God and Moses

 

         There are few stranger relationships between God and a human, than that between Moses and his God. 
-One gives the commandments, the other smashes them. 
-Their time together transforms Moses so greatly that his face is veiled to mortals. 
-They even have a Snicker’s commercial moment together
—God rushes out to burn up all the Israelites, 
and Moses essentially hand’s God a candy bar to calm God down, 
because God has a tendency to get a little hangry in the books of Moses.

 

         This relationship is on full displace today at their first meeting. 
These verses are structured in such a way that Moses and God swirl around God’s central act in the Exodus story
—I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land
—These two reveal themselves to one another
—they act off one another, and we get to know them not only for who they are, but who they shall be.

Prayer

 

         Moses—a rootless man, 
who might know of the God of his ancestors
—but was raised in Pharaoh’s house 
and only knows his people from a distance. 
Even his lips reveal longing and separation
—he isn’t a native speaker of Hebrew, like his brother Aaron, 
who will mediate between him and his people, 
even as Moses will mediate between God and God’s people.

 

         Moses—who has at least one thing going for him—curiosity. 
He turns and sees this sight
—a bush burning but not burnt.

         Some commentators propose that 
this bush had been burning forever, 
up until that time,
but no one before Moses had looked up to notice it. 
Only observant Moses makes the effort to look up and to see… 

         Sometimes God is acting, 
and we just have to look up and see, right!

The mundane is miraculous if you only stop to see
—to take a moment to consider how astonishing every moment is!

 

         Moses! Moses!
—He is called twice, and responds, “Here I am.”
The same words as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph
—those ancestors he longs for,
He is cut from the same cloth, despite it all.

         Called not because he is ready or perfect, 
but because God works 
through roles, responsibilities, and relationships, 
to reach out to the world.

         And make no mistake! 
Callings aren’t something stuck 
between the pages of a bible, like a book mark, 
nor are they for Pastors, Deacons, and Bishops only.
         No. Every one of us is called to be faithful where we are at, 
and also called out into a wider world to be faithful there too!

 

         Moses who wonders, 
“Who am I” to confront Pharaoh? 
Yet, isn’t he the only Israelite 
who has been more than a slave, 
in Pharaoh’s eyes?
Isn’t he uniquely qualified, 
an adopted grandson to the Egyptian court.
         Imagine a person so capable and fortunate, 
stepping back from their responsibility, 
even as God steps in behind him to fill the gap.

 

         Moses, unshod, 
so that he might honor this profound fire he’s seen, 
a fire that points to God
         God—like a fire… 
and like a fire that does not consume. 
Simultaneously Awe inspiring and Awful.

         Hide your face!
Fear the face of God.
         Even as you encounter Holiness
—literally Other than, 
separate from
Strange
Weird
And set apart.

 

         Such a God announces: “I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land.”

 

         God who is Holy. 
Who is worthy of worship,
Who these enslaved people find to be good and trustworthy, 
their Liberator.

Different from themselves, and different from the gods of Egypt
Yet in relationship with them.

         Sacred in a way that priests 
will purify themselves in preparation to come before the altar, 
and yet birds will make nests upon that same altar of God.

 

         God who is the I AM. 
         God who is ineffable, like fire.
Who some theologians call the ground of all being, 
creation’s root.
Others call the prime mover or first principle.
Creator not creature
—outside the created order because God ordered creation.

God who has no ancestors, even as God is the God of the ancestors.
God who is beyond history, even as God is the God of history.
God who can say “I Am” and put a period behind it.

 

         God who hears. 
         Hears the cry of Abel’s blood from the ground
—slaughtered by his brother Cain, 
and hears a similar cry out of Egypt… 

         Cries coming out of so many nations 
where violence, oppression, and bloodshed abound
—God hears these cries 
and calls and sends people out, to bring the people in. 
         God calls—accompanies, every individual out doing right
—even when the cost is great.

 

         God who sees… 
who saw Hagar abandoned in the wilderness
—who sees the Egyptians pile misery upon misery.

         Imagine if we believed, in our bones, that God sees.

         I say this, not to pick up that gross trope so many preachers employ, 
“God sees you,” 
and really the preacher is acting like voyeur 
imaging the secret sins of his parish.
—God as a creepy Santa Claus.

         No. Imagine! 
God sees you in those terror inducing moments 
when fight and flight explode in your brain. 
When you’re lost and forgotten. 
When you are in the arena and crushed, and can go no more... 
God sees you, and knows you, and loves you.

 

         God—The God who was, is, and will be, faithful. 
Faithful to Moses’ ancestor, even the ones he does not know
—even the unremembered ones, are remembered by God.
         Faithful too, to those yet to come
—perhaps even to we so lately born, so geographically and culturally different.

 

         God promises to Moses and his people, “I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land.”

Amen.