Know that God is with You

   

18th Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 28:10-22     

22 September 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

Jacob is on the run.  He is running for his life.   Jacob, the deceiver, has gone too far this time.   It was not enough for him to swindle his older twin, Esau, out of his birthright.   When his father Isaac became old and blind and wished to pass on his blessing to the older twin, Jacob deceived his father, as suggested by mom, and wore Esau’s clothes and pretended to be the hairy-armed hunter.   After  Jacob stole the blessing, Esau was so angry, he said he would kill his brother, Jacob.   So Rebekah, heard of this threat, and was afraid for the safety of her favorite son.   So she urged him to fee to her brother Laban’s place in Haran.   She also convinced husband Isaac that Jacob should leave to find a wife amongst the kinfolk in Haran.   Jacob’s grandparents, Abraham and Sarah, had traveled from  Haran to find the Promised Land, settling in Beer-sheba, as called by God.   Now Jacob is running back to Haran, fearing for his life.   He makes it fifty miles before stopping to sleep, not knowing that he is stopping at the very place where his grandparents, upon reaching the Promised Land, had built an altar, giving thanks to God.  Exhausted, Jacob falls asleep, having deep and vibrant dreams, dreams that teach him of the God of his parents and grandparents, a God he has heard about second hand, but never encountered like this.*

* I am indebted to Sidney Griedanus for his summary of this story in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, edited by Roger E. Van Harn.

Hear now the story of Jacob’s dream from Genesis 28:10-22:

Genesis 28:10-22

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

(New Revised Standard Version)

I know that some of you, like me, have had profound dreams, which you perceived were messages from God.   I had a dream after my father died that allowed me to resolve a conflict in a way that had been impossible while he was living.  My brother had an encounter with Christ in a dream, that re-shaped his life in college.   Some of us have experienced clear messages from God while awake.   Others of us find these dreams and experiences strange and rare.   You might even think that those of us who take them seriously are a little weird.   But I think God is communicating with us much more than we are ever aware.  

This story is a coming-of-age moment for Jacob, who had truly wronged his brother, and yet still has the blessing intact – both the parent’s blessing and God’s blessing too.   Reminder, friends:  no matter what you’ve done and how fast you are running from the consequences of it, God is still present in your life, seeking to turn your bad to good, with some cooperation from you.   That’s who God is, and Jacob is just learning this.  He had heard stories about the God who led his grandparents to a new land, but this is his first real experience with God and he receives the same promise of multiple descendants and the land, even as he is departing that land.   

Guilty and scared, this scoundrel Jacob is overwhelmed by the promise of God to be with him, and this sacred place, where he encounters God is special to him.   He marks the moment and the place with an oiled rock, the one on which he had laid his head in exhaustion.   This is a reminder to all of us that places become sacred because of encounters with God.   When we first moved into this building, it felt foreign and awkward.   After we had worship for two or three months, it began to feel like sacred space because here we had prayed in Spirit, and heard God’s Word and tasted Christ’s goodness.   Remember that when we move.

In Jacob’s dreamy vision of the ladder or the ramp it is not clear in the Hebrew whether God is beside him or above him on the ladder or stairway to heaven.  which connects him to God is often understood by Christians to be a pre-figuring of the work of Christ as the great mediator between God and humanity.  

Christ is the God at the top and the human at the bottom, and Christ’s Spirit forms the ladder which brings us together.  Even before Christ was born to Mary, there were prophecies that Immanuel would come, and Immanuel means, “God with us.”  That’s the same message which was given to Jacob at Beth-El, this special place which is named “House of God.”   Later Jacob encounters God again at a place called Peniel, having struggled with God in night, and his name is changed from the one who deceives to one who struggles with God, Israel, and thus Jacob’s new name becomes the name of an entire people for generations to this day.

Jacob makes a pledge to God after this encounter.  He says, “If God will be with me and will return me safely to the Promised Land, then the Lord will be my God and of all that God gives me, I will return one tenth.  There we find one of the earliest references to tithing.  Jacob, out of gratitude for God’s promises, makes his own promise – I will return a tenth.  There are few people who really tithe these days a full 10%, but those who do are blessed and make of themselves a true blessing to others.  Those who make a deliberate decision to give back to God a percentage of all God has given them, even a half-tithe (5%) are truly blessed by this faithful action of thanking God and trusting God to keep providing.   I challenge you to the spirit of gratitude we see in Jacob, who after one night of protection and promise, made such a profound commitment.  This autumn in gratitude season we will ask you to make a specific commitment to God for 2014 and to allow Peace Church to help you stay accountable to that promise – not accountable like a bill which is binding, but like the promise of a gift or of a commitment of time, which is liberating and joyful and sometimes challenging.

