Your People

Originally preached on October 9, 2011

Your People

Exodus 32:1-14

Psalm 106:1-6&9-23

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

This morning’s scripture is the story of anxiety, broken covenant, anger, all of which reveal the pathos, the deep feelings of compassion, of God.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

They have escaped Egypt, and now they are in the middle of the land of “now what?!?”  And Moses, the one who gathered them together and led them forth, the one that God talks to and who talks to God, he went up the mountain and he has been gone too long.

We do not know how long they waited for Moses.  Time passes differently when we are anxious.  However long they waited, when it got to be more than they could handle, they went to Aaron.  

No “good morning.”  No “Have you heard anything?”  They just command him, “Up!  Make us some gods we can follow!”  They want a god they can touch and see, like the peoples of Egypt and of Canaan.  So they make a statue, out of the gold they took with them out of Egypt, and they form a calf.  Now here is a god they can sacrifice offerings to and carry before them and know that this god is present.

There is little doubt in the Hebrew scriptures that this is a Bad Idea.  But anxious peoples like bad ideas, as long as they can be done quickly in an attempt to alleviate the anxiety.

Did any of you catch the PBS documentary on Prohibition?  It was very well done.  It is the story of anxiety and another Bad Idea.

It traces the roots of the Temperance movement to our Congregationalist forebears trying to deal with the real problems of a saloon culture, rampant alcoholism, and its side effects of domestic violence and poverty.  Estimates put the rate of alcohol consumption back then at three times the level of today.  It sparked non-violent civil disobedience.  Women would gather outside the saloon and kneel in prayer.

But soon enough, groups gathered in support of Prohibition out of their anxiety.  Quickly, rather than being about moderation, it became all or nothing.  For some, it was about being “Real Americans,” unlike the Irish, the German, the Italian immigrants coming to our shores.  For others it was about being “Real Christians,” unlike the Catholics and the Episcopalians and the Lutherans.   

For the labor movement, it was getting rid of the chains of alcohol, which they saw as a tool of management.  Even the Ku Klux Klan got involved, out of fear of African-Americans.  The political left and right both voted for this, not out of bipartisanship, but out of their many and various anxieties.  Everyone’s anxiety got hitched to the same wagon, as it were, and the first constitutional amendment limiting freedoms was passed.

Unintended consequences abounded.  Crime soared.  Alcohol became more popular and even easier to get.  Hypocrisy abounded.  People in charge of law enforcement and civil service discovered that a lot more money could be made through illegal alcohol than could ever be made legitimately.

Out of their anxiety, the people voted in a law that did not alleviate their anxiety.  It did not settle issues of racism, or labor versus management, or a culture of abuse that had led people to vote it in.  Nor did it do anything about the sources of anxiety that led people to drink in the first place.

Out of their anxiety, the people of Israel forgot who brought them out of Egypt.  “Up!  Make us gods to follow!” they said to Aaron.

Aaron makes the calf of gold, and declares that tomorrow will be a feast day.  And the people party.

             

Meanwhile, up on the mountain, we discover the pathos of God.  

And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out  of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;”

Who speaks like this?  “Do you know what YOUR child did today?!??!”  This is a parent.  Suddenly these are not God’s people.  These are Moses’ people.  “YOUR people, whom YOU brought up out of the land of Egypt."

And in this moment, there is this anger of God towards the people who have rejected God.  “And after all I have done for them….” we might imagine God saying.

Moses stands as the mediator.  Moses reminds God of the love God has.  Moses does not appeal to God on the basis of the people, for they are indeed a stiff-necked  and forgetful people.  Moses does not appeal to God on the basis of Moses’ own worth.  He prays, “Remember your covenant.  Remember your promises.  Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you swore by your own self.”

And God remembers the covenant.  In this we find this most paradoxical (perhaps scandalous) line:  “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.”

Out of our anxiety, we often make bad decisions.  Out of our anxiety, we often put our faith in something other than God.  Out of our anxiety, we look for the quick fix, the magic bullet, the instant gratification, the illusion of control.

But God remembers the covenant.  God who, like a parent, gets angry at our stiff-necked nature, and our forgetfulness.

And when we pray for God to remember God’s promises, we are reminded as well.  When, like Moses, we call God to fulfill God’s promises, we have turned away from the calf of gold (or whatever it is we have been putting our faith in) and once again put it where it belongs.

For God is faithful.  And we are God’s people.  And God has brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Let us remember, and say,

“Thanks be to God."
Amen.

Go With Us

originally preached on Sunday, October 16, 2011

Go with Us
Exodus 33:12-23
Matthew 22:15-22

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

In the Gospel this morning, there is a trap set for Jesus.  The Herodians and the Pharisees have gotten together to trick him with their questions.  Herodians, aptly named after the family of Herod, are pro-Roman Empire and pro-tax, because they benefit from collaboration with the empire.  The Pharisees are anti-tax, because the money used to pay it has the likeness of Caesar on it, which is idolatry.  These two groups would not agree except that this Jesus guy is a problem and must be dealt with.  So they make an uneasy alliance to trap him.  Politics truly does make for strange bedfellows.

Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar?  This is not a question about Roman law.  We know the answer to that!  This is a question about the Torah.  Is it lawful according to the laws of Moses to pay the tax to Caesar?

Jesus gives a two-fold answer.  On the one hand, he asks for a coin, and asks whose likeness is on it.  This defies the Pharisees who want to trap him, but cannot abide idolatry.

Then he says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Over the centuries, this answer has tied the church in knots.  Is it a pat answer that says we pay our taxes to the state and pay our hearts to God?  Some have tried to force it into a formula like that.

But this is the Gospel of Matthew we are talking about.  It begins with the strange story of pagan kings coming to offer tribute to the baby Jesus, born king.  This is the Gospel of Herod feeling his power and authority threatened by the birth of a baby who is called king and Christ.

And in this chapter alone, where there are so many tests of his role, his authority, what he stands for, he answers unequivocally, “It is all about God.”

So when Jesus says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's,” it should be clear to a Gospel people that it all belongs to God.

It all belongs to God.

I recently saw one of those little sayings that travels around the Internet.  I found this one to be better than most:

God gave us people to love,
and things to use,
not the other way around.

You can tell how far from the Gospel we are by how much we love things, and how much we use people.  This is not always easy to remember.  As a child, about this time of year, the catalogs started showing up.  Christmas catalogs.  With pages and pages and pages of toys in the back.  As a child, I would gladly use my parents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, whomever it took, to get some new toy that I never knew existed before that catalog came out, and now I cannot live without it.

Such a willingness to use people to get stuff is childish.  This was age appropriate behavior back then.  And I am learning it starts early.  Mary told me that our daughter and her best friend were downstairs in the nursery.  And there are these two identical little piano toys.  Each one of them was playing with one, and each one of them wanted the one the other had.

Sharing is a learned behavior.  Caring for our neighbor is a learned behavior.  Loving one another as Christ loves us is learned behavior.

And learning experiences are not always easy!

Moses did not go to school to be a prophet.  He did not take “Commanding Pharaoh to Let My People Go 101” or “Senior Seminar in Sea Parting” or “Theories of Manna Management.”  It was all on the job training.  He may have felt what I often feel about chaplaincy: usually I learn what I need to know right after I needed to know it.

So here we have Moses, who is trying to follow God, trying to lead his people, talking with God about what is needed.  God says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  And Moses replies, “If you don’t go with me, don’t send me!”

Moses knows what he faces is overwhelming.  And he needs God to go with him.

We face some overwhelming stuff don’t we?  Maybe it is a child’s surgery, or maybe it is a loved one in hospice.  Maybe it is running out of money before we run out of month, or maybe it is running out of day before we run out of list.  Maybe it is trying to budget for the ministry of this church, or maybe it is trying to learn how not to get in a battle of wills over our child doing his or her homework.

And we might yell at God, “If you aren’t going to go with me, don’t you dare send me!”  Or we might not be ready to yell at God.  Maybe we just think it quietly.

What we learn from Moses is that when God sends us, God goes with us.  When we face that which is overwhelming, that is when God is closest to us.  And sometimes when we are at the end of our resources, our strength, our will, that is when God’s presence is finally allowed in.

And when we remember that, we might also remember what Jesus said: It all belongs to God.  And so do we.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.