Golden Calves

We don't worship idols anymore. We left all those other gods long ago in the past. Or at least, that's what most people think! This sermon suggests otherwise. Maybe... just maybe... we still worship some of them today. What do you think?

“Hi, it’s really nice to meet you!” Meeting new people is always a pleasure. But what do you say after you exchange names? Well, you might start with, “So, do you live around here?” Or you might ask, “What kind of job do you have?” Or you might even ask, “Can I friend you on Facebook?” But I’ll bet that you’d never ask anyone, “What god do you worship?” I imagine that you’d get a blank stare if you asked anyone that question. That’s because most of us, at least, here in this country, worship the same deity. Jew, Christian, and Muslim all worship God (with a capital G). We may understand who God is and how he works differently; but whatever name we give to him, it’s the same god that we’re all worshipping.

But it hasn’t always been that way. In the days when the Israelites left Egypt, there were a whole slew of gods that people worshipped! There were as many gods as there are choices at Frisch’s breakfast buffet. You picked the god who suited your particular needs, and worshiped whichever one you wanted. Baal, for example, was a very popular god. You’ve probably all heard of him. Baal was a fertility god who sent rain to make sure the crops grew. The statues of Baal that have been found in archaeological sites are usually holding a lightning bolt. If you were in the middle of a drought, you might want to sacrifice a few bulls to Baal so that the corn would grow. Or you could worship Anat. She’d be the goddess of choice if you needed somebody whacked upside the head. Anat was really something. She fought like Rambo; and she was so tough that she wore a belt made out of human skulls! If your neighbors were sneaking in and stealing your sheep in the middle of the night, worshipping Anat might well put a stop to it. And if everything else failed, you’d worship El. El was the big kahuna, the chief god who kept all the other gods in line. El was the go-to guy if your sacrifices weren’t working, because he could put in a good word for you with any of the other gods. Even back then, it wasn’t what you knew but who you knew!

But the Israelites were supposed to only worship Moses’ god, Yahweh – the Lord. The story of the golden calf shows that they had a little bit of trouble adjusting to that. After Moses’ god had led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and all the way to Mt. Sinai, that god spoke to the Israelites out of smoke and fire on the mountain. And they were scared to death! They weren’t used to having a god thunder at them like that! So they asked Moses if he would please talk to God in the future. So Moses went up to the top of Mt. Sinai to talk with God and get instructions to give to all the people. When this morning’s story begins (Exodus 32:1-14) Moses had been gone for 40 days; and the Israelites had begun to wonder if he was ever going to come back! Maybe he had displeased his God; and he was lying dead up on the top of Mt. Sinai. Maybe this god was too dangerous to worship. The Israelites started thinking that maybe they should worship a different god. After all, they knew Baal and Anat and El. Moses and this god of his – they didn’t know them very well at all. So the Israelites made a golden calf just in case Moses never came back. And… well, you know the rest.

From our perspective 3,000 years later, the story seems almost unbelievable. God led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and into the wilderness in a pillar of fire and cloud; he provided manna and water from a rock, and they made a golden calf to worship? What in the world were they thinking? We would never do such a thing! We would never worship anyone but our God! That’s what we all think when we read this story. And we believe it. After all, we go to church as often as we can. We try our best to follow the Ten Commandments, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Besides, we don’t worship idols today! I remember back when I was in seminary, one of my professors asked the class to remember the last time that we gave a hellfire and brimstone sermon against worshiping other gods. Of course, none of us had ever preached a sermon like that. It’s just not an issue today… is it? Maybe it is. I think that we do still worship other gods. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t know of anyone who has a statue of Baal sitting on an end table in their living room. But a god doesn’t have to look like a human being or a calf or any other animal. A god is simply something we worship in the hope that it will take care of us. Our god is whatever comes first in our lives. Our god is our highest priority. If we’re honest with ourselves, most of have a god or two tucked away in our back pocket just in case the Lord doesn’t work out. In fact, those gods that were around in the time of the Israelites are still here. They just have different names these days.

Remember El; the god who knew all the other gods and could put in a good word for you if you needed it? He hasn’t gone anywhere. Today, though, his name isn’t “El,” it’s “Status.” His worshippers are concerned about making the right impression with the people they think are important. They need to be acceptable to the movers and shakers; because, after all, it’s not what you know, but who you know. This god even has a brother whose name is “What will people think?”  His worshippers consult with him before they do anything that might be the least bit controversial. “Volunteer at a soup kitchen? Write a letter to the editor protesting cuts in food stamps? Join a demonstration on behalf of the homeless? My goodness, I couldn’t do that! What would people think?”

That fertility god, Baal, is still around, too. These days, though, we don’t ask him for lots of rain to make the corn grow. We ask him to make our dollars multiply so that our wallets are fat! We pray prayers like “Please, make the stock market go up,” or “Could you arrange for me to win the lottery?” Lots of people pray for enough money to buy all the things that they want, when they should be praying for the wisdom to know the difference between their wants and their needs. As long as people believe that having lots of money and owning lots of stuff will save them, Baal is guaranteed to have plenty of worshippers.

But what about Anat, that tough babe with the skulls hanging on her belt? Surely nobody worships her any more? Oh, I think that she has more worshippers than El and Baal put together! In the ancient Middle East, Anat was the goddess of violence and war. Our news today is full of the brutality of ISIS in the Middle East, random shootings around the country, and daily murders in inner city Chicago. The leader of one national group responded to the Sandy Hook school shootings this way: “The only thing that stops a man with a gun is a man with a bigger gun.” For too many people, the only solution to violence is more violence. As long as that’s the case, I’d say that Anat worship is alive and well!

