Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?

Exodus 3: 1-15, OT page 50 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people, who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 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.’” Sermon Curiosity can be dangerous. You can tell that much from any number of books where the main character peeked around a corner, pulled a sword from a stone, or climbed into a mysterious wardrobe and so began a life altering adventure, but the same thing happens in real life too. My mother and father-in-law brought a new puppy home and she was curious, poking her nose around rocks and into holes on the ground. Before long a snake bit her right on the nose. I’m not any different. I remember a drive through our old neighborhood, several cars were stopped and a group of people was standing around looking at something in the middle of the street. Naturally I got out of my car to see what all the excitement was about and next thing I knew, I was elected to try and remove an alligator snapping turtle from the middle of the road. The same kind of thing can happen at a church. A curious person sticks her nose in the door of a church and who know what might happen next. Rev. Sarah Hayden, a seminary classmate who now works for our denomination’s New Church Development Commission, once told the story of how her family came to join their first Presbyterian Church. A new church building had been under construction near their neighborhood and when the construction was finished and the opening worship service was scheduled, her father suggested that they go and check it out. The family walked in and considering how often one church is just like all the other ones, they approached a man holding a stack of bulletins by the door into the sanctuary, but instead of handing each member of the family one this man handed Sarah’s father the whole stack saying, “You must be the one who supposed to hand out the bulletins.” “Actually, no I’m not,” her father said, “We’ve never been here before and we just wanted to check it out.” “Well,” the man said, “you hand out the bulletins.” That was years ago – Sarah’s now a Presbyterian minister and I think her family is still a member of that very church – and that’s how curiosity is – you see something interesting and decide to see what it’s all about and next thing you know your life goes in a direction you never could have expected. That’s how it was for Moses too. He was as far away from Pharaoh as he could get – not just in the wilderness but our 2nd Scripture lesson says that he was tending the flocks of his father-in-law beyond the wilderness. I think “beyond the wilderness” is out on the other side of Culleoka – and while he’s there not thinking about Egypt any more, not thinking about the Israelite family of his birth nor was he thinking about the family who adopted him, Pharaoh’s daughter who drew him out of the water in a basket and raised him in the palace until that day he lost his temper and killed the Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. He left all that behind just as he left behind the body of that Egyptian taskmaster, hiding his body in the sand. So there he was, he’d distanced himself as far as he could from his past and started a new life with a wife, children, and flocks to tend – life was just fine, the past was in the past and the future was secure – until he got curious about a bush that blazed without being consumed. Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up,” but this curiosity like all curiosity has the potential to be, led Moses into the presence of God – and once we find ourselves in the presence of God it’s best to be prepared for life to move in directions we never could have expected. That how it was with me. We just went to church when I was kid, and my parents would teach Sunday School and in the service we’d stand up and sing when we were supposed to, I’d bow my head and close my eyes when I was supposed to, and I knew the service was almost over…finally… when Dr. Jim Speed stood in front of us with his arms up saying the words of our 1st Scripture Lesson as his benediction. “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good,” he’d say – and he’d say it as though we were actually supposed to do it. Go pocking your nose in a hole and you might get bit by a snake. Walk over to a group of people looking at something in the street and end up responsible for a snapping turtle. Get out of bed, get dressed, show up at the church – and it’s possible to leave here no different from how you walked in - but if you’re open to hearing God’s voice you better be careful or you’ll wind up going places and saying things that will dredge up the past and re-chart your future. Moses just wanted a closer look, and next thing he knew the God of his ancestors was telling him, “The cry of the Israelites has come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” The Lord had heard their cry, and I am confident that the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed even now. The quite weeping of the sweat shop worker, the mourning wails of the mother whose children are torn away, the father who can’t make ends meet, and the child who sits hungry in the classroom in every school in Maury County. We want to know when someone is going to do something about it – when it’s going to get better – where are the jobs, the justice, the healthcare, and the wisdom? Where is the one who is going to get us out of this – who can make it better – who can bind up our wounds, get the job done, and finally fix up all that has gone so badly wrong? It’s easy to wonder where God is – or if God knows. Where has God been? And I think I know. God’s been calling, waiting on you to answer.