I forgot to post my sermon from the last Sunday of August. Here it is. Enjoy! God reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush. He compels him to take on a task he would rather have avoided. Who is Moses, the one God chose to set his people free? Who is this God, who knows his people’s sufferings? The answers to these questions are surprising. Moses was an outlaw, someone whose sense of right and wrong was so overdeveloped that he murdered a taskmaster of the people he knew to be his own. He was a fierce man, the kind that is needed to lead an unruly people. But the God who burns brightly in the desert bush until the image of it scorched the conscience of Moses will do one better. He will upend the system of Pharaoh from top to bottom. He will free a people from slavery. True, this people, once free, will abuse the freedoms they have. They will be given the chance to wisely use the freedoms they are given, or squander them. They squander them. But they are given a chance. And they will be given more chances of having a place on earth they can call their own, where they can do what they think best in their own eyes. The book of Exodus in the Bible is proof that what Americans call life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights of every individual. I have heard my people’s cry, says God, I know their sufferings. He promises them a place they can call their own, and he delivers. Moses is a fierce man, but the God who reveals himself to Moses is fiercer still. God occupies a bush. The bush is blazing, but is not consumed. God will go on to occupy Moses. He will dwell within, and burn ever so brightly, but he will not consume Moses. The fierceness of Moses and the fierceness of God will not cancel each other out. The fierceness of one will reinforce the fierceness of the other. Why all this fierceness in the first place? Shouldn’t life be about “Mary has a little lamb” and teddy-bears? If we ask the question with open eyes, the answer is contained in the question. There is great beauty in the fierceness of an untamed and untamable creature. Moreover, untamed and untamable creatures are needed in this world. The poet William Blake: TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? When the stars threw down their spears, And waterd heaven with their tears, Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee? God made the lion and lamb, and it is the lion of Judah who saves the day. Moses, the lion of Judah of his day, could not be tamed. God cannot be tamed. But the untamable God asked the untamable Moses to do his bidding, and he did. Remove your shoes, says God, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. It is amazing how we have lost a sense of the holy. Did you know that we have objects that radiate holiness right in this building? We do. I was reminded of that a couple of weeks ago when I brought a family of Christian Arabs to church on a weekday, after an afternoon at the Back to School Fair. This family of refugees, sent to Oshkosh by the State Department, comes from the part of Iraq that is being emptied of Christians by ISIS, one of the most brutal organizations of terror the world has ever seen. They loved the peace and quiet of our church. They were overjoyed to see the illuminated stained glass windows, Tiffany style, with the guardian angel in one, and Jesus standing at the door and knocking in the other. They walked right up to the stained glass, kissed their hands and then caressed the stain glass with the hands they kissed. The stained glass angel and the stained glass Jesus, Tiffany style, spoke to them of what is holy and beautiful and true. They treated these icons, as they would call them, with reverence. Remove your shoes, says God, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. How many people have heard the call of God on their lives in this sanctuary? More than you can imagine. Come, I will send you; I will be with you, says God. How many people have heard the call of God on their lives on the highways and byways of life, in a deserted place, like Moses? More than you can imagine. Come, I will send you; I will be with you, says God. Let us pray.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 12:20:01 +0000
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