“Moving Forward”

Are we there yet? How much longer? It’s been too long!” How close are we? Are we there yet? I’m tired, I want to go home! Aren’t we there yet?
Anyone who has traveled with a child - or maybe even an adult - has heard these whiny phrases over and over. I’ve even said in response, “If you don’t stop asking we are never going to get there”. It really didn’t help but it made me feel better……
The journey for the Hebrews has been a long one. 40 years - and throughout the summer we have heard their stories and suffered along with them on this arduous trip. We have heard them complain about water - and God provided water on many occasions from many different sources. We have heard them complain about food - and God provided them with manna and quail. We have heard them complain about Moses and Aaron being their leaders - and God showed them who was truly in charge.
On their journey they received their law to teach them how to live and how to have a relationship with God. They received the tabernacle so they would have a place to worship and to experience the presence of God. And they received the Ark of the Covenant which housed a jar of manna, Aaron’s budding rod that proved his leadership and the two tablets of the 10 commandments.
During the journey God told them over and over again the purpose of the journey was to learn to depend on God - and so God provided everything for them; God did everything for them; God was always there for them when they needed something. God even disciplined them when they needed it which is the mark of a loving parent. And we look at the Hebrew people and wonder why it was so hard for them to trust God since not only did God provide everything they needed, but they could actually see God in the cloud that would rise out the the Holy of Holies and return back to Holy of Holies. They had visual evidence that God was with them. And yet they still questioned…..
We see that most clearly when the Hebrews reached the Jordan River. They should have been real excited to reach the Promised Land - after all that was the destination of their journey through the desert. But they reached the Jordan and God says “All you have to do is cross over and there is the land I promised you!” And the Hebrew people hesitated. They weren’t sure. So they send 12 men into the promised land to ‘check it out’. The 12 men come back and they all agreed the Promised Land was everything God had told them it would be. It was beautiful and lush and grew huge crops. It was paradise. But 10 of the men said the land was beautiful but it was full of giants and they were afraid and they said that if they crossed over into the promised land they would all be killed by the giants. So they recommended the Hebrews just stay right where they were - or perhaps go back to Egypt.
But the other two men - and we know their names - Joshua and Caleb - gave their report. Yes the land was beautiful and filled with wonder, and yes there were giants. But, Joshua and Caleb said, if God provided for us all through the desert and if God protected us all through the desert and if God told us he would give us this land, don’t you think we should have enough faith to trust him to lead us safely into the new land?
They got it right. That is exactly what God wanted them to say. That is exactly what God wanted from his people.
However, sadly, they people voted on it and fear won out and they decided that even though they had done all this work to make it to the promised land, they were too afraid to cross the Jordan and they weren’t going to go into this scary place inhabited by giants….
And God said, “I’m sorry you feel this way. If that is what you want I am going to send you back out into the desert and when you all die off and only your children remain, I’ll bring them back here again and see if they will be willing to cross over into the beautiful land I have provided for you.”
And that is what happened. God sent them back out into the wilderness.

