Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 17)
Text: Exodus 3:10-12a The Lord said, “I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country.” But Moses said to God, “I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you”. |
Is God calling you?
The call committee appointed by
the congregation to seek out a new pastor was having great deal of difficulty
finding a pastor for their parish.
So they did what some congregations do these days, they sent out an email asking
for expressions of interest from any pastor who might be see himself as a
possible candidate to be called to the congregation.
There wasn’t an overwhelming number of responses but the committee met to
work through those they did get.
One member of the committee read
out one the letters:
“To the members of the call committee:
It is my understanding that you are seeking a pastor and I would like to express
my interest in filling that vacancy.
I can’t say that I preach very well.
In fact, I tend to stutter when I speak and get stuck for words.
I do have a lot of experience since I am almost 80 years old.
I have only just recently had an encounter with God.
I heard a voice which told me personally that I was the one to be your
pastor. One never knows when God
will appear right before your very eyes.
As far as people skills go, I do tend to lose my temper every once in a
while.
I’m also inclined to want things
done my way, and can get impatient and cranky if it’s not taken care of right
away. Once I even killed somebody.
But since I know you are gracious people, I know you will believe me when
I say that’s all behind me now.
Although I am kind of reluctant to work with you folk, I will turn up in a few
weeks to lead you into a brighter future whether you call me or not.”
Silence fell over everyone in
the room.
An old bloke with no seminary training, who is arrogant, temperamental, hears
voices, an ex-murderer as their pastor?
Hardly the right kind of person.
Finally, someone spoke. “By the way, who did you say wrote that letter?”
The answer came, “It's signed, ‘Moses’.”
Of course, the setting of this
story is fictional but it does go to show that no committee would have picked
Moses to be the leader of God’s people.
What can we learn from God’s
call to Moses?
1.
When God calls, he calls ordinary people.
Moses was the least likely candidate to receive a call from God, especially such
an important call.
He wasn’t all that young anymore (about 80 years old); he wasn’t an especially
pious man.
He did have a good education, but he had lived out in the wilderness looking
after sheep for the past 40 years, hiding from the authorities because he had
killed a man in a fit of rage.
He certainly didn’t regard himself as a leader.
Moses wasn’t looking for a
closer relationship with God. He
wasn’t interested in a special, risky task for God. So, God takes the
initiative. The call was all God's
idea. It was a gracious call that took the gifts and abilities that Moses had,
along with his weaknesses, and used them all for the good of others.
In fact, God did this kind of
thing on a number of occasions in the Bible.
Jeremiah was still a young lad.
Mary was just a young girl.
Amos was a shepherd.
Gideon was a wheat farmer.
David was a shepherd boy.
Peter, James and John were just ordinary fishermen.
When I went to the seminary
(remember this was a long time ago) I was surprised to see in my class blokes
who were more than twice my age.
They had given up their careers and come to the seminary.
One evening over a glass of red the topic came up why these “old blokes”
had decided to go back to study.
One had been a farmer. He had left
school as soon as he could and taken over the farm from his father.
There were good seasons and bad seasons – that’s how farming is but as he
went around the farm on his tractor ploughing or harvesting or whatever, a kind
of uneasy feeling came over him. At
first he didn’t know what it was and hoped it would go away.
He was an elder and lay reader in the small local congregation and
someone said one day, “You ought to be a pastor”.
Suddenly that uneasiness took on a focus.
He described how he argued with God.
“I’ve got a farm. I’ve got a
family. I’m not a scholar. I hated
school”. It took a while, but God
finally got his attention.
Age, gender, status,
qualifications are not important.
When God calls, he calls the person who is most suited to do the job.
That day in the wilderness, on
an average ordinary working day, something happened.
A bush burst into flame. A
voice came from the bush. God was
grabbing Moses’ attention.
God reaches down and grabs the
ordinary lives of ordinary people for extraordinary purposes.
Is it possible that God is trying to get your attention?
Is God calling you to do something very specific, very different, something out
of the square? Maybe it’s not
something so out of the ordinary, so way out there, but
for you it’s a challenge.
