October 27, 2024. Sermon Title: God Keeps Calling to Send

First Mennonite Church

October 27, 2024

God Keeps Calling to Send

Text: Exodus 3:1-14

Last Sunday we focused on Moses’ desire to go beyond his routine that led him to the “Mountain of God.” There Moses sees a burning bush from which God appears to him. As Moses comes closer to inspect the extraordinary sight, a voice calls him from the bush. “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Moses’ attention is immediately removed from the object of his curiosity—the burning bush, to the authoritative voice calling him by his name twice: Moses, Moses! And his response seems to indicate his readiness to obey what would come next. I said, “seems to indicate” because, in chapter four, Moses expresses his reluctance, hesitation, and desperate plea that God sends someone else to do the task. The voice then commands:

“Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

The place from which God’s voice is coming and his presence is being revealed becomes a holy space. Distancing from the holiness of God is required and the removal of footwear is a sign of submission and reverence. Moses removes his sandals and covers his face, avoiding looking directly at where the voice is coming from. Then God continues:

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God proceeds to disclose the connection He has with Moses. This is the God who called Abraham and who promised to make his children a large nation. God also promised to give the land where Abraham had wandered. However, as Moses very well knows, the children of Israel are being oppressed by the Egyptians and their cries had reached to God. But after disclosing his identity, God declares:

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites.

The misery, suffering, and desperate cries of the Israelites had not gone unheard before God. God was well-informed about what was happening. “I have indeed seen,” reveals that God had not been caught off guard about the situation. God has decidedly been paying attention. God has been watching. Since the famine struck, forcing Jacob to send his children to get grain in Egypt, God was watching. Since Jacob and his children moved to Egypt at Joseph’s urging, God was watching. Since the new pharaoh arose in the land and enacted policies that resulted in the Israelites suffering under harsh taskmasters, God was watching. Since Pharaoh instituted the killing of every Israelite boy, God was watching. God had closely observed the misery of the Israelite people and decided to take action. God had indeed seen the misery of his people and had heard their cries for help.

But God’s intervention in the liberation of his people would only happen if Moses accepts God’s calling to go back to Egypt. But right away, Moses begins to express his reluctance to obey the calling.

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?

“Suppose I go to the Israelites and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’

Then what shall I tell them?”

In chapter four, even after God had shown Moses the miraculous signs he should display as God’s envoy, Moses tells God, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else” (Exodus 4:13).

Let us ponder for a moment on some elements from this passage.

How was it that an otherwise dry and dusty ground with scant vegetation and sheep dropping suddenly becomes holy ground? As the Bible tells us, it is God who is holy the one who declares what is holy in his eyes. In that place in the middle of nowhere, God made himself present and wherever God is present the ground is turned holy. So, God is here, thus this place is holy. God is present with those who suffer, and wherever suffering is happening God has transformed into holy spaces. He is there with the victims, survivors, and rescuers working in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. He is there with those in Florida. God has turned the wastelands of Palestine into holy ground because lives are being sacrificed so cheaply there, just as it is in Ukraine. There are holy grounds all around us. He is there where someone is being nursed back to health. God is there with the one taking care of his or her aging parents. God is there with that mother or father trying so hard to reach their distanced children. God is there with those who do not know his love and desire to save them. God is closely watching our world too. He hears the cry of those who suffer and suffers with them too.

But also, just like God called Moses to send him to rescue the Israelites, God is calling and sending us to those who need to hear about his love. Yet, according to the biblical testimony many of those God called were reluctant, afraid, less than enthusiastic, and in the case of Jonah, he even fled to avoid God’s calling. When God called Gideon, he immediately revealed his low self-esteem. I belong to the smallest of the tribes and am from the poorest of the families. When God called Jeremiah, he complained that he was too young and inept to handle adult matters. When God called Moses, regardless of how polite Moses wanted to be, he was pleading with God to send another person. How willing are we to go where God is sending us?

God knows the suffering of the world today. He is hearing the cries of our neighbors wanting respite from all the noise going on around. They are longing for peace, peace in their heart and soul. And we are being sent by the Lord to tell them that there is rest and peace in the Lord. “Come to me all who are burdened and I will give you rest,” says Jesus. We are being sent to echo that invitation. Yet, we might be afraid to open our mouths. Yet, we might want to avoid being sent. Yet, we might be asking God, “Please send someone else!”

We should remember that when God called Moses, he answered “Here I am.” But later when God told Moses what God wanted him to do, he answered God “Who am I that I should to go Pharaoh?  And what if the people ask me who has sent me?” God assured him that “the people will listen.”  But Moses worried, “they won’t listen” (3:18, 4:1). 

However, not only those being sent were reluctant and resistant to God’s calling but also those whom God wanted to communicate his message or to set free.

God warned Jeremiah that Israel would want to kill him.  

God also told Ezekiel that those he was sending him to were “rebellious people and who would threat him all around.”

In the case of the captive Israelite, Moses knew they would question him and would want to know who sent him.

But God never gives in to man’s reluctance, fears, or flight from his calling. Just as he promised Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord (1:7- 9).

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.

Ezekiel

And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” Ezekiel 2:6-8)

And to Moses God said, “Tell them, ‘I Am’ has sent me.” We too are to go, not in the name of the Mennonite Church; not based on your knowledge of the Bible. We are to go in the name of the Lord.

My dear brothers and sisters, no one of us thinks about ourselves as worthy or capable of doing God’s bidding, to speak on his behalf. Who among us would dare believe we can speak the words of God, to be God’s useful agents?

Nonetheless, just as God insisted on saying to Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” And when doubt assails you, remember: “I will be with you” (3:12). Today, God also wants to remind us that he is sending us. In the words of the Lord Jesus, we hear God telling us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

God is forever calling persons to speak on his behalf, to say things that most people have no desire to hear. And we too can be less than eager to speak the truth, more than eager to leave the task to someone else. But as we hear today, the task is ours and only ours, and we, and only we, must be the agents of God. God is calling and sending us too. Amen!

Pastor Romero