Loving God, you reveal yourself as faithful and compassionate – always hearing the cries of your people.  Lead us into freedom just as you led Moses, and fill us with the power of your Spirit, that others, too, might know your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            Truthfully, I think most people totally get Moses.  He comes across a burning bush in the wilderness, finds out that this is how God has chosen to show up, and is given a mission.  God is going to send Moses to Pharaoh in Egypt in order to bring out the Israelites who are suffering there as slaves.  How many of you, in Moses’ place, would have put up your hand and said, “Here I am.  Send me!”?... [assumption – nobody would want to go]  So why would you not want to be sent on this mission?... [afraid; too much responsibility; who am I?; not qualified?]

         Moses, for his part, objects at least eight different times to God’s mission for him.  “Who am I that I should go…” (Ex. 3:11)?  What if they ask me your name (Ex. 3:13)?  “Suppose they do not believe me or listen to me” (Ex. 4:1).  But I’m not a very good speaker (Ex. 4:10)!  “O my Lord, please send someone else” (Ex. 4:13)!  And then, You’ve sent me to Pharaoh and things have only gotten worse for the people (Ex. 5:22-23)!  “The Israelites have not listened to me; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am” (Ex. 6:12)?  And finally, along the same lines, “Since I am a poor speaker, why would Pharaoh listen to me” (Ex. 6:30)?  Moses perhaps could have added that he was too old for such a thing, as we learn that he was 80 years old when he first spoke to Pharaoh (Ex. 7:7).

         The amazing thing, in the midst of all of these objections, is that God actually has an ongoing conversation with Moses.  With each objection, God answers, and it is only after the fifth objection that God seems to get angry.  That’s the one where Moses asks God to please send somebody else.  In fact, all things considered, God exhibits incredible patience in this whole conversation with Moses that continues even after Moses has gone to Egypt and has spoken to Pharaoh.  You see, what Moses doesn’t seem to know at the outset, and what he seems to forget at various points along the way, is that God will provide him with everything that he needs in order to be able to carry out this mission.

         God sends his brother Aaron with him to be his mouthpiece and his prophet, and to speak when Moses cannot.  God gives Moses and Aaron the power to do a few miracles in order to convince Pharaoh and the Israelites that God has sent them.  God promises to be with Moses every step of the way, and God also reveals the divine name to Moses – something that is an amazing act of self-revelation.

         Thus, there are a number of things that we find out about God through this Exodus story.  God’s name that is revealed is rooted in the verb “to be” and can be translated as “I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE” or “I WILL BE WHO I AM”.  God, the Great “I Am,” is a verb and is totally other.  God simply is.  At the same time, this God who could simply use some other means to set the Israelites free, chooses to work through human beings like Moses and Aaron.  God keeps the covenants that God makes, as we heard just last week how God promised Jacob to bring him and his descendants back to the land of Canaan.  And finally, we learn that God has a heart for those who are oppressed and enslaved.

         This same God, who acted through Moses in order to set the Israelites free, has acted through Jesus in order to set us free.  So do you feel as though you are free?  Free to be the person God has created you to be?  Free to love instead of spending your life curved in on yourself?  Free to be in a life-giving relationship with God?  Free from all of the false gods that promise great things and never deliver?  Free from the fear of judgment and death?  Forgiven, healed and restored?  This is the kind of freedom that Jesus brings, for he is the same one who saw proclaiming release to the captives as an essential part of his mission (cf. Lk. 4:18).  All those who encountered Jesus then and all those who encounter Jesus now experience this release and freedom – as did Moses!

         Moses had been separated from his own people and feared retribution from when he had murdered an Egyptian.  Surely part of his call to lead the people out of Egypt included God’s forgiveness, as well as God’s power at work to reunite Moses with his people.  These things, plus Moses’ obvious lack of confidence in his own ability to speak, all needed God’s healing and release before Moses could lead others to freedom.

         For us, too, God leads us into freedom before God calls us to lead others.  For there are still so many who live in captivity – held captive by addictions; literal captivity as slaves; held in bondage by the opinions of others; stuck in abusive relationships; stuck in poverty with no way out; held unjustly in prisons around the world; even trying to earn conditional love from important people in their lives – these things and more continue to enslave people.

         Another thing that continues is God’s practice of working through human beings, just like you and me and Moses.  And, just as God did with Moses, God provides all that is needed when we are heeding God’s call.  Be attentive, then, to the situations that God puts right in front of you – especially the ones where you can help lead people to freedom.  For God not only frees the chosen people, but all those who live out their faith in Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 17 (NL 4)                                                                        Exodus 2:23-25; 3:10-15; 4:10-17

October 1, 2017

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2017 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved