Moses is another towering Old Testament figure in our faith story. He lived about 1300 years after Abraham. Moses is deeply revered in Jewish history. The final words in the book of Deuteronomy say this about Moses “No prophet has risen since in Israel like Moses, whom God knew face-to-face…nothing to compare with that all-powerful hand on his…”

Deuteronomy 34:10-11. That is quite a tribute. 

Moses was born into a Hebrew family. Through a series of circumstances he was raised in the palace of the Egyptian King-the Pharaoh. Apparently he was raised there by his own Hebrew mother. Moses became a rising star in Egypt, but gradually he realized his Hebrew origins. One day he lashed out at an abusive Egyptian guard who was mistreating a Hebrew and killed the guard. Realizing his difficult situation, he then fled to the land Midian – about 300 miles to the east. 

There in Midian, Moses settled. He married. He went to work for his father-in-law. He raised his children. And he grew into old age. He was ready to inherit the farm. 

When we meet him in the story for today he is presumably 75-80 years old. And like Abraham, God calls Moses. Both men were in their senior years. Who knows why God chose that time to call. A couple of sayings come to mind:  

        “It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.”

        “The older I get, the better I was” 

Nancy Astor supposedly said this on her 80^th birthday, “I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do. But now that I am older, I find that I don’t want to do them. 

One day Moses was out with the sheep and he sees a burning bush in the distance. The fire does not spread to other parts of the mountain and the bush does not burn up. It was not unusual for a dry bush to catch on fire in the hot sun; but this setting is somehow different. Moses goes to check it out. That becomes a life changing decision. Have you ever had one of those? An unplanned decision that you make that changes everything? 

God begins speaking to Moses out of the bush. The first thing he says is, “Moses take off your shoes, you are on holy ground.” Some Asian Christian congregations remove their shoes before they go into worship. It is kind of a sacred act for them. “Take off your shoes Moses.” says the voice. Moses obeys. He probably kneels. 

This experience is called a “Theophany.” A Theophany is an unexpected interruption of life from God. In a Theophany and interruption by God, one probably falls to his/her knees.  

God says, “I have seen the struggle of my people.” I have an impression about this part of the story. My impression is that Moses gradually realizes who this is who is speaking to him. There is no indication of his being a particularly religious man to this point in time. Moses is a bit different than Abraham. Moses is not automatically wired for God at this point, but he beings to remember the God of whom his mother spoke. He remembers the name that she whispered in his ear years before.  

Moses is given a cosmic consciousness, a new awareness. Moses hears the voice of a living God. 

God says, “I have seen the struggle of my people. I know their suffering. I know their pain.” Old images come flooding back for Moses. He now realizes that God is someone who notices. God sees and understands. Moses gains a new appreciation of God and who God is. Today we would say that God knows the aching heart, the brokenness, the fear of dying. God knows the emptiness and the bouts with depression we sometime experience. God knows our uncertain sexuality. God knows our struggle to make income last from month to month. God know the hungry and the homeless and the refugee. God knows the sleepless nights and hard days. I have a clergy friend who once said “God is a heart specialist.” I think he is exactly right. 

Moses discovers the nature of this God. He discovers the nature of his God. This is the God that is revealed in Jesus 1300 years later. This is the God of whom the African American slaves sang in early America “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.” 

God says to Moses, “I have seen and I know and Moses is appreciative. He in affect says, “Thank you, God, thank you for noticing. My people will be grateful.” 

God says, “You don’t quite understand, Moses. I am sending you to deal with this. I am sending you to confront the oppressor, to free the slaves, and to lead them out of Egypt into the promise land.” The story reminds us that we are God’s hands, and God’s arms, and God’s feet. 

Moses seems to say, “Whoa, wait a minute. You want me to do what?” This voice in the burning bush was asking too much. 

I remember a story from a few years ago when the older George Bush was president of the United States. The story is told is that he died and showed up at the gates of heaven. St. Peter welcomed him and asked if there was anything that he could do for him. The president said he would like to meet and talk with Moses. “Why do you want to talk to Moses?” asked Peter.

“Because I have always admired his leadership and the way in which he had the courage to lead the people out of Egypt. I would just like to talk with him for a little while.” 

Peter told the President to wait there at the gate and he would go and look for Moses. About a half an hour later he came back. “Mr. President, I found Moses but he does not want to talk to you.” Why not?” asked the President. “I am not real sure, but what he told me was, that the last time he talked to a bush, he wandered in the desert for 40 years.” 

God designates Moses for a major task. For the next few minutes Moses has a very interesting dialogue with God. I think the conversation is instructive. 

WHY ME? 

First he says to God, “Why me?” “Who am I to do this?” 

Probably Moses is thinking “I am too old for this, Lord.” “78 is a little late to start a new career, especially as strenuous as this.” Have you heard the sayings about growing older? 

        You know you’re getting older when everything hurts; and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.

        You know you’re getting older when the birds singing outside your window in the morning are buzzards.

When Bob Hope turned 80, someone asked him “How do you feel?” He replied, “I don’t feel anything until about noon and then it is time for my nap.” 

Moses said, “I’m not ready for a whole new mission, I am not ready for a whole new direction in my life.” Maybe the message in the story is that you and I need to stay in good physical shape. Someone may call you to do something important when you are 75 or 80 years of age. 

