October 12, 2014
Fearless Generosity- Fearless Service
- Exodus 32:1-14
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
Fearless Service
Exodus 32: 1-14 and Philippians 4: 1-9
October 12, 2014
Ruth Chadwick Moore
There is the joke about the little girl who was watching her mom, a pastor, write a sermon. (Well of course the original joke was about a little girl watching her dad, the pastor writing a sermon, but of course I had to change that.) The little girl said, “How do you know what to say in a sermon?” And her mom said, “God tells me.” And so the little girl says, “Well then why do you keep crossing things out?”
This is how I have felt this week as I prepared for this sermon. We are in the midst of exploring what it means to live and give fearlessly and generously to this congregation and its mission. But Teri and I are still trying to use the lectionary bible passages that are assigned for worship this month – and they don’t match up well with the themes of the stewardship campaign. So I kept reading and writing and crossing things out. And then in the middle of the week I got a gift.
On Wednesday I went to teach the bible study at American Village. I read both the Philippians and the Exodus passages and we discussed them. And the group helped me to begin to imagine a different way of writing and delivering the sermon. (I do have to admit though that the Tuesday Morning bible study group was not quite as helpful – so we’re going to have to work on that.)
Our stewardship topic for today is fearless service. And our bible passages don’t really say much about service. But they do tell us about leadership and what it means to follow and serve God.
One of the ways we serve our congregation is by being a leader. We have examples in Moses and Paul of fearless leadership and fearless service. We also have in the Exodus story an example of how to be a fearful leader and why that can happen.
Today’s Exodus passage is one of the bible’s best written stories. It is so good in so many ways that it could provide us with enough material to talk about for months. But my interest is on the actions of Moses and his older brother Aaron.
You know the story. The Israelites are close to the Promised Land. They have been wandering in the desert for almost 40 years and they are getting impatient to go to this land of milk and honey. They have been given the 10 commandments and have told God they will follow them and use them as a blueprint for their lives. They have dedicated themselves to God and told God they will serve him.
But then Moses goes up on Mt. Sinai to talk with God and leaves the Israelites for a long time – and a long time in biblical stories usually means forty days and forty nights. Their main leader is gone and they are getting scared. The people feel lost without their leader, the one who is a mediator between them and God, and they seek assurance of God’s presence. And although Moses has made Aaron the temporary leader in his absence, the people feel abandoned. The people think they can’t last another day, another minute, because Moses has obviously left them alone to die and they need some sort of God or gods to be with them and lead them.
So Aaron gives into their demands for gods to lead them and collects all their gold, melts it down and forms it into the form of an idol – a calf – for them to worship. Within days of receiving the 10 commandments the Israelites break the first two of them – you shall have no other gods before me and you shall not make for yourself an idol.
The story doesn’t even tell us that Aaron tried to reason with the people. I feel like Aaron should have known better than to do what the people were asking. He had been with Moses from the beginning. He was Moses’ mouthpiece when Moses didn’t have the right words. God told Moses not to worry because his brother would always help out. Aaron’s role was as the people’s priest. And so he knew that God could not be defined or pictured in some visual way. In fact, he knew it was the other way around – we don’t define God, God defines us.
But I think Aaron was afraid of the people and he was also probably afraid of what would happen to them without their leader Moses. I don’t think Aaron wanted to be in charge, but maybe there was some sibling rivalry going on and he wanted to show Moses that he could make decisions too. So he made a choice and he made a decision. He turned his back on God and took the people’s gold, melted it down and cast it into the form of a calf. “This calf will be your new God,” he told the people.
This is not what we would call fearless living. But I also understand why Aaron gave into the people’s wishes. He had been listening to the people’s fears and complaints for so long that he had just had it. He just gave up. And since we all have moments like this, we shouldn’t be too surprised that the Israelites also came to that place with God. Nor should we be surprised that God’s chosen priest sided with the people who he had lived with and listened to for forty years, instead of with the God who was far away and unseen.
