SCRIPTURE: Exodus 17:1-17
TEXT: 15And Moses built an altar and called it, The Lord is my banner. THEME: Our compassionate God is present with us. INTRODUCTION As we looked at the passages in Exodus we have discovered the compassionate love of God for those chosen by God; the family of Abraham and Sarah. There is no specialness other than the distinguishing quality of belief in God. Abraham believed and so did Sarah. Belief in God is not exclusive to them, but the way we live with God should invite others to explore and discover their own relationship with God. Following God they ended up in Egypt. When that turned sour, following God led to their exit from Egypt and into the wilderness. God has been compassionate towards them with liberation, rescue, escape, food, and now with water. SCRIPTURE Did you know that you can live for 40 days without food (as a fast) but probably for only 3 days without water? But we can feel thirsty and hungry every few minutes all day long. In the wilderness, the fear of dying makes the people edgy. They are unfamiliar with the territory, not knowing where the water is going to come from makes them anxious. Short of going out there to dig around for water, the only thing they can do is to go their leaders to complain. Their power is the people. I think they number about a million plus people needing water. Their complaint, carries a lot of weight. Especially when our leaders are elected officials. This is what community organizers use to be heard in the public arena. When an issue is not supported by Power or Money, it can be heard if the people organize to make themselves heard. Their numbers voting in one way, for a single purpose will get those in power or with money’s attention. People can sway an election in one direction or another, especially if the masses think you are on their side. This is the strategy I see our former president using to his advantage by not participating in any of the debate, this way, without saying anything, the people will think that he is on their side. Power and Money will take the mass’ concerns seriously when they realize that their unitary focused can disrupt their power and money. In this case, the masses have an anxiety about water and take their complaint to Moses with the same argument, that if God wanted to kill them of thirst in the wilderness, it would have taken less time and effort just to have killed them while they were slaves in Egypt. Of course, this is not what God wanted to do. God knows that complaining is one way that the people are expressing their fears, their worry, their anxiousness, and their thirst. Like with the lack of food, God already had a provision for water in mind. Here is the confusing part, it is not the staff of Moses that has power, but the presence of God that execute change for Israel. It is not the cross around our necks, the oil we anoint with, even the prayers we articulate, it is the presence of God that initiates a change in our lives. But the staff becomes a prop to see the works of God, almost like a wand a magician uses to make things appear, but really, we know the wand doesn’t have any power, it’s the magician’s ability to create the illusion, just as the staff focuses our attention to see what God is doing. Ah then God’s help in the battle against the Amaleks was not contingent on how long or how high Moses could hold the staff up as much as it was for the Israelites to know that God was present and helping them win this battle. The staff was a visual aid to help us focus on what God was doing for Israel. What we then do in the presence of the Lord is the Amalek’s banner by which we live. When people ask what happened to the people who used to live in the wilderness, the Amaleks, the answer will be about how the banner of the Lord is over the Israelites. APPLICATION How is the banner of the Lord over us? I got this from Josh, who wanted to share this encouragement with the church Council. (I edited it to fit my sermon) “There are so many churches who, when seeing challenges in the world or neighborhood are focused on: 1. Serving - contributing towards the needs we see in our community. The needs of the community are overwhelming, but do not address the causes of this disparity. 2. Studying - many churches believe that the best way to engage the needs in the world is through studying what the problems are. These usually result in a committee that is tasked to do a study that ends up on a shelf somewhere. 3. But Wailuku Union Church has taken their study on what it means to be a missional church and is living out what it means to solve problems. This is an unusual and highly needed stance towards the issues in the world. Your willingness to actually do something about it is both rare and scary. Thank you for letting me be a part of it” –Josh The banner of the Lord is seen over us in what we are doing and by how we are living. Last year I was. Invited to hold signs in front of the County Building for “Stand Up Maui” waving signs to encourage the County Council to prioritize the building of Affordable Housing. As I stood there waving, and saw those waving with me, I realized that these people are speaking up, but WUC were the only ones actually doing something with what we had. We are rare and scary to take what it says in scripture and to live by with even in regards to a piece of property we own, using what we have to Love our Neighbors. Then when we took a vote a couple of weeks ago to give the Council the authority to negotiate the sale of that property, the congregation’s vote was rare and scary but one of stewardship, faith and trust in God. The banner of the Lord is seen over us in what we do and in how we live. CONCLUSION Water from a rock was the story at chapel time for our preschoolers this week. The banner from the front of the church was showed to them. “Be the church: Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Forgive often. Reject racism. Fight for the powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Embrace diversity. Love God. Enjoy this life.” This is the banner over this church. This is a banner of what can be expected from us. This is a banner of what can be expected of God. It is the staff of Moses directing our attention to what the presence of God is doing, so everyone can believe in God; the Israelites as well as those asking questions about the Amaleks.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
May 2024
|