Now, we have no excuse for worshipping other gods. When the Israelites said that they didn’t know the god of Moses, we can’t argue with them. They had seen Moses’ god provide food and water for them; but they had also seen that god destroy the whole Egyptian army in the Red Sea. Was Moses’ god a god of peace or a god of war? They really had no idea. Maybe that god would turn on them one day if they displeased him! Did they really want to worship a god like that? But we can’t make that statement! We know Jesus Christ; and Jesus clearly said, “If you have seen me, you have seen my Father.” When we see Jesus heal lepers and invite them back into the community, we see God including all people in his kingdom of grace, not just the movers and shakers. When we taste the bread and wine of Holy Communion, we remember that Jesus feeds us not with growing corn, but with himself. And when we hear Jesus say, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” we hear God promising us a kingdom of peace where violence has no place, and where all brokenness is healed. We know God; and we know that God loves us unconditionally! If you have a god in your back pocket, you might want to get rid of it. God accepts us as his children, satisfies our deepest needs with his own presence, and invites us into his kingdom of peace. After the death of Moses, Joshua proclaimed, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I hope that you decide to do the same.

God in Our Midst

Where is God? Far off... or right here? And what kind of a God do we worship, anyway? One who threatens us... or one who loves us unconditionally? This sermon might make you think about those two questions.

Some years ago, a number of very distinctive black billboards with large white letters appeared along the highways. Each one was a brief memo signed by God. One of them, for example, said, “That ‘Love your neighbor’ thing? I meant that! Signed, God.” Another said, “Life is short. Eternity isn’t. Signed, God.” But the one that really stuck with me warned, “Don’t make me come down there! Signed, God.” When I read it, I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh.

I wanted to cry because the billboard makes God sound like an angry parent who has heard one too many squabbles from the kids downstairs. I could just see God standing at the top of the stairs, brow furrowed in anger, shaking a disapproving finger at the misbehaving children below. This kind of God is threatening, one who remains far away from us – unless, of course, we don’t behave ourselves! Then God shows up, all full of spit and fire. But that’s not the God that Jesus talks about. The God that I know is loving and joyful! The God that I know would be downstairs playing right along with the kids, laughing with them, and offering a comforting hug when one of them got an ouchie. Yes, I want to cry when people have an image of God as a stern disciplinarian who warns “Don’t make me come down there!”

But that billboard made me want to laugh, too; because whoever designed it didn’t know much about the Christian faith. We Christians believe that God has already come down to us at least three different times! One, of course, was on Christmas, when God was born as a human being in Jesus Christ. Another was on Pentecost, when God came to us as the Holy Spirit to live among us and to fill us with the grace of Jesus Christ. But long before Pentecost and long before Christmas, God came down to be with the Israelites as they journeyed in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

After the Israelites left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they traveled to Sinai, the mountain where Moses had first heard God call to him out of the burning bush. There they saw the glory and power of God in a thick, black cloud and eruptions of fire on the mountain top. There they saw Moses go up on the mountain to receive the Law that would define the Israelites as God’s people. And there God gave Moses instructions for building a Tabernacle, the place where God would live in the midst of the people. Our scripture reading this morning summarized those instructions (Exodus 25:1-9; 40:16-17; 34-38). If you want to read all of them, you’ll have to read 13 whole chapters of the book of Exodus! (The original instructions are in chapters 25-31; and then, just in case you missed them, they are repeated in chapters 35-40.) That Tabernacle was made with the very finest materials, and filled with beautiful colors to remind the people of God’s glory. And when it was finished, God came down from the mountain to live there in the midst of the people that he had chosen for himself.

Now, God could have stayed on Mt. Sinai. God could have given Moses the Law and then said, “Now, you know what you’re supposed to do. Keep your noses clean! Don’t make me come down there!” But God didn’t do that. God came down off that mountain to live in middle of the noise and the confusion and the messiness of the camp. In fact, God gave Moses the instructions for building the Tabernacle even before God gave Moses the Law! God was even more interested in living with his people than he was with telling them how to behave. God couldn’t wait to come down and live in the middle of the people he loved!

And God is still with us today. Oh, we no longer meet God in a big, beautiful tent like the Israelites did. These days, we meet God in all sorts of places. Why, just here in our own country, we meet God in church sanctuaries like this one, in small rooms in rented storefront churches, and in huge auditoriums that hold thousands of people. Other places around the world, people meet God in ornate Russian Orthodox churches topped with gold-leafed onion domes; in medieval cathedrals in France adorned with stone gargoyles; and in thatched-roof huts with dirt floors in Africa. They meet God in Chinese pagodas, in South American fishing boats, and in Middle Eastern refugee camps. They meet God through joyful song and dance, through dignified chant and the fragrance of incense, through speaking in tongues with hands held high, and through sitting silently with hands folded in prayer.

But Christians around the world have one thing in common. All of us meet God here at the Communion Table -- the table of the Lord. All of us gather around this table to remember. We remember that we are God’s people, not because of what we do for God; but because of what God did for us. God loves us so much that God not only came down to live with us during our earthly lives; God gave himself for us so that we might live with him forever! Why, God doesn’t say, “Don’t make me come down there!” On the contrary, God says, “Here I am, right now; and then I’m bringing you back home with me!”

