A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, October 16, 2011.
“REQUESTS: VALID OR BOTHERSOME?”
(Homily text: Exodus 33: 12 - 23)
Moses makes a request of the Lord in our reading from Exodus today: “Show me your glory.”
Is Moses making this request because:
· He himself needs some reassurance that God is trustworthy,
-or-
· He feels that God hasn’t proven Himself recently?
Before we
consider the motivation for the request, let’s consider what’s happened to
Moses since last week’s incident with the golden calf….
Moses is in a tough spot….God’s people have just erected a golden calf, and have worshiped that calf. Moses has succeeded in intervening on behalf of the people with God (this was our text from last week). Now, in the verses which immediately precede today’s passage, God tells Moses that he is to lead God’s people into the promised land, but that God will not accompany them as they go.
What is at work in the incident before us this morning is this: God calls a people into being, then proves to them that He is worthy of their trust.
These two principles are at work with Moses and the Israelites, it is at work in the creation of a new people in Jesus Christ, and it is at work in our lives today.
We can see these two ideas at work in the ancient Israelites as Moses leads them toward the promised land. From the text, we see the following:
1. God calls His people into existence. In our text, we see that Moses says to the Lord, “Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth.” This distinctive people would not exist without God’s call and God’s leading.
2. God demonstrates His power in distinctive ways that are unique to Him: Here, we read that the Lord passed by Moses, shielding him from God’s presence as he hid in the cleft of a rock. God’s creative power is the distinctive marker of the divine presence.
These two principles are linked together: Once God has called a people into existence, He provides the basis for knowing that He is the one and only God by demonstrating those divine powers that are His alone.
These two operative principles are at work down through time, and they are active today.
To put our Exodus passage in context, let’s review some of the ways that the two principles we’ve listed above were seen in the Exodus account:
- God calls His distinctive people out of Egypt, giving them a unique identity. The Passover event is the distinctive marker of God’s people. By passing over the firstborn of those who had followed the Lord’s command to put the blood of a lamb in the doorposts and the lintels of their houses, they are marked as God’s distinctive people (see Exodus chapter 11).
- God’s presence is seen in the thunder, lightning and the blast of the trumpet as the Law is given on Mt. Sinai (see Exodus 19: 16).
- God’s power over the created order can be seen in the parting of the Red Sea, in the water that flows from the rock, and in the manna and the quail which descend from heaven. His power was also demonstrated in the series of plagues that took place in Egypt.
We can see these principles at work in Jesus Christ, as well. Consider these examples which will illustrate the point:
- God calls a new people into existence through Jesus Christ. The basis for becoming a part of this new people is no longer based on being a descendent of Abraham, but on faith. Speaking with the woman of Samaria, Jesus says that, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.” (John 4: 23)
We might add that the New Testament is filled with the language of call.
- Jesus’ miracles show that God’s power is made known through His works of healing, His power over the forces of nature (the calming of the sea, e.g.), and, above all, in His rising from the dead on Easter Sunday morning.
And these very same principles are at work as God continues to call His distinctive people out of the world and into an ongoing relationship down through time and today.
God calls us through the waters of baptism, which are entered through faith in Jesus Christ’s redeeming work, done on the cross, and accomplished in His rising from the dead.
In the point made above, we see the two principles at work together: God calls us to respond by faith, demonstrating His power to redeem and save through the work of Jesus Christ. As we enter the waters of baptism, a new relationship is created: we become God’s child.
Once we become God’s child, a part of His distinctive family, the second principle becomes reality….God will prove to us that He is trustworthy. In some way or another, in God’s way and in God’s time, He will prove His identity to us, so that we can continue to trust and believe.
But as life with God unfolds, there will be many challenges, just as there were for Moses those many years ago. We are faced with a choice. Should we:
1. Ask God for assurance now and again, as we venture into the unknown (as Moses was about to do)?
2. Ask God to prove Himself again and again, failing to trust past assurances of God’s presence and power as we can see them in times past?
It would be my hope that we would do the former, and not the latter. After all, we are venturing into the unknown. In that sense, our situation is very much like Moses’ was. He made it clear that he didn’t want to go forward without God’s abiding presence. Neither should we.
But if we look at our lives, perhaps we can see evidence of God’s presence and God’s work. Perhaps we can see it in a dramatic way, or perhaps the evidence will be harder to see, but no less powerful. The clue lies, it seems to me, in the ways in which God acted in times past. Particularly, we can see God’s distinctive presence in His creative powers, particularly His power over life and death. Allow some examples to demonstrate God’s distinctive presence and power as I have seen it in the recent past:
- Healing from serious disease or illness which cannot be explained by medical science. Here I think of a man who is known to me who through prayer and anointing with holy oil was healed of his failing eyesight that medical science could not correct. This individual can see today.
- Dramatic changes in direction for persons who have wrestled with addictions of one sort or another. I think – in this regard – of my father, whose life was being destroyed by two addictions. God’s power turned his life around, completely. God’s power accomplished what no one else had been able to do.
God is at work today, as He has been in every age. So today’s text encourages us to have a look around at our lives to this point. As we cast our eyes toward what is now past, can we see God’s distinctive presence and power here and there?
If so, then there should be no need to ask the Lord, “What have you done for me lately?”
As we go into the unknown that lies before us (and we ought to be honest and admit that the age in which we live is terribly uncertain and filled with unknowns), there will be times when we need to ask God to show us His glory. I think that’s one lesson we can take away from our Exodus reading this morning, that it’s OK to ask God to reassure us. He will answer that request, giving us what we need to face the future. So, go ahead and ask.
May the Holy Spirit enable us to see God’s creative and distinctive presence and power at work in our lives, that we may renew our response to His invitation to become a member of His distinctive people, that we may go forward into the unknown with God leading the way.
AMEN.
