I Am Who I Am

I Am Who I Am

Exodus 2:23-25; 3:10-15; 4:10-17

Pastor Doug Holtz

A reading from the book of Exodus:

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them. 

A giant leap in time.

Since last we met—Jacob saw the ladder

          Isaac has died

          Joseph (coat of many colors)     

          Moses is born

                   Mom floats him down the river

                             Pharaoh’s daughter raises him

                                      He flees when seeing his people beaten.

“God heard the people groaning”

          God remembers them

                   Not that he forgot… this means he is going to act!

          The great nation is in slavery

                   The covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob is in danger

          God remembers us to

                   He acts… sends the Holy Spirit

                             Remembers the promises of baptism

                                      You are of the great nation… God’s people

                                                Celebrate that with Kayleigh today.

Continue… God has Moses’ attention

          Burning bush… heard the cry of the people                                              

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. 

God reveals God’s name

          “I am who I am.”

          YHWY – name becomes holy

                   Conservative Jews today: “the name”

God reveals the name

          Mystery, presence, fundamentally eludes ability to comprehend

                   We have a God: will to be in relationship with us

                             Cannot be fully comprehended

                                      Response: awe, deference, majesty

                             The God who is, who sends, who commissions    

                   Meets Moses where? Nowhere. Just like Jacob.

                             Chooses Moses: a reluctant messenger

                                      Moses says “why me?”

And when we encounter God’s call, we do the same.

          Called as an agent of God’s redemptive and delivering purpose

                   We see our shortcomings

                             Our inadequacies

                                      We see that it is a bad idea for God

                                                to want anything to do with who we are

          And just like us, Moses finds more excuses…

But Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." Then the Lord said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak." But he said, "O my Lord, please send someone else." Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, "What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs."

Moses takes us all back to that freshman HS speech class

          All of us feel dry in the throat

                   The power of speech fails us

God gets impatient

          “You don’t think I’ve chosen wisely? I’m God!”

In this we see God’s way in the world

          Using human beings with all our inadequacies

                   Weaknesses of which we are all too keenly aware

                             When we look where God is calling us

                                      Scoundrels like Jacob

                                                Bumblers like Moses

In John’s gospel, later this year, we will hear this story again.

          Jesus: “I am”

                   Bread of life;

light of the world,

way, truth, life,

true vine.

Jesus continues to call flawed people

          Just look at the disciples

                   Incompetent, mistake-prone

And we humans are still called…

          And find reasons to object

                   “Not me,” “Why not that one?”

                             “More holy, more respected”

                                      “Someone has more time”

God still wants to use us.

          Loves us… despite our objections

                   Through baptism like Kayleigh today

Sees through the lens of Christ’s death and resurrection

                             Sees not weakness, but strength

          Giving us all usable talents

                   Commissions each of us

                             Agents of deliverance

                                      Sharers of freedom

                                                Speakers of truth

And uses us even when we stumble.

          All in God’s mysterious, incomprehensible, awesome name.        

Meeting Us at the Bottom

Meeting Us at the Bottom

Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17

Pastor Doug Holtz

A reading from Genesis:

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

Abraham had lived to 175

100 years ahead

Isaac married Rebekah (age 40)

          She was barren

          Isaac prayed

          They had twins

                   They jostled each other within her

          Jacob was born holding onto Esau’s heel

                   This can’t turn out well.

          Jacob coerced Esau

                   Famished from the hunt

into selling him his birthright

                                      For a bowl of stew.

Which brings us up to date:

Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.

So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.” But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

Some: the Bible is a collection of good examples

          Do you want your child to grow up like Jacob?

                   First he tricked Esau into giving up the birthright

                             Now he receives his father’s blessing

Today: “God bless you” for sneeze

In that time: more than nice words

          The blessing carried weight

                   Doing something to the life of the person

          We say, “The sky is blue”

                   The words don’t create the blue sky

          We say, “It’s a bet.” “I promise to…”

                   The words create the bet, the promise.

                   The words of blessing were also words that created.

                   Listen to this blessing!

          “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

          These words really mean something.

                   Bestowing honor and power.

                             “Be lord over your brothers”

          Esau was mad, demanding a blessing:

                   Here’s what he got:

“Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless you will throw his yoke from off your neck.

          Now Esau was furious.

                   He vowed to kill Jacob.

                             So Jacob ran.

Before moving on,

          Notice that both sons are grabbing for the brass ring

                   Not seeing God’s abundance

                             They both want more

                   Esau was gifted with great skills

                             But probably not as leader of nations

          Neither was satisfied with enough

                   Both stepping on the other for advancement

                   We do this today

                             Politicians can’t agree because they need power

                             We want what we think we deserve

                                      Yet as followers of Christ we already have that

                                      When is enough enough?

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Jacob is now a refugee—a victim of his own greed

          A person on the run without a home

          He has nothing, it’s his own fault

                   Nowhere to point blame

                   On his own, using a stone for a pillow

                             At his lowest point

And this is where God comes to meet him.

          God finds Jacob in his suffering

                   Jacob, carrying his own cross, his own self-imposed burden

                   God lifts the burden

Jacob couldn’t imagine God would come to him – the scoundrel

          This becomes the place for a temple

                   A lowly place becomes God’s place

It’s where God promises to meet us

          Not when we’re feeling great

                   Not when we’re at the peak

                             When things go well, it’s easy to ignore God

          Why God’s word is so powerful today

                   Syria, South Sudan

                             People at their lowest, day after day

                                      All they have is the word of God

                   Here we find God in the broken

                             Hospital, hospice

                                      Homeless, hungry

And we’re broken too

          Brittle relationships

                   Economic doubt

                             Afraid of change

                                      This is where we find God

          So today, lift your troubles to God

                   Let God enter into the void

                             God is ready to use you.

                                      We pray for that today – Psalm 51

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit. Amen.