Exodus 3:1-15

"What's your name?" It's an innocent question. I can imagine two children meeting up in a park and one says to the other, "What's your name?" It's a "get to know you" question that initiates a relationship.

But how one responds to such a question helps to define that relationship. If you ask for my name, I can respond in a number of ways. I can say "Call me Alex," or "I'm Rev. Stevenson," or "You can call me Mr. Stevenson." All are correct, but each sends a different message about how I expect us to relate to each other.

The Bible tells us that one day on the side of a mountain Moses met up with God. God wanted Moses to be a deliverer and lead the children of Israel out of slavery. Moses was fearful, but he asked a simple question. Moses said, "What's your name?" God's response was so profound and yet hard to understand that forests of trees have been sacrificed to print the books written about it. God's answer is basically "I am" or "I am who I am" or "I will be who I will be." Well, you get the idea. But what does this mean?

I guess the meaning of God's answer depends upon the meaning of Moses' question. Moses asks for God's name in the context of what the Israelites will ask of him when he went to them and told them that God had sent him. One concern the Israelites may have had is "Which God it is that sent Moses?" Remember that for 400 years they had lived in the midst of a polytheistic society. Many of them probably saw the God of their ancestors as just another god beside the Egyptian gods. And in Egypt Pharaoh himself was considered a god, so who was this God of their ancestors?

God's response to the question "Which god are you?" is "I am." Meaning "I really exist." The other gods are just the creations of people made of wood or stone. They do not really exist. The God who is sending Moses though is the only real God.

This really hits at the heart of the people's concern. Pharaoh is not really a god. He is just a man. The only real God is on their side. The gods of Egypt are nothing and can do nothing to stop their God.

The other concern the Israelites may have had in asking this question is: "Can this God really do anything?" In Moses' question he says, "Well, after I tell them you are the God of their ancestors, they will ask for your name. What should I say?" Let's face it; what had the God of their ancestors done for them lately? From their perspective, God had left them centuries before to rot in slavery in Egypt. If this were a real God, he would have made the Egyptians their slaves and not the other way around.

So who is this God - what is this God's power? Moses may have been looking for a power name from God. Like "I am the God of the thunder and rain" or "I am the God of earthquake wind and fire" or "I am the God of the Ages." But God simply said, "I am."

And that answered their concerns. In the "I am" is a sense of happening. God is the one who makes things happen. God is the happening God; the God that causes things. Here you have a primitive expression of the philosophers' unmoved mover; the original cause. God is the one who not only makes things happen, but God is the one who can make things happen for Israel.

Another possibility is that there is a control play going on here. In the ancient world the gods served people. The idea of their religion was to get the gods to do your thing. Knowing the name of a god gave one power. If you knew the name of a god you could call on them and they would respond. Perhaps the Israelites wanted to make God a puppet on a string like the Egyptian's gods.

To them God said, "I am." And that answered their question by not giving them what they wanted. One possible translation of God's response is "I will be what I will be." The idea is sovereignty. God is the one who calls the shots in this relationship.

This was something new. This God was no puppet on a string. This God was not freeing the Israelites because he had to. God was freeing them out of the goodness of his heart. This is a God who gives orders and the worshippers follow, not the other way around.

I think all of these are part of God's intended answer. But they are answers to the hypothetical question of the Israelites. The real questioner is Moses. Moses is saying, "Who shall I tell them sent me?" In the verses before Moses has said "Who am I to tell Pharaoh what to do?" and God responded "I will be with you and I am the one telling Pharaoh what to do." So Moses responded "And who are you?" only Moses puts the question in the Israelites mouths.

I wonder if Moses is trying to establish the basis of his authority to give Pharaoh orders? Who was Moses anyway? He was a fugitive ex-prince of Egypt who was still tending his father-in-law's sheep at the age of 80. That is like the mailroom boy telling the CEO what to do.

But God responded to the concern by expressing his greatness and personalness. So it is not the mailroom boy telling the CEO what to do. It is the mailroom boy taking a message to the CEO from the one and only stockholder who owns 100% of the company. Moses is not going to Pharaoh as a fugitive of slave stock. He is going as a messenger of the great "I AM."

Moses met up with God one day and said "What's your name." and God said "I AM." Have you met up with God lately? I don't mean have you seen a burning bush and heard a voice from heaven. I mean have you encountered the presence of the living God? Have you felt God's presence in a sunset, or a verse of scripture, or the smile of a friend, or the cry of a baby?

