Read Exodus 3:1-15 and Matthew 16:21-28 here.
Listen to the choir anthem here.
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How do you answer when someone calls you on the phone?
My dad sometimes answers, “Joe’s Pizza. What’s your order?”
Another fun way to answer:
Bill's Roadside
Diner: You kill 'em, We grill 'em!
Steve Martin in the movie L.A. Story
(1991):
"Hi, this
is Harris. I'm here right now, so you can talk to me. Please start talking at
the beep. *beep*"[1]
How do you answer when God calls?
In the story we read today from Exodus, Moses answers by
saying, “Here I am.” But then when he
hears what comes next, Moses becomes much more reluctant to say yes to God.
Last week we read the story of Moses’ birth in Exodus 1 and
2. Moses was one of the Hebrew babies that Pharaoh wanted killed because he was
afraid the Hebrews were getting too numerous and powerful. Moses survived because his mother put him in
a basket in the river, and Pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him as her
own. When Moses grew up, he saw one day
how badly the Egyptians were treating the Hebrews, and he got angry. He killed
an Egyptian. Someone saw this and told
Pharaoh, and Moses fled into the wilderness where he remained for 40
years. He was out in the desert herding
sheep when God called to him from the burning bush.
How did Moses answer? As
we heard several times in the piece that the choir just sang,[2] when
Moses hears God’s plan to send him back to Egypt to talk to pharaoh, he says, “Not me, Lord.” We only read about one of Moses’ objections
in the passage we read this morning, but if we were to keep reading in chapters
3 and 4, we would see that Moses has a list of reasons why he doubts his
ability to challenge Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Moses’ first objection is, “Who am I that I should go do this?” (Ex 3:11). God doesn’t exactly answer that. Instead God says, “I will be with you.”
So Moses asks another question. “Who
shall I say has sent me?” (v13). God
replies, “I AM who I AM. Tell them that I AM has sent you” (v14). “I
AM who I AM” means God was and is and always will be God. The divine name Yahweh means “He is.”[3] God is.
God exists. God is here, and
always has been and always will be. This is, I think, the most important
part. God doesn’t send Moses to go alone.
God goes with Moses.
Notice that God doesn’t get into all the reasons that Moses
is the one God chooses to send. Instead
God shows Moses that God will be with him and working through him. Basically God is saying, “Trust me, and do and say what I tell you.” The reason Moses will
succeed is that God is with him, but Moses is uniquely suited to the task for
several reasons.
- Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s courts by Pharaoh’s daughter. He knows his way around Pharaoh’s household. He knows how to talk to the Egyptians.
- Moses is a Hebrew and he’s already demonstrated that he is concerned about the cruel treatment the Hebrews have been receiving. He saw an Egyptian guard beating one of the Hebrews and he got angry and killed the guard. Not maybe the best response, but a passionate one. Moses has a heart for this call.
- Moses doesn’t shy away from talking to God. He has a conversation with God about this initial call, and then he continues to converse with God.
Moses says, “Not me, Lord,” but really we can see that Moses
is exactly the right guy for the job, not just because of his history, but also
because, as we see in what happens in the rest of the story, Moses keeps
talking to God. “Not me, Lord” is the
beginning of a conversation that goes on the rest of his life.
In our reading from Matthew for today, we see another
response to God. Peter says to Jesus, “Not you, Lord.” Jesus has just told the disciples what’s
going to happen – that he’s going to suffer and be killed and on the third day
raised from the dead. But Peter doesn’t understand.
o One reason
Peter can’t understand is that Jesus is
God. Jesus has insight that a human
being won’t be able to have. That’s why
Proverbs 3:5 advises us to “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
o The other
reason is that Peter’s idea of Jesus’ call is all about worldly success and
politics. Maybe Peter also didn’t think God would let Jesus be killed. Peter has a vision, but it’s not God’s vision,
so Jesus chastises Peter because he doesn’t have in mind the things of God.
Moses says, “Not me, Lord.”
Peter says, “Not you, Lord.”
The prophet Samuel says, “Not
him, Lord.”
God sends Samuel to anoint the person who is going to replace
Saul as king of Israel. Samuel goes
where God leads him and thinks he’s found the next king when he sees big,
strong men that look well equipped to lead.
