Paul
1. Very rarely
remember my dreams. Experts - First sign of madness!
a. Ones that are most
vivid – feel exposed and in danger.
b. Exam room – usually
maths – cold sweat!
c. Another one –
public place and realise you’ve got no clothes on!
d. Being exposed –
stuff of our nightmares.
2. Something in Scots
psyche that makes us particularly susceptible to those kinds of fears. (Include
N. Irish - Scots just Irish who could swim)
a. Scared of being
found out, or found lacking in some way.
b. Scared to try and
do new things in case it becomes clear that we can’t do them.
i.
Kids
– table tennis. “I’m rubbish”. You’ve just started! Nobody expects you to be
brilliant!
ii.
We
think that same way too – expect ourselves to be able to do things straight
away, and if we can’t we don’t try because we don’t want to be exposed.
c. Fewer entrepreneurs in
Scotland – rather be safe with what we have than take a risk and aim higher. Deep in
our psyche.
3.
Think Moses might be a kindred spirit because when God
says “Go” – Moses’ response is: “Pardon
your servant, Lord. Please send someone else”.
a. We’ll look at that
more closely in a moment.
4. Last week –
Joseph’s family down to Egypt; now 400 years later – memory of Joseph has
passed.
a. Israel a threat –
so enslaved them, kill baby boys.
b. One Hebrew mothers
hides Son – leaves him in a basket on the Nile, found by Pharaoh’s daughter –
takes pity, Moses mother ends up being paid to raise her own son!
c. Time comes – had to
give him over. Raised in Pharaoh’s family. Didn’t forget his ancestry.
d. Anger – Murder –
Flight
e. Left it all behind.
Far away as he could get.
f. Midian, marriage,
settled down to life as a shepherd.
5. That’s where we
picked things up in our reading
6. While tending sheep
– sees strange thing. Bush that was burning, but not burning up.
a. We know about that
– C of S logo. But hold the image.
b. Imagine a bush
that’s burning but not burning up.
c. Something’s
protecting and preserving that bush. Can’t resist flames on its own. There’s
some power at work here.
i.
Is
that a picture of what God is going to do for Moses, in Egypt?
ii.
Is
that a picture that can help us, when we feel like we’re in danger of being
consumed by the things going on around us and within us?
iii.
God
knows about those things – he knows them because he knows us.
d. From the bush, God
calls Moses - calls him by name.
i.
Reminds
us - God’s call is always personal.
ii.
Moses,
Paul, Ravi, Maureen, Ed, Joan, John.
1.
Scriptures:
Names engraved on palms
2.
Hairs
on our heads are numbered
3.
Knows
us better than we know ourselves.
4.
Knows
our hopes, fears, desires, history, future.
5.
Our
names are safe on his lips, because unlike anyone else he knows us completely
e. And the place of
our meeting with him, wherever it might be, is holy ground…
i.
…whether
scrubland, front room, labour ward, mountain top, ploughed field or church pew.
ii.
It’s
the meeting with him that makes a place holy.
f. So from the bush,
God speaks –
g.
“I am the God of
your father; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And I
have 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. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the
Israelites out of Egypt.”
7.
“Go” says God. And what’s Moses’ first response? “Who am I that I should go?”
8. There’s that
self-doubt creeping in. That fear of exposure
a. On human level- can
understand it.
b. Nobody in right
mind take on Egypt, let alone someone like him – murderer and fugitive.
c. What guarantee was
there that his own people would even accept him – brought up in the palace!
d. Not a great public
speaker.
i.
Survey
recently – only thing people fear more than death is having to speak in public!
e. All these reasons
stacking up – dead obvious. I am not the right guy!
9. But the real question Moses needed to ask, and
indeed did ask, wasn’t “Who am I”, but “who are you?”. Who is this God who is
speaking to me?
a. God of your fathers
– good start –
b. For first time, God
discloses his special name – YHWH.
c. Translations differ
– “I Am who I Am. Or “I will be who I will be”.
d. And it’s a
brilliant name because it points to the mystery at the very heart of God.
e. In the ancient
world, people tended to think of the gods as being tied to places or particular
activities. God of the mountains, or the valleys, or the seas. The Gods of war,
of fertility, or wisdom.
f.
But by taking this name, Israel’s God is saying “I am far and beyond all of your naming. I
just Am. The High God over all; all peoples, all times, all places. I am who I
am, and I will be who I will be….
10.
“Moses, the issue is not “are you able to do
this”, but “am I able to do this”?” and I can tell you now – I AM.
a.
I don’t need your
ability. I need your availability.
b.
You are not doing
this alone - “I will be with you”
c.
So ‘GO’! I am
sending YOU.
11.
And I wonder if this is where we need to
pause for a moment and let those words come home to our hearts.
12.
You see, deep down, Moses knew what needed to
happen. He’d seen the oppression of his people. He’d killed a man in his anger
because of it. But the very thought of going back to Egypt made his stomach
churn with fear.
13.
Moses was called, in faith, to take what we
might call the path of nausea. The path that we intrinsically know is right,
but which takes us to the very place we don’t want to go.
14.
Is there something you know that you need to
do? Something that you know is the right thing to do, but the thought of doing
it fills you with dread? That’s your path of nausea. And I’ll tell you now,
it’s also the path along which you will grow, and where you’ll find blessing.
15.
Doesn’t have to be a big thing –
a. Naturally shy –
taking the initiative with new neighbour or colleague rather than waiting for
them to do so.
b. Naturally
controlling person – learning to take your hands off a wee bit and trust
others. Accepting their efforts, even if they’re not perfect
c. Naturally proud and
independent, but experiencing difficulties of some kind - might be asking for
help.
d. An apology you need
to make? A relationship that you need to mend? A responsibility you feel called
to, but reluctant to take on because you’d rather someone else did it.
e. That’s your Egypt.
That’s your Pharaoh.
16.
Is God
saying “Go” this morning? Is your stomach churning at the thought of what he
might be asking you to do? Then take your courage in your hands and go and do
it – knowing that you don’t go alone. “I will be with you”.
17.
1500 years after Moses a young Galilean took his courage in his
hands and chose to walk his path of nausea. It took him not just into trouble,
but into the very jaws of death.
18.
And the apostle John tells us that at the very
same time as they were hanging him high on a cross, people across the country
were slaughtering lambs in readiness for the annual Passover festival.
19.
They
were getting ready to remember that evening when Israel had daubed the Lamb’s
blood on their doorposts and lintels to mark themselves out as God’s people and
save themselves from his wrath.
20.
Little did they know that Christ was becoming
our Passover Lamb – the Lamb of God whose shed blood would take away the sin of
the world.
21.
The path that leads to his cross is also a
path of nausea for us, because it forces us to go to a place where we have to
admit that we’re sinful and we cannot save ourselves. And that is a hard blow
to our pride.
22.
But the path that leads from his cross is a
path of freedom, because the man or woman who’s bowed the knee to Christ knows
in the depths of his or her heart that the story isn’t centred on us and our
limitations. It’s centred on God and his sustaining power.
23.
On that strange day, out in the desert, the
bush burned but it was not consumed. And neither was Moses in Egypt. And
neither will we be in our trials– if we place our trust in God.
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