August 31, 2008

Extraordinary, ordinary, spectacular, usual, fantastic, normal, these contradictions describe this morning’s Old Testament passage. Moses, on the mountain, meeting God for the first time is a story that has been retold to children of three faith traditions for over 3000 years. Moses, on the mountain, staring into a burning bush that will not burn down is a religious event for families in mosques, families in synagogues, and families in churches. They all know the theme and the details of this encounter. What makes the meeting extraordinary, spectacular and fantastic is that it occurs between God and Moses. Moses is the man lifted up and anointed as the lawgiver and the liberator. Moses is remembered as a hero and a legend, someone who is larger than life. Moses is a man of mythic proportions and so his story takes on mythic qualities. 

But what makes the meeting on the mountain ordinary, usual and normal is that God and Moses meet exactly the way God meets any of us. Every day, God and his people share mountain top experiences. Every day, God and his people meet over erupting shrubbery. Of course, the location and the signs may be more subtle, but the essence is the same. Consider the fundamentals of Exodus 3:1-15. Moses is herding sheep for his father-in-law. He’s living a satisfying life. He has a wife and two sons. He has job security. There’s no chaos or danger or want in his life. He seems at peace and yet, on a given day, there is a pull to something else. One morning, Moses is in his usual routine when something shifts. He has an urge, a desire to move beyond his normal pattern. Moses responds to this pull, this “call” and leads his flock beyond the wilderness. Moses goes further than he’s gone before. He moves beyond the known into something new. In the new place, he has an inkling, a sense of God’s presence. There’s a sign, a phenomenon of something different, perhaps something holy. It is something inexplicable, something indescribable, but there is something there on the mountain to be encountered. 

Moses draws closer. He is curious and engaged. “I must turn aside and look at this great sight.” I must move from my usual routine and allow myself to meet whatever this presence is. “When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him.” When Moses silenced the pulls and pressures of his daily life and turned aside to encounter God, God made himself known quickly and clearly. God calls to Moses. Moses hears him and responds. Notice the engagement is growing more intense, more certain, more tangible. God initiates a pull, Moses steps out. God sends a sign, Moses stops, changes courses, takes in the sign. God “speaks” directly, calls Moses by name, singles him out. Moses “hears” and responds, “Here I am.” Then God, being the loving God that He is, protects his beloved. He doesn’t reveal his whole self to Moses. He is too powerful, too immense for human senses. God’s full grace would be incomprehensible to the human’s mind. God is aware and so does not overwhelm. 

Having established sacred contact, God now reveals his purpose. He has a plan for Moses. He calls the man from his present life to a new direction. Away from what he knows, away from what comforts and satisfies him, God calls Moses to something new and alien. God calls Moses to a mission he never expected nor desired. The sheepherder resists. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt?” Moses is no fool, no romantic idealist. Moses lived in Egypt. He was a member of the royal family. He knows exactly how the regal court will receive his visit. First of all, Pharaoh will have no respect for a Hebrew shepherd. Moses will appear as one of the slave class. His cause will be dismissed because of the poor quality of the messenger. He will not get a hearing. Secondly, Pharaoh depends on the labor of the hundreds of thousands of Israelites to keep his empire running. He’s not about to let go of this cheap work force. The mission God proposes is suspect and unrealistic. Moses is reluctant, adamantly reluctant. 

God counters, “I will be with you.” Well, there it is. What more can be said? What arguments, what resistance, what alternatives can one put forward? “I will be with you” and everything changes. All contingencies are covered. Success is certain. If this is God’s plan and he pledges his support, then victory, prosperity, glory and honor is the guaranteed outcome. For what power in heaven or hell can thwart God’s intention? What force in any realm can match the reach of the Almighty? If God is for the vision, who has a chance with its opposition? 

What happens next is the essential crux of this account and it also typifies our relationship with God. Before Moses leaves his comfortable, sure and secure life behind, before he marches out into uncharted territory on God’s orders, he wants assurances. And so he asks, “How can I be certain that what I sense, what I hear and what I’m experiencing is really of God? How do I know you are God and not just my imagination run amok?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM! I’m telling you for your own peace of mind and I’m telling you this so you can act with confidence and can justify your actions to others! Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you!’

Here is Moses’ moment of truth. Here is his moment of faith. God has revealed himself to the mortal. In this encounter, Moses has met the Great “I AM, the all, the above all. He recognizes that the presence about him is indeed God. He understands God’s plan for him. His response is one of faith. In his next actions he says “God’s will be done.” In this intense moment of truth and moment of faith, Moses says “Yes.” He gives permission to God to use him for his divine purpose.

This is the established formula. God begins an urge in us and calls us out to meet him in a new place. We have the choice to respond, to follow or ignore the urge. If we move closer to God’s call, he sends us a clearer sign, a more intense urge, a thought that keeps reasserting itself, a coincidence that needles our consciousness. Sometimes the sign is more dramatic. Maybe it’s a burning bush. When and if the sign gets our attention, then God reveals his intention. In these encounters, the Great I AM calls us to something unexpected, to some new vision or mission, to some new ministry or relationship, to a new vocation or to a different way of looking at an aspect of our life. When God comes to us in this way, it is with the intention to take us to a new place, to an alternative future. Sometimes the shift in direction is for our individual life. Sometimes it is in our communal life.

These calls to new places are scary, there’s no denying that aspect. We don’t know for sure how the plan will unfold, nor do we know all the details of the final outcome. The calls are faith-based. The rather fascinating thing about how the Great I AM works with us is – that while He could make us do his will moment to moment, he does not. God does not compel us, He invites us. He calls, we commit, and then He accomplishes his grand plans through us. For his will to be done on earth, he has decided we must say “yes” first. Without our “yes,” the world remains as it is – smaller, less just, less compassionate, less noble, less gracious and less beautiful. God calls, but without our yes, the world stays stuck. Humanity moves forward on our “yes” to God. 

On the mountain, Moses said yes and the Israelites were led out of bondage. In a garden, Mary said yes and a savior was born. In a wilderness plagued by demons, fed by angels, Jesus said yes and we were given a way back to the Father. On a beach, Peter said yes, I will feed your sheep, and a church was born. Our yeses are important. They are essential. But, dear ones, when God calls, the no’s eagerly present themselves. I don’t have enough faith. I don’t have enough courage, or confidence or time or money or talent. Thank you for thinking of me, but I think not – not at this time. This is our often our first answer. But the question before us today is: What will it mean for our future as a church and what will it mean in our relationship with God if in His call to us at this precise moment in our history, with so many clear signs showing themselves, we fail to respond with a “yes?” What good news will we block? 

It began months ago with a nudge – we stepped out. The call got stronger, we turned aside to look for God’s signs. God called, we answered. He has a new vision for us. Next week, we make our response. The new place God wants to take us requires some serious sacrifice and sincere commitment. We could be leery and timid, but the good news for us all is that the Great I AM, the All, the Above All says, “I will be with you.” God calls us to a new, better place. Then He goes with us every step of the way. And as he promises, God always blesses our “yes.”

So, let’s rejoice, give thanks and prepare our answer to his new plan for us. In our commitments, let us expect to be awed and amazed by what God will accomplish through us.

Amen.