Sunday
10/18/20 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “The
Glory Of The LORD!”
(“Exodus: The People of the Covenant” Series: Part 7 of 7)
Old Testament Scripture: Exodus 33:12-23
New Testament Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 22:15-22
Welcome again my friends, on this the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost,
and this our Laity Sunday. Laity Sunday is generally a Sunday where we give a
special thanks to all of you, the laity. So, thank you for who you are, and all
that you do.
This morning we are going to finish
our seven-week sermon series on the Book of Exodus called “Exodus: The People
of the Covenant”. In the Book of Exodus, we had read that God spoke to a man
named Moses through a burning bush. God told Moses that the Israelites, His Covenant
people would soon be led out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses then told the Egyptian leader
the Pharaoh to let his people go from the land of Egypt. Pharaoh refuses, ten-plagues
ensued, and then the Pharaoh reluctantly agreed to let Moses lead the Israelite
or Jewish people out of Egypt. God parts the Red Sea through Moses, and Moses
leads his people, the Covenant People to freedom.
Soon there is a food shortage, and the
Israelite people rebel against God and Moses. The Israelite people also did
this in response to a water shortage. God then provided the people daily manna
from heaven and daily quail for meat and provided the people with water. Each
time that the Israelite or the Jewish people rebelled they were then reconciled
to God, and their leader Moses.
Two weeks ago, Moses was given the
10-Commandments that Jews and most Christians still follow to this day. Moses
spent forty-days and forty-nights on the top of Mount Sinai with God, where he received
many other laws for the Israelite or the Jewish people to live by. There is a total
of 613 of these laws in the first five book of the Bible, or the Torah.
Since Moses was up on the mountain for
so long, his people lost heart, faith, and hope. They convinced Moses’ brother
Aaron to allow them to create and to worship a golden calf. In addition, the people
convinced Aaron to have a wild and reckless time. God informed Moses of this, and
Moses went back down the mountain with the 10-Commandments. So angry was Moses at
what he saw that he broke the 10-Commandment stones at the bottom of the
mountain. Again, the Israelite people will repent, will turn back to God, and will
turn back to their leader Moses. Moses will get a new set of 10-Commandments,
and the saga of running to and from God will continue. In fact, it will continue
throughout the entire Old Testament of the Bible.
It will go on for so long in fact,
that for those of you that have read Old Testaments prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, Micah, etc., you might know that God called all of these prophets.
Why did God do this? God did this to bring his Covenant people the Israelites back
to Him. Prophets in the Old Testament were called to bring people back to righteousness
and holiness. Within what these prophets said and wrote, we also catch glimpses
of the one who would save all the world. The Messiah who would live, breath,
and die for us all, Jesus Christ.
After centuries of God sending out one
prophet after another to call us back to righteousness and holiness, God sent
his only son to shed his blood on the cross, so that we may be offered
forgiveness and eternal life.
With all this said, I really love our
final seven-week lectionary reading from the Book of Ezekiel. This reading is
about encountering God. When I say encountering God, I do not mean just
spiritually, as to feel God’s presence with us when we pray, for example. I
mean literally encountering God in person. This is the ultimate “In-Person”
worship!
None of us really knows what God looks
like. We are often given the image of an old white man with a beard. I do not
believe though, nor does the United Methodist Church, that God, our creator is
a physical flesh and blood being, but rather a spiritual being. In fact, the Bible
tends to explain God with three main words. God is the light, life, and love.
To be in the presence of almighty God, is to be in the presence of light, life,
and love. God, our creator is a being, but I do not believe God is a flesh and
blood being like us. Our churches, our worship spaces, exist so that people
might be drawn to God through Jesus Christ. So that all people might
experience, grow in, and encounter the light, life, and love of God.
For me, when I think of what God looks
like, I generally think of George Burns, or Morgan Freeman. Most recently, Morgan
Freeman, as he seems to portray God in a lot of movies.
This morning to end this seven-week
series from the Book of Exodus on God’s Covenant people, Moses, as I said, has
a powerful encounter with God. Let us look once again at what the scripture from
the Book of Exodus says once again this morning. It says:
“12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:12-16, NRSV).
Moses tells God that God called him to
lead the Israelite people of out slavery Egypt, and eventually one day, after
Moses’s death, lead the people to the land of milk and honey, or the Promised
Land. Yet Moses says to the presence of God, that after they are about to
depart from Mount Sinai, where Moses received the 10-Commandments, who will God
send with them?