We all meet up with God at one time or another. Moses turned aside to see the burning bush, but he didn't have to. Too often we meet up with God, but we don't bother to turn aside. Moses went further than just turning aside, he listened to what God had to say. Too often we just vent our wants and needs, and don't listen to God.

And God called Moses. God told him to order Pharaoh to "let my people go." And Moses voiced a number of excuses and a few legitimate concerns. "Who am I, who are you, and who's gonna help me?"

If you know Jesus Christ then you have encountered God. And Jesus calls us if we will stop and listen. He calls us to free those enslaved to sin a death. He calls us to be deliverers of those who suffer the hardships of oppression and poverty. He calls us to minister to the loneliness and suffering of the world. He calls us to take up a cross and follow him.

But we don't go alone. The great I AM goes with us. The Almighty God who is the only real god. The God who makes things happens is with us.

So when they ask you who gave you the right to tell them what to do. When the world asks: "Who gave you the right to tell us that we must love our neighbors?" or "Who made you the spokesperson of what is right and wrong in my life?" or "Who says I can't take advantage of my neighbor or those gullible enough to fall for my scam?" You can say, like Moses, "I AM sent me!"

Matthew 16:21-28

Are you living or just surviving? There's a big difference between the two. It's a matter of quality of life. To merely survive means that your body is functioning but there is no meaning to life. Real life means living with a purpose. Living means having a life that is full and meaningful.

Quality of life is an important issue for many people today. The bookstores are full of self-help books. All of them designed to help you find more meaning in life. People do all kinds of things seeking meaning. People take assertiveness training or join encounter groups. The rise in the occult and New Age religions is a result of people looking for purpose and direction. Some throw themselves into their profession because they hope to find purpose and meaning there. All this activity; just to improve their quality of life.

Of course there are some who don't try to improve the quality of their life. These are the ones who lose themselves in drugs or gambling or loose lifestyles. They are really trying to escape the meaninglessness of life. They are trying to hide from themselves and others the utter emptiness of their lives. They are merely surviving instead of really living.

Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."(John 10:10) Jesus says he can give us an abundant life. A life with meaning; a life with purpose. If we will believe in him and follow him, we will be living and not merely surviving. This is the answer to what so many people are seeking. It is the promise of salvation from the emptiness so many are trying to escape.

But Jesus reveals some truths about discipleship in his words to his disciples from Matthew. He says, "If any want to become my followers, let then deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." This seems contrary to everything that the world is doing to find fulfillment. They aren't trying to deny themselves; they are trying to actualize themselves. The world glories in the self. They even have a magazine by that name: the product of the me generation. They don't want to lose themselves instead they spend a lot of time trying to find themselves.

And what is this stuff about taking up a cross. A cross is and instrument of torture. One who carries a cross is one who is bearing humiliation and shame. One who bears a cross is one who bears public reproach. Is Jesus saying that we must be humiliated and tortured and ridiculed to find abundant life? That doesn't make sense!

And then Jesus says, "For those who want to save their lives will lose it and those who lose their lives for my sake will find it." That makes little sense at first glance. Logic dictates that if you lose your life you lose it, period. Logically, if you want to save your life you should hold on to it with all your might.

What Jesus says here may seem illogical, but it is ever so true. Let's begin with "those who lose their life will find it." The story goes that a soldier was wounded on a cold battlefield. The medic on the scene quickly realized that a major artery had been severed and he could not stop the bleeding. No matter what the medic did, by the time help arrived the patient would bleed to death. So he quickly removed the blankets and took off the soldier's coat. The cold air took effect and hypothermia set in and the man froze to the point that his heart stopped. The soldier was rapidly moved to a medical facility where the artery could be sealed. Then he was revived. By inducing hypothermia the medic had stopped the bleeding and bought the patient some time. In order to save that soldier's life he had to lose it. It was a risk. There was the chance that the doctors couldn't revive him. Or that brain damage would still occur because of lack of oxygen. But otherwise the man would have surely bled to death. But what would it have profited him to ward off hypothermia and lose the patient. Likewise "what does it profit them if they gain the whole world and lose their life?"

Let me tell you another story; a more familiar one. Jesus took up a cross and "endured great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes."(Matt. 16:21) He died on a cross for the sins of the world. But he rose again to give eternal life. He could have avoided the suffering and the death, but he would have lost eternal life of all of us. Instead he lost his life so that he could win us eternal life.