When God calls there is nothing unkind or harsh about it; he’s not being
unrealistic or hard to gone on with; behind every call there is always God’s
love.
2. When God calls, he has a very
definite purpose in mind.
That day in the wilderness, God wasn’t interested in just a friendly chat.
God introduces himself, “I am the God who was worshiped by your
ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
And then he revealed something of the pain in his heart as he told Moses
how his people were being cruelly treated.
He had heard their cries for help.
Now he was sending Moses to lead the people out of Egypt to a new home.
When God calls, he has something
very definite in mind.
He has called you to be his disciples.
Do you sense that God is calling you to do something very specific as his
disciple?
What is God’s special call to you?
Don’t think for one minute that he doesn’t have something special for you to do
in his Kingdom.
Is he calling you to be a peacemaker, a reconciler in the sandstorms of anger,
jealousy, ill feeling, and anxiety?
Is he calling you to be life-giving water in the wastelands of the lives you
come across in the classroom or office or wherever love and kindness and mercy
and understanding are needed?
Is he calling you to be his word of comfort to someone crossing a wilderness of
sickness and grief?
Is he calling you to be the voice of those who have no voice – the homeless, the
hungry, the refugee, those caught in slavery to addiction of every kind.
Is he calling you to lead someone to the promised land of eternal life through
Jesus?
In what way is God calling you to be Moses-like and speak for God to others?
3. When God calls, we object.
When Moses heard what God wanted him to do, he said,
“What? Who?
Me?
People won’t believe me.
I’m no one special.
No-one will listen to me.
I’m not a leader.
I’m a poor speaker and I can never think of what to say”.
What a list of objections. Moses
tried all the excuses he could think of and not one of them is original.
God had an answer for them all.
Moses would have done anything
to dodge God’s challenge.
When we start to do this, I suggest that we need to stop for a moment and remind
ourselves that through dodging God’s call, we may miss a valuable moment to make
a difference in a person’s life, or make a valuable contribution to the life of
this community.
We may not always see the reason
why God is calling us to do a specific thing, but be assured that when he calls
us then it is for some very good reason.
When God calls, love is always behind his calling.
4. When God calls, he reassures.
Moses was given assurance that God would help him speak, find the right words
and what to do along the way. God
never promised that this would be an easy assignment, however, he promised to
always be present to help.
When God calls are you ready to listen to the guiding of the Holy Spirit, take
up a challenge, to step out in faith, even though you could easily give ten good
reasons why you can’t?
Even though you think you are the most unlikely person for a particular task,
are you game enough to take up the challenge trusting that God will help you and
that the person doing the asking is Jesus in disguise?
Even when the task seems too big or too hard are you able to get past your
initial fear and hesitation and step outside your comfort zone?
We may not understand the reasons why God calls us to take up certain tasks, but
one thing we do understand – it’s not beyond God to call you or me to do
something that we wouldn’t have thought of doing in our wildest dreams.
And at the moment when we’re busy thinking up all kinds of excuses, we can be
assured God has very good reasons for placing that challenge in front of us.
Remember at the back of every one of God’s call to do something is his
love.
He knew that Moses would be able to handle the job – with his help.
When God calls us, he knows that we can handle the challenge – with his help.
When God calls, he also promises, “I will be with you”.
And you can be certain of that promise.
Just look at Jesus and the cross.
There you see God’s commitment and promise to us in the flesh. There you
see God’s promise of forgiveness and renewal for the times when we fail just as
Moses and all the others failed.
Even when we blunder badly fulfilling the task of being his disciples, and we
know that Moses did this often, we also know that we have a Saviour who is ready
to forgive and set us right again and refocus as we get back on track.
When God calls, as difficult as it might be to say, may our response be,
“I don’t think I’m the best person in the world to do what you are calling me to
do. There are plenty of others
better than me. But at this moment I believe I am the person you
are calling to do the job and I know you
will help me do it.”
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
31st August
2014
E-mail:
sermonsonthenet@outlook.com