Let us pray:
Divine Mystery, blessed be you in all your forms! Open our thoughts and our hearts, and widen our imaginations, that we may glimpse you in our hidden places. Amen.

An Episcopal priest and author, Barbara Brown Taylor, in reflecting on her journey to becoming a priest, once remarked, “If I claim one guiding principle for my life, it is to say yes to unusual propositions and see what happens.”

Moses must have felt much the same when he said yes to a quite unusual proposition in the scripture we heard today. (We know it was stressful, because Moses was a basket case…) God had an important task for him to accomplish and, although Moses questioned God’s selection of him, Moses agreed to do it.

How many of us have found ourselves in the midst of making sudden, risky decisions in our past, agreeing to something yet not knowing what the outcome would be? At the risk of seeming to compare myself with Moses, I recall when I was confronted with a situation that would take my life on a radically different course. It happened when I was asked to come to work for this church, 20 years ago. I said “Why me?”—as Moses did—and my “yes” that followed led to a change in my life that I could never have predicted before that time. It began a journey into new directions, for me and for this church. I now consider my response an important part of God’s calling me to ministry, and, in looking back, I can see God’s hand in leading—although I had questions at the onset. I, too, believed I was an unlikely candidate for the work that was laid out before me.

Beth, our church’s young candidate for the chaplaincy, shared the story of her life last Wednesday night in this hall, in the “Have You Heard My Story?” series. I’m sorry everyone here didn’t get to hear Beth. She has had some challenging experiences in her young years, which she readily relayed in her program. She told how, after a period of doubts, fears, and even great anger at God, to the point of even believing he did not exist, she heard God’s command of “Feed my sheep,” in the midst of a communion service. That became God’s call to ministry for Beth. It was a dramatic change in her personal life that has caused her to re-prioritize her future plans.

A closer examination of Moses’ story reveals great significance for all of us as God’s people. It’s interesting that the “burning bush” incident that happens just before God calls Moses to lead his people seems to get an inordinate emphasis much of the time, and it is a fascinating story, full of God’s wonder and mystery, but perhaps it’s primarily an attention getting device that God used to get Moses to actually listen. You see it’s incidental, really, to the larger message of God enticing Moses to lead his people out of their oppression in Egypt to the Promised Land! God gives this strong, persuasive message of love and care for Israel, as God asks Moses to take this heavy leadership role that is needed. God knows the gift that Moses has and asks Moses to use it to save God’s people. God further promises the sign that Moses will worship God on that mountain after he has completed his leadership function. Another sign; is this a miracle we are in the middle of?

C.S. Lewis once observed that “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Hmmm… That’s the story we don’t want to miss, friends—the big story, the larger unfolding drama, of which Moses is a player. The miracles are always a blessing, but we are getting a look at the really big picture. It’s really the ultimate miracle.

That miracle—the ultimate big picture—is that our God cares about us so deeply as a people! God cared immensely about the enslavement and suffering—the oppression--of Israel in Egypt, all the ways in which Pharaoh had inflicted suffering on the people, cared enough to call Moses to lead them out, and cared enough about the people to deliver them from that Egyptian bondage. God cares enough about Moses to give him signs of affirmation, as Moses leads the people to the land of Canaan.

You see, long before the time of Moses, God had promised the land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham, for, as God had called Moses, God had called Abraham, too! This was part of our Genesis story last week of which George spoke. As God was and is working throughout creation, he was and is always striving to bless God’s people. When our scripture refers to Israel, it does not mean simply the country, but it refers to the people of the covenant, wherever they may be. God’s creative and sustaining power is always acting through people, on behalf of people. It’s the original blessing that is evident throughout the Old and New Testament, the message that God is involved in our lives and in all of our history, co-creating with us to fulfill God’s purposes for all of us. We are God’s covenant people.

Soren Kierkegaard has described the Bible as a letter from God with our personal address on it. That’s so true! The Bible is an event of communication. It’s an interactive document. It’s a “what you see is what you get” kind of document, for the wealth of insight and God breath it provides, if we are but ready to fit into the master plan, if we say “yes” instead of “wait….” It’s the meaning of human life as God dwells among us, that can be described as “the Word of God in human word”—which makes it terribly, terribly relevant for all time! This is the whole Bible, and this is the Book of Exodus.

Exodus reveals the development of a special relationship between God and the children of Israel. That relationship is based on a mutual agreement called a covenant, an agreement to which God is eternally faithful. Moses has been called to lead the people, and the God who called Moses does the equipping for God’s service. This is God’s plan and God will follow it through, in all of God’s continually unfolding drama. The people of Israel will reach the Promised Land and God will be with God’s people there, as in every step along the way.

We can see that the unfolding dramas in our own lives and in our church are reflective of that unfolding drama in the book of Exodus that is part of the great biblical story for all God’s people. There is relevance for the questions we have in our lives, remembering Moses had questions, and we can likewise expect to be questioned by what we read in the Bible. Like Moses, we need to pay attention!

Beth shared the message that she received to Feed God’s Sheep. At an extremely difficult time in my life, the final message of several that came to me was “We are all missionaries on this earth.” That sounds a lot like Beth’s message to me, and the message of God to Moses. I believe God has revealed these things to us.

As God has promised Israel the consistency of his ongoing presence, “I will be with you,” is there for us. As was Moses, we may be at times in the desert, at times in the wilderness, but God has promised to lead us out. We only need to trust. Moses was one who deeply trusted, and in the process, the people were healed.

Hebrews 4:7 tells us “Today, if you hear his voice, do not be stubborn.” God reserves the freedom to act in surprising ways. God keeps that initiative.

As many of you know well, if you were a part of this church last year, it becomes easy to once again reflect on Moses as we entered a difficult situation here. Our church was short one and ¼ pastors, including a Senior Pastor (and at that time we only had one) for a four month period. I was simply called to serve, and God once again led God’s people in this church through that difficult journey, a journey that could easily be described as a “wilderness experience”—one at times extremely frustrating, yet certainly not without its rewards. It was and is the mission of this church family to create disciples and fulfill the gospel throughout our church, community and world. It was in believing that, with the togetherness we have in Christ, being led by Christ, that we lived throughout that period. God’s people made it through once again! Of course, now we are in the Promised Land!

How has God called to you? God is forming us as a people, every minute in every way. God has created us for his purposes and he continues to lead us to that new land of promise. That is God’s promise. As Moses responded to God’s call and used the gifts he did not know he had, we, as God’s covenant people of today, must do the same. We must discover and use those gifts that we might become the people God would have us be! It is clearly God’s project, not Moses, not ours.

God is at work in our world, loving, persuading, guiding and blessing. Listen for God, friends, and let God form us into a new people. Please take out your bulletin insert that says “Volunteer! You have a gift to give!” and remember Moses and the gifts he shared. We are a people on the mission field, and, as Moses, we must continue to lead people out of bondage, wherever it may be. We have faith that God will continue to reveal God’s purposes to us, as God has done in the past.

As Easter people, we are on the path that leads to the cross, a path that holds eternal promise for all God’s people. Together we are the people of God, formed in God’s image, and we are headed for Resurrection Day!

Let us pray:

Holy God, center us in the journey toward the Cross. At the sights and sounds of Christ’s journey toward Jerusalem, may we remember that we, too, must find our way to a new understanding of sacrifice for the sake of love for others.

Lead us not into the temptation of excuses, of definitions that keep us distant from your purpose. May we come to know that quiet joy of love, burning deep within us, that calls forth a desire to give ourselves for your world, like Christ did. Forgive us our distractions, heal our wounds, give us courage for this journey, not only to the Cross, but also beyond—to your new life for all peoples.

May it be so. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on March 12, 2006.