Transcription
Good morning. This morning, we’ll be reading from Exodus chapter 32, verses 1 through 14. I’m reading from a different Bible than the new Bible.
When the people saw that Moses was long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, come, make us gods who will go before us. As for the fellow Moses, he brought you up from Egypt. We don’t know what has happened to him. Aaron answered, take off your gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what was handed him and made it into an idle cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up from out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, tomorrow will be the festival to the Lord. So the next day, the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward, they sat down and ate and drank and got up to indulge in revelry. When the Lord saw Moses, go down because your people, whom you have brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idle cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and the people are stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make into you a great nation. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord of God. Oh Lord, why should your people anger burnt against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that you brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth? Turn from your force anger, relent, and do not bring disaster to the people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all the land I promised them. It will be their inheritance forever. Then the Lord relented and did not bring to his people the disaster that he had threatened.
And our New Testament lesson from the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter four, verses one through nine.
Hear God’s word. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Judea, and I urge Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellent, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Gracious and mighty God, we thank you. We thank you for your word that lights our path and guides our hearts, which shows us the path of servanthood which shows us how we are to live into your calling in our world and in our lives. Gracious God, hear these, our prayers. Amen.
What in the world are you doing? This is always the phrase that rolls through my head when I read this scripture from Exodus. As I listen and look at the people of Israel finding a way to go astray, all I can do is say, but what in the world are you doing? When you look at the list of all that God has done for the people of Israel up to this point, it’s not a small list of things. And then you could even go back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the ways God has walked with the patriarchs, and all you can say is, how did you manage to get here, guys? And that’s the thing, is where do you start with the people of Israel walking away? Do you start with the 10 plagues, the sending of Moses, the leading to this moment? Do you look at the shorter term of what is more immediate? Do you think about all that time when Moses had yet come? What about how Joseph had had God with him that entire time? Is it through the plagues, the water turning to blood, the frogs, the locusts, the killing of the firstborn? Was it up to the point of the Red Sea where the Israelites stand and fear death only to have God parted for them, and then closed the door after they have crossed? The fact of the matter is you can look all throughout Scripture and see all the ways that God has been with them through the wilderness, through their journey from Egypt.
And you almost have to abbreviate all of the ways that they have walked with God. And yet, that gets us right to this moment where all of a sudden, Moses gets the call from God, I’ve got a message for my people, come up to the mountain. And he’s up on the mountain, and he’s up there for a little while.
Now, the standard is for 40 days, but 40 days could also be an undetermined amount of time in Scripture. And then we have his brother who’s left in charge. Now, so that we don’t go Aaron bashing, it’s hard not to in this Scripture. It’s hard not to look at Aaron and just say, what are you doing? Show some spine, show some strength in God. Say no to the people’s request, Aaron. But the reality is Aaron shows for us the ease with which he falls down the same path that the Israelites have fallen. It’s so easy that when they come pushing and pushing, build us a God, Aaron, build us a God. It’s very easy for Aaron to succumb and give in. The pressure of all those people asking, demanding even. And here is Aaron, temporarily in charge and maybe a little in over his head. He doesn’t argue, he doesn’t push back, he doesn’t stand firm, he gives in. He asks for their gold.
Now, some scholars will say he asks for the most expensive item that the people could have. But does he really? All he asks are the gold from ears and noses of the people. And then he builds this. Now, some might say it’s a tangible representation of God. It’s a stand in. But again, we are simply by doing that, excusing the behavior. We’re excusing the drawing away from God that exists here. But here’s where you get a little more concrete. When Aaron pronounces to the people of Israel, Israel, here are your, he doesn’t say God. He says, here are your gods. In his words, he gives away what he has done. He gives away.
And then up on the mountain, what is happening? God sees all, sees all and God is not happy. Now, this is not the last time that God’s people will walk away or fall away. God’s words throughout the length and breadth of scripture talk about the people going astray, of people worshiping idols. God’s words alone call them the work of craftsmen. Moses calls them man-made. Jeremiah is a bit harsher and says, they are both stupid and foolish. The instructions given by idols is no better than wood. It is just a thing that they are praying to. Just something made by Aaron out of gold.
And yet, and yet they worship. And yet they go astray. In that moment, they forget all that time spent in the wilderness. All those times that God has nurtured and nourished them along the way. They forget the 10 plagues, the moment at the shore of the Red Sea. They forget the water given them in the desert. They even, even forget the manna and quail that God has given them throughout their journey. No matter what God has done for them, no matter how God has nourished and nurtured them, they want something. They can’t stand to live in that unknowing space, that little space.
Now I had this idea that a mentor of mine once put forward about how it took 10 plagues to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took almost 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites. The Israelites have walked and seen all of these other things. They have engrafted their faith with other faiths. They don’t know what it means to stick with God, to understand God. They are in this moment and this place of learning how to be good servants of God, and yet, in this moment, they fell away. But they’re not the only ones who followed a golden calf, are they? Golden calves still exist in our world and in our lives.
No, we don’t necessarily pressure Aaron like the Israelites did, but we do prioritize things more than God. I think my key moment of this was back when I was serving 2nd Pekin in Illinois, and the Cubs were playing at 11.30, the Bears were playing at 12, and Eddie Prill came up to me. Reverend Bill, just so you know, the Bears play at noon, the Cubs play at 11.30. Make it short on the sermon. And I said, well, Eddie, I’m not usually very long-winded, and he said, even shorter. I don’t want to have to worry about catching the opening pitch. Now, I love Eddie, but I think Eddie didn’t quite get that God was more important than the Bears. And by the way, it pains me to acknowledge that. God is more important than the Cubs, the Giants, and all of our sports fandom. God is more demanding of our best, our loyalty.
But that’s not the only golden calves we have in our world. Stuff, Liam held up his cash, his dosh. Do we worship money and the things of this world as well more than we worship God? Do we owe our allegiances to politics and political parties more than we owe them to God? Yes, yes, yes. The answer is yes. You show me something in this world, and I will probably be able to show you how someone, at some point, is going to worship that. That’s the challenge. We find ways to go astray. We find ways to worship other things. And this constant conversation for us needs to be, how are we prioritizing other things over God? How are we worshiping a golden calf in whatever form that golden calf exists for our world? The reality is every one of us has crossed a golden calf. Every one of us has had one at some point in our lives. At some point, we have worshiped something else. And the challenge for all of us is to acknowledge that and push it further away, to push away our golden calves. Maybe we need to smash them, like Moses comes down and does. But the other thing is to remember and give the power and glory to the one thing, the one being that actually does things. As scripture says, when you pray to an idol of wood, you’re praying to a lump of wood. It can do nothing. But when you pray to God, when you give glory to God, you are praying to and giving glory to the one who nurtures you every minute of every day. The one who led the Israelites out of the wilderness is the one who is with us always.
And so brothers and sisters, may we be cautious of those things that we elevate in our lives that aren’t God, that we turn into little gods. And most of all, may we focus our attention and glory towards the one and only God who nurtured the Israelites through the wilderness, who brought them out of Egypt through the 10 plagues and every minute of every moment looked after them and looks after us as well. Children of God, may we tear down our golden calves and lift up our God, amen.