So when we share the bread and the cup in the sacrament of Holy Communion, stop and ponder the mystery in the silence of your hearts. The table is the evidence that God has come to live with his people. The table is the proof of God with us right now. And the table is the foretaste of the banquet that all Christians will one day share at God’s heavenly table.

God is in our midst, and will always be! Thanks be to God!

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

It is tempting to complain when our lives don't go well. In particular, it is tempting to blame God for our troubles. When we do that, we seem to be asking God, "What have you done for me lately?" although we may not say it in so many words. The Israelites did the very same thing when their lives were difficult during their desert wanderings. I started thinking about that during the past week, and I wrote this sermon. What HAS God done for us lately?

It’s just 5 weeks until the next November election. That means we’ll soon be flooded with political ads on the television, on the radio, and in our mailboxes. And every one of those ads will tell us how wonderful a particular political candidate is! That candidate will remind us not only of his or her long record of public service; we will hear in great detail what that candidate has done for us lately. Politicians assume that voters don’t care what they did 5 years ago. No, voters want to know what those candidates have done for us lately. Have they brought new jobs to the area? Have they strengthened our local economy? Do we have more money in our wallets this year than we had last year because of their actions? Before an election, politicians tend to emphasize what they have done over the past several months. That’s why nothing much gets done in Washington – or in Columbus – in the months leading up to an election. No candidate wants to participate in anything controversial right before an election!

I suppose that those politicians are right. People tend to have very short memories. An insult, even an unintentional one, has been known to ruin a friendship that has lasted for twenty years! “What have you done for me lately?” I guess that question is just human nature. The Israelites certainly asked it. Well… they didn’t ask it in so many words. But their actions certainly asked it! They complained constantly that Moses and Aaron had led them out into the desert to die. This morning’s story is only the first of many times that the Israelites complained about their circumstances. They didn’t have enough food… they didn’t have enough water… they didn’t know where they were headed… they didn’t trust the God who was leading them. Whine, whine, whine! And just in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you what God had already done for them. God sent Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand that he let the Israelites go free. God sent a whole slew of plagues against Egypt; and not one affected the Israelites. God protected the Israelites against the final, terrible plague: the death of all the firstborn children of the Egyptians. And when the Egyptian army threatened to destroy the Israelites, God parted the Red Sea and led them through it to safely.

“What have you done for me lately?” Why, just look at all that God had already done for them! Why were they even asking that question? But we ask it ourselves all the time, don’t we? We ask God “What have you done for me lately?” as though God hasn’t done a darned thing for us before today. We forget all the times that God has given us blessings, because we usually take them for granted. Maybe it isn’t a bad idea for us to remind ourselves of what God has done for us all through our lives. Those reminders can bring us back to reality when we are tempted to ask God, “What have you done for me lately?”

To start with, we’re alive! We might not be, you know. There is no compelling reason why we were born in the first place. But for the grace of God, we might well have never been! But we are here on this earth, all of us unique individuals who never existed before our lives began, and who will never again be duplicated. And not only are we on this earth, God has given us the means to enjoy the world around us! How many of us give thanks for our five senses? How many of us even stop to think about our five senses? Our senses are the way that we interact with the world in which we live; and the way that we enjoy it.

·         We can see the beauty of a sunrise, the changing colors in a fall forest, and the delicate structure of a butterfly’s wing.

·         We can hear the hum of cicadas in the late summer, the majestic chords of Beethoven’s ninth symphony, and the purr of a kitten.

·         We can smell the perfume of tea roses, the smoke of a campfire in the fall, and the aroma of bacon frying in a skillet.

·         We can taste the sweetness of a spoonful of honey, the tang of a home-grown tomato, and the salt of our own tears.

·         We can feel the smoothness of a baby’s cheek, the embrace of a dear friend, and the comforting warmth of a kitchen after returning from a twilight walk through the snow.

Just as much as the witness of our senses are the feelings that they evoke in us. How can we gaze on the Grand Canyon without feeling a sense of awe at its grandeur? How can we look at pictures from the Hubble Telescope without a sense of wonder at the mysteries of spiral galaxies and exploding stars and black holes? How can we look at our loved ones without feeling grateful that their lives are entwined with ours? And we can’t forget the gift of laughter and all the things that bring it into our lives – fat puppies rolling on the floor; frisky colts hopping around their mamas, all long legs and short, swishing tails; and toddling babies coming just that close to a giggle-filled wipeout on the carpet.

But perhaps the most precious thing that God has given to us is the gift of relationships: human love and friendship, and God’s own unfailing love for us, made visible in Jesus Christ. We might not see that love, or hear it – but we know that it works its way into every aspect of our lives! The old Irish poem St. Patrick’s Breastplate expresses that mystery beautifully:

“Christ is with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all who love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

What has God done for us lately? Why, God has given us this world and enabled us to enjoy it. God has given us each other in loving relationships. God has given us himself, in the man Jesus Christ and through the eternal presence of the Holy Spirit. And in the end, God has promised to lead us home to that place where we won’t need our physical senses to feel his presence, as well as the presence of our loved ones who have gone on before us and who will welcome us home into glory.

