an individual
act that validates your faith or demonstrates your willingness to go the
distance or a statement of self-sacrifice or self-denial. The cross has
everything to do with community. Take up your cross and follow. To follow, by definition,
demands something or someone to be followed.” [1]
To pick up a cross... is to
lay aside one way of living, and to discover
a new way to live...
the way of love.
To pick up the cross is know that God is calling to you and through you to live
a Godly life – to care for others, to share your wealth, to see beyond yourself
and to see the world through the eyes of God.
And remember, always
remember: what gives us the courage and
the strength, and the joy to keep going is that:we are called to follow in the
name of love, the One whose name means love – the the the I
The I AM, who calls us
‘beloved’...whose love is real, sincere, whose love is more than enough,
and who, in love, walks the
way of love with us, beside us... forever and ever, Amen.
[1] Karoline Lewis: A Cross
and Follow Kind of Life: https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=3300