So what do we learn from this story? What is it that holds us back as individuals and as a church because we don’t trust God enough. First, we can’t go blindly forward in our lives without taking moments to stop and look back because when we do that; when we take time to reflect about where we have seen God and what God has done for us in our lives, we see how very much he has done for us and what we are suppose to realize, is that where he has been there for us in the past, he will not abandon us in the future. God will always always be there for us and with us. I know you have heard the verse: The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. But it is not enough for us to know this verse - what God wants for us is to believe it. To not worry about the giants across the river but to trust that if that is God is sending you then God will certainly be there.
After Jesus’ resurrection he appeared to his disciples. First on the Sunday of this resurrection and then again the following Sunday evening. The first appearance Thomas wasn’t present and Thomas wouldn’t believe Jesus was resurrected. So the second appearance, Jesus made a point of proving to Thomas he was really resurrected by allowing Thomas to touch the wounds in his hand and side. And it was then Thomas believed who Jesus really was. And then Jesus says to Thomas “This is great that you believe now that you have seen, but you know who is really going to blessed? Those who haven’t been able to touch my hands and side and yet they still believe”. That’s us. We haven’t been able to touch Jesus’ wounds and we are still asked to believe. And when we do believe, we are assured we will be blessed…..
But we do have evidence of God’s love and grace and care. But you gotta slow down and think about it and look at what has happened in your life. You gotta pray that God will help you remember what all he has done for you. And when you take the time to do that, you will be amazed. But even more important, you will have all the evidence you need to believe in God’s presence and to understand that what God has done for you he will continue to do….
So because of their unbelief the Hebrew people get sent back out into the wilderness to wander around until everyone of the generation who left Egypt has died - except for Joshua and Caleb - and now they are back to the Jordan River again. But this time there is no hesitation. This time they are ready and eager to begin their new lives in the promised land; the land of milk and honey.
It is an exciting time. They have had to say goodbye to Moses who has died and accept their new leader - Joshua. They have to take some time to ‘consecrate’ themselves to prepare for the new land.
Here is an interesting practice that is pretty foreign to us. How many of you consecrate yourselves before you come to worship or before you read your Bible or before you pray? Consecrate simply means to put yourself in the right frame of mind so that you can truly concentrate on the things of God. I bet you all are a lot like me - I sit down to pray or read my Bible and I get started and before too long I am thinking about how the car needs washed or the chicken coop needs work or a million other things I could be doing. What God tells us is that in order for worship or prayer or bible reading to really be what God intends it to be, we have to spend some time and mental and spiritual preparation. Its like an athlete who is getting ready to run a marathon or play a soccer game, what do they always do first? They warm up, they prepare their muscles for what is coming. And God challenges us to ‘prepare’ ourselves for spending time with him in prayer and worship and study.
And that is what the Hebrews did. They consecrated themselves and the next morning was the big day! They gathered their belongings and the priests were told to bring the Ark of the Covenant which represented the presence of God, and to just walk out into the Jordan River carrying the ark.
Something we need to keep in mind. At this time of year the Jordan was not a shallow, lazy river. It was a swollen, deep, raging torrent. Imagine standing on the bank and being told you are going to be the first one to just step off the bank into the swiftly flowing turbulent water?

But the priest did it and when they had made their way to the middle of the river, the river did the same thing their parents and grandparents had seen the red sea do. The river walled itself up on both sides and the Hebrews walked across the river on dry land and off to their new life in the land God had promised them.
It had been a long long journey. A lot to learn and a lot to experience and the goal of this adventure had simply been to learn to trust God. And when that happened, when they were willing to put that foot into the raging waters and make that step of faith, when they were willing to trust God amazing things happened.
And that is the message for us. We are people of God - just like the Hebrews. And just like God promised the Hebrews he would care for them, he has promised us he would care of us. And just like God promised he would be with the Hebrews every step of they way, God assures us he is with us every step of the way.
Also think about how the Hebrews acted on this journey - they whined, they complained, they disobeyed God. But God never left them. God stayed with them. God continued to provide for them. God still got them to the promised land.
So don’t ever think that you have done something to cause God to leave you; don’t ever throw up your hands and think it is done. You’ve blown it and God wrote you off. Won’t happen and the Hebrews have proved that to us.
Our summer with the Hebrews ends with good news! With great news! They made it! The promised land was theirs! And that is good news for you - cause you will make it to! Just keep focused and have faith!

Amen!

SNAKES!

