No Fear

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 1, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 16:2-5, 13-31.

            As we continue with our sermon series, “Holy Moses”, looking at the life and times of Moses, we need to remember how far Moses has come.  When we first met him, he was a shepherd, taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep.  Now, he’s the unquestioned leader of the nation of Israel.  With God’s help, he’s defeated the Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army.  Now, they’re headed out to the Promised Land.  Should be smooth sailing from here on in.

            Except, of course, life very rarely works that way.  We overcome something big, we do something we thought we could not do, we feel good about ourselves, we start thinking we can sit back and take it easy, and before we know it here comes something else to cause problems for us.

            For the people of Israel, it was food.  See, the Promised Land was a long way away.  To get to there, they had to cross a desert.  There was no food.  And, once again, the people of Israel start complaining.  They’re scared that they’re going to starve out there.  So, God produces manna for them to eat.

            We may not realize what a major thing this was.  Nobody had ever seen anything like this before.  It’s not like they were walking around and found some food.  God just produced it.  It was there, on the ground, every morning.  And at first, nobody knew what in the world it was.  You heard in our Bible reading that when the people of Israel saw the manna, they said, “What is it?”  They did not know.  The way it sounds, they had no idea what this stuff was.  They may not have even known it was supposed to be food.  In school we used to make jokes about mystery meat, but at least we knew it was supposed to be food.  The people of Israel may not even have known that much.  They asked “What is it?”  In fact, that’s what the word “manna” literally means:  “what is it”.  God gave the people of Israel “what is it” to eat for forty years.

            As we read this story, the striking thing about it is how slow the people of Israel were to trust Moses and to trust God acting through Moses.  We skipped over this part, but when Moses first went in front of Pharaoh, the people of Israel did not really think anything was going to come of it.  They did not expect to be set free.  Then, they were set free, but as we heard last week, they thought the Egyptian army was going to either capture them or kill them.  Then, in a part we also skipped over, in Exodus Fifteen, the people thought they were going to die of thirst because there was no water.  After God acted through Moses to get them water, we come to the current reading, where the people think they’re going to die because they don’t have any food.  Over and over again, the people of Israel refuse to trust that God is going to act through Moses and take care of them.

            And it continued through the rest of this reading.  Moses tells the people not to try to save any manna until tomorrow, but some don’t listen.  They try to save some for tomorrow, and it’s no good.  Moses tells them to take a double portion on the sixth day, because the seventh day will be the Sabbath, the day of rest, and there won’t be any manna that day, but again, some don’t listen.  They go out looking for manna on the seventh day, and of course don’t find any.  They keep refusing to trust Moses and refusing to trust God acting through Moses.  They keep trying to do things their own way.

            Why?  Why do they do that?  God acts through Moses time after time in Exodus.  God comes through for the people and gives them everything they need, time after time.  And yet, the people of Israel never learn to trust God.  They keep doubting.  They keep complaining.  They keep trying to go their own way.  Why?

            Well, some of you have probably already guessed part of the answer.  It’s fear.  They were afraid of what might happen.  The people of Israel did not trust Moses and did not trust God to act through Moses because they were afraid.

            Look at it.  They’d been slaves in Egypt all their lives.  They’d been there longer than anyone could remember.  It was not great to be slaves, of course, and I’m not trying to sugarcoat it in any way.  But still, it was all they knew.  It was all they’d ever experienced.  And they were used to it.  They’d been born as slaves, they’d grown up as slaves, they’d gotten married as slaves, they’d had kids as slaves.  They’d come to accept slavery as their lot in life.

            And now here comes Moses, telling them that God is going to get the mighty Pharaoh to set them free.  And it may have sounded good in theory, but they really did not believe it could happen.  And in fact, when they thought it might happen, they were scared of it.  After all, they did not know what freedom was like.  What would freedom mean?  Where would they live?  What would they do?  How would they survive?  At least the Egyptians gave them food and shelter.  They knew where their next meal was coming from.  They knew what tomorrow held.  If they were free, who knew what might happen?

            And after they were set free, some of those fears seemed to be realized.  Yeah, we’re free, but where are we going to get any water?  Yeah, we’re free, but where are we going to get food?  We’d have been better off to stay in Egypt, to stay with what we were used to.  It was not great, but it was safe.  We knew how to handle it.  Now, we have no idea what’s going to happen to us.

            It was the same when Moses told them not to save any manna for the next day.  They tried to save some because they were scared.  What do you mean, Moses?  Don’t save any for tomorrow?  We don’t know where this manna came from.  We’ve never seen it before.  We don’t even know what it is.  How do we know there’ll be more tomorrow?  What if there’s not?  I’ve got to take care of myself and my family.  I’ve got to save some manna for tomorrow, just in case we don’t find any when tomorrow comes.

            God, acting through Moses, comes through for the people of Israel time after time after time.  And yet, the people of Israel can never get over their fear.  They can never just trust that God will take care of them.  God gave them a chance to live a worry-free life.  All they had to do was trust God.  But they could not do it.  Their fear got in their way.