Jacob will go on spend twenty years with his uncle Laban, marrying his daughters Rachel and Leah, having many children, and taking care of Laban’s flocks before deciding to return to the Promised Land.   Once again God protects him, as he steals away from Laban with Laban’s daughters and grandchildren and flocks.   He and Laban ultimately part in peace, with Laban offering his blessing at mizpah, the watchpost in Gilead where Laban chased him down:  

Laban says, “May the Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.”  And he adds, “You’d better take good care of my daughters, remembering that God is our witness.”

After twenty years away, Jacob is still scared to return to his home, where Esau may still be holding a grudge, but once again God promises to be with him.  Jacob sends gifts of animals ahead and has his wrestling match with God in the night at Peniel.  Don’t miss the connection of these two places as names of two valued ministries we support in our presbytery– Beth-El Farmworker Ministry in Wimauma, and Mision Peniel in Immokalee.   Both places where Jacob received a blessing from God while struggling with fear and being away from home.   We hope to be part of the blessing God provides to many farmworkers, who themselves feel far from home, as they migrate to the US to work on our farms at very low wages.   We hope to help them by compassionate service, providing food and clothing and a place to worship.   We hope to support them in their struggle for fair wages, as we work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, another farmworker organization we Presbyterians support.

The promise to all who are scared, to all who are running or restless, to all who have made terrible mistakes, to all who are uncertain of their futures, to all who have been called by God nonetheless, who are part of the family of faith, even if you have never been able to say with strong assurance, “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place”   Know that God is with you.   God is with you always, whether you feel it or not.  God will never abandon you, but will keep the covenant of blessing.  So look for God and listen for God’s word to you that you may live by it.  Give thanks to God for his providence, speak of God’s presence and faithfulness to others, and return to God a portion of all that has been given you.   You will see the fatherly goodness of God as you draw near to God through your brother, Christ, as you listen for the whispers of your mothering Holy Spirit, who is calling you to your true home in the arms of God.

Clay in the Hands of God

17th Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 18:1-11; 2 Cor. 4:7-14

15 September 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert

 

Every summer when our family goes to Montreat, we make pottery.   You can see four Deiberts on the wheels in that photo.  It’s great because you can go, pay for your clay, get assistance from real potters and by the grace of God and some determined persistence, you make something beautiful – and sometimes something beautifully imperfect.   We’ve made bowls, mugs, cups, Iphone holders, and even this chalice and paten for those who need a gluten-free communion.   In Biblical times, pottery was a common craft, one with which most people could easily connect.  There was surely a potter’s house in every village.   Jeremiah uses the imagery of a disappointed potter to express God’s great frustration with his people and God’s ability to mold and remake them.  Paul uses the imagery of clay jars to talk about the glory of God shining through our brokenness.

Jeremiah 18:1-11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.  5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.  11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, wants his people to understand that God has the power to completely re-shape their lives, even to destroy them, as a potter re-fashions clay that is not coming together with the right proportions.

Paul wants the Corinthians, who were obsessed with human perfection in health and strength, to understand that God uses earthen, breakable vessels, clay jars to prove that the glorious power and beauty in us comes from God, and not from us.   And that the death of Jesus gives these mortal bodies of ours their real life.  It is that truth that we so desperately need to know when we watch the earthly tent of our bodies break or weaken or fall slowly apart.    Our purpose is to glorify God, to be Christ’s people – that’s the reality that never dies, though our bodies fail us.  

Perhaps at the pottery wheel, we might come to a better understanding of the fierce determination of God to turn us into beautiful works of art.   God has to start over many times with us, but God cares enough to get frustrated when we are not cooperating with the process.   God cares enough to want the best out of us.   The worst parent is not a frustrated, angry parent but a parent who doesn’t care, a parent who doesn’t try to shape our character into the best it can be.  

My nephew Alex and his wife Kristi are adopting a toddler from China, who is missing a right hand.   She was abandoned by her biological parents because of her imperfection.   God does not abandon us, but cares enough to re-shape our lives, to give us new start.   Just like this little girl will get a new life, we are a new creation in Christ.  We have a loving Parent who does care, who is strong and gentle, understanding and demanding.  This God is busy making us into the people we need to be, even in our most fragile and our most stubborn moments.   

