For people who follow college basketball, we’re heading into the best time of the year. The conference seasons are nearly over. Soon, we’ll have the conference tournaments, then the big “March Madness” tournament leading to the Final Four and the eventual crowning of a new college basketball champion.
You cannot win the championship if you don’t get into the tournament, of course. That means that, for many teams, the big day of the year is “Selection Sunday.” This is the day when the NCAA decides which teams are good enough to make it into the tournament and get to compete for the championship.
Every team wants to get selected for the tournament, of course. Every team wants to be considered good enough to play for the championship. By Selection Sunday, though, there are some teams who think they have no chance, that they just were not good enough that year. There are other teams who think they’re spot is secure, that they were obviously good enough to get in. There are others who are not sure, and so have to nervously wait for the committee to make its decisions.
Over the course of human history, of course, God has sometimes made selections of people. The people God selects do not get the chance to win a trophy. Instead, they get the chance to be God’s messengers and to spread God’s word. The thing about God’s selections, though, is that in making selections, God does not look at the things humans would look at. God does not look at our won-lost record, our strength of schedule, or anything else that shows up on the outside. God looks at what’s in our hearts. That means God makes sometimes makes selections that seem strange or unusual to us, but that of course make perfect sense to God.
So, our next sermon series is called “Selections Sundays”. We’re going to look at some of the people whom God selected. We’re going to think about who these people were, how God came to select them, and what they’re selection means for us. As you probably guessed from our scripture reading, we’re going to start with God’s selection of Moses.
Moses’ won-lost record would’ve been pretty mixed. He had a few big wins, but he had some pretty big losses, too. He was born into slavery and as a baby was placed in a basket and put in the river in an attempt by his mother to save him from being killed. That sounds like a couple of big losses to me. Then, though, Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses, rescued him, and raised him as her son. That was a pretty big win. After that, though, Moses killed an Egyptian man who was mistreating a Hebrew slave, and had to run for his life. There’s another loss. He went to Midian, went to work for a man who was fairly well off, and married one of his daughters. There’s somewhat of a win. And that’s where Moses’ record stood at the time of our reading from Exodus today.
What really strikes me about the selection of Moses is how typically human Moses’ response to God is. You know, Moses is probably the greatest hero of the Old Testament. Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Moses talked directly with God. Moses got the Ten Commandments from God. When Jesus came and tried to change people’s ideas about how to follow God, the thing the Pharisees kept throwing at him was, “Well, but Moses said such and such. How does what you square what you’re saying with what Moses said?” Moses was the ultimate authority, second only to God.
Yet, in our reading today, when God tells Moses all the things Moses is going to do, Moses basically responds, “Who, me?” Being selected by God was the last thing in the world Moses wanted. Moses was enjoying his quiet life taking care of animals for his father-in-law. He was married and had a son. The last thing he wanted to do was go off to Egypt and start a revolution against the great Pharaoh.
Which is often what we do when we feel God telling us to do something. We say, “Who, me?” We like our quiet lives, too. We have jobs. We have families. The last thing we want to do is have God come along and turn our lives upside down.
So, we do what Moses did. We start making excuses for why we cannot do what God wants us to do. First, Moses says, look, I’m a nobody. I cannot do this. God responds, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll be with you.
Then, Moses says, “I don’t have the authority to do this. If I start telling people I was sent to rescue them, they’re going to want to know who sent me. What am I going to say to them?” God responds, “Don’t worry about that, either. Tell them I am the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. That’ll be enough for them.”
Moses keeps trying. He says, “Come on. They won’t believe that. There’s no way people are going to believe you actually appeared to someone like me.” God has an answer for that, too. God says, “I’ll prove it to them. I’ll give them some signs that show I talked to you.”
By now, Moses is getting desperate. He says, “But…but…the person who does this needs to be a really good talker. He needs to be able to persuade people. And, well, you know me, God. I’ve never been able to talk very well. I’m just not persuasive. See, I just cannot do this. I’d like to, really I would, but I’m sure you can see that I’m just not the right guy for the job.” And God says, “Hey, look, I’m the one who gives people the ability to speak. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be with you, and I’ll tell you what to say.”
So now, Moses is out of excuses. Ever been there? Maybe we know it’s God talking to us, maybe we don’t, maybe we think it’s just our conscience, but we’ve all had those times where we know we really should do something that we don’t want to do. We make all kinds of excuses for why we should not have to do it, but eventually the excuses don’t work any more. Finally, all we can do is make a decision about what we know we should do. We either have to say yes or say no.
Moses said no. Think about that. Moses, the great leader of the nation of Israel, the greatest hero of the Old Testament, said no. Moses did not want to be selected by God. He just wanted to live a quiet life. He said to God, “please select someone else.”
It’s interesting to me that it’s at this point that the Bible tells us God gets mad at Moses. Through all the excuses, all the objections, all the attempts to get out of it, God does not get upset with Moses. God just keeps patiently disposing of the excuses, answering the objections, responding calmly to everything Moses says. It’s only when Moses just flat out refuses to do what God wants him to do that God gets mad.
Even then, though, God does not give up on Moses. Instead, God gives him help. He allows Moses to take his brother Aaron with him and do the talking for him.
That’s why I think this is such a neat selection story. When Moses was selected by God, Moses reacted just like you and I do. He made excuses, he raised objections, he came up with every reason in the world why he could not do what God wanted him to do. Finally, when he ran out of excuses, he said a flat no. Through it all, God never gave up on him. God kept working with him, convincing Moses that he actually could do what God had selected him to do.
God does that for us, too. Each one of us has been selected by God to do something. It’s not the same thing for everybody, and it’s not necessarily the same thing all our lives. Still, each of us has been selected by God to do something. No one has been put on this earth for no reason. You have a purpose for being here. God has a plan for your life. God has something for you to do. God has something for me to do, too.
If you don’t know what it is, think about it. Pray about it. Talk to people about it. Keep your eyes open. If we’re looking for what God wants us to do, God will show it to us at the appropriate time.
A lot of us, though, are like Moses. We know what we’re supposed to do. We just don’t want to do it. If that’s you, think of how God treated Moses. God never gave up on him. God worked with him, encouraged him, got him help, and promised to be with him every step of the way.
God will do that for us, too. God won’t give up on us. God will work with us, encourage us, get us help, and be with us every step of the way, so we can do what God wants us to do.
The one thing God won’t do is take no for an answer. That did not work for Moses, and it won’t work for us. God has selected each of us. It’s an offer we cannot refuse. No matter what our won-lost record is, God has still selected us. All we have to do is trust God and do what God wants us to do. God has promised to be with us, and God always keeps God’s promises.
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