Seen, Heard, and Known

September 29^th, 2019             “Seen, Heard, and Known”             Rev. Heather Jepsen

Exodus 1:8-14, 3:1-15

         This morning we continue the story of God’s love for God’s people as found in the overarching message of the scriptures.  God fashioned humanity in Eden and then chose Abraham to be the father of a nation.  Promises were made to Abraham of a land, a people, and a blessing.  In Jacob’s wrestling with God the name Israel is given to this people and this nation.  And when we find the Israelites this week, they are a people and they are blessed, but they do not have a land. 

         In the opening of Exodus we read that a new Pharaoh has come to power in Egypt who does not know the story of Joseph.  Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and he will save the family by coming to power in Egypt and planning and providing for folks when a famine strikes the land.  Years have passed and now Joseph is a distant memory.  But the nation of Israel has grown, and now they present a threat to the nation of Egypt.

         Systemic oppression is the name of the game as the Israelite people are rounded up and forced into slavery.  In an attempt to crush the spirits of these people, Pharaoh encourages the Egyptians to be ruthless in their treatment of the Hebrews.  Eventually the Hebrews cry out for justice.  We read in Exodus 2:23 that “The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out.  Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.  God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.” 

         The divine will now intervene and that intervention comes in the form of a man, Moses.  In chapter three we find Moses minding his own business, watching over his father-in-law’s herds.  Wandering on the edges of Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai, Moses sees a bush, burning and yet not consumed.  And so Moses turns aside to look.  The Lord has been waiting patiently and as soon as Moses turns to look, God calls out of the bush.  I love that God draws Moses in not with fear or commandment but with curiosity.  Moses is curious, he is wondering, and so he turns from daily tasks to explore.  I love that God reaches out to Moses, and to us, by engaging our intellect and sense of wonder.  God doesn’t crush us with call but instead tempts our curiosity to draw us closer.  It’s beautiful.

         Moses hears his name called and so replies “Here I am.”  God then warns Moses to keep a safe distance and remove his sandals as this is holy ground.  We know from last week’s story that encounters with God can be dangerous, and so Moses is wise to keep back at a safe distance.  When God identifies Godself as the presence in the bush, Moses even hides his face.  It is not good for the fragility of man to get too close to God, and so Moses seeks to protect himself from the holiness of the divine. 

         Listening there in the wilderness, his head down, his feet bare, Moses hears what God has been thinking about.  “I have seen the misery of my people,” God says.  “I have heard their cries, I have known their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians.”  God has seen the people, God has heard the people, and God knows the people of Israel.  God will now mobilize to be present with the people.  God will come down and save them.

         As Moses continues to listen I imagine his heart swelled with hope. God sees us?  God knows us?  God will save us?  What a tremendous blessing this will be.  God goes on to tell Moses all about a new land and home for the people, a good, broad land flowing with milk and honey.  Their own home, free from oppression, it’s a vision.  The people would no longer be slaves but would be free to choose their path and vocation.  A dream come true. 

         I can just see Moses nodding his head, his heart growing with hope and pride.  They are God’s people; they will be saved by God.  What glory and mercy, this sounds great!  And then God says “so come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.”  I can just imagine Moses’ stomach drop.  He stops nodding; his eyes grow big, his mouth drops open.  “What?!?  Hold on, what?!?  Me?!?”

         The writer tells us Moses says “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  I love this; it’s a true moment of identity shifting.  Prior to this burning bush encounter Moses knew who he was.  But now, now God says Moses is someone else, someone he never thought of being.  “Who am I?” he asks God, and God doesn’t answer.  “I’ll be with you,” God says, “you can see my power in this burning bush sign and I will bring you and the people back here to worship on this mountain.”

         Moses is having none of this.  He can’t get an answer about who God thinks he is, (because clearly this is a mistake!), and so he asks who God is.  And now I totally imagine the divine eye roll, “I already told you who I am!  I’m the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  But instead, God hears Moses’ fear and worry and God has mercy on Moses and so he grants Moses knowledge of the divine name, “I am.”