If you think about it, it really makes sense that the only way to get a meaningful life is to lose our life. First of all Jesus said, "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Jesus is not just talking about losing our life period, but giving it away for Christ and his kingdom. That makes sense because meaning is not found in ourselves. You can't find purpose by indulging yourself. The world has been trying that since the dawn of time and it hasn't worked yet. Purpose is found in Christ. Meaning is not found in serving ourselves but in serving others in the name of Christ. Abundant life isn't derived from humans but it is given from above by Almighty God.

Are you living or just surviving? The answer to this question is a matter of life and death, because merely surviving is actually a living death. While living means having an abundant and meaningful life, are you aimlessly wandering through your days with no purpose other than to keep your physiological functions working so you can stay out of the cemetery? Or is every day full of the Love and Joy of your Heavenly Father?

Do you want an abundant life, or a more abundant life? Give your life away, then you will find it. Give your heart to Jesus in devotion, and he will give you enough love to overflow your heart. Give Jesus your hands and feet in service, and he will fill your life with inner joy. Take up your cross of suffering and shame so that others may see the way to eternal life.

Don't get me wrong, if you choose an abundant life you will suffer. If God didn't spare His Son from suffering, would He spare you? That suffering is necessary so that others can know the joy of salvation. People will ridicule you for giving yourself away. They will despise you for denying the material wealth and ideologies that they hold to. They will persecute and mistreat you for bringing Good News and liberation to those who they oppress.

But the reward is great. For what is it to preserve you life when that life is a living death? Isn't it better to give up surviving so that you can start living? Your reward for giving yourself away to Christ will be sharing the wonderful saving work of God in this world. And when Jesus returns, and he will return soon, and everyone is repaid for how they lived, you will know an even greater reward.

Exodus 3:1-12

Moses was minding his own business. Or rather he was minding his father-in-law's business. He was just keeping his father-in-law Jethro's flocks. He had put behind him the incidents in Egypt. The awful oppression which his people were under. he beatings the Egyptians gave to the children of Israel. The kind of injustices which had caused him to kill an Egyptian. He had also forgotten the attempt to be a leader for his people and the fact that he had fled from Pharaoh. All Moses was thinking about was his job and his wife Zipporah and Gershom his son. Just like us he was probably wondering if the Braves would ever make it into the World Series.

God on the other hand was thinking about other things. God was actively thinking about the way that the Children of Israel were being treated. And God remembered the promise given to Abraham and Sarah that their offspring would be a great nation. God remembered the plan to bring them out of slavery and into a land flowing with milk and honey so that they could be a blessing unto the nations. While Moses was thinking about the Braves, God was planning to save Moses' people.

God could not forget the slavery of the children of Israel. So God sent an angel to appear to Moses. As Moses was keeping his father-in-law's sheep the angel appeared to him as a burning bush and said, "Hey you, Moses, take off your shoes and listen to me. I am the God of your ancestors and I have heard the cries of my children as they toil in slavery in Egypt. So I have come to deliver them. I will save them and take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. And I want you Moses to go to Pharaoh and lead my people out of slavery."

I'm sure Moses was a little overwhelmed to say the least. It's not everyday that God talks to you out of a burning bush. But Moses was also scared. You see he didn't understand that God was going to go before him and do the important stuff to free the people of Israel. Moses thought God wanted him to do it all by himself. How was helpless little Moses supposed to free the children of Israel from slavery. So Moses said, "Well, uh, God, or whatever your name is, I most respectfully decline your invitations. Because most humbly speaking, How in the World do you expect me to do that! Pharaoh will kill me if I try to free his slaves I will never see my family and children again."

God could see that Moses was worried. Our Lord is all knowing after all So God said, "Look Moses, you won't be doing it alone. I will be with you and I will be guiding you. Look Moses I am in control I know you are worried so I will make you a promise. You go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of slavery and I will lead you safely back to this mountain to worship me."

God never changes. Some people do not realize this and they think that God was different in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. But God is changeless, the same tomorrow today and forever. The God which spoke to Moses is the same as the God which came to die for our sins.

The story of God calling Moses out of a burning bush is an example of the way that God is. God saw the need that the Israelites were in Egypt and God came down to deliver them. In the same way our Lord sees the need of the people of this world to be saved. And so God has made a way for us to be saved from our slavery to sin.

