Sermon - November 11, 2012

Exodus  14: 4, 6-7, 15-20 NRSV

⁴I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so. ⁶So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him; ⁷he took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. ¹⁵Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. ¹⁶But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. ¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.” ¹⁹The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. ²⁰It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.. 

Today we gather together.  Many of us have heard the story of the Exodus.  It is something that has been within our imaginations thanks to movies, we have even been given an understanding of what the society and culture of the time looked like.  Such movies many of you have seen: The Ten Commandments or more recently, The Prince of Egypt.  These movies allow us to understand even more fully using an artistic understanding of the story so that we can wrestle with what this story and message truly means for humanity.  That God is not up there but is right there with you. God hears your prayers, loves you and will bring you to places that you do not want to go but that you need to go to. 

Moses was a man just like anyone of us.  A person who runs away from his problems.  When bad things happen, we want to run.  We want to go and find a safe place.  Enjoy it all, where they do not know our past, where we can find what it is we are searching for, happiness.  However, God enters into our lives and says, “I have a task for you”.  One in which you will help those who have been crying out to me for help.  Those who are struggling in this world and those who need to go to a new place.  In order to do that, you will need to leave this place and go to help thousands. 

Yet even with that, excuses seem to come so easily.  I won’t know what to say.  They won’t want to hear this.  It doesn’t make sense. Or the other one, I just plain don’t want to.  But as God clearly says,” I didn’t ask, you are going.”  When you get there, you shall demonstrate to the Egyptians and the Hebrew people my power, my authority, and they will understand.  You shall be my instrument that I use.  Moses performs the miracles that God wants him.  Now even scientists today have said.  “Oh we have that figured out.  How it was that each one of those miracles happen.”  Yet talking to those people, does it matter?  Does it matter how it happen or that it actually happened.  That we were able to believe and see.  Great, we know how.  Let’s read the Bible to understand why. God loves us and hears our cries.  The growing pains as we learn who we are and must grow up to accept the reality and life that has been given to you.  You see sometimes within our lives, we ask the wrong questions.  We focus on other things and they become where all our attention is but it misses the point. 

Within all of these displays of power, the Egyptians, the people who were part of the creation were suffering and dying. They were being shown that their gods could not save them but that God was the source of true power and life.  Yet it was time for them to no longer hold on to the slaves that were making them prosper, the chosen people of God who had been blessing them.  For them to actually realize that God was doing the providing and not their gods.  For their gods listen to the one true God.

As the story unfolds, and our hopes and dreams are realized.  That we are set free, to be the people of God, we cry out.  But we don’t have what we used to have.  We don’t have the food, we don’t have the protection, we don’t have guidance.  God continues to demonstrate his power within the world among us.  By actually protecting the Hebrew people against the Egyptians with a pillar of fire.  They wanted guidance.  God opens the sea so that they can walk on dry land.  Once on the other side, God provides them with Manna.  God continues to do the work for them.  They are asked to follow, to have faith and receive.

You can run away to other places.  God has the place where you are suppose to go.  You can focus on other things but God has the one thing that you have been searching for your entire life.  You can even turn to other things within your life.  However, all those things God has created, sustains and answers to God, including you.

So for those who have had your burning bush moment, great, continue the work you are called to do.  For those who are searching for it.  Come and talk and I will help you see it.  I will remind you of the work that was done for you.  That Jesus Christ came lived among us.  Called us from our everyday life and into the life that God has prepared for each and everyone of you.  When did he do that? Within your Baptism! There you were united with God, not because you wanted to but God claimed you as God’s very own so that you could live the way God wanted you to live.  To do the work that God wanted you to do.  God will go with you during work to guide your feet, your words and even protect you from all that harms you.  Though it is not easy work.  God leads us to places that we are needed.  For those of you still fearing, still fearing God, the work and even death.  Remember, God has died on the cross, and rose to victory over it.  Called us to gather, to know who he is and what he has done for us.