This week's sermon

LENT 3 3/20/22

          Today’s lesson from Exodus tells us how God chose Moses to lead the children of Israel on their ‘exodus’ from Egypt to ‘the promise land’.

          And what a story it is!

          Moses, as you might remember was adopted by Pharoh’s daughter as a baby. But in this passage he is tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro when he is confronted by a burning bush that does not burn up.

          God tells him to take off his shoes because he is on holy ground.

          God then tells him he will lead the people of Israel out of bondage into their new land.

          God also tells him the he is the God of his ancestors.

          So, Moses asks what his name is. A natural question because all the gods in Egypt have names—like RA and BAAL.

          God tells him that the name is I AM and then tells him to tell the people I AM WHO I AM is calling them. I AM WHO I AM

is, in Hebrew “yod, he, vav, he”—so God’s name is YAHWEH.

          That name was so holy it could not be spoken aloud or even written in it’s entirety. When a Jewish scribe came to that name when transcribing scripture, he would set aside his quill, get a brand new one, write the name and then break the quill so it could never be used again.

          YAHWEH is that holy!

          Then, in the Gospel of Luke, we heard Jesus tell the people that no one is not in need of repentance.

          Luke is the most gentle and forgiving of all the Gospels.

          But Jesus words today are harsh for Luke.

          We must repent.

          But God will give us time, just as the gardener gave the fig tree time to bear fruit.

          And what fruit should we bear?

          To comment on that, I want to end with a blog I posted last week. Here it is.

        Sometimes I wonder what God is up to.

Things fall apart here on earth--Ukraine, global warming, racial

hatred, Q-anon, poverty, famine, laws against LGBTQ folks—

where is God in all that?  

I'm just not sure.

I'm an optimist of the first degree.

I always see the glass half full.

But sometimes I stop and ponder--how come God doesn't do

something about all these problems with God's children?

Maybe God relies on us--you and me--to do God's will in this world.

Maybe, perhaps, we have to step up and do something ourselves,

in God's name about the problems of our time.

Ponder that.

Then act, speak out, stand up, defend, protest, vote, find your voice, make your opinions known.

Maybe, perhaps, we are the instruments of God in this world.

Not "maybe" or "perhaps"--it is the truth!

We are the hands and feet and voice and action of God.

Really....