I know that it’s tempting to complain. The Israelites did it. I do it. We all do it, from time to time! This world is a harsh place; and it’s not getting any easier. We may not be on a trek through the desert like the Israelites were, but we’re all on a journey through life; and that journey can be difficult. When we are tempted to complain that life is just too hard, maybe it would be helpful to remember that we are still God’s people, and that God is still guiding us. Even in the wilderness of doubt and fear, God promises his presence in whatever obstacles we might face. As we remember what God has done for us, we can rely on God’s promise of grace, and mercy, and healing, and love. What has God done for us lately? Why, God has given us all the joys of our earthly lives, help in difficulties, and the promise of the fullness of eternal life in the Promised Land! And that, my friends, is not a cause for complaint. It’s a reason for celebration!

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

There are always times in our lives when we feel trapped. We don't want to stay where we are, but we don't know which way to turn. The Israelites experienced that when they stood on the shore of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army on the hills behind them. How in the world could they get out of such a situation? They had no answers -- but God did. This sermon reminds us that God can still get us out of situations like that!

So there were the Israelites, standing on the shore of the Red Sea. They couldn’t go any further; they were blocked by the massive body of water that sat in their way. And there were the Egyptians, positioned on the hills behind them, waiting for the signal to swoop down and massacre the whole bunch of them. Their escape from Egypt that had begun so miraculously and seemed so promising was now threatening to end in disaster. They were, as we might say, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? Sure you have. We all have. I know that I have. You can’t go forward, you can’t go back, and you can’t stay where you are. It’s the kind of situation that puts a “deer in the headlights” look on your face. We want to jump out of the way, but we don’t even know which way to jump. What exactly do we do when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place? Well, there are several answers to that question; and most of them are bad ones. Some people try to go back the way they came. Like a badly beaten army, they sound the call to retreat; and they try to run away to a time that seems to be safer. But we can’t go back, as much as we might want to. The Israelites thought that they wanted to do that – to go back to Egypt – but they didn’t really want to do that. What they wanted to do was to escape Pharaoh’s army, not go back to Egypt as slaves under Pharaoh’s thumb! Other people try to force their way ahead, even if that way has a big “Road Closed” sign hanging over it. That doesn’t work, either. If you try to go through a “Road Closed” sign, you end up running off the road altogether. You might even fall into a big hole where the road has been washed away! No, forcing your way ahead isn’t a good idea, either.  Maybe the worst answer of all is sitting down and giving up. When you’re caught between a rock and a hard place – when you can’t go forward and you can’t go back – sitting down and giving up is a tempting option. If you give up, you get to complain about how unfair life is, and how you aren’t responsible for what happens to you, and how much better other people have it than you do. But in the end, giving up is the one option that is absolutely guaranteed to get you nowhere! You can’t make any progress when you’re sitting on your backside complaining.

So… what are we supposed to do when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place? If we can’t go forward and we can’t go back and we aren’t ready to give up, what option is left to us? Moses had an answer for that, when the Israelites lost all hope and decided that “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” “Don’t be afraid,” Moses told them. “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you; and you need only to be still.” And, of course, God did just that. We all know the story of how the Red Sea divided, right down to its sandy bottom. The Israelites walked across that sand to safety, right between two huge walls of water, one on their right and one on their left. But when the Egyptian army tried to follow them, their chariot wheels were clogged with wet sand, so that their progress was slow. Some of their chariot wheels completely fell off so that they couldn’t make any progress at all. They finally realized that the God of the Israelites was working on their behalf; but by the time that the Egyptians turned back, it was too late. The Red Sea water crashed back into its place in a mighty flood, sweeping the Egyptians away by its power. No one Egyptian escaped; but not one Israelite was harmed. Indeed, God did fight for the Israelites when they had given up all hope.

God still fights for us, you know, even when we have given up all hope. When we are caught between a rock and a hard place – when we can’t go forward, and we can’t go back, and we can’t stay where we are – that is the time when we most need to trust God to show us the way. God can always see a way out, when we can’t see anything but our own problems. God knows things that we don’t know; and God has power that we don’t have. Why, God is able to provide options for us that we never even dreamed of. The Israelites certainly never imagined that God could provide a dry road for them right through the middle of the sea! We can’t imagine what God can do on our behalf, either. But we need to trust that God will do something on our behalf. I have a sign titled “Memo from God” that is posted right above my work desk at home. This is what it says: “I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need any help. If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the box labeled ‘Something for God to Do’, and I will resolve the situation in my own way and in my own time.” Is that a reminder that you need to hear? A lot of people do.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we should sit down and do nothing. But it does mean that when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, we should trust that God will help us to handle the situation. When we can’t go forward, we can’t go backwards, and we can’t stay where we are, God has promised us to show us the way out. My mother used to say that “God never shuts a door without opening a window.” When the door ahead of us is tightly closed, maybe we should pray hard, and then look for a window that’s about to open. We frequently miss that window, because we're so focused on the problems in front of us that we don't see the solution that creeps in behind us and taps us on the shoulder.

That’s what happened to Quentin. Quentin was married to Sharon, who was the love of his life. They had a beautiful family – five wonderful children – and Quentin worked as a high school teacher and coach, a job that he loved. Their lives seemed to be perfect. Then, when their youngest child was only a year old, Sharon was diagnosed with ALS – Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Without any warning, Quentin found himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a progressive degeneration of the nerve cells in the body. It begins with muscle weakness and continues, in the end stages, to complete paralysis. Folks who suffer from it eventually need around-the-clock care, and the equipment required to keep them healthy is very costly. Most of its victims are eventually placed in a nursing home, because to care for them at home is physically and emotionally draining. That’s what Quentin was advised. “Put your wife in a nursing home, because you won’t be able to care for her.” But Sharon was the love of Quentin’s life, and he resolved to keep her at home no matter what. He had promised to care for her in sickness and in health, and by golly, that’s exactly what he intended to do! So Quentin’s life between a rock and a hard place began. He got up every morning before the sun rose to get the children up and dressed and out the door by 7:00 a.m. After a full day of teaching and coaching, he returned home to care for Sharon and the children. He got dinner, did the dishes, helped the children with their homework, gave them their baths, did the laundry, and then collapsed into bed. Every night he would cry himself to sleep and pray for help.