If you enjoy scary movies or science fiction, the story we read from the book of Numbers today will certainly appeal to you. If you like those programs about some type of reptile becoming numerous and taking over, or if you like those animal planet shows about strange animals around the world, this story is for you! This Old Testament narrative is another example of how you can find all types of incredible and strange occurrences in Scripture.
The story opens up as we hear another account about the Hebrew people on their journey across the wilderness on their way to the promised land. Their journey lasts 40 years and this story takes place during the latter part of the journey. Up to this point we remember that God has taken care of these people every step of the way. They have had to provide nothing for themselves. They have been given food, water, a means to worship, Laws to govern them. They have shelter, clothing, shoes, protection. They have a guide to show them the way and solve their problems. They lacked for nothing. But, being human, as we have learned it is only three days into the journey before they started complaining. The food wasn't there fast enough. The water wasn't there immediately when they got thirsty. They are like children with no memory at all and when they were reminded of what God had done for them it didn't seem to matter at all. "Yes God has provided food and water for the last 25 years, but will he do it today?". Not only would they complain that God wasn't giving them food right away, but they would then say that their life had been better when they were in slavery in Egypt. Imagine how hurtful that was for God who had done so much for them and loved them so much. After all, it was because they cried out to God to save them that God responded and freed from the hard life they were living as slaves to the Egyptians. Now that they had what they wanted, they claimed it wasn’t really what they wanted after all.
When our story opens up, the Hebrews are still complaining. What would you do if you had poured your heart and soul into caring for someone, had done everything for them, had essentially made their life simple and easy, and all you heard back for years was complaining. (Pause) God has been pretty tolerant don't you think. No gratitude for all he has done, just one complaint after another. Now they are complaining because they want different food. They are tired of manna and quail. They want something different. And they go into the familiar 'We were better off in Egypt. Sure we don't have to do a thing to get this food except pick it up off the ground - but we were better off in Egypt as slaves working ourselves to death.....'. Well, God finally reached his breaking point.
Did you ever say to your kids - "if you don't stop whining, I'm going to give you something to whine about?" I admit I did and I usually followed through by making them do chores. That is exactly what God does here. "if you guys are going to whine and say these nasty things, here is something to really whine about". And he sends them snakes - lots and lots of snakes.
When people are polled about the things they are frightened of, snakes always come up as the #1 thing people are afraid of - so imagine snakes everywhere. Whenever you walked outside your tent, snakes. When you went to get your manna in the morning, snakes. When you went to get the water, snakes. Everywhere snakes. The ones God sent were a certain type of snake called 'fire' snakes. Fire snakes are little black snakes with red markings that looked like flames. Their name also represents the redness and swelling that occurs when they bite. These snakes are small, a few inches long and they jumped. Think about what the cloths the Hebrews wore. Sandals and robes - lots of exposed skin. So these little snakes would jump and attach to bare skin and inject their venom. The venom would at the very least make the person very ill and could quite possibly be fatal. The Hebrews would go out of their tent to pick up their manna, and there would be these snakes jumping at them, go out to get their water, more snakes. Jumping biting snakes everywhere. The Hebrews run to Moses and say "Moses. Do something!". Moses goes to God and asks God to 'do something'. What would you expect God to do? Getting rid of the snakes would make sense right? But God as usual has other ideas, other plans.
This was God's solution: He told Moses to get a pole, make a bronze likeness of these fiery little snakes and put it on top of the pole and then make sure the pole was somewhere everyone could see it. Moses was then to instruct the people that whenever they were bit by the snakes, if they look up at the pole, they would be healed, 'saved' from the harmful effects of the snake bite. Nothing difficult. Bit by a snake, look at the pole and everything would be OK. Isn't it interesting that God didn't just get rid of the snakes; that he left the snakes there as a constant reminder but gave the people a way to be healed. Didn't take much effort, all they had to do was look up and they would be saved from the effects of the poison. Even though they had a way out, they still had to contend with the snakes.
Years later as Jesus is trying to explain to Nicodemas what salvation is all about, he refers back to this story. Nicodemas is a member of the Sanhedrin – the council that oversaw all the lives of the Jews. It was made up of prominent citizens and religious leaders. It was the Sanhedrin who was so upset with Jesus who was questioning the ‘way things had always been done’. They didn’t like this ‘new stuff’ that Jesus was teaching. It was the Sanhedrin who tried to keep thinking up ways to get rid of Jesus and it was the Sanhedrin who would eventually arrest and try Jesus and send him to Pilate to be crucified. Nicodemas was a member of this group. But some of the things that Jesus had said resonated with Nicodemas and he wanted to know more. Nicodemas had witnessed the miracles Jesus had performed and he knew that the only way that Jesus could be saying what he was saying and doing what he was doing was if he was of God. Nicodemas as a Jew has been taught his whole life that it was being a descendent of Abraham and living by the Law that produced a relationship with God. As a teacher, Nicodemas had been taught as he went through school the same thing – it was being descendent from Abraham and following the law and as a teacher that is now what he taught. But Jesus was saying something entirely different. So Nicodemas arranged to meet with Jesus to learn more about what this all meant. Jesus tries to explain to Nicodemas that it was not Abraham or following the law that mattered, but letting God change your heart that mattered. That transformation was what was important – allowing God’s spirit to come into your life and transform you into who God knows you can be as his child – as a part of his Kingdom.
“I don’t understand this works?” Nicodemas says. “I thought it was not becoming something new, but staying with the way we have been living since we received the law that was important. You say it is just the opposite. Not staying as we are, following the law, that is important. You say we need to change, be made new, let God transform us? I don’t understand.” So Jesus replies, “Remember that story in the Bible about the snakes? Remember how God has Moses lift up that pole and it was looking at the pole that saved the people? That is what is going to happen. Just like that snake was lifted up and used to save the people from the snake bites, I am going to be lifted up and it is by looking to me that people will be brought into a relationship with God.” Jesus explains that just as the Hebrews got their life back when they looked at the snake on the pole, people would get eternal life when they looked at him lifted up on the cross.
We all have the equivalent of little fiery snakes jumping at us in our life. Yes we all have COVID to contend with but think about the all the things that cause you pain, that cause you sadness, that cause you difficulty, all those things that hurt you. Think about all those things that just make your life other than that paradise you wish it would be. Wouldn’t it be great if God would just make it all go away. If God would just right now wipe away all our tears, take away all our pain, take away all the aggravations that we have to live with every day. But just like he didn’t take away those snakes, he doesn’t make our life right now a paradise. What he does give us is his son, his son lifted up on a cross, his son who will die for us, will rise for us, will ascend into heaven for us. God gives us his son lifted up on a cross and promises us if we will just look to him, if we will just put our trust in him, we will be transformed, we will receive healing and peace; we will receive the promise that there will be a day with no more tears or pain or aggravations. All we have to do is be willing to look to the cross.