            That’s what fear does to us.  It keeps us from living a worry-free life.  The reason we have so many worries, the reason we have so many fears, is that we don’t trust God.  We say we do, and maybe sometimes we do, but a lot of times, we don’t.

            And I’m no better at it than anyone else.  There are a lot of times when I fail to trust God, when I let my fear get in the way.  But it’s sad.  It’s sad for me, and it’s sad for you.  God gives us the chance to not have to worry.  God gives us the chance to live our lives without fear.  “Give us this day our daily bread” is what we pray.  Give us enough for today and help us trust that God will give us enough for tomorrow.  We pray it.  But so many times, we don’t do it.  We believe it in theory, but we don’t live our lives by it.  Our thoughts are just like those of the people of Israel.  What do you mean, trust that God will give us enough for tomorrow?  How do we know there’ll be more tomorrow?  What if there’s not?  I’ve got to take of myself and myfamily.  I’ve got to save some for tomorrow.  And we let our fears get in the way of our worry-free life.

            Over and over again, the Bible tells us to trust God and to not be afraid.  Some of you may have seen the thing that says there are three hundred sixty-five times in the Bible where it says “do not be afraid”.  I don’t know that that’s actually true--I’ve never counted--but I know it says it a lot.  It says to trust God a lot, too.  Over and over again.  Trust God.  Have faith.  Believe.  Don’t be afraid.

            The people of Israel never got over their fear.  But we can.  With God’s help, we can get past our fear.  We can trust God.  We can live our lives without fear.  God will give us enough for today.  And when tomorrow comes, God will give us enough for tomorrow.

Go Forward

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 25, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 14:5-31.

            We’re in the middle of our sermon series “Holy Moses”, looking at the life and times of Moses.  As we do, we come to what may be the most famous story about Moses there is.  In fact, it’s one of the most famous stories in all of the Bible.  It’s the story of God, acting through Moses, parting the Red Sea.

            Just as an aside, some of you know that there’s some question about whether it was actually what we now call the Red Sea that was parted.  Some would say that’s a mistranslation, and that it was actually the Reed Sea, the Sea of Reeds.  I don’t know, and other than as a matter of historical interest, it really does not matter.  The point is that it was a sea, a body of water, and God, acting through Moses, parted it.

             Last week, we covered the Passover and the killing of the firstborn of Egypt.  After that, the Pharaoh of Egypt finally let the people of Israel go free and leave.  But as you heard, after the people of Israel left, Pharaoh and his people changed their minds.  They went out with the mighty army of Egypt to go after the people of Israel and bring them back.

            Imagine you’re Moses at this point.  Think of all you’ve been through.  First, you were minding your own business as a shepherd when God called you and told you to go to the Pharaoh and get the people of Israel freed.  And even though that scared you to death, you did it.  And it worked.  Against all odds, it worked.  You, little old Moses, squared off against the mighty, powerful Pharaoh and won.  God helped, of course, but still.  You did it.  The people of Israel are free.  Not only are you free, you left triumphantly.  We’re told in Exodus twelve that God made the Egyptians favorable disposed to the people of Israel, so that they gave the people of Israel silver and gold and clothing.

            So now, here you are, headed out toward the Promised Land.  And you hear some noise coming from behind you.  You turn and look.  And there’s the army of Pharaoh, charging after you.  All the chariots of Egypt.  All the army officers.  All the horses and horsemen and troops.  They’re all chasing after you, and they’re about ready to catch you.

            All your people, the people of Israel, are terrified.  They come to you and say, “What have you done to us?  Why did you bring us out here to die?  We’d have been better off to stay slaves in Egypt.  At least we’d still be alive.  Now, we’re going to die here.”

            And while we’re not told this, it would not be surprising if some of these same thoughts were crossing Moses’ mind, too.  But of course, he cannot say that.  So he tells the people not to be afraid, that God will deliver them.  Maybe he really believed that, or maybe he was trying to make himself believe it.  We don’t know.

            But if Moses did not believe it, if he was starting to doubt, we could understand why, right?  We can understand why the people of Israel were doubting, too.  Think of their position.  On one side, they have the entire might of the Egyptian army, the biggest and best army around.  On the other side, they have--water.  The Red Sea.  Or the Reed Sea.  Whatever.  It was a body of water, and it was big enough that they could not cross it without boats, which they did not have. 

They were trapped.  They had no way out.  If they were lucky, they’d be captured and taken back to Egypt.  If they were unlucky, they’d be killed.  Certainly, Moses, the ringleader, would be killed, and so would Aaron and any of the other leaders of the people of Israel.

No wonder they doubted.  I probably would, too.  Most of us probably would.  Here they were, doing their best to follow God and trust God and do what God told them to do.  And it looked like it was going to work.  But now, it looked like it had all gone wrong.  Everything had fallen apart.  They had no chance of success and no chance of rescue.  They had no hope.

I suspect some of us have felt like that at some point in our lives.  Here we are, living our lives, doing the best we can.  We’re trying to follow God and live good lives.  We’re doing our best to do exactly what God wants us to do.  And then, all of a sudden, we’re trapped.  There’s no way out.  Whichever way we turn, we’re bound to meet with disaster.  Everything has fallen apart.  We feel like we have no chance of success and no chance of rescue.  We feel like we have no hope.  We feel like we’d have been better off not to even have tried to follow God in the first place.

