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“The ‘I AM’ Language” 8/31/08 Exodus 3:1-15 |
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I. Moses Had to go out of his way. A. This is a new chapter in his life. 1. He is married and the son-in-law of Jethro. And his new job is sheep-keeping for his father-in-law. He has put his old life behind him. He is a long way from the adopted son of the Egyptian princess and the youth who got momentarily caught up in the suffering of the Israelites. He does not want interruptions.
a. I have been surprised to run into two of you who have returned from my past: a neighbor from across the street back in Liberal, Kansas anda former member from Lake Charles, Louisiana. b. We are different people now, we have different lives, and yet we are still the same in one way: we honor the name of God. 2. I wonder what it was that impelled Moses to come to the mountain Horeb, to climb it. 3. Was it God’s Spirit moving through the wind in the wilderness, was it Moses’ inquisitive nature? a, Was it something from his past with which he was not finished? 4. What makes you turn aside? Are you ever too busy, too settled?
B. At the beginning it was just a bush, and then a messenger, something like an angel. 1. All this only to get the man’s undivided attention. 2. God begins talking to this man in the third person - 3. Then in the first person. It gets very personal, once God has our full attention. 4. And finally the unbelievable! The self-disclosure of God’s true name. a. followed by an array of active verbs which reveal his always busy character. 5. The narrative is not interested in the burning bush, but only in the voice of God, in the Name. a. Shakespeare’s “Othello” declares that the “Good name in man and woman, my dear Lord, is the immediate jewel of their soul” b. Why is it then than we waste so much time on the burning bush, . c. We focus on externals, the peripherals, because that is easier for us than to follow up on what God demands of us–faith.
II. God’s speech was short and simple. A. When God reveals the Name above all names to you, first there is always something stronger than an invitation– a summons. 1. “To listen” in the Hebrew, “to hear” is the same word as “to obey.” 2. It is the right of a sovereign over a servant. 3. Recall how Samuel heard the voice of God in the night and how he answers, exactly as Moses does now, “Here am I.’” a. By using a variant form of God’s Divine Name, he indicates his readiness to obey. 4. What is the first thing the candidate does when nominated? He/she speaks to us–an acceptance speech. His campaign worker promise to listen and to follow. a. So also with a new pastor, or an interim pastor.
B. Now, the second thing, is the awesome voice in the bush. 1. By its holiness-the purifying fire- God’s voice- God’s Name transforms all that is at hand, a. the place b. the conversation c. the man 2. The only thing Moses can do is hide his face 3. The language does not suggest God is invisible, in fact just the opposite: God is very present, too much so. 4. When I begin a new job, for the first day, then the first week, what I say is critical. b. How long does it take for the first impression of someone? (i.) less than 90 seconds; some say it is even a shorter time. c. Is there a honeymoon effect? (i.) For me I would say the honeymoon lasted a week.
C. Third, the speaking of the Name cannot be separated from the powerful verbs which follow, for these express the essence of God’s selfhood. 1. each time beginning which the one letter word, “I.” 2. the 4 letter name: YHVH, a. so powerful, so crushing, so holy that it cannot be spoken by humans, and the Old Testament always substitutes “the L-O-R-D” ( in capitals). 3. “EHYEH ASHER EHYEH” a. I learned something in my study of the text last week: God’s Holy Name may be present tense, or future tense: b. “I Will be Who I Will be.” 4. YHVH reveals the Name within the context of Moses ancestors, “‘You will know me as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,’” a. for the same promises to them are tied up now with you, b. and the same truth: “I Am Who I Am is True!” 5. Each one of the verbs also are introduced with the one letter, “I”: a. I have seen ...the affliction and oppression of my people b. I have heard...all their cries c. I have come down ... to bring them up out of that place f. I will send you... and here it really gets intense: (i) Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, you will go. 6. The Hebrew language has very few verbs that are not action verbs which take a direct object; very few “being” verbs like “I am.” 7. Right here, with God’s Proper Name that seems to be a kind of contradiction, or oxymoron but it is not. 8. Look at each prophet’s call, especially Jeremiah. a. This same pattern follows with each, even Jesus: b. You are my son; with you I am well pleased...my Spirit is upon you...I will send you to bring release to the captives. c. The verbs begin in the past tense and move us to future tense. d. Jesus likewise uses the Hebrew 4-letter Name to announce his mission in the Gospel of John, (I.) I am the bread of life (ii.) I am the Good Shepherd (iii) I am the resurrection & the life. (page 3) e. And the same kind of action verb, and obedient response is demanded by Jesus.
