Transcription
Gracious and loving God, we thank you. We thank you for your light that shines in dark places. We thank you for all that is good in our world and our lives. Lord, as we have heard your word, may it light our path and guide our hearts so we might be able to serve you in all that we do. Gracious God, hear our prayers and lift us up. Guide us and keep us to serve you. In your name we pray, amen.
Today’s Old Testament lesson is an oldie but a goodie. It’s one that when we hear about Sunday school, what is probably gonna be one of the top three lessons taught you have the ark, 10 commandments, and the burning bush. Those are probably your big three for Sunday school lessons. Partially because what do you do with the kids for your craft? You make a burning bush, right? You get the kids and they’re cutting everything out, all the various colors and hues of the fire. But I’ve always found that this story is troublesome. It’s troublesome because there’s this great amazing moment, this spectacular flash, and like when a magician distracts you with a poof of smoke, they’re really hiding the ball behind their back. And what God is doing is we look and we see all of this amazing, all of the burning bush that is burning and is not consumed, and what happens? We look at the bush and we forget what’s said. We forget that Moses is not comfortable with what God is calling him to do. We notice that God is not gonna let Moses wiggle off the hook. No matter what happens, God is going to get what God wants here.
Now, this is the problem, because often enough we get wowed by the table service. We get wowed by the window dressing, by the view, but what’s really before us is an amazing moment that touches all of us. And yes, it does start with the bush that burns and is not consumed, but it’s not the whole story. It’s not the whole message. It all begins with Moses exiled from the land in which he was born and raised, rejected by his own people after he killed an Egyptian for beating an Israelite. His adopted people, the Egyptians, want his life for that murder. And so he’s out hiding out in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness, watching the flock of his father-in-law, and while doing it, he finds a way he wanders near to the mountain of God.
He might not know actually where he is. Remember, his story, he hasn’t been raised in the faith of his ancestors. He’s been raised in the palace of the Pharaoh. Whatever understanding he has of God has been little bits and pieces. His faith is small at this point. His understanding of God, his relationship with God is still in the early moments. And yet, on that mountain of God, something amazing happens. And like I said, it begins with the bush that burns, but is not consumed. It begins with that bush that doesn’t turn to brittle ash as it burns.
Think about that. If you burn a pile of wood that’s three feet by three feet and three feet high, eventually you’ve got a big pile of ash. No matter what you do, it’s going to turn to ash. The idea that something can burn and not be consumed is amazing. And as we see Moses do, he turns aside. It draws his attention, it draws him in. But after that, after that moment where he is drawn in and the voice comes from the bush, what more do we hear about the bush that burns? Nothing. Because the truth is, the bush that burns doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter as much as the conversation that happens.
Think about it. When we talk about Zacchaeus, do we remember the sycamore tree that got him up into the air so that Jesus could see him? Well, if we sing the song, we do, but otherwise we don’t. When we talk about the feeding of the 5,000, we talk about the fish and the loaves, but most of all, we talk about what Jesus did with them. And here, the burning bush is the start of the conversation, the start of the moment. It’s the start of a relationship between God and Moses. Now, God does the things that God does, identifying God’s self, and then God gives Moses his task. And Moses, rightfully so, or maybe not rightfully so, is a little cautious, we’ll say. What is going on with this? Okay, what do you want me to do? You want me to go to Egypt? No, no, no, no, not me. No, not back there. Not back to them. They want me dead, buddy. They want me gone. At every turn, Moses has a reason why he can’t follow. His best, I’m not a great speaker, I can’t speak. And what is God’s answer? Tell you what, Moses, you’re not off the hook. I’ll give you your brother. So you just dragged your brother into this. And then it keeps on going, but it starts here with a power play, because Moses is in this moment where he has nothing. No power, no anything. He is the epitome of a powerless person. He has the voice of God calling to him from outside of the bush, and he is standing on a holy ground. He has no concept of the world in this moment, and so he’s grasping at straws. So what is the straw he pulls on? What’s your name, what’s your name? Who can I say has sent me? Because names had power there. If you knew someone’s name, they were vulnerable, and could be vulnerable to you because you could curse them.
Now, in this moment of absolute vulnerability, Moses is seeking for something that changes the dynamic, changes how things are, and he is trying to do something. And it’s not that dissimilar to when we have our own conversations with God. When we try and talk with God and make deals and bargains, God, I don’t know what’s going on with Jim and Lisa. I don’t know, but can you be there with them? Can you help them? I will, and insert what we’re willing to do to get our friends some assistance, to get some help from God. We bargain with God. We try and say, I will do this for you, Lord, if you can only. How is that any different than what Moses is doing? Trying to grasp at anywhere, any moment that doesn’t say that in the relationship with God, we have absolute zero power. Because God calls us and we listen. As if the bush that burns and is not consumed is not a prime example of our own powerlessness.
Moses has a choice here. He can be awed and obey or seek to reclaim control or run. And he tries to do the second two more than he does the first. And every time God says, no, you’re going. No, you’re going. And if you really look and dig down, his first excuse is the one that proves and shows why God set him on this moment. Because when we look at Moses, he is uniquely built for this moment. Think about where he’s been raised. When he was plucked up out of the Nile, where did he grow up? In the palace of Pharaoh. He has a relationship with the leaders of Egypt. He knows them. He grew up with them. He knows who they are and they know who’s the hard sell. He knows every intricate detail in the palace. You don’t think God picked him and sent him for a reason? God has set this moment in play. Since Moses’ mother placed him in the basket and since Moses was pulled out of the Nile, he has been working towards this purpose. Just like somehow God has us working towards whatever our purpose is. I wasn’t kidding when I looked at the kids and said somehow, someway, God has a plan for every one of you. There’s probably a minister in that group. God help me if it’s one of mine. There’s Sunday school teachers, elders and deacons in this crew of young people. And guess what? If you don’t think God has been preparing them from the time they were little to the time that they serve as elder and deacon and beyond, you’re crazy. Because the reality is, whether you’re as old as Sebi or as young as Bill, God is preparing you for whatever God has planned. And it is beautiful. And yes, we will look at our human frailty. We will look at who we are and what we have done and say, you know what, God, you’ve got it wrong. Let’s look at Moses again. He has been up to this point rejected by his own people because he grew up in the palace. He’s been rejected by the Egyptians to whom he has to go and cut a deal or be the lawyer for the Israelites, the intermediary of God. They want him dead. He has absolutely little relationship with God and yet somehow he is the one that God has called. He is the one who is going to stand before Pharaoh, who he knew way back when, when they were playing whatever Egyptian kids played, when they played together, he knew him. Maybe not in the way that the Ten Commandments movie will have us know that they grew up, but they knew of one another. And God has sent him uniquely built for that moment, uniquely built to free God’s people. And each of us is uniquely built by God for what God is calling us to do and to be. The challenge for all of us is what we do when God calls, what we do when we see the moment of the burning bush for us, when we hear God call that tap, tap, tap that was driving Lexi nuts. Will we get caught up in the flash of the moment talking about the bush that burns and isn’t consumed forever and ever and on? Will we run as fast and as far as we can like Jonah? Will we make excuses like Moses or like others? Will we embrace what God has planned and is planning for us? Trust in how God is equipping us and before the moment answer, here I am Lord, here I am.
Brothers and sisters, may we, when God calls, may we answer and listen. Amen.
Children of God, let us respond to him.