(kneading the clay)

The first thing a potter must do is knead the clay.  It’s called wedging, to remove all air bubbles.   Some might say this serves the purpose of informing the clay who’s in charge, to say to the molecules it is time to cooperate and stick together.   The first step with us and God is to acknowledge that God is in charge of our lives, and not we ourselves.  God is the potter, and we are the clay.

The next step is centering.   (Centering) Centering the clay requires a lot of strength because the clay resists being centered.   A potter has to put elbows on knees to access leg strength as well as upper body.   So it is with us.   We resist the discipline of being centered in God.   We are like the wild, wobbling piece of clay that does not seem to want to settle in the center.   Sabbath.  Worship.  Personal and Family  Devotions.  Service to God.   Quiet prayerful times on the beach or in the garden or in our bedrooms.    Those things get us centered.   We need balance.   We need to be centered by God and it can take a lot of force to get us there.   (Clay well-centered)

Once centered, the potter can work with the pot.   (opening the pot)  And the first job after centering is to open the pot.   Think about that in your life.   After you acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life, after you relinquish yourself into the hands of Great Potter and are centered, then you need to be made open, open to all that God wants to do with you.  If the Lord is going to use you, you must be an open vessel, able to be filled with good things.   

Next the pot must be drawn up.   (Image of pulling up)  We too must be stretched beyond our boundaries, lifted up.   We must expand, in order to become the vessel God wants us to be.   We cannot get spread too thin or our walls get wobbly and might crack when fired.  We need just the right amount of pressure to be drawn up into a lovely vessel that is useful to God and humanity.

(Shaping)  After being pulled up and out, then we can be shaped in a variety of ways to perform many different functions.   Shaped and smoothed.   Sometimes rough places form in our lives.   Sometimes even at this point, the clay can become uncooperative or can be filled with impurities or with holes.   In those cases, the Great Potter of Heaven who longs to make us into wonderfully attractive and useful pots, sometimes must start over and knead us once again, making sure we are centered and that all impurities are being worked out.

(reshaping)  You can imagine how frustrating it would be to be this far along in the process and then have the clay start going the wrong way.   It gets lumpy and then wobbly and then the potter grabs it and balls it up to start over.  Contemporaries of the Prophet Jeremiah and of the Apostle Paul were well acquainted with the process of pottery making.   They would have known the strength and care of the potter, the determination and the patience of the potter.

After shaping the pot, then it must dry a while before the potter returns to trim it.  (trimming)  If the base is too thick, then it is trimmed away, so the pot does not implode in the firing.  If we have more than we need, or if we are too full of ourselves, we too sometime implode.  Sometimes our ego, our selfishness needs to be trimmed back, so we have a chance of coming out of the kiln in one piece.   None of us wants to go through the fire, but think of what the firing does for the glazed pot.   That’s what makes it really beautiful.  (kiln)

We are God’s handiwork, created for good works, made to reflect the glory of our Creator, who loves us enough to keep molding us until we become the earthen vessels we are meant to be.   God takes us in whatever state we are in, and re-shapes us into vessels which are useful and through which God’s glory can shine.   

When we allow God to shine even through our weaknesses, when we give God the glory and accept the love that has been poured into our hearts, those cracks are no longer blemishes but beauty marks.  (human vessel)  Paul says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels -- malleable, breakable jars of clay, that it may be clear that this extraordinary power comes from God, not us.   Submit yourselves to the loving and firm hands of God, who knows what to do with you, who has a purpose for your life, who can turn you into a beautiful work of art.  Allow yourself to be continually molded by God.  Remember when you see a weakness in another person that God is not finished with them yet.   Pray the glory of God will shine through every crack and flaw in your character.

The Inescapable Love of God

   

16th after Pentecost (Baptism)

Psalm 139      

8 September 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

Mothering Spirit, who hovered over the waters at creation's birth, who descended in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism, who was poured out under the signs of fire and wind at Pentecost: Come to us, open our hearts and minds, so that we may hear the Word of life in sound and silence and be renewed by your life-giving, nurturing power, for you live and reign with the Father and the Son, now and forever.

Psalm 139 and baptism are a perfect pair to me, because they both teach us that God’s love for us is boundless.   There is no where we can go to escape God’s love.  Oh, we can run.   We can hide.  We can create distance from God, and erect barriers to avoid seeing the wonders that God has intended for us.  But God keeps showing up, hoping we will notice.  God wants to be in a close relationship with us.  That’s why God came to live among us as Jesus Christ.   That’s why God gives us the Holy Spirit as our comforter and guide, the one who nudges us in the right direction and fills us with courage.   It was the Spirit who descended upon Jesus like a dove in his baptism.   

