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Shepherd of the Hills |
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What to Expect on Sunday |
These last few weeks, we have been journeying through the dramatic events in the book of Exodus. The central story is that of Moses, an ordinary man chosen by God to do an extraordinary thing. God has a plan and God has just the person to execute it. But this is not what Moses thinks. He thinks there has been some mistake on God’s part and in an effort to be helpful (and maybe even squirm out of it) he offers his brother Aaron instead. This is typical of God’s call. God often chooses someone whom neither we nor the person expect, and its success depends on the person both hearing and agreeing. It comes in the form of an invitation that is not explained in advance, nor come with guarantees. It is often a total surprise that has little to do with how we view ourselves. It can be subtle or dramatic. We may not be able to explain it, but we know it is clearly God. Our assurance comes when we look back and can see a pattern of how God calls us specifically. The first time this happened to me was when I was a young mother in Illinois. We had just joined a church the year before and I was attending my 2nd presbytery meeting, not at all certain of what a presbytery was. In the middle of the meeting our pastor leaned over and asked if I would like to be nominated as a General Assemble Commissioner. I remember clearly answering "Certainly not", before he promptly stood up and nominated me! He assured me it was only as an alternate which would never happen. However, about a month later, he called and said the Session would need to vote on my nomination. The original nominee was unable to attend. Scared and confused, I prepared my defense as to why I could not possibly go. I had a young child at home and a husband who travelled. I didn’t even know what a presbytery was, let alone the General Assembly. I had no experience with the larger church and frankly had enough at the local level to keep me occupied. I thought this meeting would be relatively easy as one of the elders had been to seminary and had a life long dream of being a Commissioner. At the meeting he even volunteered to pay his own way. The Session asked me if I would be willing to do the same to which I replied, "Absolutely not. In fact I would need childcare." "Perfectly sealed", I thought to myself. Then, to my shock, they voted to unanimously send me! It was my own burning bush experience. I did not know then, that God was inviting me into an exciting relationship that was only possible if I dared to say yes. God’s call is a process. We have the choice to say no but each time I trusted God I drew a bit closer. I discovered I did not know what was best for me, nor where my life was leading. I was aware that there was Someone who knew better than I what I should do. The call of God is unmistakable. Sometimes a call comes in the whisper of the wind. Other times it comes in the blaze of a burning bush. But for most of us there is a deep chasm between how God sees us and how we see ourselves. So God chose Moses to lead the people away from the oppressive pharaoh, out of Egypt and into a Promised Land. Like us, Moses had a list of reasons why he is the wrong person. He stammers, he is only a shepherd, for heaven’s sake, and his self image is a bit shaky. But God is not persuaded; after all, God knows him better than Moses knows himself. God has a purpose in mind and is not going to be deterred by a few weak excuses. God is not going to force Moses, but offer an invitation again. If he accepts Moses will be given what he needs for the task, gaining trust in God at the same time. God wants Moses, to ask the Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Now this is a problem on several levels. First, not only can the king refuse, he could have Moses killed. Second, the Israelites number in the thousands and as slaves they are an economic commodity for the Pharaoh. Because of their vast numbers, they are seen as a threat and the control of them has moved from forced labor to full blown slaves. Furthermore, the king, as a means of control and managing his own fear, has ordered all male Hebrew new born babies thrown into the Nile. The people were living a subhuman existence and cried out to God in their suffering and God heard them. The central message of Exodus simply put is this: God hears God sees God knows God remembers God acts. Exodus is a book about deliverance. When we read this book we know that it is not just about Moses and the Israelites long ago; it is about you and me and the parallels we see today. God wants to deliver his people from all that hold us back. Bondage carries a price, but so too, does freedom. When social systems become oppressive, God promises to hear and act, to deliver us from whatever holds us captive and we are part of the solution. These stories are stories of hope for us and for others. I think it is a great act of compassion to remind or tell this story to someone who is in bondage. We know there are things in our lives that hold us in bondage. These are the things that prevent us from becoming what God intends; such wide sweeping things like illiteracy, unequal economic means, political enslavement, drug addiction or a poor self image. This was the tragedy of Michael Jackson’s story these past two weeks. But there are lesser things that we allow to hold us back too. How often have we heard the words "I have never done that before; or I am shy; or my family wouldn’t understand; or I have no college education." These are some of the things that we allow to hold us in bondage. This passage reminds us that God is on a mission of deliverance. But if we do not believe God can do this, neglect to ask God to help us, or avoid looking for God in our lives, we will miss it. God does not always come in the form of a burning bush. It’s a strange thing about our relationship with God, isn’t it? We