And isn’t God far away and unseen for us too? Or at least we feel that way sometimes. And how can we live fearlessly and generously when the world around us is such a scary place? And don’t we live in one of the most uncertain and fastest changing generations in all of human history? It’s easy for us to want our own golden calves – a god or gods we can see and touch, a god or gods that don’t leave us here all alone to fend for ourselves. So we look for our own golden calves – a nice house, lots of clothes, cars, iPads, iPhones, things that make us feel successful, important, not alone, in control of our world. We don’t really need a god if we have all of these things. We don’t need God if we can take care of ourselves. These “things,” these golden calves, will make us happy, they will make us safe, they can be what we worship because we can see them and they are ours.
Aaron was a disappointing, although thoroughly understandable leader. But Moses is a different kind of leader. In our passage for today he is up on Mt. Sinai with God and he is dealing with a very unhappy and angry God. So Moses intercedes on behalf of the Hebrew people and calls on God to remember the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Israel and God changes his mind – boy that could be another whole sermon about how you feel about God changing his mind! Eventually God forgives the Israelites and they see once again that this is a God who loves them and does not give up on them. They see a God who really is present in their lives – a God who is abounding in steadfast love and faithful even when the people are not faithful to God.
This story, particularly the actions of Moses, shows us the need for leaders who have a depth of understanding, integrity and loyalty to their call and to those they lead. It strikes me that the role of Moses serves as a model for the church – to bear witness to God’s faithful compassion and to urge others to seek reconciliation. That could easily be the mission statement of this church and other churches.
In the bulletin today is a section about fearless service. It talks about having a mission statement and tells us about Jesus’ mission statement – to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and those in prison. And Northminster has a mission statement too – to seek, serve and embrace. Seeking, serving and embracing forms us into a warm and caring community. It leads us in study and worship. It sends us out in mission and service. To seek, serve and embrace calls us, comforts us and challenges us. To seek, serve and embrace calls us to bear witness to God’s faithful compassion and presence in our lives.
So many people don’t hear that message much anymore. And I don’t see a lot of compassion out there in the world right now. Yet we have that message to give and that message to share – and this body of Christ we call Northminster church can do that with your help. It can be the place where compassion can be found. We can be the people who share the message of God’s faithfulness and love even when God gets really angry at us. We can be the place where we can loosen the bonds on our idols because we trust in God’s providence.
Paul writes his letter to the Philippians while he is in prison. He could not have been in a more vulnerable position. He has to be afraid. And yet he fearlessly tells the Philippians to rejoice because the Lord is near. He also tells them not to worry about anything, to pray and to know that the peace of God will guard their hearts. Unlike the Israelites, Paul does not feel abandoned by God. The love and care, the wisdom and the many gifts that guided Israel in the desert continue to nurture Paul and call him to share that certainty with the new church in Philippi.
The people of Israel encountered issues of leadership choices and vulnerability when they were removed from familiar surroundings and facing new and unknown circumstances. They were on a journey, as were those who were listening to Paul’s letter. It is the same for us as we journey in faith. We’re vulnerable, we’re frightened, and we sometimes feel abandoned. But we can go to the scriptures of our faith and hear time and time again of the faithfulness and love of a God who will never let us journey alone.
So as you journey this week, think about Northminster’s mission statement – to seek, serve and embrace. Think about your own personal mission statement. Think about Moses and Aaron’s experience with the Israelites when they tried or failed in sharing the message of God’s compassion and presence. And think about Paul, who tells us not to worry, but to rejoice in the Lord and who shares that joy filled faith even in prison. And as you go out of this place and into your week may you find opportunities to share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. Or as Paul says, “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9) Amen.
Resources:
Seasons of the Spirit – Adult Season of Creation, Pentecost 2, 2014, “People on a Journey.”
www.gbod.org/worship/lectionary-calendar/eighteenth -sunday-after-pentecost.
www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/You-Cant-Have-it-Both-Ways, by John Holbert.