We cry out to God, just like Moses did.  And God says what God said to Moses.  “Why are you crying out to me?...Move on.”  God says, don’t worry about it.  I’ve got you covered.  I have a plan.   I’ll take care of you.  This is going to work out for my glory.  Just keep moving forward.

Move forward?  Move forward where?  That's what the people of Israel asked.  Moved forward where?  Toward the water?  Toward death by drowning?

Well, the people of Israel moved forward.  Maybe they trusted God, or maybe they just did not know what else to do, but they moved forward.  They came to the water.  They stopped.  The army of Egypt was right behind them.  Only a miracle could save them now.

And that’s what they got.  A miracle.  Moses stretched out his hand, and the waters parted.  And the people of Israel walked through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

And we think, well, that’s real nice.  Glad it worked out for them.  But is that what I’m supposed to do?  I’m in this trap with no hope, and I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for God to work a miracle?

No.  But we are supposed to rely on God.  And we are supposed to listen to what God’s telling us to do, even if what God’s telling us to do does not make sense to us.

God did not tell the people of Israel to sit around and wait for God to work a miracle.  God told them to trust God and move forward.  And when they did, God showed them the way out of the trap.

But you know what?  They still had to take advantage of it.  Think about what the people of Israel did.  They walked out into the middle of what just a few minutes ago had been the Red Sea.  Or the Reed Sea.  Whatever.  They walked out into it, with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left.

Think about doing that.  Even though God had worked a miracle, they had to trust that God’s miracle would carry them through.  They had no guarantee that the wall of water would hold.  It could collapse at any time.  If it did, they’d drown.  No two ways about it.  If that wall of water collapsed, they’d be dead.  Period.

I wonder how long they waited before someone went out into what had been the sea.  We tend to picture Moses leading the people out, but the Bible does not say that’s what happened.  Who went first?  Was their first step really tentative?  Did they go really slowly at first, so if the water collapsed they could get back to shore?  When they got out a ways, did they hurry up, so if it collapsed they’d have a chance to get to the other side?  And what about the ones who went last?  Were they trying to get people to hurry up, before the waters collapsed again?

God worked a miracle for the people of Israel.  But the miracle would not have done them any good had they not moved forward.  And the miracle would not have done them any good if they had not trust God enough to believe that God’s miracle would carry them through.

Most of us have a time when we feel trapped.  We may feel trapped in a job.  We may feel trapped in a financial mess.  We may feel trapped by an illness.  We may feel trapped by things that have happened to our loved ones.  There are all kinds of ways to feel trapped in life.

            When that happens, we need to cry out to God, just like Moses did.  And it’s even okay to ask God for a miracle.  But we’re not supposed to sit back and do nothing and wait for God to act.  We’re supposed to move forward.  We’re supposed to move forward as far as we can, and then trust that God will show us the way out.  But even then, we cannot just sit back.  We still have to trust God enough to move forward again and trust God enough to believe the God is going to carry us through.

            Our first steps may be tentative and slow.  But that’s okay.  Just so we keep moving forward.  Just so we keep trusting God.  God understands our fear.  But if we trust God enough to keep moving forward, no matter how slowly, God will show us the way.  And God will carry us through.

There Are More Out There

This article first appeared in the January, 2015 issue of the Wheatland Parish Newsletter.

             I wrote earlier in this newsletter about our new prayer emphasis on people who feel alone.  I want to make sure we don’t forget about our other prayer emphasis, on reaching the unchurched children of our parish.

If you went to the kids’ Christmas programs in either Onida or Gettysburg, you saw the number of kids we now have in our church school programs.  There are around twenty kids now in each church.  That’s up quite a bit from where each church was at this time last year.  I want to make clear that I’m not taking credit for any of that.  I know where the credit goes.  It goes to the people of this parish, and it goes to God.

We started our prayer emphasis on reaching the unchurched children of our parish last April.  I’m not sure what people thought might happen when we started it.  In fact, I’m not even sure what I thought might happen.  We did not start it with any plan in mind, nor did we start it with any specific goal, other than the goal of reaching unchurched children.  We simply prayed and trust God.  And it certainly appears that God is answering our prayers.  

We are and should be grateful for all that God has done to help us reach those children.  But let’s not be satisfied.  Let’s not be complacent.  Let’s not think we’re doing all we need to do.  This growth in our church kids’ programs has been wonderful, but we know there are a lot more kids out there.  There are a lot more kids in our parish who are not going to church or church school anywhere.  There are a lot more kids in our parish who do not feel the presence of God in their lives, guiding them, helping them.  There are a lot more kids in our parish who do not know about the salvation that is available to them through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

We need to reach those kids.  We need to do that in whatever way we can.  If that means they become part of one of our church school programs, that’s great.  But if we reach them in some other way, that’s great, too.  We said at the beginning of this prayer emphasis that it’s not about us having a big church school or a big church.  I’d love if that happened, and you probably would, too, but this is not something we’re doing for us.  This is something we’re doing for the children and for God.  However those kids get reached for God is great, as long as they do, in fact, get reached for God.

