“Who am I” vs. “I am”
Scripture Lesson: Exodus 3: 1-15
Dr. Matthew Brown
Were the selection of a
prophet to lead a people from slavery to freedom to take place today, what
method would God choose in this age of Reality television?
Would we see some copy of The
Apprentice with maybe a little Fear Factor mixed in? A group of highly degreed, artfully coifed,
expensively dressed,
Each week the field of
candidates would be narrowed down through a series of challenges, projects, and
tests. On one occasion, the contestants
would have to present a marketing plan to convince some modern day pharaoh that
he or she should “let my people go.” And
how could you choose a prophet without a food challenge involving what would
eventually become the staples of a prophet’s diet? What strong stomached Moses wannabe would be
able to crunch and munch his or her way through a plate of honey-laced
locusts? Of course, there’d have to be
some contest relating to water displacement - forging a dry path for a tour
group across, say, the Mississippi River, the winner being the one who figures
out that it would be cheaper to just take the bridge.
The climactic episode would
feature the plague project - What new plague could you conjure up? You know what my idea would be: setting up one of those monster stereo
systems outside Pharaoh’s palace and repeatedly playing the soundtrack from Grease.
After twelve weeks of
boardroom drama, eleven ego-bruised losers having endured those humiliating two
words, “You’re fired,” would we tune in to celebrate the victory of the perfect
candidate? Probably not.
If you have survived Survivor,
abided Apprentice, brooked the Bachelor, or stomached the Swan, then you can’t
help but notice that after all the contests, eliminations, arguments, tears,
and triumphs, the winning candidate is nevertheless... flawed.
The bachelor is not rich
after all, the hunk turns out to be profoundly (who’d a guessed it?) vain, the
fairy tale TV engagement is called off, the genius Ivy League MBA gets
flustered in a crisis. In the end, we
are faced with the fact that a superficial smile and rakish good looks cannot
completely mask the human failings we all share.
Whether it’s that quadrennial
glorified reality show known as a presidential election or the sometimes
surrealistic reality show you tune into every morning you enter the lobby of
your place of work, sooner or later we must realize that those who would lead
are no less flawed than those who would follow.
We were surprised by the
revelation in David McCollugh’s latest best-seller that George Washington was a
man of mixed motivations and sometimes questionable judgment and skill. As we read the history books, we discover the
same is true of Jefferson, Roosevelt, Reagan, and any other person who has assumed
or grasped or co-opted the mantle of leadership.
Sometimes the bubble bursts
when we stumble upon the humanity of those who would lead us and we are left
disillusioned and cynical about the future.
But in the context of the biblical faith, being disillusioned can be a
good thing. To lose the illusion of
human accomplishment can mean that we begin to see the true source of power and
hope.
As those who have signed up
for our Disciple Bible Study will discover, the biblical heroes of our
childhood Bible stories, it turns out, were not all that heroic. In fact, in many instances they were far from
heroic. And the reason is always the
same - that we would look to God and not to one another as the source of our
salvation.
This is certainly the case
this morning as we climb a mountain with a fugitive named Moses, who has
climbed this mountain, not in search of God, but in the hope of keeping up with
his father-in-law’s sheep. This whole
sheep-herding thing was still very new to Moses. He had grown up in the luxuriant comfort of
the home of Pharaoh’s daughter. His
understanding of sheep was probably limited to the knowledge that you serve a
leg of lamb with mint jelly.
Have you ever been thrust
into a world that was not your own and immediately felt overwhelmed by the
simplest of tasks? I grew up in an
agricultural community and went to school with a whole bunch of guys sporting
the blue corduroy of the Future Farmers of America, but I grew up in town and
not on the farm. First time I took a job
baling hay, I knew I was in over my head.
“Matt, whyoncha go down to the barn and bring the tractor up here?” “Yes sir... what? The tractor?
...Is that, like, automatic or manual?
You can imagine the old farm hands laughing as I try to throw that first
bail up on the trailer.
It’s a different world. So, I can’t imagine the transition from Pharaoh’s
palace to sheepherding. Talk about being
overwhelmed. Can’t you see Moses up
there on the mountain? “Here
sheep...(whistle)” “Come here
sheep...” Moses may have been praying to
God that day, but it probably didn’t have anything to do with the fate of the
Israelites and everything to do with gettin’ off that mountain in one piece
without losing every one of his new father-in-law’s sheep.
Can’t you hear his
frustration, “It’s not enough I’ve got the FBI of Egypt searchin’ all over for
me and a father-in-law who will kill me if I lose one of these bleating
lambchops, I’ve got to spend my whole day with no one to talk to but these
dirty, nasty, stinkin’ sheep. And what
was it that I just stepped in?”
It was in this setting that
God called out to Moses. It is in this
setting that God set in motion a plan to bring freedom and hope to an enslaved
people who had been crying out in despair.
It is to this person that God gave the charge to act as God’s spokesman
before Pharaoh and the people.
It seems unrealistic that
Moses would be called to this task. At
least it certainly seems that way to Moses.
I mean, listen, he’s never even taken any of those leadership courses
with the fancy titles that so many of you have attended so many times in your
corporate career. It seems a new one
comes out every year - “Who Moved My Cheese,” “Empowered Leadership,” “Primal
Leadership,” “Building the Bridge as You Walk on it,” and let’s not forget all
those “Sevens” books - “Seven Keys/Seven Strategies/Seven Steps to becoming
some obnoxious, self-important big wig”
Moses insists again and again
that God has called a wrong number. In
Ex. 3:11, Moses expresses his unworthiness for such a task. In
The biblical text goes to
great lengths to demonstrate that Moses is unqualified, ill-equipped, unfit,
unlicensed, and incapable, if not incompetent.
But yet, God will not let him go.
It is a point that is of utmost importance throughout the biblical
narrative. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, certainly
Jacob, Rahab, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, Mary Magdelene, Peter, Paul, and
Moses - they are all unqualified, but God qualifies them.
Eugene Peterson puts it
well. He says, “Moses is not a model
placed above us to strive toward but a companion who shows us what it means to
keep our feet on this ground where God works savingly in the people and
circumstances that make up the piece of history that we find ourselves in.”
As Paul so eloquently wrote
in Second Corinthians: “We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God
and not to us.”
God’s not interested in what
you think you can and cannot do. God’s
interested in what God knows he can do through you. How many times in your life have you pulled
out that old worn excuse? “Well, I’m
just not qualified.” “I’d love to, but
I’m just not qualified.” Well, I know
that and God knows that! And you know
what? I’m not qualified either, but here
we are gathered around a cross that is our burning bush. What cross is Christ calling us to pick
up? We are not qualified, but God
qualifies us. “We have this treasure in
earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to
us.”
You know, Moses’ name
probably never came up on the list of any group’s nominating committee, but as
is so often the case, God chooses the ordinary to accomplish the
extraordinary. So listen and look for
what God may be calling you to. For, if
you hang around this place long enough, the tile under your feet may become Holy
Ground and God may just transform your insecurities into His glory.
Amen.
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