2022-11-6 Third Last Sunday before Advent

 2022-11-6      Third Last Sunday Before Advent

Genesis 3:1-152 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17Luke 20:27-40

In the name of the Father, +Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Some of you may have listened to A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor. At some point in the show, he gave a little report that often began with  "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out there on the edge of the prairie." Mr. Keillor is a masterful storyteller and he whisks his listeners away through the mists of time and place on a fictional trip into a nostalgic history of home, a place that grows fonder in the heart the farther one is away from it. I am certain many of his listeners would love to go back home to a place like that. But, the truth is, if such a place truly existed, no matter how wonderful the memories, we can never truly go back to the same home again. Times change, people change, those who have moved away have changed.  It’s never quite the same as the way we remembered it. 

Moses is one person who did not have great hopes for a return home.  We recall that he fled his home country of Egypt.  Even though he grew up in Pharaoh’s house under the maternal care of Pharaoh’s daughter who rescued him from the Nile river, he was always separate.  He probably had a superb education and ate well and enjoyed many of the privileges of being associated with Pharaoh’s palace, but he was always who he was: a rescued Hebrew baby.  Then as a man, he left Egypt in a hurry because he killed an Egyptian.  He fled Pharaoh’s justice.  Forty years have passed since that dangerous, frightening flight across the desert.  Since then he has married, had two sons, and entered into a new vocation.  But, what is 40 years to a family that burns with unfulfilled justice?  Would he be killed? Or worse, be made a slave too? Moses was in no hurry to find out.  

When faced with the prospect of returning home, he is filled with dread. His  reaction to the magnitude of the task that the Lord is calling him to fills with alarm and doubt.  Who is he to speak to Egyptian authorities? Who is he to challenge their economic system? Who is he to dismantle the system of slavery that built so much of Egypt? Who is he to pit the LORD God against the god of Pharaoh? 

Moses questions his involvement in this. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Who am I?  

Yes, who is he? Right then and there, Moses is a man who refuses to grasp with faith what is being extended to him.  And, this is a comedy of sorts.  Here he is talking to the Pre-Incarnate Christ who presents himself as the Malak Yahweh, the Angel of the LORD. He is having a conversation with Christ who is in the midst of a burning bush that is not getting eaten up by the fire. One would think that the voice and the sight of the burning bush would immediately inspire, “Yes sir! I go now!” But that is not what happened. Moses has to be convinced. God convinces him to go by equipping him with some essential gifts to do what must be done.  

In a short span of time, the question of “who am I” is going to be answered in a very different way than Moses would have answered it when he woke up that morning.  Before the theophany, Moses was a man on the run, a fugitive who found a brand new life and family in a foreign land.  He was from Egypt, a place he preferred to forget, from a people who were slaves, a group of no account whatsoever.  He now had a reasonable life, a wife and two children, and good work. Why give that up? 

The answer to that all important question lies with the gifts that God is giving him.  Moses is about to get a brand new identity.  In faith of the one true God that calls him into his life mission, he no longer runs from the past.  He follows the LORD into his future.  He follows the LORD. He trusts God’s promises. In faith, he steps forward. 

The LORD promises to be with Moses.  “I will be with you,” says the LORD.  The LORD is not restricted to that particular place. God goes with Moses into his deepest fears.  God goes with Moses to let freedom ring in a land of bondage and violence and fear.  God goes with Moses to fight against the forces of darkness upon which Pharaoh and all the deities of Egypt gather their strength.  God goes with Moses to defeat darkness that enslaves a mankind.  God goes with Moses to calm Moses anxiety.  “I will be with you,” God promises. And, the LORD is. 

The LORD promises that he will be revealed to Israel.  The LORD never forgot His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses will remind the people of God’s promise to them.  God keeps His promises.  The covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a promise that will stir the people’s hearts to faith.  They will remember. They will rejoice that God remembers.

The LORD reveals His name to Moses to be revealed to the people. Yahweh sends Moses.  The LORD sends Moses. The one who declares himself: I AM.    

The LORD promises the future. The Pre-Incarnate Christ promises Moses that soon, his promises will be affirmed. “This shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” It will be a sign to you to worship on this mountain. 

The future continues with a promise that the land promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will be theirs.  No more rent. No more slavery. No more doing the Master’s bidding. No more 7 days a week work. No more of that old life. The LORD promises slaves the land that will be their home.  The time is now for them to go to the Promised Land. 

In the Gospel, we heard Jesus reflect back to Exodus 3.  The Promised Land is not just land, it is a new relationship with God and our mortal life.  Faith in the LORD God leads to eternal life with God.  The Incarnate Jesus Christ teaches us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead, they are alive to God.  For those who trust in God’s promises, we have an eternal future with God that awaits us.  For Israel, the Promised Land is just the beginning. 

God gave Israel the Promised Land so that Israel could be a light unto the nations.  In due time, they will bear the light of Christ.  From his cross, the Incarnate Son of God will extend His welcome to all who receive Him with faith.  For those who have faith in Him as the Christ, the cross is God’s sacrifice for their sins. Jesus dies for our salvation. He dies so that our sins do not have the final word upon us. In the cross and resurrection, Jesus opens wide the promise of forgiveness, uninterrupted companionship with God, eternity in God’s light.  The gift of God is that faith in Jesus as the Christ places us in the promise first given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  As they live in God, so shall we for eternity.  

I do enjoy Garrison Keillor’s stories of his hometown.  They are touching, funny, strangely familiar at times. I like my own family’s stories of home of bygone ages too. They tell me what I come from.  Your family stories tell you where you come from too. But, that home in the past is not where our future lies.  The violence and oppression and bondage of Egypt is not where our future lies either.  Our future is not slavery.  Our future is not being a slave to Satan, death, sin, or fear.  Our future lies in the cross of Jesus Christ. Our faith in His sacrifice on the cross leads us to a new Promised Land. A land filled with the eternal light of the LORD, the one who declares himself I AM. In that Promised Land, we join with the eternal living: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and all the rest.  This is our future home. 

In the name of the Father, +Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.