LENT 3C - Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 103:1-11; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 - 11 March 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Thrive or Perish

 

INTRODUCTION - Moses

 

Moses, raised in Egypt, ran for his life after killing an Egyptian that he saw beating a Hebrew. He settled in the land of Midian, treated the priest of Midian’s daughters with kindness one day at a well, and the priest, Jethro, ended up giving one of his daughters to Moses to marry. Moses had a child or two with this woman, Zipporah, and settled in to life in Midian as a shepherd, keeping the flock of his father-in-law. This could have been the end of the story. Man finds a wife, a kind father-in-law, a job, has children, and they live happily ever after.

 

Only one day Moses took that flock out a little farther than usual and saw a bush burning, but not consumed. It was not just any bush, because in the Hebrew it is referred to as “the bush”, a hint that the site was known to be a sacred place. The bush was located on Mt. Sinai, known to be the mountain of God. Moses “turned aside” to see what was going on with this burning-but-not-burning bush, and that’s when all the fun began. When Yahweh saw that Moses turned aside, the conversation began. Yahweh identified himself as the “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, and went on to tell Moses that he had heard the cry of his enslaved people in Egypt, and he had come down to deliver them out of Egypt, to bring them to the land of Canaan, the land “flowing with milk and honey”. This was probably all great news to Moses. Up to this point, he was thinking to himself, “Wow! What an amazing day I’m having out here with the sheep. A burning-but-not-burning bush, God talking to me directly, hearing that my people are going to be set free and come home to the Promised Land after 400+ years! What a day!”

 

And then Yahweh added, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

 

Bam! There was an uppercut to the solar plexus. “Hold on there, Lord! I can’t breathe all of a sudden! Did you say something about me going to Pharaoh and bringing all the Jews out of Egypt? That doesn’t fit with my plans - a wife, children, being a shepherd, hanging in Midian where I’ve settled down.”

 

This was a moment of truth for Moses, a huge moment of truth. God was calling him on to something much different than being a shepherd in Midian. He could be a shepherd for the rest of his life. And that was exactly where Moses started. Yahweh must have had the wrong guy.

 

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” This is the “I’m not enough” response.

 

Yahweh had an answer for that question - a profound answer. “I will be with you.” Not only that, when you’ve brought the people out of Egypt, you’re going to come right back by here, and worship me on this mountain.

 

Moses had other hurdles, other questions, other excuses.

 

“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?” This is the “I don’t know enough” response. God even reveals His name to Moses, a new name. “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE”. And he goes on to tell Moses that he knows Pharaoh won’t let the people go “unless compelled by a mighty hand” (Exodus 3:19), and that He’s going to strike Egypt with all his wonders so that Pharaoh will let them go.

 

Moses wasn’t done. “Suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” This is the “what if they think I am out of my mind?” response. Yahweh did the staff thing with Moses (staff to snake and back to staff) and the leprous hand thing.

 

Moses still wasn’t done. He was really thinking that finishing his life in Midian as a shepherd wouldn’t be a bad thing.

 

“O my Lord, I have never been eloquent... but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” This is the “I have a real disability that you might not be aware of” response. This evoked the “Who gives speech to mortals?” response from Yahweh.

 

Finally, Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else!” This is the “please send someone else” response. Or maybe it’s the “I don’t think I can handle this” response.

 

And at this point the Lord got ticked off at Moses, told him his brother Aaron could help him out, and that was the end of the discussion. So Moses went back to Midian, asked permission of Jethro to return to Egypt, and took his wife and his sons, and headed back to Egypt. And you know the rest of the story. Moses never tended the flock of Jethro again.

 

MOSES AND QUESTIONS FOR US

 

The Moses story has all sorts of questions in it for us.

 

First, where is my “shepherd place”? That is, what is my familiar comfort zone that I don’t necessarily want to leave, when God comes calling and says, in effect, “You’re ready for something else. I’ve got something different for you to do now.” Can you identify your “shepherd place”?

 

Second, what are your standard “you must have the wrong person” lines?

 

To review, Moses’ were:

 

Who am I to do this? - The “I’m not enough; I’m inadequate” response

I don’t know enough.

People will think I’m crazy.

I have a serious impediment or disability.

Please send someone else! I don’t think I can handle this.

 

Do you relate to any of these?

 

Do you have any others that are different from Moses’ responses?

 

“I’m too busy to take that on, Lord.”

“How do I know you’ll be with me?”

“What about my family?”

 

TO BE TRANSFORMED...

 

To be transformed spiritually, we have to do some dying. That is one of the clear messages in the Gospel. Jesus says to his listeners in today’s Gospel, “... unless you repent, you will all perish as [these other folks] did.” He says it again for emphasis “... unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

 

To “repent” means a lot more than to be sorry for your sin. It means to turn around, to do a 180 degree turn. And it means “to go beyond the mind you have.” (The Last Week, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, p. 25) To repent, you need to die to some old ways of doing and to some old ways of thinking.

 

What did Moses need to die to, so that his life could be transformed? Well, among other things, he needed to die to thoughts that he wasn’t enough. He needed to die to the idea that he was alone, that things were all up to him, that God was not available to help him in powerful ways. He needed to die to the notion that God wouldn’t call him to anything risky, to the idea that God must be nuts if he put any faith in him. He needed to get past some fears, some fears about going to Pharaoh, and probably some other ones, too.

 

You and I can get settled in some easy, familiar places - in our little comfort zone, if you will. In my experience, there are two things we can say, from a faith perspective, about that comfort zone. One, if we stay in that comfort zone too long, we start to perish. It gets stale, it gets boring, it gets old, we start dying on the vine. That’s because God doesn’t want us to just coast or stay in one place. God wants us to keep growing, to keep being spiritually transformed, to keep learning, to keep taking on the next step of faith.

 

And that’s the second thing we can say about that comfort zone. As I see it, God isn’t really content to leave us in that comfort zone for very long. Because God knows that it is ultimately a stagnant place that leads to stale relationships and death. No - God doesn’t like to leave us in the comfort zone. God calls us ever onward, just as he called Moses. “Moses, I know you can take care of these sheep. You’ve mastered that. I’ve got some other things for you to do now.”

 

God keeps saying to you and to me, as he did to Moses, “Don’t settle. Don’t settle for things that don’t satisfy. The only thing that will satisfy you is an ongoing relationship with Me, where you stay open to growth and change and risking new things for the sake of My kingdom. Things like learning more and more about how to love others, learning more and more about living out of your dreams and passions, learning more and more about how to trust in Me. This is the Way to spiritual transformation, and it involves leaving some things behind, and dying to some old ways. It involves repenting - turning aside from your old ways, and going beyond the mind that you have right now.”

 

SUMMARY

 

So.. How are you like Moses? Where is your shepherd place, your comfort zone? What are your standard lines to God, that tend to hold you back when the Lord comes calling? What do you need to die to, so that you can open up to a whole new life with God? How does your mind and your whole perspective on life need to be changed, so that you can be open to the transforming power of God, and go where God wants you to go?

 

We can thrive or we can settle. And settling leads to death. I AM WHO I AM is with us, the same one who led the enslaved Hebrew people out of Egypt, to the Promised Land. This One, Yahweh, wants us to live, wants to find that Promised Land, and He wants us to help others find it, too.

 

Or, we can just stay in our comfort zone, and wonder why life is the way it is.