Then one day, Leo, a fellow teacher asked him, “How is Sharon doing? Do you need any help?” “Oh, no,” Quentin replied, “we’re fine.” That night, as Quentin began his daily prayer, he heard God speaking loud and clear. God said something like this. “Who do you think you were talking to this morning? Here you are asking me for help again, and I just sent Leo to give you that help!” When Quentin went to school the next day, he found Leo and told him the truth. He was exhausted and overwhelmed; and things weren’t getting any better. So Leo and his wife gathered a group of volunteers. They cleaned the house, cooked dinner, did laundry, bathed children, and helped with homework. The sicker Sharon got, the more tasks they took over. When Sharon’s condition became so bad that she required specialized medical equipment to keep her alive, they even raised the funds to buy that equipment after the government denied their requests for help. Every year since, they have raised the money to pay for her care, which eventually was more than $70,000 a year.

Sharon survived to see all five children graduate from high school, two graduate from college, and one get married. For more than 20 years, scores of people contributed time and money to keep Sharon alive and in her home – and to keep her family afloat, together, and healthy. Over the years, people have asked Quentin whether he ever prayed for a miracle. He always says the same thing. “I did pray for a miracle; and God sent one. All the wonderful people who answered my call for help – they are my miracle.”

Are you between a rock and a hard place right now? Remember what Moses said: “Don’t be afraid. The Lord will fight for you.” Keep praying… and keep trusting… and be alert. God’s help may not come in the way that you expect it; but God will help. After all, if God can part a sea, lead an entire people to safety, and eliminate a whole army, God can do the same thing for you!

Making a Statement

The story of the first Passover is one of the most important stories of the Old Testament for our Jewish brothers and sisters. I believe that it is equally important for us. Why? Because of the response that it asks of us as the people of God. Read my sermon and see if you agree with me.

If someone asked you, “What is the foundational story in the Old Testament?” what would you say? In other words, what is the story that is the basis for all the others? Is it Moses meeting God in the burning bush? Is it Jacob wrestling with God and receiving the name “Israel” as he travels to face his brother Esau? Is it Abraham responding to God’s call to leave his home and his family in search of a land that is promised to his descendents? Those are all important stories to our Christian faith tradition, and to our Jewish brothers and sisters, as well. But there is another story that, at least in my opinion, is the foundational story for the people of God. It’s the story that you just heard a few minutes ago – the story of the first Passover.

The whole story is rather long. It takes nearly 2 chapters in the book of Exodus to tell all of it (Exodus 11:1 – 12:42). The part that you just heard (Exodus 12:1-14) is the heart of the story: the instructions that God gave to the Hebrews before he sent one final plague on the Egyptians. God told the Hebrews to slaughter a lamb and to smear its blood on the sides and the tops of the doorposts of their houses. The firstborn sons of all the Egyptian families would be killed; but the children of the Hebrews would be spared. The angel of death would “pass over” their homes because the blood would protect them. That’s exactly what happened; and that very night, Pharaoh let the Hebrew slaves go free. If we read a little farther (Exodus 12:30-32), we learn that “…there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Take your flocks and herds… and go!’” The Hebrews left so quickly, in fact, that they didn’t even have time for their bread to rise. That’s why Passover is also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The flat bread – the matzoh – reminds them of how quickly they left Egypt when Pharaoh finally allowed them to go.

It’s a great story, full of drama. HBO could probably make a miniseries out of it; and if they called it Passover Blood they would probably get lots of viewers. But why do I say that it’s the foundational story of our faith? It’s not the first story of God’s grace towards his people; and it’s certainly not the last. Why am I choosing this one story for special recognition? For the answer, let me remind you what has happened to the Hebrews up to this time. When God called to Moses out of the burning bush, the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt. Moses’ job was to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let those slaves go free. You all know how that turned out. Pharaoh was unimpressed, to say the least. In fact, he made the lives of the Hebrews even harder by taking away the straw that they needed to make bricks. So God sent plagues on Egypt – flies and boils and hail and locusts. Darkness settled over the land for three days; and the Egyptian livestock all died. But none of these things happened to the Hebrews! They sailed through all the plagues without even a hair of their heads getting mussed up. Only the Egyptians suffered from Pharaoh’s arrogance.