You may feel like there’s nothing you can do to help, but there is.  We could use more help in our church school programs.  If you see kids, and if you think there’s a chance they may not be going to church or Sunday school anywhere, spread the word about what we’re doing.  If you don’t see any kids, maybe you see some parents or grandparents.  If you do, and you think there’s a chance their children or grandchildren may not be going to church anywhere, spread the word about what we’re doing.  You may be able to influence more people than you realize.

But if not, you can still do the most important thing, which is to pray.  Maybe you already are.  If so, keep doing it!  And if not, please start!  Pray that God will help us reach those unchurched children.  Pray that God will touch people’s hearts, both those already inside the church and those outside the church.  Pray that God will bless our efforts.  Pray that God will keep our desire and our determination strong.  You can probably think of other ways to pray, too.  

It is only through prayer that we have done the things we’ve done so far, and it is only through prayer that we will be able to do more.  Never think “all I can do is pray” as if prayer was not really important.  Prayer is the most important thing there is.

            There are a lot more unchurched children out there.  With God’s help, we can reach them.  So let’s ask for God’s help.  There’s no telling what may happen when we rely on God.

The People's Choice

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 18, 2015.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 12:1-30.

            We’re in a sermon series called “Holy Moses”, looking at the life and times of Moses.  Last week we discussed the plagues that were put on Egypt by God as a result of Pharaoh’s refusal to set the people of Israel free.  We only discussed two of them last week, but there were a total of nine before the last one, the one we read today.  This last plague was the worst of all, the first born of every Egyptian, and the first born of all their livestock, were killed.  Only the people of Israel were spared, and then only if they followed God’s instructions to the letter.  This, as some of you know, is the event that is called the Passover, because the houses that followed God’s instructions were “passed over” when death came.

            This, quite honestly, is not the most comfortable passage to preach.  We like to think of God as this loving, caring God.  The good shepherd, taking care of the sheep.  And of course, God is that.  But then, we read a passage like this.  Not a lot of love in this passage.  Not for the people of Egypt anyway.  God showed love to the people of Israel.  God protected them and saved them.  This was the event that finally led to the people of Israel being set free.  But we’re told all the time that God loves everybody, with no exceptions.  Where’s God’s love for the people of Egypt?

            Now, in the case of Pharaoh, we can at least say that Pharaoh deserved it.  After all, Pharaoh was responsible for the mistreatment of the people of Israel in the first place.  And it’s not like Pharaoh was not warned.  Moses went to Pharaoh time and time again.  Plague after plague had already happened, each one worse than the one before.  Pharaoh would promise to set the people of Israel free, but he kept going back on his word.  God gave Pharaoh plenty of chances, and Pharaoh did not take them.  So, when we look at this story, we can at least say that God gave Pharaoh plenty of warnings and Pharaoh just would not listen.

            But it was not just Pharaoh who suffered.  Listen to this:  “The Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.”

            Pharaoh may have deserved it.  But what about everyone else?  What about the common, ordinary people?  They had not done anything wrong, or at least no more than we or anyone else does.  They had not kept the people of Israel captive.  They had no power to set them free.  Yet, all their firstborn died.  And the Bible does not give any ages here.  A firstborn might have been a young man in the prime of life.  A firstborn might have been a five-year-old kid.  A firstborn might have been a little baby, the essence of innocence.  And what about the animals, who don’t even have the ability to know right from wrong?

            All these firstborn were killed.  All these innocent people and innocent animals.  And it’s not like this was an accident or anything.  We’re told, in no uncertain terms, that it was God who killed them.  “The Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt” is what the verse says.  There’s not a grey area here.  There’s not room for interpretation.  The Bible says pretty clearly that God is the one who killed all these innocent people, or at least they’re innocent as far as human standards are concerned.

            Why would God do that?  How is that right?  How is that fair?  How does this square with the loving, caring God we believe in?

            These are questions we ask in a lot of contexts, of course.  Because there are all kinds of things that happen in this world that don’t seem right.  There are all kinds of things that happen that don’t seem fair.  And even if we don’t believe that God directly caused them, we know that, being all-powerful, God could stop them.  Yet, God does not do that.  God allows all these wrong, unfair things to happen.  Why?  How does this square with the loving, caring God we believe in?

            It’s a question people have been asking for centuries.  I don’t claim to have the answer to it.  But part of the answer is that God allows people to make choices.  And the choices we make do not just affect ourselves.  The choices we make affect other people.  Sometimes they affect people who are completely innocent, people who have nothing to do with anything.  Our choices can affect people who did not cause the situation and had no power to change it.  And the choices of other people affect us, even when we did not make those choices and had no power to change them.

            So what does that mean for us?  Well, for one thing, obviously, it means we need to be careful with the choices we make.  We need to think about the consequences of those choices, not just for ourselves, but for everyone else.

