Revised Common Lectionary: Exodus 3:1-15; Jeremiah 15:15-21; Psalm 26:1-8; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b
Matthew 16:21-28; Romans 12:9-21
The Exodus passage covers the calling of Moses by God through the blazing bush that was not consumed, and God reveals the divine name to Moses, “I am who I am,” or “I will be what I will be.” Both are translations of the verb “to be.” God is “to be.” God is becoming. The call of Moses to deliver the people who have cried out to God comes from God who is becoming.
In the verses before this passage, at the end of chapter two, God hears the groaning of the people, God remembers the covenant with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. God looks upon the Israelites, and God takes notice of them.
We receive two dimensions of God in this brief passage–God who is beyond our comprehension, God who is “being.” And then we receive the dimension of God where God takes particular notice of a people who cry out from oppression, slavery, and injustice. God is beyond our comprehension, yet God takes notice, and God also acts through us. In Exodus, God acts through the person of Moses, as well as Aaron and Miriam and many others, in bringing justice, deliverance, and freedom.
God is “being,” and God works through all of us beings. Through Moses, we not only experience the revealing of God’s name, God’s essence as “being,” but God is no longer seen as this divine interloper who appears once a generation, as in the Abrahamic stories, to bring greetings and renewed covenant relationship–the covenant is now that God will always be with us, for God is being. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their families–but God is more than that. God is the God of the Covenant, but God is more than that. God is “being,” and God is always with us, and God takes notice when God’s people are oppressed. God takes notice when we, human beings, can no longer live fully into our being–when we are oppressed, when we are outcast, when we are shunned and demoralized and seen as less than others–God takes notice, as God took notice of the Israelites long ago and acted through Moses, Aaron, Miriam and others. Who is God taking notice of today, and who is God acting through today? Where do we experience God’s being?
Jeremiah 15:15-21 is a lament by the prophet Jeremiah, protesting what is happening to himself, reminding God that he stayed true to God’s word. The reply by God is included, calling Jeremiah to serve as God’s mouth, to be God’s action in the world. God declares that God is with Jeremiah, to save and deliver him. In Jeremiah’s day, the people believed that God controlled the outcome of worldly affairs–that God allowed Israel to be conquered as punishment for the people turning away from God and worshiping false gods. But Jeremiah and the other prophets also showed that when the people turned their backs on the poor and the widowed and the orphaned, they turned away from God. If God is “being” as stated above, and if God promises to always be with the people, perhaps it is not that God turns away but that the people turn away from knowing God’s being with them. When we turn away from righteousness and instead turn towards greed, envy, and power over others, we turn away from God’s presence. And in Jeremiah’s day, there were false gods that provided that kind of comfort–one could worship a different god and not be concerned with their neighbor’s needs, or the care of the poor, or justice for the widow or orphan. But one could not truly follow the God who is being without caring for the human beings around them. Through Moses, God acted by giving commandments that secured ways of living with God’s presence and being present to others, commandments of not stealing, not coveting what others had, and remembering God first and foremost. By remembering God who is being, we remember our neighbors who are beings. Our relationship with others is intertwined with our relationship with God. We cannot love God and not love our neighbor.
Psalm 26:1-8 echoes the lament and call of Jeremiah by the author calling out to God for deliverance, telling God that they have stayed true to God’s ways and that they do not take company with people who have turned away from God’s ways. Psalm 105 recalls the covenant of God with Abraham and Jacob, and how Moses and Aaron (and Miriam, though she is not mentioned here) were called to act by God among the people enslaved in Egypt. God remembers God’s covenant, by being present with the people, and the people, time after time throughout the Old Testament, when they remember what God has done in history, they remember who God is–God is being, God is with them–and they trust God will continue to be with them. Reform always occurs when the people remember that God is always present with them, when they remember the covenant, when they repent and turn back to God (remembering God is with them always), and when they remember God’s call to be present with their fellow human beings, their neighbors, their brothers and sisters.
Matthew 16:21-28 is the aftermath of last week’s passage, where Peter made his proclamation of faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus declares that upon Peter’s proclamation will the church be built. Immediately after this, and after telling them not to anyone he is the Messiah, Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, that he will suffer greatly by being tortured and eventually killed, and on the third day be raised. Peter takes Jesus aside to rebuke him. Peter, who just made this great declaration, obviously did not understand what he was saying, what he was meaning by declaring Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
I wonder how many of us truly understand our own declarations of faith. I remember as a teenager, standing in the cool lake water, being asked by my pastor, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior?” I remember that we had gone over before what he would ask me, how we had talked about my faith. Yet as I stood in those waters, I remember thinking to myself, “What does that mean? What does it mean to call Jesus ‘my savior’?”
Peter did not understand and tried to talk Jesus out of being who he was–the Messiah, the Son of the Living (Being) God. Jesus rebukes him instead: “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (vs. 23). Do we end up being a stumbling block to God? Do we end up doing the exact opposite of what we ought to be doing? Do we take the “safe” road, the road where we don’t question injustice, where we turn a blind eye to the poor, where we don’t question the way things are either because we benefit from it, or it is too hard to confront? Do our minds get set on the ways of the world instead of the ways of the Divine?
Jesus tells us that we must deny ourselves. We must deny the part of us that is rooted to the ways of this world, the part of us that is concerned about worldly matters–human things, which include the necessity of survival, of one conquering over another. Jesus calls us to a different way, a way of self-denial, of denying the need to conquer over another, to have power over another, to save our own life no matter the cost. Those who lose their lives for Jesus’ sake will find it. We have life when we are living fully into Christ. We lose our life when we are caught up in survival and success in this world. Peter’s confession was pure–but he didn’t understand. And when Jesus shared what would happen to him, Peter’s instinct took hold. Protect the ones you love. Survive no matter the cost. Jesus’ love is self-giving. Jesus chooses others over himself, violence against himself instead of violence against others, and calls us to be willing to give our lives–for in giving, we find our lives in Christ, and we have the hope of resurrection, the promise of eternal life.
Romans 12:9-21 are instructions on living for others, the way Christ lived for us. One of my favorite verses of all time is verse 18: “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Paul’s take on why we ought to love our enemies still brings in an act of vengeance, saving it for God, rather than Jesus’ cry to God while he was on the cross “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), in which Jesus seeks forgiveness not to heap coals on their heads, but to actually have them forgiven. But the overall point of Paul is clear: don’t be worried about vengeance and whether someone will get what is coming to them–do your part to live with others as Christ has called us to do. Christ calls us to the truth of how we ought to be; Paul speaks a little more to our human reality, that we are not perfect and that for a lot of us (I know myself included) when we seek to forgive others we are still hoping that at some point they will see the error of their ways and repent–but not for their own sake. Unfortunately, as human as we are, we often want people to see the error of their ways for our own satisfaction. This is something I still struggle with.
God is with us. God is “being.” God will be what God will be. God is. God is with us. And we know God through the presence of Jesus Christ on earth, through his life, death, and his resurrection, and we continue to know God through Jesus the Christ. When we live into God’s ways, when we love our neighbors, our fellow beings on this earth, we know that God is being present with us.
Call to Worship (from Isaiah 43):
Leader: Listen! God is about to do a new thing!
People: Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Leader: Listen! God is about to do a new thing!
People: God will make a way in the wilderness.
Leader: Listen! God is about to do a new thing!
People: God will make a river spring up in the desert.
Leader: Listen! God is about to do a new thing!
People: God is calling us into the ways of hope, reconciliation, justice and peace.
Leader: Come, peacemakers, hope-dreamers, justice-builders and reconcilers!
People: Come, let us worship God!
Prayer of Confession:
Holy Spirit, we confess that at times we have ignored Your movement in our lives. You call us to turn to the poor and we turn to ourselves. You move us towards works of justice and we move towards works of gaining power for ourselves. You hear our cries when we call out to You, but we fail to hear the cries of others, and cannot be present for You among those in need. Forgive us when we stubbornly stand against the wind of Your spirit. Allow us to be moved, to bend, and even to break open for Your love so that we might be present with all in need of Your presence in the world. For we are Your body, the body of Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
God makes a way where none is to be found. God brings forth springs in deserts and paths in the wilderness. God moves in our hearts even when they seem as stone. God is breaking us open. We are offered forgiveness, healing, and restoration. Go and share the good news of God’s grace to the world. Amen.
Prayer:
God of Moses, Miriam and Aaron, we remember how You were present to our ancestors long ago, how You heard their cries, how You responded by calling forth Your servants to share the Good News of Your deliverance. We remember how You were present always with the people as they left behind their slavery and entered the wilderness, how You never left them, even when they went astray. God, guide us in our lives now. Help us to listen for Your voice, Your movement in our lives, so that we might remember You are always with us. In the name of Jesus, our companion on this journey of faith, may we remember that You continue to be present with us in life, in death, and in the hope of resurrection. Amen.
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