Sermons:
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 Still
Blazing
a sermon based on Exodus 3:1-15
by Rev. Cindy Weber
"Gracious Lord, you who are always whispering to us,
help us to listen" (Avery Brooke).
A while back I read about an Amish man who said, You people are
always talking about trying to "find" yourselves. What we are trying to
do is to lose ourselves.
There are some people who believe that their lives belong to
themselves, and though they may not say that, though they may, in fact,
speak loudly and frequently of an Almighty God, of a Higher Power, of a
Personal Savior, you can tell by watching them, by watching how they
spend their time and their energy and their money, that what they really
deep down believe is that their lives belong to themselves.
There are other people who believe that their lives do not
belong to themselves, and though they might not verbalize that belief
very well, if at all, and though they may seldom speak of God, of
conversion, of commitment, you can tell by watching them, by watching
how they spend their time and their energy and their money, that what
they really believe is that their lives belong to something Greater
than, something Higher than, something Other than themselves.
This morning’s scripture reading is one that grabs hold of our
attention, if for no other reason than that it causes us to question,
along with Moses, to question who we are and what is God’s claim
and call upon us. Walter Bruggemann says that, "The reason that
we hold on to this old story and continue to ponder it is that either we
are people who have had this extraordinary reversal of our life by God,
so that nothing is ever the same again, or we wait for and yearn for
such a moment that will break our life open. We hold this story because
we know that there is more to our life than the ordinariness of life
without the holiness of God."
Because we know the story so well, it’s hard for us to imagine how
absolutely impossible God’s plan must have seemed to Moses. Go back to
this place that you left 40 years ago, and call together the leaders of
a people to whom you barely even belong, tell them that this God who
they barely even remember is going to overthrow the powerful ruler that
oppresses them and makes their lives so miserable that they can’t even
see straight. Then go and tell that ruler to set them free. Then, once
they’re free, create out of them an alternative community, one with
different rules and different allegiances, one that loves and serves me.
One of the best things for us about this story, about this story
where God calls Moses to lead the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt is that Moses didn’t want to do it. Five times he argues with God,
"But God, who am I to do this? But God, they won’t listen to me. But
God, I don’t speak so well. But God..." [continue]
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