But God says, “No, not them. Keep
looking.” When Samuel finally finds the
one that God wants him to anoint, he’s a young, scrawny shepherd. Samuel can’t see why the youngest smallest
kid is the one to anoint, but he obeys God anyway, and anoints David the
shepherd boy who would go on to be the greatest king Israel ever had, the one
by whom all other kings are measured. The one whom God called, “A man after my
own heart.”
We see in these stories, that God’s call is unexpected.
o God calls unexpected
people
o God calls
in unexpected ways
o God calls
in unexpected places
o God’s call
is to an unexpected future.
What could possibly be next?
For Moses? For Peter? For Jesus? For
you? For me? For us?
What is God calling us to be and do?
We are uniquely suited – individually & together. Come join us on the evening of September 17 when we’ll be
working on answering these questions together.
That evening we’ll be spending some time identifying our assets and
gifts and connections and opportunities…trying to discern God’s will for us
together.
Our most basic need is to know God in Jesus– to know the work
and fruit of the Holy Spirit living in us, and working among us. To know that joy.
Do you know
God & have a relationship with him?
If not, start there.
Has God
given you eyes to see a particular need?
This past week we saw people answering the call to help with
an urgent need in response to Hurricane Harvey.
- A furniture store became a shelter for people who had been flooded out of their homes.
- A family that came to visit their cousins for a relaxing vacation ended up being evacuated when the water started rising, then got stranded in their car for a time. They could have stayed in the shelter once they got there, but instead they went back out and helped rescue people and pets.
Jesus calls us to “take up our cross and follow” him. For Jesus, the cross is the willingness to do
God’s will even to the point of giving up his life, to be the once-and-for-all
sacrifice so that we might be forgiven.
The cross
is for us all a crossroads, a deciding point. We keep on carrying that cross because
throughout our lives we will have many decision points. Some will be large and some will be small. Some we won’t even think much about or maybe
even realize we’ve made.
Our lives are full of crossroads – points at which we will
have the opportunity to say yes or no to God.
I had a friend years ago who was anticipating God’s
call. He didn’t know what it would be or
when it would come, but he decided he would make sure he was ready to say
yes. He sold his house and moved into a
smaller one so that he could be putting money away so that he could leave his
job, if that’s what was needed. He
watched for opportunities to learn new skills, so that he would be prepared to
use them in God’s service. Instead of
saying, “Not me, Lord, I have plans already,” he was saying, “Here I am, Lord,
show me what you want me to do.”
Instead of making our own plans, we say yes to God when we
look for ways to be a part of God’s plan.
We can say to God, “I’m not strong enough or smart enough or
rich enough,” or we can trust God’s promise that he will equip us with whatever
we need to do whatever he is calling us to.
We can pray and ask God to bless our plans, or we can pray to
ask God to show us His plans.
Instead of asking, “How can we get people to come to church?”
…we can ask,
“How can we make sure that when people come here they meet
Jesus and know how much he loves them?”
When I was a young adult thinking about what I wanted to do
in my career life, I said I never wanted to own my own business because
- I wanted a job with finite boundaries,
- a job from which I could go home and not keep working,
- a job that didn’t require long hours or weekends.
We are each uniquely qualified for the plan God has for
us. Our church is uniquely qualified to do the work that God has
for us to do.
It may not look like we think it’s going to look or happen in
the way that we expect it to happen, but if we’re willing to say yes to God, we
will find those opportunities for which we have been prepared.
How is God
calling you?
How is God
calling us?
What is
God’s plan for our community?
[2] Ken Medema, Moses,
1973, 1974 Word Music, LLC. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uyfW1opFEk Read lyrics
here: http://www.sing-and-pray.de/texte/moses.html
[3] Van
Gemeren, The New International Dictionary
of the Old Testament - Divine
Name with explanation—treats the first ehyeh
as a divine name followed by the explanation “because I am.” Although the name he declares to Moses means
“I am,” mortal humanity is to call him Yahweh “he is.” This divine name and its explanation “My name
shall be ehyeh (I AM) because I am”
emphasize the reality of God’s active and helpful presence in the form of a
statement of confidence about the present and future.
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