Now, think about this for a moment. God protected the Hebrews during the first nine plagues.  Why didn’t God automatically protect them during the tenth? Why did the Hebrews need to smear lambs’ blood on their doorposts in order to escape that last plague? Did God suddenly suffer from amnesia and need to be reminded which families were Egyptian and which ones were Hebrew? Maybe the answer is not in God’s ability to distinguish Egyptian from Hebrew, but in the people’s willingness to claim their identity as God’s people. If we start at the first chapter of the Bible and read all the way through Genesis and Exodus up to this story, we’ll find that this is the very first time that God has asked something of an entire people. Oh, Genesis is full of people’s responses to God; but they were all individual responses. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all called by God, but they were called as individuals. Here, in this story of the first Passover, God called a whole group of people. God’s instructions were for the entire Hebrew nation: “If you want to survive the last plague, you have to make a statement. You have to smear lamb’s blood on your doorposts.” That’s a pretty public statement, wouldn’t you say? All the Egyptians who were living on Pyramid Street would see that the house of their Hebrew neighbors had bloody doorposts! You can’t miss something like that. Why, that would be like overlooking a house decorated with Christmas lights that are blinking on and off in time to “The Little Drummer Boy.” When the Hebrews followed God’s orders and smeared that blood all over their doors, it was a public statement for everyone to see that they were claiming their identity as people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “If you want to escape that final plague,” said God, “you have to tell people who you are.”

Sometimes we need to make statements like that, too. We assume that everyone knows that we are Christians; but they don’t, not by a long shot. Sometimes we need to remind them of our own identity. We tell them all kinds of other things. We fly American flags to tell them that we’re proud to be citizens of our country. We put decorative wreaths on our front doors and welcome mats on our porches to tell the neighbors that they’re welcome to come and visit us. We turn on our porch lights on Trick or Treat night to tell the costumed children that we have Halloween treats for them. But what do we do to tell our neighbors that we’re Christians? Our houses usually look the same as all the others in the neighborhood. Now, I’m not saying that we should put a twenty-foot cross in the front yard and put a spotlight on it at night. But would it hurt to set out a manger scene at Christmas time so that Santa Claus and the eight plastic reindeer that dance all the way across the front yard have some company?

I suspect that part of our discomfort at making public statements about our faith is that many of us see our faith as a private affair. We aren’t interested in having other people force their faith on us; and in return, we don’t want to force our faith on them. Going public with our Christianity conjures up images of people who appear at the front door and want to give us Bibles and pamphlets and draw us into all kinds of discussions that, quite frankly, we’d rather not have. Is there a way to make a statement about our faith without being obnoxious about it? Can we claim our identity as God’s people without being Bible thumpers? Sure, we can! It’s as easy as just slipping a few extra comments into our everyday conversations. Imagine that it’s mid-December, and you’re in line at WalMart with several toys that you’ve bought for a family from the angel tree at our church. The clerk who checks you out comments, “It looks like someone is going to have a very Merry Christmas!” You could just smile and say, “Gee, I hope so!” But what might happen if you replied, “Yes, these are for a family that our church is sponsoring. We want to share our joy with them and make sure that their children have gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.” That kind of response isn’t offensive, and it leaves no doubt as to where your faith lies.

Are we ready to claim our identity as Christians? We don’t need to smear lamb’s blood on our doorposts; but God still calls us to make a public statement that we are a part of the people of God. I challenge each one of you to do just that during the coming week! Throw in an extra comment here and there. Explain why you’re doing what you’re doing. Claim your identity as one of God’s people! Who knows; it may turn out to be the most important thing that you say all week.

Drawn Out

The story of baby Moses seems to be long ago and far away when we read it. What could be more foreign than the reeds along the Nile River, and a baby set afloat in a basket? Actually, Moses' story is our story, too; and this sermon may help you to see the connection!

Names are important. They aren’t just labels, stuck on us willy-nilly. No, our names tell us who we are and remind us of the meanings that our lives have! Your own name probably has a meaning attached to it. Is your name the same as a beloved ancestor? (My name is one like that.) Or your name might be the name of someone else who was important to your parents – a close friend, or a mentor. Or it might even point to a bigger truth that was important to your family. Names like Grace, Faith, and Hope connect us not just to each other, but to our God, as well.

Baby Moses had a name that had a special meaning to his mother. The biblical text even tells us what that meaning was. “Moses” (“Moshe” in Hebrew) means “drawn out,” because Moses was “drawn out” of the waters of the Nile River when he was rescued by the Princess of Egypt. That was one of the most important memories that Moses’ mother cherished. Being “drawn out” of the Nile was what saved Moses’ life when he was only three months old and in danger of being killed by one of Pharaoh’s men.

I imagine that Moses’ mother smiled to herself whenever she remembered that day (Exodus 2:1-10). Pharaoh had given orders that all Hebrew baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile River as soon as they were born. When baby Moses was born, his mother could only hide him for three months. And then, she put her baby boy exactly where Pharaoh had told her to put him – into the Nile River! Pharaoh, of course, had meant for the Nile to be the death of that baby; but being put into the Nile was what saved his life in the end. Little Moses was soon floating safely in the river with his sister watching over him, waiting to be rescued by a sympathetic Egyptian woman. That woman turned out to be none other than Pharaoh’s daughter herself. Isn’t the irony wonderful? Moses was “drawn out” of the river by the daughter of the man who had commanded that he be killed.

But the meaning of Moses’ name goes a lot deeper than just the sympathetic rescue of one baby boy. If we read the Hebrew words that are used to tell the story, we catch a glimpse of a larger symbolism to the name “Moses.” What kind of a container did Moses’ mother use to keep him safe while he was floating among the reeds of the river? Why, a basket, of course. We all know that. But the Hebrew word for the container that held little Moses is actually “tevah.” That means “ark,” and the word “tevah” is used in only one other story in the whole Hebrew Bible – the story of Noah! God tells Noah to build a “tevah” – an ark – to save him, his whole family, and all the world’s animals from the flood that was about to come. By building a “tevah,” Noah saved the whole human race from annihilation.