Amen.

Note: pause for just a couple seconds between each of these questions

I want you to think for a minute about ‘the good ole’ days’. What do the good ole’ days mean to you? What do you picture when you hear that phrase? What emotions does that raise in you? What are the happenings, the experiences, the people that make you think of these good ‘ole days? What is happening around you when the good ‘ole days come to mind?
If we all got up and walked over to Fellowship Hall and sat around the tables and started talking about what the good old days meant in each of our lives, there would be some similarities, but each of us would have a different take on those days. We would be different ages and in different places and doing different things. What the good ‘ole days mean to us is a very personal thing.
But what we need to think about is that the same time period in our life where we think about those good days, for someone else the experiences wouldn’t be so great. For each of us the same time period that we think was so wonderful, for someone else those days would be their ‘bad ole days’ - filled with not so pleasant experiences.
What we also need to stop and think about is that what we call ‘good ole days’ are just times in our lives when we felt safe and secure and we had a feeling of being familiar in our surroundings. It is a time when we knew and understand what was going on around us. If we looked at the newspapers of those days we call ‘good’, we would find there was plenty going on around us that wasn’t so good - but that was OK because it was a time we understood.
And as we move forward in our lives and we run into these times when everything around us is changing and the world no longer looks the same and we don’t understand many of the events swirling around us and things just seem out of control - the good ole days seem better and better. Because those days we understood that looking back that is where we get our sense of what should be normal. Because what we conceive as normal feels good.
But as we talk about almost every week, very little of what God asks us to do is easy. And God is always pushing us to put the past behind and to keep moving. As you read the stories of the Bible what you find is that God is continually moving people in new directions, whether it be physically moving them from one place to another or spiritually moving them into new ways of understanding their relationship with God. I have looked if there is a Story where God has told the people to go back to doing things the way they use to and I cannot come up with one. Now, occasionally God would send people back to the same location they were in before but never for things to return to their understanding of normal, but to do things and to look at things in a new way.
Think for example of the Hebrews we are following through the wilderness. They are going back to where the Hebrew people started. Abraham lived in what was known as Canaan - which is what we call Israel today and what the Hebrews in the wilderness call the promised land - and here are God’s people going back to that same place, but not to return to life as it was for Abraham, but to establish a new kingdom; a new nation under God and because these Hebrews were from Egypt, this land of Canaan, the promised land, was completely new to them. God’s idea was to start from scratch and to establish his rule in this new land he was giving to them.
We could spend the next several months just talking about the stories which point out God’s directive to keep moving forward. Jesus says in Luke: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus never minces any words or sugar coats realty. He just flatly comes out and says directly what he wants us to know. Look at what is ahead and not at what is behind. Or in other words, don’t look back at the good ‘ole’ days and desire to return to that. Sure it is fine to sit and reminisce over the good times in our lives, but not in a way that we desire to go back to that time. Jesus just keeps pushing us into new ways…
Remember Jesus tried to go home once, back to his home town of Nazareth. And what happened there? He got run out of town - even his family asked him to leave. Jesus learned as we learn, you just can’t go back and expect things to be as they were.
When I think of moving forward I think about people like Noah. We all know the story of Noah but we neglect sometimes to see Noah and his family as real people. Noah and his family lived in a town; they certainly had friends and experiences in that town just like we do. Think about the neighborhood you live in and the people you know; your jobs or your hobbies; the things you do that makes you happy. Then think about everything changing - not just a little bit but completely. Everything Noah and his family held dear is gone. Nothing is going to be the same after the flood. I cannot imagine Noah’s grandchildren sitting in the ark and not thinking about what they left behind - their friends, their experiences. Think of your children or your grandchildren, what do you see them talking about missing as they go off to this new life after the rain is over to begin a brand new life in a new place. My grandchildren would be talking about missing Paw Patrol. But what they missed isn’t what concerns God, God wants them to begin again with everything brand new and different than what they are use to.