If we are able to comprehend and keep ourselves aware of the nearness of God to us at every moment, we are truly blessed.  But even if we are unaware, God is still there.   Our lack of awareness, the fact that our eyes are closed, does not diminish God’s presence, it only makes it more difficult to see what really is there and matters most.   

So no matter what happens – whether life is rolling along smoothly, whether we are struggling with long-term mental illness, or whether we have just experienced a life-altering stroke, like our dear friend, Bob Seiter, God is present.  God is there as our light and our salvation, sometimes rescuing us in ways beyond our ability to recognize or appreciate.  God is always there bringing light, and there is no dark room that is not completely transformed by the presence of one small light.   And the light of Christ is not small.  Christ is the light of the world.   We can trust in Jesus Christ, even in the darkest corners of the earth.    We can trust the God, whom Jesus called Abba, who has known us and loved us since before we were born.  

We can trust in the Creative Holy Spirit, who gives us the capacity to love and be loved.   That love will ultimately win in the end because it is the most powerful force in the Universe.   

 

In the baptisms today we will celebrate the inescapable love of God, who is calling Melissa, David, Zoe, and Amanda to be part of the Christian family here at Peace.  But first, let us reflect on these words from Psalm 139, a prayer which begins with the notion of God’s thorough knowledge of us and ends with an invitation to God to keep knowing us more deeply to remove all in us that is not good and true, leading us to the good life which never ends.   

Psalm 139 (read slowly with appropriate images for each verse)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;  you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.   4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.  5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.  

17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you… 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.  24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(New Revised Standard Version)

God is Not in Your Pocket

 

15 Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 3:1-15

Elizabeth M. Deibert

1 September 2013

There are four major events in the Old Testament which can be remembered with this acronym CCEE – Creation, Covenant, Exodus, and Exile.   Today we focus on the first E - Exodus, the story of Moses being called to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.   This is a key narrative for understanding the nature of the One who calls us.   

Exodus 3:1-15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations”

(New Revised Standard Version)

Moses, born to a Hebrew family, was destined to die a tragic death, like all the Hebrew male infants, according to Pharoah’s decree.   But beautiful baby Moses was spared by his creative mother and devoted sister, and then discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, who decided the baby would be hers to keep.   The wise sister makes sure mom is chosen as the nanny for this boy.    Moses, raised with the privilege of Pharoah’s family, nonetheless feels the pain of his people and their forced labor after he comes of age.   In a flash of temper, he murders an Egyptian.   Now the Ten Commandments had not been given to Moses at this point in the narrative, but it is fairly clear that his righteous indignation about the harsh treatment of his people, has led him to the wrong action.  He is forced to flee to the land of Midian, where God can prepare him for the right action.

Let’s stop and think about how in our immature, youthful zeal, we sometimes have the right motives and the wrong action.   Later God inspires us to use that drive for justice to accomplish the right thing in the right way.   But Moses, just like so many wonderful characters in the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, resists the call.  Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?   Well, Moses, who else?    I mean you grew up in Pharoah’s household and you are an Israelite.   Why not you?   We often do not see that we are actually perfectly case for the roles to which God calls us.   You might be scared to do it, but you are the one, Moses.   You are the perfect one.   God says, “I will be with you, and here the sign – you will worship me on this mountain when you have brought the people out of Egypt.”   Well, now, wouldn’t it have been better to have a sign that he’s doing the right thing sooner than that?    He’s got to do a lot of brave stuff before he gets the confirmation from God that he’s on the right track.    

Do you think Martin Luther King, Jr got God’s confirmation about the March on Washington, prior to the march 50 years ago?   I doubt it.   Do you think the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Friends got confirmation that yesterday’s peaceful protest would make a difference toward the goal of Fair Food, decent wages and an end to harsh treatment in the fields of Florida?   I doubt it.   Do you think that the leaders of our country are going to get a clear signal from God about the right way to deal with Syria?   I seriously doubt it.   Usually the signs of confirmation come after the hard decisions.   

Are you trying to make a difficult decision?   Are you praying to God for clarity.  Don’t stop praying to make the right choice, but don’t feel like a failure if you don’t get immediate confirmation, but remember that God promises to be with you, just as God promised Moses.   Take off your shoes, and look into the bush of God’s glorious power, listen for God’s voice, and believe that God will see you through this challenge.    