Is the author of this story in Exodus trying to say something like that about Moses? Does the “tevah” that holds baby Moses also preserve someone who will save a whole race? Of course, it does! That baby floating among the reeds of the Nile River in his ark was destined to save the entire Hebrew nation, although they didn’t know it at the time. When that Egyptian princess drew Moses out of the water, she drew out the person God planned to use to rescue all of God’s people! What better name than “Moses” to remember his escape from death by being “drawn out” of the Nile?

But the symbolism of the name “Drawn Out” is even deeper than remembering the rescue of a baby who will save his people. The name “Moses” speaks to the entire human condition of difficulties, despair, and hope. To understand why that is, we first need to investigate how the writers of the Old Testament felt about water.

Water is necessary for life – and no one knew that better than the Old Testament writers who lived in the arid climate of the Middle East. If the winter rains didn’t fall, the crops didn’t grow, and starvation was a real possibility. But too much water… that wasn’t good, either. Too much water brought flooding and disease. In Israelite legend, water was always a little bit dangerous. The Mediterranean Sea was a place of dragons and demons where the chaos monster lived, the monster that only God could control. No, it was never a good idea to go too close to the water, because it was a dangerous place! And so, “water” – the water of rivers and lakes, and especially the water of the sea – became associated with danger. Land was a safe place. It was solid and structured. You can stand on land and feel secure. But not water. Water was the place of chaos.

Let’s apply those insights to the story of Baby Moses who was “drawn out” of the Nile River. If water is a place of danger and chaos, then the picture of Baby Moses floating on the Nile River in his little ark is frightening. Dangers lurked all around him in the river – unexpected waves, big fish, crocodiles. And just like baby Moses, we all live surrounded by threats. Unexpected violence seems to be the norm in our world today, whether it comes from a tornado, an earthquake, or a terrorist group. The little arks in which we travel are sturdy and have been built with hands of love, but they carry us through treacherous waters.  There is always the possibility that our boats will tip over and we will drown in the water on which we float.

But we don’t have to stay there, floating forever at the mercy of the Nile River and threatened by its dangers. We, like Moses, have been “drawn out” – drawn out of the waters of chaos by One who is all too ready to rescue us. Moses may have been drawn out of the Nile River by a Princess of Egypt; but we have been rescued from the waters by the Prince of the Universe itself – Jesus Christ. He is the one who draws us out as we are tossed about on the waters of chaos and are about to sink. Why, we could all claim the name “Moses,” because we have all been “drawn out” of the water by the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ!

And we have something else in common with Moses, the one who was “drawn out” of the river. Moses may have been rescued by a princess, but he wasn’t destined for ease and comfort. No, Moses was destined to save his people – to lead them to the Promised Land through forty years of dust and sweat and work. Just like Moses, God draws us out of the water not for privilege, but for service. God draws us out of the water with the intention of molding us into people who will go bravely to Pharaoh and demand with God’s authority, “Let my people go!” When the chaos of life threatens to overcome us – to tip our little boats and plop us right in the middle of the dangerous river – that’s when we should remember that God will draw us out of the water. And when the chaos of the world around us seems too big and too complicated to ever be able to solve, that’s when we should remember that God is, right now, drawing someone out of the water who will go about doing his work, fighting greed and violence and oppression and evil.

“Moses”: “Drawn out.” My goodness, what a marvelous name! And what a wonderful work that our God does for us, drawing us out of the waters of danger and chaos to stand on solid ground; even while God is drawing others out of the dangerous waters, as well. Yes, indeed, “Moses” is our name, too. And thanks be to God that it is!

 

Resisting Pharaoh

The world these days seems to be full of tyrants, dictators, and terrorists. And thus it has always been. When the book of Exodus begins, the tyrant of the day was Pharaoh, who was so threatened by the Hebrews that he began a program of genocide against them. All newborn Hebrew baby boys were to be killed. But not everyone went along with his murderous program. Two brave women resisted Pharaoh; and brave people all over the world still resist our modern-day Pharaohs. Maybe this sermon will encourage you to join them.

Pharaoh. He’s a bad egg, isn’t he? We know what to do when we hear the name “Pharaoh.” We boo, and we hiss, and we give the “thumbs-down” sign. Of all the characters that we meet in the Bible, Pharaoh is surely one of the most evil. In fact, throughout the biblical text, the title “Pharaoh” becomes a symbol for oppression and misused power.

There are lots of “Pharaohs” in the Bible. The king of Assyria who conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 720 BC and deported all of its inhabitants was one of them. So was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 250 years later. He conquered the southern kingdom of Judah in 587 BC, destroyed the Temple, and burned Jerusalem to the ground. And, of course, in the New Testament, we hear about the evil King Herod. In an effort to get rid of any competition for the title “King of the Jews,” Herod ordered that all the boy babies who lived in Bethlehem were to be killed. We hear about all kinds of Pharaohs in the stories that the Bible tells.