         There is a lot going on with this name and we have lost some of it to time and history.  The name God gives in the text is four letters YHWH, sometimes called the Tetragrammaton, but we have lost the vowels so we don’t know how it was said.  The Hebrew people felt the name was too holy to say, just like the burning bush is too holy to look at.  But some folks say this name as Yahweh, and other folks still don’t say it at all out of respect for our Jewish brothers and sisters.

         The name given is a verb really, and not a proper name.  It is a “being” verb or an “action” verb.  It can mean “I am”, or “I will be”, or “I cause to be”.  It’s basically “being-ness”.  Moses is told to tell the others he has been sent by the one God, the God of the ancestors, the God who is “being”.

         The story continues and Moses goes back and forth in his reluctance to accept this dangerous mission he has not asked for.  Commentators have loved to belittle Moses for his response but it is true to the form of all other call narratives in our scriptures.  Every single person says “no” in their own way, every single person refuses the mission at first, and every single person ends up going in the end and is successful in doing God’s work.  A sense of unworthiness or inadequacy is inherent in being called by God; it’s a natural outgrowth of an experience of the holy.  Think of that the next time you feel unworthy to do the Lord’s work.  Even Moses, the one who will get those Israelites out of Egypt, said “who am I?”

         The wonderful thing about this burning bush story and the call of Moses is its continual timeliness.  This is our God, this is the very God we worship here each week and pray to at home each night.  This is a God who sees us, who hears us, and who knows us.  When we look at the suffering in our world, we can be tempted to feel abandoned by God.  We can be tempted to feel lost and alone.  This text serves as a reminder that we are not those things.  We are not lost and alone. 

God sees us suffer, God hears our cries, and God knows who we are.  God notices systemic oppression, be it the weight of poverty or racism, sexism or nationalism.  God sees the sins of our culture, and God hears the cries of those who are oppressed.  God also hears our cries as individuals when we are feeling squished and smooshed, when we cry out at the weight of the world on our back.  God notices, God remembers, and God mobilizes to make it better.

         But God can’t do it alone.  God needs a human partner to make the world better.  We have seen this all along in our story.  God needed Adam to name the animals and find the perfect partner, together they created the world.  God needed Abraham and Sarah to agree to form this covenant people and to wait in faith until the birth of Isaac in their old age.  God needed Jacob to wrestle with humanity and to find a way to go forward harnessing our power and strength for the growth of the nation.  And God needs Moses to bring the Israelites out of slavery.  Sure there will be signs like the burning bush, the plagues, and the pillars of cloud and fire, but there will be no exodus without Moses.  God needs human partners to do God’s work in the world.  God needs our co-operation to get the good work of justice and salvation accomplished.

         And so God calls to us.  God engages our curiosity and tempts us to turn aside from the mundane.  God asks us to go into the world and be God’s people.  And we always respond like Moses, “wait what?!? Who am I?”  And God doesn’t tell us who we are, instead God tells us who God is “I will be with you.”  It doesn’t matter who we are.  What matters that we are not alone, we are never alone.  God is partners with us in this good work of healing this world.  God sees us, God hears us, God knows us, and God mobilizes us as partners to create change.  God brings hope to the Israelites through the faith of Moses.  And God brings hope to our world, through the faith and actions of all of us.  We are partners, helping God form this world in paths of justice.  We are called, to serve God by serving each other.

         The great theologian and historian Walter Brueggemann writes that Israel is “the object of God’s intense attentiveness.”  Isn’t that a powerful idea, God’s intense attentiveness, and we see that in these Old Testament narratives.  God loves this people, and God will do anything to help them thrive.  What would it mean in your own life to imagine that you, and your neighbors, are the object of God’s intense attentiveness?  What would it mean to imagine that God sees us, hears us, and knows us both personally and collectively?  How might we answer God’s call upon our lives when we remember that everyone who is called feels unworthy, incapable, and inadequate? 

         God knows who we are and what we are capable of.  And God calls us to be partners for change in this world.  When we ask for comfort and reassurance God reminds us who God is.  This God is “being-ness” itself.  This God is power, fidelity, and presence.  This God’s name is “I am with you.”  What a wonderful and amazing God!  Amen.