October 1, 2017
We are now switching gears in our thematic preaching
schedule. In September we explored
the theme of hospitality and what it means for our individual lives as well as
our communal life together as a church.
Because it was the first time to really explore a subject for four weeks
I hope that you were able to sort of ‘sink your teeth’ in to the theme of
hospitality as I was able to.
Today we are moving on to the theme of vocation and we will
stick with this for five weeks in October. So put your vocation thinking caps on. Vocation is not just what you do for
work day in and day out with all of the drudgery of an Archie Bunker scene in
‘All in the Family’. It is a summons or a strong inclination to a particular
state or course of action, something that really excites you beyond your
wildest imagination. It is
spending your days doing some that particularly speaks to your heart and soul,
something for which you have been given special gifts and something that you
can never imagine yourself quitting.
It’s something you wanted to do ‘all your life’.
Choosing ones vocation begins often early in life. It’s probably when well meaning parents
ask their children, so what do you want to be when you grow up? I asked my oldest son – now 36
beautiful years old – when he was around 9 or 10 that very question. So John, what do you want to be when
you grow up? His reply, “I want to
be a doctor or a doctor on TV”.
Realistically, medicine was never a thought in his head, he’s just not
wired that way. But I could have
envisioned him as a doctor on TV.
He’s bright, he’s funny, he’s engaging, he would have made a good
doctor…..on TV. But that
wasn’t his path. He works at
Sikorsky Aircraft today.
What do you wan to do when you grow up? Questions are important! They make you
think, they bring clarity, they endeavor to help make profound meaning in life,
they help you determine where you are and where you are going, they are
critical to developing relationships.
In our scripture today Moses asks a lot of questions as his
relationship with YHWY deepens. It is the old familiar story of the burning
bush. Remember he grew up in the
house of Pharaoh, as an Egyptian, not a Hebrew even though that is his
biological lineage. But he never
forgot his roots.
One day he goes out and sees the forced labor of his people
the Hebrews and he is not happy.
Finally he’s beginning to live into his born identity. He sees an Egyptian beat one of his
people and he, in turn, murders the Egyptian. But he was found out by one of his own and he flees for fear
of his life, he flees from Egypt, from the forced labor camps of the Hebrews,
and from Pharaoh and he finds himself in Midian.
It’s here that he meets his future wife Zipporah and they
begin to have children. The
Israelites continue their agony in Egypt until the king died and God finally
looks upon them, finally God hears their cries. We pick up the third chapter of Exodus.
Moses was keeping the flock of his
father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the
wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing;
yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this
great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”
When the Lord saw that he had turned
aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said,
“Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am
the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the
misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of
their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to
deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how
the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my
people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I
should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will
be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when
you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this
mountain.”
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the
Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and
they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses,
“I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am
has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the
Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever and this my title for all
generations.
The story continues from here, Moses is to go to the
Israelites and let them know that God has heard them and that they will be
delivered. Moses doubts that they
will believe him and God sends a sign by changing the rod Moses had in his hand
to snake and back again. That’s
how he’ll convince the people.
But even after that, Moses still doubts his leadership for
the task and asks questions. In
fact, in this call story of Moses he asks five questions before he reluctantly
takes up God’s call.
Why isn’t this bush burning up from
all the flames?
Who am I to go to Pharaoh and do
such a thing?
What if they want to know who sent
me?
credentials!
What if they don’t believe me?
And his last ditch effort question:
How
can I accomplish this for you God, I’m not a good speaker.
That’s a lot of questions that Moses asks of God in an
effort to subvert God’s call. But these questions are important questions
between him and the great ‘I am’ because the answers reassure Moses that God
will be with him, that God would not send him off on a wild goose chase and
leave him flapping in the wind.
I think we all have questions from time to time about our
life. I have I know. Questions
much more profound than ‘Do you know the way to San Jose”. My questions were, “Am I suited for
ministry? How will I ever afford
seminary? Am I smart enough to go
through the rigors of seminary and all of it’s paper writing, after all an art
major doesn’t write papers, she paints or sculpts her way through university or
memorizes slides of great art works for art history classes. Is this a crazy idea?” And yet it is these
very questions that deepen our relationship and reliance on God for whatever
profession it might be. And, by
the way, I had a patient and loving friend who sat by me as I struggled to
answer these questions. She
affirmed me and asked questions of me too.
It was the poet and author Rainer Maria Rilke who once told
a young poet, “Be patient toward all that
is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked
rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now
seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to
live them….the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps
you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into
the answer.”[ii]
Live the questions, someday you’ll know the answer but for
right now live into the very questions that press upon your heart.
No doubt about it, Moses was called into the presence of God
for a specific moment in time to make a difference in the lives of his fellow
Hebrews. He eventually said yes,
but not without inquiry. If you
live and love the questions long enough you will eventually know the answer and
understand the call that God has placed on your life whether its vocation or
direction. God calls each
and every one of us to greater living through God’s presence. The ‘I Am’ has said so.
In the words of Barbara Crafton, “…if we remember Gods words
to Moses from the burning bush, ‘Say this to the people Israel, “I am has sent
me to you”. God doesn’t have a name.
God is the very energy of the universe. Everything that is, exists in
God…there is nothing outside of God.
This includes you, your thoughts, and desires and doubts as well, they
all exist in God.[iii] In God the possibilities are
endless and no question is too small or too silly or too trite.
Being called by God most often doesn’t mean a life to ministry. It means awakening to God’s love in the
life you lead. That is, I believe,
fulfilling your potential, nurturing your gifts specific that God has given
you, this I believe is vocation. God doesn’t want you to be anyone else but you where you are
at the moment, with all of the questions that you can muster.
It means being highly attuned to the presence of God in your
life. If you’re a poet then write
your poems with the awareness of God’s love, if you’re a laborer then labor in
God’s presence and it will make all the difference. If you are meant to be a doctor or a doctor on tv then head
off to med school or acting school.
And if you are old, and are in those post working days, don’t worry, God
continues to call us to be the best that we can possibly be reinventing
ourselves many times over.
As Christ followers it means that we are called to exemplify
God’s love and forgiveness, Christ’s unquenchable thirst for justice, and the
Holy Spirit’s energy in our every day world and each day that we live out. We are called to be. And we are called to do.
Will you, through your love and actions, tell the Gospel
that you have been called to tell?
Eloquent words are not necessary, just an open ear and lots of questions
like Moses who heard God calling him through a talking bush.
Amen.
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