think we know ourselves best, even though God created us. The truth is we don’t know our purpose. We don’t have a lifetime map of where we are going or how we will get there. So much of it depends on our response to life. So our denial or refusal, it seems to me, is more about our lack of trust in God directing our lives. The catch is we can’t acquire that trust until we risk saying yes to God. We can be absolutely certain God is wrong but when we look back at those times we dared to follow God, something did happen to us. We were delivered from our own limitations and feelings of inadequacy. We were freed up to trust and believe. We were even released from having a hardened heart. A few years ago I had the opportunity of serving as a mentor for a student at Denver Seminary. The student was a bright successful student, a graduate of School of Mines, who had a mind of her own. My job was to walk alongside of her as she wrestled with God’s claim on her life. She knew exactly what God wanted. She was to finish seminary, join the Air Force and serve as a chaplain wherever God sent her. She and her husband had decided not to have children as this would deter her from her goal. Indeed, she was graduated, moved and became a chaplain in the Air Force. All was well, until one day things changed. The idea of having children kept resurfacing and would not go away. She decided to pray about it, certain that they were not to have children. Her prayer, she said was for God to let her know is this was not the plan. In retrospect, she described her state as having a hardened heart over the issue, and over the months she felt her heart soften. Guess what happened? Yep, you guessed it. She became pregnant. She had asked for a boy but the ultrasound indicated it was a girl. She even had them repeat the test, so certain was she that there must be some mistake! Now weeks, later she has accepted the joy of the girl not yet born. I think that when things are rolling along smoothly it is easy to get seduced into believing we are in charge of our lives. I have been intrigued with the hardened hearts part of this passage, haven’t you? I mean why would God decide to harden the heart of the Pharaoh and make it all the more difficult on Moses to lead the people out of Egypt? After all, if God calls us, why make it more problematic? Whose side is God on anyway? The process of call, hearing it, mulling it over, deciding to answer or hang up, is all part of God’s love for us and wanting us to know him. For me, daring to dip my toe into this unknown pool, changed me. I discovered when God claims us it is an act of deliverance. We are being delivered from the bondage of depending on ourselves. We are being delivered from a self imposed bondage of limitations that God never intended. Most of all it is a time of revelation of who God really is in our life, and I believe that God wants all of us to know him. God chose in Pharaoh, someone who already had a heart of steel and had refused to change. The scriptures tell us God did that so that not only Moses and the Israelites would know who God is, but so too would the Egyptians. You see, God is not just on our side, or waiting to reward us if we are obedient. God is on the side of all creation, even those who believed in other gods, even those with cruel hearts. When we harden our hearts it is to harm; but when God hardens hearts it is for good. Nonetheless, we can choose to have a hardened heart. Pharaoh did and we do. We can refuse to reconcile with someone and insist they make the first move. Or we can choose to ignore those who need us most. Or we can choose not to believe, or to look for God. We can decide we are too busy to learn Bible stories like this one. We can choose to have more faith in ourselves than God. We can choose a hardened heart and when we do, we choose to miss what God has in mind for us. We all have been claimed in our birth, through our Baptism, through our membership, and even in the middle of the night. I recently came across an illustration about a man who kept waking up at 2:00 AM and try as he might, he could not break this pattern. When he shared this phenomenon his friend suggested perhaps God wanted to talk with him and this was the only time God could get his attention. "After all", he said, "God woke up Samuel in order to talk to him, why wouldn’t he speak to you at night? Do you think that God has changed?" God can speak to us in so many ways I know it is to our advantage to watch and listen for them. Frederick Buechner, theologian, pastor and author describes it this way. "Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not, God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from, and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next." When God appeared in a burning bush it was to get Moses’ attention. When God laid out the plan that Moses was to ask the king Rameses to let the people go, it included hardening Pharaoh’s heart. I suspect for Moses, as for us, it was a leap of faith. Moses knew enough about God to know that God did not plan to harm him. Moses placed his trust in God and left the details to God. And when he did, a miracle occurred. No longer were the people held captive. No longer were they chained in bondage. No longer was hopelessness their steady diet. God freed them and along the way the people discovered who God was and is. And so it was; a story that occurred, that we now can read and tell our children and each other. God does not want any of us held in bondage; whether it is an abusive relationship, a punitive boss, a drug addiction, or the pain of estrangement. God wants to break the bonds that hold us tight and invites us to simply follow without knowing where it will lead. One thing is certain: the one and only God does not call us into harm, hate, danger, or humiliation. God calls us to simply follow and leave the details to him. Can we do that? With God’s help we can. Amen |
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