God says in response, that his
presence, his spirit will go with the Israelite people, and the saga with
continue. One day the Israelite or Jewish people will indeed reach the land of
milk and honey, or the Promised Land, but then, as they seem to do all the
time, they will turn away from God again. There temple will be destroyed, and
they will become conquered and taken over, yet again. In this first part of
this reading from the Book of Ezekiel once again, Moses asks God for more reassurance.
So, this is what the scripture says to conclude it:
“17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” 21 And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; 23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:17-23, NRSV).
So, God tells Moses, to reassure Moses,
that God will pass by him, literally. As in walk bye Moses. Yet God says to
Moses, that Moses cannot see his face. God tells Moses that no one can gaze
upon the fullness of his face and live. To see fully the face and the person of
God the creator would be so overwhelming, so amazing, that it would literally kill
you.
God tells Moses to stand on a rock, and
God then tells Moses that when His glory passes by Moses, that God will put
Moses in the cleft or gap of the rock. Further God tells Moses that He will
cover Moses with his own hand as he passes by him. Once God is past Moses, he
will remove his hand from Moses, and Moses will only see God’s back. To see the
face of God though, it would kill Moses. This brings new life to the phrase “If
looks could kill!”
After this amazing encounter that
Moses had with the living God, God will then command Moses to cut to more tablets
of stone, and the 10-Commandments will be re-written. The Israelites or the Jews,
will again be reconciled to God and Moses. Well at least for now.
In reading this final scripture of our
Book of Exodus sermon series on God’s Covenant people, I thought about what it would
be like to literally be in God’s presence? As I said, I do not just mean
feeling God’s presence, but literally God is there in His fulness. What would
that be like? The scripture tells us that if were to look fully on the face of
God that it would literally kill us. I cannot imagine.
One the central roles of the church
then, is to shepherd people into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus
Christ. Within this, to experience God in powerful and wonderful ways. I have
heard countless stories over my life of how God called people to become pastors
or priests, or of how people came to Christ in general. I have heard everything
from near death experiences, to God showing up in a dream. What is it like to
fully encounter the living God? Imagine being with the source of all light,
life, and love? Majesty and grace in full display.
Something else that I wanted to note
in the scripture from our Book of Exodus reading for this morning, and all the
Old Testament. You might notice that in the Old Testament, God is sometimes referred
to as the “LORD”. I did not even catch this typo in our bulletin for this Sunday
when I wrote my sermon title without capitalizing every letter of the word
LORD. I forgot for a moment that the word in capital letters, “LORD”, was a
place marker for Yahweh, or Jehovah. You see the name of God to the Israelites
or the Jews is so holy that it cannot be written. Instead of saying the name of
God, you simply insert “LORD” in all capital letters. For the majesty of the
God of the universe is infinitely beyond us. For to even gaze upon the face of
God, to source of all light, life, and love, would kill us.
In our reading this morning from the
Apostle Paul’s first letter or Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul says among
other things, that the people of the church in Thessalonica are living their
faith out. These people are imitating God, living like God, and God’s love is
working through them.
This then leads me briefly to our
gospel lesson for this morning, which is once again from Matthew 22:15-22. In
this reading, as they often did, the Pharisees try to trip Jesus us, and entrap
him. Once again, this is what the scripture has to say:
“15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away” (Mt. 22:15-22, NRSV).
Jesus is asked if the government over him, and if the
authority of the Roman Emperor is supreme. Jesus is shown this with a denarius,
a Roman coin, that literally had the picture of the emperor on it. I have an
ancient Roman coin in fact, that my older brother Ken gave me. It was struck
not molded, and literally has the face of a Roman emperor on it.
When asked about paying taxes and loyalty to the emperor,
Jesus said to his interrogators, to give to the emperor what belongs to him,
and to give to God what belongs to God.
Given this, a modern-day split, or separation has developed
within Christianity in Western culture. This split is around what the role of
the church should be in the world. Should Christians and the church be actively
serving, loving, and helping everyone, especially the least, the last, and the
lost? Of course, we are! Are we supposed to radically alter governments and
economic systems as a church though? I do not believe that the church itself
should be a highly political organization. Although people of faith that are
elected to government will shape governments and economic systems. So, are we
to focus fully on Christ and serving others as a church, or are we commanded to
literally build what we think God wants for all of humanity?
I believe that we are called to focus on “The Glory of the
LORD,” and through what God is doing in us, and from this, each of us will be
called according to God’s purposes. Some of us might change governments, or economic
systems, but we would do so because God has called us individually to do so.
The role of the church is to shepherd people into relationship with Christ, and
then equipment for what God has called them to. The mission of the church then,
is broad enough that we can do many great things, while still respecting an individual
call that God has placed on someone’s life. Yet, it all starts with
encountering “The Glory of the LORD”. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment