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.
No comments:
Post a Comment