God is the same today and forever. In the past, God promised Moses that he would not be alone. Moses couldn't save himself or his people but God promised to do it for him. Today God promises that through the Blood of Christ we will be saved from our slavery to sin. We don't have to do it ourselves it has been done for us.

The meal which we will take part in later in this worship. service is a sign of this Our gracious God gives us good gifts. God sent Christ so that through the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood we could receive everlasting life. And in the celebration of Holy Communion we remember that gift and give thanks for it. And through this act of worship God feed us the spiritual food we need God has not changed. . God still saves. This meal is our sign and promise that God saves us. Let us partake in Joy!

"When Israel was in Egypt's land, let my people go;

Moses was minding his own business. Or rather he was minding his father-in-law's business, when the call of the Lord came. Moses was keeping his father-in-law Jethro's flocks. He had put Egypt behind him. Sure he had felt called to lead his people in the past. He had imagined that he could deliver them from bondage.

But all that was 40 years ago. He had tried to lead his people out of bondage. He had even killed an Egyptian for beating an Israelite. Then he ran. He ran from the possible death sentence. He ran from the responsibility of being a deliverer.

Moses had a new life now. He was married and had a son. He was going to take over the family business: "Jethro's Shepherding, Inc." Just like us he was probably going about his business and wondering if the Braves would make it into the World Series this year.

That's when it happened. Right there on the mountain of God. Moses saw a burning bush. It was on fire but it didn't burn up. Moses said, "I gotta check this out." Little did Moses know that the bush was just an attempt by God to get his attention.

Once Moses was there and alert, God spoke. He called, "Moses, Moses!" Moses responded, "Here I am!" "Don't come any closer and take off your shoes you are standing on holy ground." The God when on, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." At that Moses hid his face for he was frightened. He thought he was in trouble 40 years ago in Egypt, but he was really in trouble now!

Yet, when the Lord spoke it was not to judge Moses who had failed in his earlier calling. It was to call Moses. It was to give him authority and power to go and free his people. God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush to send him to tell Pharaoh "Let my people go!"

You know the rest of the story. Moses went to Egypt. He told Pharaoh to let the people go. God sent some plagues and parted a sea. And Israel went to the Promised Land a free nation.

The image of the burning bush is a reminder of that call. But it is a symbol of our calls too. Like Moses most of us go through our lives just takin' care of business. We go through our 9-5 grind week in and week out. We are just minding our own business.

Then something happens that gets our attention. Perhaps we or someone we know gets sick or has a serious accident. Perhaps a baby is born and suddenly we are responsible for a whole new generation. Perhaps a carrier reaches it end and as that door closes another opens. Perhaps we just wake up one day and see the beauty of a sunrise or of the mist on a field.

And when God sees that he has our attention he speaks. God calls us by name. Maybe not an audible call but God touches our hearts and souls in a personal way. And he calls us to his work. He sends us to comfort the distraught, to heal the broken, to free the oppressed, to bring light to those who dwell in darkness.

That is what the burning bush is showing us. It's not so much Moses' call as it is ours. God is calling you. That calling may be of many different kinds. He may be calling you to salvation; to give your life to Christ. He might be calling you to make a commitment to serve him. He might be calling you to baptism or to join the church.

God may be calling you to devotion. To study the Bible and prayer. It may be to service in the community or in the church. It may be preach and teach.

I don't know what it is for each individual. But I do know God is calling you. Just as God came to Moses in his everyday life God comes to us. Just as he got Moses' attention God gets our attention. And just as God spoke to Moses God speaks to us.

The burning bush reminds us that God is calling. Are you listening? Are you listening for God's direction? If you stopped most people on the street and asked them if God was calling them, they would laugh. Yet in Christ God calls all people to salvation. Ask most Christians if God has called them and they would say "Who, me?" Yet Jesus calls us all to love God and our neighbor.

Most people think God just calls preachers and prophets like Moses. But when God called Moses he was just a sheepherder. And when God called me I was just a kid in the 4th grade who liked telescopes and music. God calls ordinary people.

And God calls churches too! God is calling Grace. Are we listening? God is trying to get our attention so he can tell us something. He wants us to go heal the sick, lift up the fallen, give sight to the blind, light the darkness, free the oppressed. Just like Moses, our people are slaves to a Pharaoh called Sin. And God is calling us to go to Pharaoh Sin and say, "God Almighty says, let my people go."

God is calling - are we listening?