Rod Wilmoth a friend of mine retired several years ago from the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis. Several months after he retired he was asked to take on an interim position in a large membership church outside of Denver Colorado. He served that church for a year. He retired again but was immediately asked to take on another large church in Colorado Springs for about six months. He sent me an email that said “I flunked retirement…twice!” Moses did not want to flunk retirement.

God replies very directly to Moses objections, he says simply “I will be with you, Moses.” That is the steady promise of scripture right through Jesus. “I will be with you through anything and everything. I will be with you in your struggles, in job changes, in your transitions and in your difficult moments.” That is what the promise of the Holy Spirit is all about. “Moses, all I can tell you is ‘I will be with you.’” The timeless message for you and me is that God will be your strength and your sufficiency. 

SUPPOSE THEY WON’T LISTEN TO ME! 

The second objection that Moses raises is this. “Lord, suppose they won’t listen to me?” Moses knows that his experience on the mountain is not going to be easy to sell. I am reminded of a patient who said to his psychiatrist once, “How is it when I say I talk to God, you call it prayer; but when I say ‘God talks to me’, you call it a hallucination?” 

Moses says to God, “What if I go boldly into Egypt, and they laugh at me?” What if they say ‘Moses, you are hallucinating?’

What if I preach and nobody listens? What if my words make no difference at all?”  

God say to Moses, “Moses, I will do signs and wonders before you. I will produce fruits for your efforts. I will make things happen around you.” That is quite a promise. And it is given to each one of us. 

Do you trust God to use you in some way? There is a story about a young Methodist minister who went to a meeting with the bishop one day. A large group of clergy had gathered. Apparently the minister who was supposed to lead the opening devotions got sick and could not come. The bishop walked over to this new young minister and said to him son, “Would you be willing to lead us in the devotions for this morning?”  

They young man replied, “Oh Bishop, I cannot do that. I am not prepared, I have nothing ready.” The Bishop handed him his own Bible and said, “Here take this and look at it for a while and then just trust the Lord. I know you can do it.” 

The young minister went over to a corner and sat down with the Bishops Bible and began to leaf through it looking for a familiar passage. At one point he found a piece of paper inside the Bible that had some notes on it about a particular scripture text. He thought that looked pretty good so he got up and gave the morning devotions using that outline and text.   

When he finished the Bishop came running up to him, “Son what do you think you are doing? Those were my notes for my closing message this morning. Now what am I going to do about a closing devotion?” The young minister looked at the Bishop and said, “Just trust the Lord, Bishop, just trust the Lord.” 

God said to Moses, “Moses, you need to trust me on this one.” 

I AM NOT VERY ELOQUENT 

The third objection that Moses raises is, “Lord I am not very eloquent. I mumble a lot. I can’t find the right words. I don’t always think fast on my feet. Could you please find someone else to do this?” 

In 1995, the actor Kirk Douglas suffered a stroke. After a lot of rehabilitation and therapy he resumed his acting. He once commented, “So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one and he did all right.” 

In this Biblical story, God appoints Aaron to be Moses sidekick. He says to Moses, “When you don’t have the words, Aaron will” Then God says to Moses very simply, “Moses, I will be with your mouth.” 

Moses thought of a lot of excuses. He thought he was the wrong guy or the wrong man or it was the wrong time in his life. He thought maybe he had insufficient skills or he lacked the power of persuasion. But God had an answer for every objection Moses raised. 

The story teller in Exodus says, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.” Finally, Moses had no choice but to answer the call. The fire went out, the voice went silent for a while and Moses became a transformed man. He is changed forever. 

I have a vivid memory of the portrayal of this moment from exactly 50 years ago in the movie “The Ten Commandments. It is one of the few movies that I own. The movie had some powerful visual effects back then. The acting was bit wooden, but it got the story across. I remember a particular moment in the film. Moses is visually transformed – from the time he went up to the mountain to see the burning bush and the time he came back down having talked with God. 

When God calls, you are a different person. When God speaks to you, you are changed. Old ways, old priorities and old plans begin to fade. 

So Moses went as God called him to. He gathered up his family. He headed back to Egypt. He went in faith. He did not have absolute certainty, but he did have faith. 

A little known actor was once erroneously reported to be dead. He had the rare and delightful experience of reading his own obituary. The obituary said this, “He was never a great actor, but he was invaluable in supporting roles.” That is not exactly a compliment – unless you are a Christian with a sense of call. Some who has stood before the burning bush and accepted the role God has given you. 

Moses finally accepted the role God had given him. I saw a quotation one time that said, ”Faith is waiting for the rest of the story to unfold.” It is not talking about passive waiting but active, engaging waiting. 

The story of Moses puts some questions squarely before me and you. If there is a Christian faith response to pain, doubt and crises…If there is Christian faith response to hunger and homelessness…If there is a Christian faith response to the quest for lasting peace… If there is faith response to conflict at any level…You and I are the ones God will call. 

And it may come in a Theophany. It may come in an unexpected interruption in your life by God. It may be very quiet or it may be dramatic. 

Are you listening? Are you ready to go? Are you ready to head out? You may say “Lord, I don’t know how I am going to do this. I don’t think I’m the right man or the right woman. I think you may have the wrong person here. But I trust you, and I will go.” 

That is the way I want to live my life. That is the way I want you to live yours.