D. What kind of language do each one of us use when we respond to the voice of God or of Jesus, saying “Come, I am calling you.” 1. Do we say, “I” or do we say “You”? a. to say “You” in the church is to shirk our duty, to blame, to accuse, or what is most unthinkable – send someone else! 2. How often is our speech laced with the plural pronoun, “we,” a. an understanding that this is a team effort? b. Moses began by saying “I,” he ended up with his brother Aaron as his spokesperson, and I imagine there was more use of “we” from that point on. 3. When I speak with you, pay attention to my use of the personal pronoun. a. Do I use the one letter pronoun more than I use, “You?” b. Do I use the one letter pronoun more than I use, “we”? (i.) not my interim tasks, but our interim tasks together.
III. Hearing God’s name demands a decisive and a radical response to the summons, “‘come!”’ A. Here is a word that Jesus often in his earthly ministry... 1. To Andrew, at the very beginning, he says, “‘Come, and see.’” 2. To Peter in the storm at sea, Jesus says, “Come.” And for a few steps Peter did, but then he became afraid and started to sink.
B. It is his final word in Scripture, Revelation 22:17, 1. “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let whoever is thirsty come...”
C. What YHWH says leaves this sheepherder stunned! 1. It stuns him each time he hears the word, writes Old Testament scholar, Dr. Walter Brueggemann, and it should stun you each time you hear it. a. But we think it is our right, a privilege earned, to be one on one with our God. 2. Brueggemann identifies 5 objections, or points of resistance, by Moses. 3. Each objection looks back to a past reality Each response of God moves ahead to a new reality, moves the sheep keeper toward becoming a prophet. a. Moses says, “‘Who am I?’ a nobody, I need a sign (1) He is just like Gideon, isn’t he? b. #2: “‘Who sent me?’” I must know the name of the one who is going to authorize such a crazy scheme? c. #3: “‘What if they do not listen to me?...or they say, “‘The Lord did not really appear to you.’” d) #4:“‘I am not a public speaker...I am slow of speech and tongue.’” e) And what is always the final excuse? “Let someone else do it.” 4. At that God’s anger flares up, his nose burns! (page 3) a) “‘You shall go (with your brother) and speak to him...and you shall put words in his mouth.”“ 5. There was a popular MGM movie from my teenage years, “How the West Was Won.” It featured all the great stars, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Walter Brennan. Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds. One of the songs I remember was, “What Was Your Name in the States?” Debbie Reynolds leads a rousing chorus of this song. (page 3)
She- LILY- finds work performing in a dance hall in St. Louis and gains the attention of a professional gambler - CLEVE. He overhears that she has just inherited a California gold mine, and this gambler says he will take her there. By doing so the gambler of course avoids paying his gambling debts. Lily and Cleve arrive at the mine in California only to discover it is now worthless. Lily returns to the life of a dance hall singer in a camp town. Later she turns up in the music salon of a new riverboat. By chance the gambler Cleve is on the boat. He vows to leave the poker table and proposes to her, telling her that there are opportunities waiting in the boomtown San Francisco. “Come with me.” She accepts. [pause] 6. But how like Moses you and I are: a. We anchor our belief in a stable past. b) When leaders come along and challenge us to expand our comfort zone, to look at new realities, we say, No,my church, my faith is based on the past, on peripherals, on things, not spiritual relationships. (i.) on things, not spiritual relations. c) An example: For many years the only confession the Presbyterian Church in the South defined their faith by was the Westminster standard. When the re-united church added other confessions, even a New Statement of Faith, some said, “No. That is not my Presbyterian Church.” d) They did not realize that the Westminster standards are not truly Presbyterian. The theology is not from John Calvin or John Knox, but from an ancient medieval church father Augustine. 5. God’s self-disclosure, knowing God’s name, demands that you a) turn aside and listen b) pay attention to the changing panorama of God’s creation, c) take off your shoes d) be open to new learning.
D. The word comes as a task, a summons that demands obedience, 1. You will not see the same burning bush. a) You will not be given a walking stick that turns into a snake. 2. And it is always to leave the comforts of our settled life. a) I have come b) ...to send you c) ...to bring out my people from bondage, ...to save my people... (page 4)
And let all of God’s people say… “Amen!”
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