Who? Me?
Exodus 3:1-15
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
November 16, 2008

"Moses!  Moses!" comes a voice from a blazing bush that does not burn.

Moses answers, "Yes, here I am."

God says, "Do not come any closer.  Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.  I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 

The Lord then says to Moses, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers, and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a fertile and spacious land... .  I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country."

A blazing bush that does not burn!  A place so sacred that one does not wear one's shoes out of respect for God!  A voice!  A mission impossible!  Weird!  But, Moses takes it at face value. 

Now he starts.  The whining.  The alibis.  The excuses. 

"I am nobody.  How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?  I don't have any pull, God.  You don't want me.  Really, God!"

God patiently explains, "I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain.  That will be the proof that I sent you."

Let's be a little sympathetic with Moses.  He had grown up in the palace of the king.  He was known there, true, so he may have had access to the king.   But, it was also known that he had killed a man.  It had happened so fast.  He saw an Egyptian kill one of his people.  Glancing about and seeing no one, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.  It was simple justice.  It was not fair that the Egyptian could kill a Hebrew, slave or not.  Then, the very next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting and tried to stop them.  One of them snapped, "Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?"  So, there was a witness!  Moses bolted.  He ran out of the country and settled in the isolation of the Sinai desert, an ancient `bad lands'.  There he put together a new life as a shepherd.  He married and had children.  Now, God wants him to return to face the king, simply on the basis that God promises to be with him.

It is crazy.  Moses knows it is crazy.  He protests, "When I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they will ask me, `What is his name?'  So what can I tell them?  What name do you use?"

God replies, “I am.” "I am who I am.  I will be who I will be."  What kind of answer is that?  We might say, “God will be God” or “God Is”.

God continues, "Go and gather the leaders of Israel together and tell them that I, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to you.  I have come to them to lead them from slavery to a rich and fertile land.  I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go.  I will have to force his hand by doing terrible things to him and his nation.  Then, he will let you go."

"But, God, the Israelites won't believe me.  When I tell them that you appeared to me and ordered me to lead them from slavery, they are not going to believe a word that I say.  They are going to say, `Ahhh, he is imagining things.  He is crazy.'"

Is not that the way we react to people who claim that God appeared to them? Do you react defensively to Christians, Muslems and others who come on strong?  I remember when Charlotte and I were closing the church early on Sunday afternoon.  All the worshippers were gone and we were heading for our car.  Into the parking lot came a white van.  The driver got out, opened the side of the van, and a man in a wheelchair lowered his ramp and rolled out.  He wanted to talk with us.  I assumed that he needed financial assistance.  Not so!  He asserted, “God has sent me to make sure that the Gospel is preached here!”   I felt defensive.  He did not know that I was the pastor.  He pursued his agenda.  I thought, “Who is this guy?  How does he come off judging us without even being in our church?”  As I listened, I thought, “This guy is nuts.”  How do you react to religious people who claim that God has spoken to them?

Moses dreads what people would think of him.  Moses is a sensible, reasonable man.  He has his act together.  And, God is threatening to blow it apart.

Moses says, "No, Lord, don't send me.  I don't want to do this.  I am not your man.  I can't talk in public.  I have never been a good speaker (you know that), and I haven't become one since you began to speak to me.  I speak slowly.  I stutter."

Are you getting bored with this?  God is, too.  God snaps, "Who gives a person his mouth?  Who makes him deaf or dumb?  Who gives him sight or makes him blind?  It is I, the Lord.  Now, go!  I will help you to speak, and I will tell you what to say."  In other words, “Who is the boss, you or me?”

That is a question that God asks of you and me.  We call Jesus “Lord”.  What does that mean?  Use another word, a synonym.  I do this exercise in new members’ classes.  We ask new members if they believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord.  What does that mean in every day words?  Try: Boss, Commander-in-Chief, CEO, Head.  To call Jesus “Lord” means that we submit to his authority.  How many of you were in the military?  Hold up your hands.  When you took the oath, you submitted to the authority of the officers all the way up to the Commander-in-Chief.  When we say that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord, we proclaim that we submit to his authority, his teaching, his call to service.

How well do you do with submission?  Most of us resist, rationalize, and find alibis.

Moses pleads, "No, Lord, please send someone else."

Ever stood in Moses' shoes?  He has things that he wants to do.  He has plans for his life.  He doesn't want to get involved.  God might send him out on a limb and somebody will chop off the limb.  It happens.  Are you wearing Moses’ shoes this morning?  God has been talking with you.  Oh, it may not be that you are hearing voices, but you are thinking.  You are wondering.  You are not at ease with your life, and something urges you to do something different -- something with God. 

At this the Lord becomes really angry with Moses and says, "What about your brother Aaron?  I know that he can speak well.  He will speak for you." 

Not all of us, not all the time, are we called to be Moses.  We are called to be Aaron most often.  Aaron playes a key role in God’s plan.  God knows that Moses is not an orator.  He cannot not sway crowds.  But, Aaron can!  So, God calls upon Aaron to do the talking.  Most often God calls us to support others who take the lead.  The support role is important.  It is necessary to have Aarons.  Moses can’t do it by himself.  Are you playing the role of Aaron in some ways? 

Are you Moses in some settings?  I know that some of you are.  Are you Aaron in many settings?  Think for a minute.  Already you probably serve the Lord.  How do you?

Like a wild horse, Moses squirms, kicks and bucks.  He twists and rebells.  But, in the end, God cannot be thrown.  Finally, Moses yields. 

We know how it goes from there.  He leads the Hebrew slaves in an exodus from Egypt to the door of the promised land.  For his risk, how do they reward him?  When food becomes short, they wail against him, "Why did you bring us out here to die?  We had plenty to eat in Egypt as slaves."  When for more than a month, he is gone up the mountain meeting with God and receiving the Ten Commandments, they become anxious.  To reassure themselves, they make a golden calf out of their jewelry and worship it.  Real appreciation!  He organizes them into a government.  He passes on the laws of God which become the basic law of the nation.  Through him, God provides the food until they can care for themselves.  By the time of his death, a new nation exists.  They have the nerve to follow Joshua into the promised land.  They know the story of God's salvation because they had lived it.  He suffers.  But, he also succeeds.

The call of God may lead us to unexpected situations.  Presbyterian boy, John, fell in love with a Catholic girl named Kathleen.  She said that she would not marry him unless he became Catholic.  Her parents insisted that he convert or they would not give their consent.  Things were tense, but Johnny loved Kathleen and agreed to attend instruction and read Catholic literature.  All went well until one day the mother found her daughter in tears.  She was sobbing her heart out.  "It's ...it's Johnny," the girl wailed.  “There isn't going to be a wedding!"  "What happened?" the astonished mother asked. "Doesn't he love you any more?"  "It isn't that," the daughter explained.  "We've oversold him, Mother!  Now he's been called to be a priest!"  When God calls us, and we consecrate our lives to God in response to God's call, we have to trust God to walk with us through whatever.

A few years ago, I visited the pastor of an inner city church in Englewood, New Jersey, a 135 member church, that impressed me.  The community around the church had changed dramatically.  First, it was all white.  Then, African Americans moved into the area.  Then, Hispanics bought the houses, along with many Asians.  The congregation became divided into three groups: white, African American and Hispanic.  They shared a common denominator: all were poor. 

The church building was located on a street leading to the high school.  The pastor noted a number of obviously pregnant girls walking to school.  How prepared were they for motherhood and adulthood?  What did they do with their babies?  If they dropped out of school to care for the new-borns, then they sentenced themselves more firmly to a life of poverty and welfare dependency.  God laid on the heart of the pastor and the congregation to open a nursery for the babies.  The teenaged mothers walked by on the way to high school, but stopped to leave their babies in the church's nursery where they were cared for until the mothers returned after school.  Also, the church provided education and counseling for the mothers.  God called them to ministry, and their ministry blessed many people.  But, it was a burden to finance and staff with volunteers.  Nevertheless, they had the satisfaction of knowing that they served both God and those poor families.

If God lays something on your heart, you will know it.  It may nag at you; it may inspire you.  The voice may not come in the supernatural drama of a blazing bush.  You may hear the voice of a member of this congregation asking you; you may hear the quiet inner voice of God coming through Scripture and newspaper; you may feel agitated to do something. 

Your strength may not be adequate, your skills insufficient, your importance too trivial, but remember:  If the call is from God, God is with you and can do marvelous work through you.  Who was Moses?  As the murderer led his flock up the mountain for better grass in the isolation of the Sinai desert, what had Moses going for him?  But, what God did through him!  He is one of a dozen people who have permanently shaped the lives of billions.  He touches us today.

I invite you to do an exercise.  Do it this week.  Image that Jesus has called you to him.  Do you have the mental picture?  You are face to face with Jesus.  Jesus asks you, “How are you serving me?  Are you serving me as a Moses?  Are you serving me as an Aaron by supporting leaders?  Give me examples of your service in your family, your church, your work, your community.”  In your imagination, respond to Jesus about what you already are and do.  Do not be self-effacing.  Be honest and real.  In what way do you serve the Lord now?  You response may range from avoiding sending nasty text messages to caring for relatives to volunteer activity to encouraging a co-worker to modeling the Christian life for your children and grandchildren to being courteous to customers.  I know that many of you already serve the Lord. 

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