Probably my favorite example of this is in the story of Lot and his wife. When I was studying to be a lay preacher at Dubuque seminary, my wife was going to Pittsburgh seminary for her Masters of Divinity degree, she would come home on weekends and like the theology nerds we were we would talk about what we learned each week in our respective classes.
She told me about a class she was taking that was about the old testament it was taught by a Jewish Rabbi. As he explained we read the Old Testament through the eyes of Christians knowing these stories are leading us to better understand Jesus Christ, but Jews look at these stories totally different because they don’t have that lens of Jesus to understand the stories. Something we can learn a lot from. The class that week had been on Sodom and Gomorrah, specifically on Lot and his wife. Remember Sodom was an evil city and God decides to destroy it, but he saves Lot and his family by getting them out of town before the destruction hits. God specifically tells them not to look back as they run away. But Lots wife does - and what happens to her? (pause to see if anyone answers) She turns into a pillar of salt. Now I bet you picture an actual statue of Lots wife made up of salt - right? What the Jewish teachers teach about this story is not that she became an actual pillar of salt, but ‘turning into a pillar of salt’ is a Jewish phrase which means we look with sadness back on something we long for. We weep (cause tears have a lot of salt in them) over a longing to return to the way things were. Lots wife turned back and was weeping as she longed again for the life she had in Sodom - which is specifically what God told them not to do. The actual words in Hebrew mean - ‘Forget about this place and move on’. Don’t long for the way things were.
And this is exactly what is happening with the Hebrews in our story today as we continue to follow them on their journey to the promised land. The Hebrew people are whining again and that old mantra appear again - “We want to go home. We want to go back to Egypt.” Now every time they cried and told Moses “we want to go back home” it was over something different. This time it is food. “Moses we are tired of this food we eat in the desert, we miss our cucumbers and our garlic and our melons …” Kinda makes me hungry thinking about those foods because I am pretty fond of them myself and it is close to lunch!
But we can understand that, can’t we? Have you ever been put on a restrictive diet and you can’t eat the foods you love? Its hard but you know you can’t go back and start eating them again or you will just get sick all over again.
Right at this particular moment for the Hebrews the good ‘ole days centered around the food they miss out in the wilderness. They have plenty of food, but it is different food and it is not the food they are use to. It is free food and easy food, they just have to pick it up each morning. But it is not the food they are use to. Now think about what they are asking - just to get cucumbers and melons they are longing to go back to a time when they were slaves working 20 hours a day, being beaten repeatedly by the Egyptians. They were miserable which is why they cried out to God to begin with to get them out of there. But see, they had forgotten all of that because they wanted something that was familiar. They were tired of this new world they were in where they had to walk in the desert sand instead of the lush grass in Egypt; where the whole of the life was something new and unfamiliar. Putting up with the slavery thing didn’t seem so bad if they could just have things the way they were use to them……
We really need to be careful as we look to the past. Yes, it seems comfortable; it seems normal; it contains those experiences and those practices we consider the good times in our lives. It is understandable for us to want to surround ourselves with things we know. With the things and the practices that make us feel all warm and fuzzy. But that is not what God wants for us - he wants us to move and adapt and look at things in new ways and look at the possibilities at the ways things are now, not the way things use to be. The prophet Isaiah says “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old”.
As the people of God, where is God moving us in this new world that is around us filled with COVID and all the changes COVID has brought? (Pause) It is really hard, but as a church we have to consider that God is taking this opportunity to help us re-evaluate our role and our ways and our t do what he has asked so many in our Bible stories, to look at how we can be the church in a new way that speaks to the times we are in; there is the voice of God in all this newness and strangeness and unfamiliarity that is all around us.
So before we automatically what to run back to Egypt, we need to see what God maybe taking us that is truly filled with milk and honey and new experiences that will be even better than the ones we remember.
Amen.

