Are You Talking to Me? a sermon based on Exodus 3: 1-15 and Romans 12: 9-21, preached on August 30, 2026

I titled this sermon, “Are you talking to me?” imagining how Moses might have felt at the burning bush. Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, he saw a bush, burning yet not consumed by the fire, and he heard the voice of God call him by name, “Moses, Moses!” Moses said, “Here I am,” The Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt. The cry of the Israelites has come to me. So I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” And then Moses said, “Are you talking to me?” Do you know that feeling? I feel sure that you do. To some degree or another, we’ve all felt it. Called but feeling unqualified. Recruited to an office beyond our experience. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the talent. I’m glad to be invited to the ball, but I don’t have the money to buy the gown. I’m pulled out on the dancefloor knowing none of the moves. Perhaps you’ve been promoted but daunted by the job. Maybe you’ve been elevated into leadership, yet you’ve felt insecure. Those feelings of insecurity are not necessarily a bad thing. Last week, the Rev. Cassie Waits told me about the Dunning-Kruger effect. Have you ever heard of it? The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a mental bias where people with low skill or low knowledge overestimate their own abilities because of their ignorance. It’s the phenomenon of overconfident people who know so little about a subject that they think they’re great at it, but the only reason they think they’re great is because they have no idea how complicated it actually is. That’s why you know to be cautious when a 15-year-old driver is overconfident. What we naturally hope for is a 15-year-old daunted by driving, not one who already has his foot on the gas, which is but one example of how dangerous the Dunning-Kruger effect can be. It can be important to put your trust in people who doubt themselves rather than those who arrogantly assure you that they can do it. You see, sometimes doubt signals competence, while over-confidence is the sure sign that you don’t have any understanding of the challenge at hand. In other words, when Moses says the God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah?” God says to Himself, “I knew he was the right guy.” “I knew he would grasp how difficult this challenge would be.” “I knew he would understand that getting the Israelites out of Egypt would be no walk in the park.” “I knew that only Moses, who had been inside the palace, a witness to Pharoah’s strength and his brutality, only Moses who had first-hand experience with the oppression of the Hebrew people and the whip of the Egyptian taskmasters, would grasp the magnitude of this quest.” Only Moses would be up to the task because only Moses would understand how high the mountain, how deep the struggle, how great the obstacles, how important the mission. My friends, be warry of trusting the kid who is too willing to put his foot on the gas and celebrate the one who, with humility, takes the mantel of leadership, for the challenges we face today as Christians in this nation are great. The journey is long. The shadow has fallen. Some days, the light seems to be but a glimmer. Yet our job description remains the same. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with mutual affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Regardless of the circumstance, our job description as followers of Jesus Christ is still this charge from the Apostle Paul in our second Scripture lesson. Regardless of the hardship or challenge, these words echo in my consciousness because I’ve heard them so often. Many of you will remember how our former pastor, the Rev. Dr. James O. Speed, from 1972 to January 15, 1999, ended the Sunday service with words inspired by our second Scripture lesson. Dr. Speed took Romans 12 along with 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 to create the charge and benediction that he ended each worship service with for those 27 years of his ministry here. Sunday after Sunday, he would end the service saying: Go forth into the world in peace, be of good courage; hold fast to that which is true; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak, help the afflicted; honor all. Hearing him say those words to me when I was but a teenager, I would say to myself, “Are you talking to me?” Do you have any idea what it’s like at Marietta High School? Or what it’s like out in the real world? My friends, like me, you may remember him saying those words, and yet, he didn’t just say them; he expected us to do them. Maybe, like me, he looked you in the eye, saying, “Support the weak, help the afflicted, honor all,” and you said to him in your mind, “Are you talking to me?” I can’t do those things. I can’t go out into the world rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering, persevering in prayer. Have you seen the world out there? How widespread is the hate? How culturally acceptable division has become? And he would have said to us, “Yes. I have seen the world out there, and yet my charge to you is just the same.” That you would be daunted just proves that you’re the man or woman for the job. It won’t be easy, yet God goes with you. We can answer this call, and we can live these words. Our trepidation is proof that we are the ones called for this purpose. In fact, let me remind you that the Apostle Paul wrote the words of our second Scripture lesson to a persecuted group of Christians who were living in the Roman Empire, a place where slavery was widespread, war was constant, oppression and greed were everywhere, and yet just a few years after Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Rome, Emperor Constanine transformed Christianity from a persecuted underground sect into a privileged religion in the Roman Empire, for the road may be winding, still it leads to victory if you are bold enough to step out into a culture of darkness with the light of Christ. Be daunted and still step forward in faith. Today, as we all mourn the loss of Dolly Parton, let me end this sermon by telling you that a young woman in a patchwork coat can change the world. Now I know I had no money, But I was as rich as I could be. In that coat of many colors, That my mama made for me. Would you believe that she would become a national icon? Surely, she was daunted. Surely, she was intimidated at times. Yet God calls us all for a purpose. God calls us all to live our faith out in the world. At first, we may ask, “Are you talking to me?” yet those who answer the call, those who walk in faith, those who dare to believe that change will come, they will see the Promised Land. Halleluia. Amen.