If you are taking leading the powerless to greater freedom and a more humane life, if you are being courageous in the face of danger, if you are speaking truth to power, when you’d rather be quietly minding your own business in a quiet pasture of sheep, then there is a good chance you are doing the will of God.   Moses was not seeking power, he was resisting using his place of power to influence Pharaoh.   

He was even reluctant to assert his influence with the Israelites.   Why will they listen to me?   They will want to know who sent me.   Whom shall I say sent me?   

Again Moses is looking for certainty.   Give me your name, God.   Let me have the power of knowing you intimately, so I can put you in my pocket for security, so the people will trust my word.   But God is too big to fit in Moses’ pocket.   God is too immense to be contained even in our minds.  

One of the problems with modern church is that we keep trying to domesticate God.  There’s been in recent years a great emphasis on the immanence, the closeness of God, the One who is with us.  But we have to hold that in tension with the transcendence of  God, who is beyond us, mysterious and powerful, whose name cannot be uttered, whose presence is nearly blinding.   This story of Moses’ call reminds us that a mysterious, powerful, God beyond us, comes to us and talks with us about doing daring things to help people.   This I AM who I AM.   I will be who I will be calls us to have faith that God will be with us, as we dare to be faithful and courageous.

Think about the danger of Moses returning to Egypt.   His adoptive Egyptian grandfather was looking to kill him for murdering a Egyptian in cold blood.   The Israelites have no reason to trust him – he who is the only boy who survived Pharoah’s brutal killing of the baby boys.   He the one raised by Pharoah’s daughter?   Why would the Israelties trust him?   But God reminds Moses that he more than the hot-headed Hebrew boy from Pharoah’s house.   Moses comes from a long line of faithful followers who listened to God, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Isaac and Rebecca, the God of Leah, Jacob, and Rachel.   That is the One who calls you, Moses.   That is the God, who calls you, Peace, to be faithful.   

The same God who called Miriam and her brother Moses and his wife Zipporah, who surely did not know what she was getting into when she married that runaway Hebrew shepherd from Egypt.   Did she sign up for the danger of Pharoah and his chariots, of  forty years in the wilderness?   No, she did not.  She was expecting a nice calm life on the pasture land of Midian, near her family.   

I bet your life has had some twists and turns you did not expect, and the call of God on someone close to you or on you yourself has sometimes challenged you to do things you did not think possible or sensible.  Moses figured he’d burned his bridges with Pharoah and his own Hebrew people, but God said, “Go back to Egypt and Pharoah.”    Go back because my people are being mistreated.   The call of God is always to lift up those who are beat down.   Jesus quoted Isaiah, when he uttered his first statement of call:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor,   God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

We are hoping to lift up the downtrodden in our work at Mission Beth-El as we collect school supplies, book bags, and food, and as eight or ten compassionate people go each week to pack food bags for those who have so little.   We are hoping to bring good news to the poor when we support farmworkers in Immokalee – through Mision Peniel (ministry of compassion) and with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (the mission of justice)?  At our presbytery meeting last week-end we decided to boldly continue to support and develop Mision Peniel without diverting our support of Mission Beth-El – ministries of compassion in two locations.  The confirmation, the sign  from God will come when we later see that these brothers and sisters living in a land of promise and of freedom, when they are liberated from oppression and worship Jesus Christ with us on these plains of SW Florida. 

 

It is not always clear what we should do in such matters.   What can WE do to make a difference?   Who am I that I should go stand with the farmworkers?  Who am I that I should speak up in the workplace or in the neighborhood or in the newspaper when I see groups of people whose human rights and basic needs are being ignored?   God is calling.    The Holy One is calling us to leave the comfort of living just as we please, so we might start living in the land of committed faith, putting God first.  I think that God wants to liberate the contemporary church from a too casual, too familiar, too comfortable, my-Jesus-and-me attitude.   

We are worshiping the Holy One, the God of the Universe, not our buddy.   This God says, “Don’t try to put me in your pocket, or even think you can contain me in your little mind or your little heart.   Don’t think that I am your sugardaddy or your benevolent granny.   I’m bigger than that.   I’m larger than you.  I don’t belong to your particular faith community or your club or your country.   You belong to me!”  

“So stand back, church, don’t get burned.   God says, “Trust in my love, but don’t take it for granted.   Don’t abuse my good gifts or ignore my people who are suffering.   Believe in my grace, but don’t cheapen it by living as you please.  If you utter my name, do so with careful, reverent adoration, with deep respect.   I am who I am.  I will be who I will.”