Challenge of Leadership

A hundred years ago when surveys were taken regarding the most trusted people in America the list included mainly those in leadership positions - presidents, senators, governors and religious leaders. 70 years ago the most trusted person in America was - (let people guess) - Walter Cronkite. As you may remember he was the Anchor of the CBS Evening news for many years. Also on that list were religious leaders. The local neighborhood pastors were considered the most trustworthy including The Rev. Billy Graham. The same survey taken today puts all those professions at the bottom of the list - especially clergy.
What caused this shift? Speculation ranges from the people who are in these professions now as to opposed to the types of people who were in leadership in the past; some feel it is the fault of the media who tell us more about these leaders than we really need to know; and some attribute this lack in trust of our leaders to the individualistic nature of people in our society and our desire to have leaders who agree with ‘my’ opinion or the way ‘I’ want things to be and as we all know there is never going to be someone in a leadership role who is going to do everything we agree with.
But what does God say about our view of the leaders over us - regardless of the types of leaders they are? The Apostle Paul in Hebrews says: Obey your leaders and submit to them. In the Book of Romans Paul then tells us Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. The Apostle Peter says in 1Peter:   - Show proper respect to everyone, honor the emperor.
So then from the words of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter we are told to honor our leadership rem these words were written during a time when the Roman Emperor was Nero - who perpetrated great evil over the Christians during Paul’s day. Paul tells us to respect him. Hard words for us to hear in these days of great division over who are leaders are.
I remember when our son was in the Marine Corp he worked quite a bit as a photographer at different venues in Washington DC. Taking to him during this time I knew did not like the president he was serving under at all - but he said “I have a responsibility to respect the position of leadership”. That is what Paul is telling us - There are many hard things we have to do as Christians, and one of them is to honor and respect those in leadership positions above us.
In the book of Timothy, Paul adds to this admonition to respect our leaders but telling us that not only are we to respect our leaders - whether we agree with them or not - but that we are to pray for our leaders regardless of our feelings toward them. Paul says: I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—  for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. Did you hear what he said - not only are we to follow our leaders, we are to pray for them and be thankful for them. That is almost like an impossible task in many of our minds as we think about leaders we have now or leaders we have had in the past.
I have been talking about John Calvin over the last couple weeks and his influence on our beliefs and practices in the Presbyterian Church, Calvin reinforces the words of the Apostle Paul and his teaching to respect our leaders. Calvin talks about that is why we have elections - our belief in a sovereign God tells us that God is in charge and we have to trust that God is at work in promoting his will as we ‘vote’ for our choices in leadership. Our presbyterian process is highly dependent on our responsibility to vote. We vote for our elders and pastors; we vote on our decisions whether as a congregation or a session. We do all of this voting in the context of prayer - we as a session pray before each meeting in order to ensure God’s voice is heard in the voting process and we can really trust in the words of the Lord’s Prayer - Thy will be done. Our call then as Christians who worship and serve God in a Presbyterian way is to trust that God is in the process when we vote to decide on who is going to work as leaders.
The Hebrews learned last week about how seriously God desires his people to hear his words and to follow what God teaches us. Last week we heard that a few of the Hebrews thought Moses was dead and they wanted a new leader represented by the golden calf. God straightened all that out and the Hebrews moved on. But this willingness to just trust in God and follow Moses’ leadership didn’t last long. As the Hebrews traveled a little bit closer to the promised land and they stopped to camp one time, a group of the leaders of the tribes began to question why Moses was their leader. Who made him the boss? Why couldn’t they decide where they were going and when to stop and camp and maybe they should just lead the people back to Egypt because after all they knew the hardships in Egypt and who knows what other types of problems we may run into if we keep following Moses? We all know how easy it is to rile up a group of people, especially when it comes to questioning our leaders.