            That’s one of the things that becomes clear in the story of Moses and the Pharaoh.  It looks to me like in all these things, Pharaoh was not thinking about anyone but himself.  He was not worried about what was happening to his people.  I mean, think of all these plagues that happened.  The Nile River becomes so foul that no one can drink out of it and all the fish die.  They have frogs hopping everywhere.  They get swarmed by gnats.  They get swarmed by flies.  There’s a plague on the livestock.  People get boils all over their bodies.  They had a hailstorm that destroyed their crops.  They had locusts come and eat anything that was left after the hailstorm.  They had total darkness for three days.

            Pharaoh could’ve stopped this at any time.  All he had to do was set the people of Israel free.  But he would not do it.  That was not because he had any concern for the people of Egypt.  The people of Egypt did not hate Israel.  They were not clamoring to Pharaoh to make sure he kept the people of Israel in slavery.  In fact, we’re told in Chapter Eleven that the people of Egypt liked the people of Israel.  They’d have been okay with letting the people of Israel go.  But Pharaoh would not do it.  He made a choice, and his choice had consequences not just for him, but for all the people of Egypt.

            But there’s another aspect to this, too.  Sometimes we’re in the position of Pharaoh, making choices that affect the lives others.  But a lot of times, we’re in the position of the people of Egypt.  We have to accept the consequences of the choices other people make.  People we have no control over.  People we don’t even have any influence over.  Sometimes, we don’t even know who those people are.  But their choices affect all of our lives, and sometimes not in a good way.

            So what do we do in those times?  What do we do when we’re suffering because of choices other people made, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it?

            I think that’s when we find out how strong other faith is.  Because even in these situations, we do have choices.  It may seem like we don’t, but we do.  We can just accept the situation, accept our suffering, shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, that’s just the way it is.”  We can sit around and complain about those lousy so-and-sos who are making our lives miserable.  Or, we can pray to God for help.

            Because we are never powerless.  We may think we are, but we’re not.  Because you and I are children of God.  We worship the almighty, all-powerful, all-loving, all-caring God.  We may be powerless when we try to do things ourselves, but we are never powerless when we rely on the power of God.  God can deal with things we cannot deal with.  God can change situations you and I cannot change.  It may seem like there’s nothing we can do, but there’s always something we can do.  We can pray, and we can ask God for help.

            When all of these plagues were going on, the Bible does not tell us how the common people of Egypt reacted.  I’m sure they did not like it, but what did they do?  Did they just accept the suffering and say, “Well, that’s just the way it is”?  Did they sit around and complain about that lousy Pharaoh?  Did they pray to their own gods?  We don’t know.

            But it’s pretty sure that they did not pray to the God of Israel.  The people of Israel did.  The people of Israel asked God for help.  And God responded.  The firstborn of Egypt were killed, but not the firstborn of the people of Israel.  God passed over them.  Again, that’s where the term “Passover” comes from.  When the killing of the firstborn happened, the people of Israel were passed over.  God saved them.

            God is in control.  And God does love us.  But God allows humans to make choices.  And those choices do not just affect the people who make them.  They affect lots of other people, too.

            Let’s be careful in the choices we make.  And let’s be sure to pray for God’s help.  We are never powerless when we can rely on God’s power.

Let's Get Connected

This article first appeared in the January, 2015 issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

            Last month we announced a new prayer emphasis in the parish.  We are praying for people who feel alone.

            As we said last month, that does not necessarily refer to people who are single or who are shut-ins.  It can include those people, but we can be surrounded by family and friends and still feel alone.  Aloneness is a feeling that we have no one we can go to when things go wrong.  We have no one we can confide in when we have problems.  We have to carry our burdens, whatever they may be, alone and in secret, because no one cares enough about us to want to share those burdens with us.

            When I was writing about this last month, and when I talked about it with others, I kept feeling like there was a word I was trying to think of and I couldn’t think of it.  I think I’ve thought of it now.  The word is “connection”.  We need to feel that we’re connected to each other.

            “Connection”, after all, is a good United Methodist word.  John Wesley used it all the time, usually with the old English spelling “connexion”.  We sometimes refer to our denomination as “the connection”.  We say that we have a “connectional system”, with each individual United Methodist church connected to every other United Methodist church.  We’re also connected to all of the organizations of the United Methodist church.  We support each other and help each other and accomplish much more that way than we ever could by ourselves.  

            That’s what we’re talking about in this prayer emphasis.  We need to be connected to each other.  We need to support each other.  We need to help each other.  We need to love each other and encourage each other.  That’s what life is all about.

            You know, in the second chapter of Genesis, we read where God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone”.  I don’t think God was talking about marriage, necessarily.  What I think God was talking about is that life is too big and too hard for us to go through it by ourselves.  We’re not meant to do that.  We need other people to help us.  We need other people to be there for us.  And sometimes we need to be the “other people” who help and are there for someone else.

            I think that’s one of the main reasons God created the church.  After all, it’s entirely possible for someone to believe in God and to accept Jesus Christ as their savior without going to church.  God did not need the church to get believers.  One of the reasons the church exists is so God’s believers can support each other and strengthen each other and encourage each other and help each other.  And another reason the church exists is so God’s believers can reach out to others in love and support them and strengthen them and encourage them and help them.

