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Saturday, April 14, 2018

Creating Our God

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 15, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 32:1-8, 15-25, 31-35.


            We’re in the second week of our sermon series on Humor in the Bible.  We talked last week about how God has a sense of humor, and I still believe that.  The thing is, though, that not all of the humor in the Bible comes from God.  Some of it comes from human beings.  And unfortunately, a lot of that humor comes from some of the dumb things we human beings say and do.
            As always, we need to put these stories in context.  At this point, Moses had led the people of Israel across the Red Sea and into freedom.  He went up on Mount Sinai, and God gave him the Ten Commandments to take to the people.
            But what we forget is that that’s not all God gave Moses on Mount Sinai.  God gave Moses a whole lot of other rules and regulations for the people, too.  God also gave Moses some detailed instructions for how tabernacle was supposed to be built, as well as the things that are in the tabernacle.  So Moses was up on Mount Sinai for about a month and a half, getting all these instructions from God.
            But while Moses was up on the mountain, the rest of the people were down at the bottom, waiting.  And they waited, and they waited.  And Moses did not come back down from the mountain.  And eventually, they got tired of waiting.  And they gave up on Moses.  We’re told that they said, “As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
            That, in and of itself, would’ve been bad enough.  I mean, it sounds like the people of Israel were not very grateful for what Moses had done.  They’d been slaves in Egypt for generations.  And here’s Moses, going to the great and powerful Pharaoh, and defeating him, and leading the people of Israel to freedom.  But now, what appears to be just a handful of months later, they’re referring to him as “this fellow Moses”, as if he was just some guy.  And they’ve given up on him.
            But the really bad thing is not that they gave up on Moses.  The really bad thing is that they gave up on God.  Because Moses had told them, and they knew, that it was really God who had defeated Pharaoh and led the people of Israel to freedom.  And in fact, just before Moses went up the mountain, in Chapter Twenty-four of Exodus, we’re told that all the people said, “Everything the Lord has said we will do” and “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
            Apparently those were just words.  They may have meant them at the time, but they had no commitment to them.  Because now they say to Moses’ brother, Aaron, “Come, make us gods who will go before us.”
            Now that’s sad, but in an absurd sort of way that’s funny.  I mean, think of it.  “Hey Aaron, make some gods for us.”  Make a god.  The definition of a god--not the God, not the God we worship as Christians, but just a god generally--is “a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes”.  They want Aaron--a human being, the brother of Moses--they want Aaron to create a superhuman being that has power over nature and has power over their lives?
            I mean, what would make them think Aaron could do that?  What would make them think any human being could do that?  How in the world would someone go about creating a god?  It’s ridiculous.
            But, Aaron does it, or at least tries to.  He takes a bunch of gold and melts in down into the shape of a calf.  And he puts the calf on an altar and tells everyone this is their god, the god that brought them out of Egypt.  And apparently, the people go for it.  I mean, this is ludicrous, They actually believe that this thing Aaron made, this thing that wasn’t even around when they were brought out of Egypt, is the god that rescued them from Egypt.  If you were there watching this, what could you do but laugh at it?  It’s beyond belief.
            But that’s not the funniest part of this.  The funniest part is when Moses comes down off the mountain and asks Aaron what in the world he thinks he’s doing.  Aaron says, “They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us’...So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’  Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!” 
Is that not hilarious?  Think about what Aaron is saying.  He basically says, hey, don’t blame me.  I don’t even really know what happened.  I took a bunch of gold, threw it in the fire, and--shazam!  All of a sudden this calf was there!  It was nothing to do with me.  I did not do it.  The calf was just--there!  Who knows how these things happen?  It just did, somehow.
            Is that not the dumbest excuse you’ve ever heard?  Little kids do better than that, don’t they?  What can you do but laugh at that?  It’s just such an outrageously stupid thing for Aaron to say.
            I have to think Aaron knew how stupid that sounded.  I think Aaron probably knew, deep down, that what he’d done was wrong.  I think he probably knew it while he was doing it.  But he’d convinced himself that it was okay.  And now, when everything came crashing down around him, the flimsiness of his reasons because obvious to him and to everyone else.
            But as we’ve said, the humor in the Bible is there to make a point.  What’s the point here?  Well, let’s think about it.
            When the people of Israel could see that God was actively working for them, they were all in with God.  Yep, Lord, we’ll do everything you want.  You’re our God.  We’re your people.  You just tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.  We’re with you God.  All the way.
            That’s what they said when they could see God actively working for them.  But then Moses went up the mountain.  And the people could not see God actively working for them.  God was working for them--God was giving Moses all kinds of instructions for what they should do.  But the people could not see that.  They could not hear it.  They could not feel it.  And they could not trust God enough to believe that God was still working for them even when they could not see it or hear it or feel it.  And so, within about a month and a half, they turned away from God.  They turned away and worshiped something they had created themselves.
            Do we ever do that?  It’s easy for us, too, to follow God when we can see God actively working for us.  But when we cannot see it, when we cannot feel it, do we still trust God?  Or do we turn away and worship something we’ve created ourselves.  Probably not a golden calf.  But material wealth, maybe?  Or pleasure, or leisure time?  Or maybe we worship our own skills and talents and abilities, rather than trusting God?  Or maybe we follow what society tells us to do, rather than trusting what God wants us to do?  Do we ever create our own “golden calf” to worship, instead of trusting God?
            And when we get caught doing that, when things come crashing down around us, when something happens where it feels like God comes along and asks us what in the world we think we’re doing, do we ever do what Aaron did?  Do we ever say, well, don’t blame me.  It was not my fault.  I had nothing to do with it.  It just--shazam!  It just happened.  I don’t know how.  It just did.  Do we ever respond to God like that?
            I said I think this is funny story, and I do.  But at the same time, any time you and I start to think that we’re smarter, or better, or more faithful than the people in these Bible stories, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall.  It can be hard to trust that God is still active in our lives when we can’t see or feel what God is doing.  It can be very tempting to give up on God when that happens.  And sometimes, you and I can give in to that temptation.  We turn away from God.  We start thinking we have to do things ourselves, that we have to take care of ourselves.  It can be easy for us to give up on God, and to create our own “golden calf” to worship.  And sometimes it does not take very long for us to do it.  
            We know, deep down, that we should not do that.  But we do it anyway.  And we convince ourselves that it’s okay.  And then, when things come crashing down around us, the flimsiness of our reasons become obvious, both to us and to everyone else.
            Is there a golden calf in your life?  Is there one in mine?  If so, let’s get rid of it.  Let’s destroy it, burn it, grind it into powder the way Moses did.  Let’s trust God.  Let’s trust that God is active in our lives, even if we don’t see that or feel it for a while.  God has promised never to abandon us.  God has a plan, even if we don’t know what it is.  If we’re not hearing from God, it could be that God is waiting for the right time.  Or, it could be that we’re just not listening, because what God is saying is not what we want to hear.  But God is still there, whether we’re aware of God or not.  And God works everything for good for those who love God.
            Let’s get rid of our golden calves.  Let’s trust God.  Let’s be faithful to God.  Because we know God will always be faithful to us.


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