But let’s think back a little and remind ourselves of a few things about this Hebrew journey to the wilderness. First of all we know that Moses was called by God to free the Hebrews and to lead them to the promised land - but these Hebrew don’t have the knowledge we have as we look back on the journey knowing the end result. We also have to remember that leading these people each day as they journey is what is known as the Shikinah Glory Cloud - a huge pillar of smoke that goes in front of the people to show them the way. Each evening the people watch as the cloud descends into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle to remind them that God is living right there in the midst of them. At night they are protected by a great pillar of fire that is not only protection but a great source of light for their camp. So they do have these visual reminders of God’s leadership during the journey.
But regardless of these outward reminders, there still arises a feeling of discord among the people and they go to Moses and say - What makes you the leader? Maybe one of us wants to be the leader? What about that Moses? Why do you think you are so great?
Now Moses was angry and God was angry and God move to show the people that Moses was his anointed leader and God did this my having he earth swallow up the tents and all the families of the leaders of the revolt. And a ‘tongue of fire’ came out of the sky and ‘consumed’ all those who had participated in the revolt. God had spoken to let the people know for certain that Moses was the one God chose to lead and they needed to respect God’s choice. Whether they liked in or not - whether they understood it or not.
Now you would have thought that after the Hebrew people saw what God had done to prove to the people that Moses was the leader that they would have calmed down and trusted Moses’ leadership. But no, it wasn’t too much longer when the questioning began again and leaders of the tribes when to Moses and Aaron and they wanted to be the leaders and put Moses and Aaron out. Now if you were God, what would you have done this time? We would have probably thought that God was just going to wipe them out again, but no God always surprises us.
This time God says, through Moses, OK. Each of you bring a rod - we would think of it as a large walking stick - and you and Aaron will lay our your rods in the tabernacle and I am going to solve this questioning of leadership once and for all. So each of the leaders of the tribes brought their rods to the tabernacle and wrote their names on their rods then left them there. God told them the rod that budded, would be the rod of the person he chose as their leader. Then God said “This is it. This is the last time I am going to answer this question about who is in charge’. After this, anyone who comes to the tabernacle and questions who their leaders are will die.
When the leaders came back to the tabernacle, it was Aaron’s rod which had budded so once again, God had proven to them that Moses and Aaron were the chosen leaders - gifted by God to lead them through the wilderness.
Now I don’t think we need to worry that God is going to open up the ground below us and swallow us up, or send fire from the sky to consume us if we question our leaders. But what God is saying to us is that if we truly believe that God is sovereign; that God is in charge; that we need to believe that God is charge of everything including who is in leadership positions over us. That we need to trust in the election process as Gods way of showing us the people in leadership are lifted up to that place by the providence of God and whether we like it or not; whether we agree with it or not; our job as people of God is to respect our leaders and pray for them. Not pray that they somehow will all of a sudden start doing what we want them to, but instead that they will submit to God and do what God wants them to do.
The Apostle Paul is often criticized because he tells slaves to submit to their masters instead of telling the slaves to revolt and gain their freedom. But what Paul is telling us is this, if we want an orderly peaceful society - our ultimate authority is God. That is it. We honor God buy submitting to the authorities over us which includes our bosses - even our elected leaders in secular organizations we may be a part of - along with the leaders in our churches and governments.
Part of our Installation service, as Presbyterians, when we install our elders and pastors there is a question to the congregation which asks us as members of the congregation if we agree to accept this person as our leader and do we promise to respect their decisions and follow where they lead? In all the installation services I have participated in as a church leader, I have never heard a congregation say no to this question. We need to remember our promises to respect and follow our leaders.
There is one more important point. While we are to follow the decisions made by our leaders we are reminded that while certain people are called to work in leadership roles, we are all called to contribute to the work of God through the church and while your role may not be as a leader, whatever job God has called us to do is every bit as important to the work of God. Leaders are not ‘better’ than those who are not leaders, or more highly thought of by God than those of us who have other jobs in the church. We are all important and all a vital part of God’s church. So we respect our leaders, but we also respect one another as we each have a part to play as we worship and serve the Lord.