            As God’s children, we are all connected to each other, whether we’re inside the church or outside of the church.  But it’s not enough to know that in our heads.  We need to feel that connection in our hearts.  We need to feel that each person we meet is our brother or our sister.  And we need to show love to each person, the way brothers and sisters are supposed to.  That means we need to be there for each other, in the good times and in the bad times and in all the times in-between.

            So let’s make that one of our New Year’s resolutions.  Let’s be connected to each other.  Let’s be connected to each other within the church, and let’s be connected to those who are outside the church.  Let’s be there for each other.  Let’s care for each other.  Let’s support each other and encourage each other.  Let’s love each other.  Let’s let there be no one in the communities of our parish who feels alone in 2015.

The Hard Way Every Time

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 11, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 7:14--8:15.

            We’re in the second week of our sermon series “Holy Moses”, looking at the life of Moses.  Last week we covered Moses seeing the burning bush, being called by God and, very reluctantly, agreeing to go with his brother Aaron to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to set the people of Israel free.  This week, we see them there, talking to Pharaoh.

            Pharaoh won’t set the people of Israel free, so God sets a series of plagues on Egypt.  We read the first two, the plague of blood and the plague of frogs.  There were ten in all, ending up with the Passover, which we’ll talk about next week.  We did not read all ten today because it simply would’ve taken too much time.

            In fact, we probably could’ve just read the first one, but I always get kind of a kick out of the plague of frogs.  I mean, think about this.  God acts through Moses and Aaron and this army of frogs comes up out of the Nile River.  That’s what you call a group of frogs, by the way--an army of frogs.  There are frogs everywhere.

            So I picture Pharaoh going to his court magicians.  He says, “The God of the Israelites has brought all these frogs on us.  Everywhere I look, there are frogs.  I get up in the morning, there are frogs on the bed.  I look in my closet, there are frogs on my clothes.  I go to eat breakfast, there are frogs on the table.  Not just frog legs--that might be okay.  I’m talking real live frogs.  Frogs are everywhere.  Here a frog, there a frog, everywhere a frogfrog.  You guys are supposed to be magicians.  I want you to show this God of the Israelites who’s boss!”

            And they say, “Don’t worry, Pharaoh.  We’ll take care of it.”  And what do they do?  They produce more frogs!  Now Pharaoh has twice as many frogs as he had before!  And Pharaoh says, “Guys, you want to help me?  Stop helping me!”

            But of course, that’s not the point of the reading.  The thing is that God puts all these plagues on Egypt.  At first, Pharaoh’s magicians can duplicate them, for all the good that does, but eventually they cannot.  At that point, even the magicians realize this is the real, honest-to-goodness God that is doing these things.  And then, we start having this cycle.  God puts a plague on Egypt, all kinds of damage is done, and Pharaoh goes to Moses and says okay, you win, I’ll let Israel go if you’ll just get God to call off this plague.  And God stops the plague, but Pharaoh goes back on his word.  We’re told that “his heart became hard” and he won’t let the people go.

            This happens over and over, for several plagues.  I wonder how Moses reacted to it all.  Did he get tired of it, having to go back to Pharaoh over and over again, hearing the same promise from Pharaoh?  Was he hopeful that this time Pharaoh would keep his word?  Was he skeptical, figuring this was just another lie?

            But what’s more interesting to me in this story, really, is Pharaoh.  I read this, and wonder, just how hard is Pharaoh’s heart, anyway?  How stupid and stubborn can he be?  Can he not see what’s happening here?  Why does he not just let the people of Israel go?  Yeah, it’ll hurt to not have the labor, but it’s better than having the whole country in ruins.  Why does he not get it?  What is wrong with this guy that he cannot see what’s going on?  

            Well, there are probably a few things wrong with him.  And to an extent, they’re the same things that are wrong with us sometimes, too.  Our hearts can get hard, too.  Let’s look at a few of the things that were going on with Pharaoh and see if they sound familiar.

            One of the reasons Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to change the system.  The system of getting slave labor from Israel has worked well for a long time.  At least, it had worked well for Pharaoh and his family and friends.  It did not work so well for the people of Israel, but Pharaoh really did not care much about that.  For him, that old system had been working just fine.  The problem, of course, that what had worked before was not working now.  The situation had changed, and it was obvious that Egypt was going to have to change with it.  

But even though it was obvious to everyone else, even to the magicians, Pharaoh could not see it.  He could not see the need to change because he did not want to change.  He kept telling himself that the old system had worked before, and it could work again.  He convinced himself that everything would be okay if things would just get back to the way they’d been.  The problem with that, of course, was that things were not going to get back to the way they’d been.  God was not going to allow that.  And Pharaoh should’ve been able to see that.  But he did not see it, because he did not want to see it.

Does that sound familiar?  Have you ever been in a situation where what had worked in the past was no longer working, but you did not want to admit it?  I suspect most of us have.  We like the tried and true.  We’re loyal to what’s worked for us in the past.  We’re used to it.  We’re comfortable with it.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily.  But when the situation changes, when what worked in the past does not work now, we need to be able to recognize that.  Sometimes, God is trying to send us a message that we need to make some changes.  We need to soften our hearts and be open to changing.