I would be delighted if I could tell you that Pharaoh has disappeared into the mists of the past. But, of course, I can’t. There are still plenty of pharaohs around today. Vladimir Putin of Russia certainly qualifies for that title. Ask any family member of one of the passengers on Malaysia Flight 17 that was shot down over Ukraine by a Russian surface-to-air missile. Was Putin involved? Probably. Another modern pharaoh is the group Boko Haram. Boko Haram is the terrorist organization that abducted over 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria just a few months ago, forcing them to convert to Islam and selling them as brides, since – in their worldview – girls are only fit to marry and bear children. They should never be educated. Over the past 12 years, Boko Haram has been blamed for over 10,000 abductions and deaths in the African countries of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Niger. And, of course, we can’t forget ISIS, the army of Islamic fundamentalists who formerly called themselves “Al-Qaeda in Iraq.” They were actually expelled from Al-Qaeda because of their brutality! Their goal is to exterminate all non-Muslims and to establish an Islamic state extending across Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; and they have gained control of a significant amount of territory in the Middle East over the past few months. Oh, yes, Pharaoh is still alive and well, even though he may be called by other names these days.

But although Pharaoh strikes terror into the hearts of most of us, there are always a few who are willing to resist him. These brave souls refuse to be a part of persecution and oppression. In this morning’s story (Exodus 1:1-22), those resisters were two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah. You can always tell when someone in a biblical story is important, because the most important people have names. These two don’t look especially important. After all, they are women, and women weren’t considered to be important at all. But these women are the most important people in this story; because they’re the only two who are willing to resist Pharaoh’s persecution of the enslaved Hebrews. “Kill all the baby boys!” commands Pharaoh; and these two brave midwives ignore his order completely. When Pharaoh calls them on the carpet for their actions, they lie through their teeth without even missing a beat. “Why, those Hebrew women are so healthy,” they say, “that we can’t even get there in time to help with the births! They whisk those babies away and we never even get to see them!” And Pharaoh buys it, hook, line, and sinker. Their actions set the stage for the birth of a special Hebrew baby who is hidden in the bulrushes of the Nile by his mother, and rescued by no less than the Princess of Egypt herself. But that’s next week’s story. Today, Pharaoh still has center stage.

And the Pharaohs of the world think that they always have the center stage. No one would dare to resist them, because they have all the power; and they can do whatever they want. Right? That’s what Vladimir Putin thinks, even in the face of economic sanctions from the West – that he can do whatever he wants. That’s what Boko Haram thinks. As recently as yesterday, the group killed or abducted all the men and boys in a fishing village on the shores of Lake Chad in northwest Nigeria. A witness described the scene: “They were shouting ‘Where is your pride? You people used to be warriors. Today you are all just women, not as brave as we thought.’” And that’s most certainly what ISIS thinks! After all, who is going to resist them? The Iraqi army is in a shambles; and the minority groups in Iraq aren’t armed. All those poor people can do is run away and hide before the ISIS butchers catch them.

But there are still those who resist, people who speak out against Pharaoh’s terrible oppression and persecution. The United Nations Security Council, for example, adopted a resolution just two days ago stating that it “deplores and condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist acts of ISIS, its violent extremist ideology, and its continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law.” They added that those who finance, recruit or supply weapons to the insurgents might be formally sanctioned in the future. Our own United Church of Christ and its global partners have been providing food, water, trauma counseling, health kits, and cash assistance to refugees in the area that has been overrun by ISIS. Our mission funds also support Global Ministries’ closest partner in the region, the Presbyterian Church of Iraq. (You may be surprised to learn that the Presbyterian Church of Iraq was founded by one of the UCC’s predecessor churches, the Evangelical & Reformed Church.) And lest you mistakenly believe that all Muslims agree with the actions of ISIS, I found this post on the Facebook page belonging to the group Muslims for Progressive Values: “ISIS is the supposedly ‘Islamic State.’ We prefer to call them ‘International Scum.’ They have told Christians in Iraq to convert, leave, or die. We stand in solidarity with the Iraqi Christians.” I responded to that post, thanking the person who posted it for their compassion to Christians in the Middle East; and I received this reply: “I am a Syrian Muslim, and the majority of my friends have either posted this or made it their profile photo as part of the campaign that is called ‘We are all Christians.’ What ISIS is doing is horrifying beyond expression. We feel helpless, and Facebook campaigns are the least we can do in the face of this monstrosity. I wish I could do more. I pray for peace, and I believe all people who truly know God’s love do the same, regardless of their religion.”

Can Pharaoh really do whatever he wants? Perhaps. It certainly looks that way at first glance. The Pharaohs of the world run roughshod over anyone who stands in their way. But I am very sure that right now, in all kinds of places all around the world, in Russia and in Africa and in the Middle East, there are thousands of Shiphrahs and Puahs quietly opposing them – common people, ordinary folks who simply will not stand by and tolerate persecution and oppression. Jesus talked about this kind of situation once. He said that God’s kingdom of peace and love grows from beginnings as tiny as a mustard seed. Do you remember that parable? Jesus told us that a mustard seed is so little and looks so useless that some people throw it out with the trash! But when it takes root, it grows until it is so big that it shelters birds in its branches and animals in its shade. From tiny beginnings emerge astonishing outcomes!

So don’t be discouraged by Pharaoh and by his evil. In the end, he will be defeated, brought down by his own greed and arrogance. Don’t be discouraged, because God has always been on the side of the persecuted and the oppressed, and that’s where God is today! Don’t be discouraged, because into the life of every Pharaoh will eventually come a Moses, someone who is called by God to lead the people out of the shadows of captivity into the light of freedom. What does the spiritual say? “Oh, let us all from bondage flee, and let us all in Christ be free.” Let my people go, Pharaoh! You won’t win in the end! Thank God that it is so.