Amen!

The Golden Calf

Last week I left you with a teaser promising this week we would spend some more time with John Calvin - and because I know you have been on pins a needles all week wondering what we were going to learn about Calvin - I wanted to start off with that. John Calvin, as I mentioned last week, was the one who put together the principles we believe as Presbyterians. Since this church is part of the Presbyterian denomination that means we hold with a very specific set of beliefs about God and the church and about our relationship with God. In the 1536 Calvin wrote what was known as the Institutes which put together what the Bible said about specific issues such as Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Church, Salvation and such.
While Calvin was not the founder of the Presbyterian church - who knows who is the founder of our denomination? (pause- if no response prod a little bit such as - Anyone know?) The founder of our denomination is John Knox of Scotland who studied under Calvin and took what Calvin taught him back to Scotland and using those principles of Calvin to brake away from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Presbyterian Church.
Today, as we continue with the journey of the Hebrews through the wilderness, we are going to look at one of Calvin’s teachings about the place of God in our lives and in our worship. Calvin came from the Catholic tradition where the sanctuary of the Catholic Church was full of pictures and icons and stained glass and statues. Originally all of this had been used to teach the people who could not read. All of this art in the church was aimed at teaching. But by Calvin’s day all of this paraphernalia inside the sanctuary had become status symbols. Who had the most ornate Stained Glass? Who had the most expensive icons or had the statues made from the most famous sculptors. The once used tools for learning had become ways to say - “Look I’m more important than you”.
So Calvin, using the words of the 1st two commandments, talked in his institutes about what our focus on God should look like. The first commandment says:
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Listen to the words of the second commandment:
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God
Calvin took these commandments to remind us that God does care about our focus and what we think about as we live and worship. Calvin’s idea is that we should be focused solely on God regardless of what is around us and we needed to rid ourselves of those distractions that keep us from putting God first in everything.
My wife grew up in what is known as a ‘Calvinistic Sanctuary’. Old Stone Presbyterian in Lewisburg WV organized just a few years after this one. In fact I meet my wife there during a Worship service. Her church had no stained glass - clear planes in the windows, white walls with nothing on them anywhere. The choir and the organ were in the loft in the back of the sanctuary so that looking at them didn’t distract from the idea the music they produce was for God and not to be a ‘performance’. In the front of the sanctuary was a pulpit, the communion table and a baptismal font. And that was it. No crosses, no flowers, no symbols of any kind, just white walls and clear windows. So if you are sitting in the pews, the only thing you saw was the preacher in the pulpit. That is what Calvin was talking about - absolutely nothing to distract you from the focus on God. The church is still like this today and while that example may seem a bit extreme, the principle is to remind us our focus should always be on God and the things of God and not on things of humans.
But back with the Hebrews. They have made it to Mt. Sinai. God gathered them at the base of the mountain and called them “His people”. He has taught them what he wanted in worship and God feels they are ready for the next step. Moses is now called to go up the mountain to meet with God to learn more about the parameters for being the people of God. And off Moses goes as the people watch him go up the mountain and disappear in the clouds at the top. The people were told to wait and Moses would be back with words from God.
But, no different than we are today, the people became impatient. How many of you like to wait? (pause) 40 days is a long time. Remember they had only been on this journey for about 3 months; they still weren’t real sure about this Moses who had brought them this far and like every group there were those in the group who were pretty skeptical of the whole journey. After some time had passed, some voices in the crowd began to raise doubt that Moses was actually going to come back. Before too long, most of the people figured Moses must be dead and they needed a new leader. Moses brother Aaron had been left in charge and so they go to Aaron with their desire for a new leader. Moses obviously was gone and they needed someone to get them out of this desert.
But instead of a human leader, they decided they needed an image to represent God and to become their leader. They did not desire a new god, they just wanted something to ‘see’ to represent God and to be the one they put their focus on - to replace Moses.
The people donated their jewelry - remember the Egyptians had given them lots and lots of gold and silver jewelry and precious stones when they left Egypt - and now they melted a lot of this down to form this calf so they could ‘see’ what they were worshipping and so God could use this image to lead them. And interestingly enough, Moses’ brother Aaron went along with all of this.
The calf was made and put before them and they worshipped God through this idol - and then worship turned into a big party where worship had degraded into all manner of activities they shouldn’t have been doing.
God of course is extremely angry. Here the people had broken the first two commandments and God sends Moses down to straighten out his people. Moses is furious, breaks the tablets of the 10 commandments, breaks the golden calf and turns it into dust, puts it in their water and made them drink it.
As you would guess There was great turmoil in the camp, God wanted to kill them all but Moses talks God out of it but we know there were 3000 people who died. God wanted these people to know he was serious about their focus and their trust.
The story of the golden calf is recorded to make us think about our own lives and where our focus lies as we work and as we worship. Jesus talked about this when he said in Matthew 6: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words we value what we focus on. And you are the only one who can figure that out for yourself. When you work and worship what are you thinking about? What do you look at that takes your thoughts away from God? What in your life takes you away from what you know God is wanting you to do? When do you get so distracted by what is going on around you that you begin to think God is not there and you have to take matters in your own hands?
Sometimes God calls us to make some very hard decisions. Sometimes God asks us to rid our lives of things that on the surface look pretty harmless but in reality are taking our focus away from the work and worship of God. Being a follower of God is not easy - and sometimes we have to make some really hard decisions and give up some things that are near and dear to us. But as we learn from this story of the Hebrews God is pretty serious when he tells us: for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God,
Take some time. think about your life. Look when distracts you from God - and then do what you need to do. God will help you.

Amen.