            Another reason Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to admit he was wrong.  He had scoffed at Moses.  He did not think Moses’ God could do anything to hurt him.  After all, he was the Pharaoh.  He was great and powerful.  Eventually, it became clear that Moses’ God was more powerful than Pharaoh.  That is, it was clear to everyone but Pharaoh.  Again, Pharaoh did not see it because he did not want to see it.  He refused to admit that he, the great Pharaoh, could be wrong.

            Does that one sound familiar?  I’ll bet it does.  It can be really hard for us to admit we’re wrong.  It can be especially hard to admit we’re wrong if we’ve made a big show of saying that we were right.  Even when it’s obvious that we’re wrong, it can still be really hard for us to admit it.  But we need to.  We need to be willing to soften our hearts and admit our mistakes.  If we don’t, we’ll keep making mistakes, just like Pharaoh did.

            That’s one of the reasons we need to confess our sins to God.  It’s not so God will know what we’ve done--God already knows.  It’s to soften our hearts.  It’s to get us to acknowledge our sins and our mistakes so we’ll know we need to change.

            Another reason Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to admit that he’d lost control of the situation.  Again, he was the great and powerful Pharaoh.  He controlled everything.  And now, all of a sudden, he had no control over anything.  God was in control, not Pharaoh.  And it scared him.  So, he went into denial.  He tried to pretend he was still in control, even though it was obvious to everyone that he was not.

            Have you ever done that?  Have you ever lost control of a situation and tried desperately to get that control back?  I suspect most of us have.  It’s scary to feel like were not in control.  It’s scary to feel like we don’t know what’s going to happen next and we have no way to determine what’s going to happen.  It’s scary to feel like we have to surrender to someone else’s will.  It’s even hard to surrender to God’s will.  We know we’re supposed to do that, but it’s hard.  We’d rather have God surrender to our will.  At least, there are a lot of times I would.  But it won’t work that way.  We need to be willing to soften our hearts and acknowledge that God is in control and we’re not.  That’s the only way things will work.

            And there’s one other thing to notice.  Pharaoh was willing to give in to what God wanted when things were going badly.  But when the crisis was over, when things were going well, Pharaoh forgot all about what he’d said before.  He was willing to acknowledge God’s greatness when he needed God’s help.  But he ignored God when he thought he no longer needed God.  His heart softened when he was in trouble, but it hardened again when the trouble was past.

            We tend to do that, too.  How many times have we been in trouble and cried out to God for help?  And then, when the problem was over, how many times have we forgotten God and gone about our business again?  A lot of times, we don’t even remember to say thank you.  At least, I don’t.  When things are going well, it’s easy for our hearts to get hard.  We need to remember God in the good times and in the bad times.  We need to keep our hearts soft.

            I’m not saying that the bad things that have happened to us have been caused by God.  But sometimes, God is trying to get our attention.  When that happens, we need to soften our hearts and see where God is leading us.  We need to be willing to change, to admit when we’re wrong, to surrender to God’s will, and to keep doing that regardless of whether things are going badly or things are going well.

            Pharaoh paid the price for hardening his heart.  If we harden our hearts, we’ll have to pay the price, too.  So let’s soften our hearts.  Let’s follow God.  It won’t always be easy.  But in the long run, following God will take us where we need to go.

Say Yes to the Lord

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 4, 2015.  The Bible verses are Exodus 3:1-12 and 4:13-16.

            Today we start a new sermon series, “Holy Moses”, looking at the life of Moses.

I want to make clear that we’re not doing this to try to tip the Bible Bracketology contest in Moses’ favor.  You’re free to vote for whoever you want.  We’re doing this because, as some of you know, there’s a movie that came out recently called Exodus, purporting to tell the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt.  

Now, I’ve not seen the movie, and I have no opinion on whether it’s any good or not.  You’ll have to make up your own mind about that if you go see it.  But the real story of Moses is interesting enough without any Hollywood hype added to it.  In fact, we could easily have made this sermon series at least twice as long as we are.  There’s just that much good stuff about Moses in the Bible.

In fact, right off the bat we’re going to skip over two of the interesting stories about Moses:  his rescue from the Nile River as a baby, and his killing of an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave.  Those are good stories, and I’d encourage you to go to the second chapter of Exodus and read them.  But we’re going to start this sermon series with Moses being called by God.

Moses is living with his wife’s family at this point.  He’s working for his father-in-law, taking care of the sheep.  Just another day.  No reason to think it’s going to be anything special.  Then he looks over, and he sees this bush that’s on fire.  He watches it for a little while, and the bush does not seem to be burning up.  He goes over to check things out, and all of a sudden God is calling to him from a bush.  God has a mission for him.  Moses.  The shepherd.

And it’s not just an ordinary mission, either.  A long time before, the people of Israel had gone to Egypt for rescue from a famine.  That’s in the story of Joseph, which some of you may remember.  But now, Joseph has been dead for a long time, and the people of Israel are living as slaves.  And so Moses is supposed to go to the Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, and get the people of Israel out of Egypt and take them to the promised land.

