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"What Shall We Focus On!"
As we focus on this account of Moses, probably know best
to each one of us from the annual showing of Cecil B. DeMill’s
The Ten Commandments some time around Easter, it is
hard to know just what to focus on. We could focus on the
work of the angels, especially the angel of the Lord who
makes his presence and work known and yet leaves so much
unknown about the angels and their work. And it would
certainly be of an interest to many of you as angels seem
to be very much in focus these days. If you want to know
a bit more about them, I would direct you to your Kingdom
Page with gives you a few more suggestions of places to
read about these enigmatic creatures.
We could focus on the fact that God appears to Moses and
calls him by name. Even more importantly he gives Moses
his name, almost as if he desired a relationship with
him and as if he knew that for you and me the first
thing that we do if we desire a relationship with
someone is to tell them our name. Maybe just maybe
this is important because that is exactly what God
desires, a relationship with you and me and that is
why he tells us his name and writes ours in the Lamb’s
Book of Life.
Or if that isn’t that interesting to you, perhaps what
we might focus our attention today is the work that
God has done in Moses’ life. One of my favorite
characters in children’s literature is a little
named Otis Spofford. Otis makes his appearance in
Beverly Cleary’s book by the same title. I like
Otis because what he likes best of all is to stir
up a little mischief and I further like him because
when he is confronted with that mischief he has
mastered what I like to call the “who me” look. But
the former Fourth Grade teacher in me really loves
the way Otis’ Fourth Grade teacher is never fooled by
his “who me” response. There is just such a “who me
moment” in the Call of Moses. Scholars have agreed
that Moses spent roughly 40 years in Egypt learning to
lead armies and another 40 years in the wilderness
learning to survive in the desert and when God calls
him to put all that training into practice by leading
the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land,
Moses gives God a “who me” response which pales poor Otis.
We could certainly focus on that. After all, we all know
about the “who me” response. We use it when asked to
something that we do not what to do. We use it when we
are confronted with the things that we have done, or left
undone, the things that we call sin. And yes, we even use
it on God when he gives us a nudge or tug in our lives to
mend our ways or perhaps to take one some new challenge on
his behalf. We are certainly masters of the “who me” response.
And there a still other things we might focus on. We could
marvel at God’s command to Moses to remove his shoes because
he is standing on holy ground. This might lead us to wonder
just how we came to be the people that we are, a people who
are invited week after week into God’s presence. Yet how
quickly we forget that we are indeed on holy ground, in the
presence of God, and instead we allow ourselves to become
concerned about what others are doing or saying, what they
are wearing, if they are sitting in our pew, if the sermon
is too long or if the hymns are not our favorites. And
how quickly the fact that we are here in the presence of
God in his word and sacraments gets pushed back further
and further until eventually, we might even imagine that
we are doing God a favor by getting up and being here
today at all.
If none of that appeals to you, then perhaps what we might
focus on this morning is the fact that God appear to Moses
in the burning bush and therefore confirms that he never
did, and never does forget his people. He has seen their
suffering and has come to rescue them. There are so many
things in this passage on which we could focus, so I guess
what I will have to do is to practice what I preach you
might say. Two weeks ago I encouraged you to read the
Old Testament and to keep your eyes on the promises of
God. God makes an incredible one here. He promises
Moses that he will know all of what he is saying from
this bush is going to come true when he does in fact
return here to this place with the Israelites to worship
his. For, we should never forget that that is exactly
what will happened within a very short time of this
“burning bush” account.
That is where we should finally place our focus, God
always keeps his promises. For you and me, we see that
in the most profound and painful why when we read the
eyewitness accounts of God keeping the promise that he
made all the way back in Genesis 3 that he would send
us a redeemer. The coming of the redeemer is an event
far more amazing that God coming to a burning bush. It
is the account of Jesus who came here in person.
He came to earth and lived here to proclaim God’s message
to you and to me. He proclaimed a message of repentance,
of forgiveness, of hope, and of eternal bliss. To see
the fulfillment of these promises we must not look to a
bush, but rather to the tree of the cross. For on that
cross we see that God did indeed see our suffering
especially the suffering of our sin. On the cross we
see Jesus take that suffering on himself and finally die.
But it is three days later that God shows us in a most
profound way that he never forgets his people. He did
not abandon Jesus to the grave, but raised him to new
life. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ we are assured
that will not abandon us to the grave but will one day
all us forth, resurrect our bodies from the dead and
give us eternal life in the holy ground of his presence.
If we keep our eyes on the promises of God we will see
his faithfulness. We will see that he does indeed provide
for us in this life. He provides by many means and sometimes
he even works in our lives through angels. If we focus on
the promises of God we will see time and time again that
God calls each one of us by name in the waters of our baptism.
We are so blessed to have so many baptisms here at St. Luke’s
and in each one we see our God who does indeed desire, build,
and maintain a relationship with us.
If we keep our eyes on God we will see just how many times
he has worked in your life and mine despite all of our “who me”
responses. He works through us, often in spite of us to carry
out his work. And he may even be calling you and me to take
on new challenge in his name.
We see God’s promises fulfilled every time he invites us here
to join him here to worship in his presence, on holy ground
you might say. Here on this holy ground he forgives our sins
and builds and sustains his relationship with us.
If we are to focus on the promises of God, we will find
once and for all that he never does, and never will forget
us. In fact, one day he will show this to us face to face
as he calls us my name and invites us to live with him
forever on holy ground. Behold, he is coming soon!
In Jesus' Name! Amen.
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