Moses, of course, reacts the way you or I might react.  He says, “Who, me?  I cannot do that.  You must’ve made a mistake here, God.”  In fact, in the part we skipped over, Moses raises all kinds of objections to God’s plan.  He comes up with all kinds of excuses for why he should not have to do this.  But God keeps answering all his objections and sweeping away all his excuses.  God says, “Don’t worry about it.  You can do it.  I’ll be with you.  It’ll be okay.”  And Moses is left with only the choices of saying yes or saying no.  

And what does Moses do?  He says no.  He tries to, anyway.  When we pick up the story again, we hear Moses saying, “Lord, please send someone else.”

As I was thinking about this story this week, it struck me how so many of the stories in the Bible of people being called by God follow this same sort of pattern.  You have an ordinary person going about his or her business on an ordinary day.  Nothing to distinguish today from yesterday or the day before.  No reason to think anything special or important is going to happen today.  And then, all of a sudden, they get a message from God.  Sometimes the message comes from an angel, sometimes it comes from God directly.  But either way, they get this message.  And God is asking this ordinary person to do something extraordinary.  God is asking this common person, someone nobody really thought too much about, to do something that will make them be remembered forever.

And they all react the way Moses reacted, the way you or I would probably react.  They all say, “Who me?  I cannot do that.  You must’ve made a mistake here, God.”  And they raise all kinds of objections to God’s plan.  They come up with all kinds of excuses for why they should not have to do it.  And God keeps answering all their objections and sweeping away all their excuses.  God keeps saying, “Don’t worry.  You can do it.  I’ll be with you.  It’ll be okay.”  And the person being called is left with only the choices of saying yes or saying no.  And sometimes they try to say no.  They say, as Moses said, “Lord, please send someone else.”

Why do they say that?  Why does Moses say it?  Because he’s afraid.  And you can understand why.  Pharaoh is great and powerful and has an army at his command.  Moses is a nobody.  Who wouldn’t be scared?

But what’s interesting about that to me is that it’s only at this point in the story that God gets angry with Moses.  While Moses is objecting and making excuses, God is very patient.  God keeps working with Moses to convince him.  But when Moses just says no, that’s when God gets angry.  God does not take no for an answer.

But God does not give up on Moses, either.  Instead, God understands Moses’ fear, and God gives him some help.  God says, okay, I’ll send your brother Aaron with you.  I’ll tell you what to say, you tell Aaron what to say, Aaron will say it to the Pharaoh, and it’ll all work out.

Most of us, at some point in our lives, feel God calling us to do something.  We may or may not realize that’s who it is.  Sometimes we may know it’s God who’s calling us, but other times we don’t.  In fact, sometimes, we don’t really know what’s going on.  We just have this feeling that there’s something we’re supposed to do, or somewhere we’re supposed to go, or someone we’re supposed to see.  We may not even know why we feel that way.  In fact, it may not be something we even want to do.  But the feeling won’t go away.

And we react the way everyone else does.  We say “Who, me?  I cannot do that.  You must’ve made a mistake here, God.”  And we raise all kinds of objections.  We make all kinds of excuses.  And yet, the feeling does not go away.  Deep down, we feel God answering our objections and sweeping away our excuses.  And finally, we’re left with only the choices of saying yes or saying no.

Have you ever said no?  I have.  I’ve tried to, anyway.  Why?  Because I was afraid.  But when I’ve done that, God would not take no for an answer.  I won’t say God got angry with me, because I never felt that, but these are the times I’ve told you about before.  These are the times when I could not feel the presence of God with me, when it felt like my prayers were just hitting the ceiling and coming back to me.  I was trying to get God to do things my way, rather than agreeing to do things God’s way.  But God never gave up on me.  God said, I’ll give you some help, and it’ll all work out.

Are you trying to say no to God right now?  I’ll bet some of us are.  I think the chances are very good that there are some of us right now who are trying to say no to God about something.  We may know it’s God or we may not, but we have that feeling.  We have that feeling that there’s something we’re supposed to do, or somewhere we’re supposed to go, or someone we’re supposed to see.

And there are some of us who are saying, “Who, me?”  And we’re trying to raise objections.  And we’re trying to make excuses.  But the feeling does not go away.  God keeps answering our objections and sweeping away our excuses.  And deep down, we know we’re left with only the choices of saying yes or saying no.

When Moses finally said yes, it led to him leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.  It was not always easy.  But God stayed with Moses, and it all worked out.  It led to Moses being remembered thousands of years later.  It led to him still being considered one of the greatest leaders in history.  All because, in the end, he said yes to what God was calling him to do.

Each one of us is called by God, just as much as Moses was.  We may not have seen a burning bush and we may not have heard a voice.  But each one of us is still called by God.  Some of us may have already said yes and are already doing what God has called us to do.  But some of us are still raising objections and making excuses.  And some of us are trying to tell God no.  Why?  Because we’re afraid.

But it won’t work.  God does not take no for an answer.  But God does not give up on us either.  God will give us some help, and it’ll all work out.

Think about what God wants you to do.  Pray about it.  Then, conquer your fear.  Say yes.  God will help you.  

         
            It won’t always be easy.  But God will say with you, and it will all work out.  God was with Moses.  And God will be with us.