I AM Calling

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church,
March 11, 2007, based on Exodus 3: 1-15

Last Sunday we talked about the Covenant that God made with Abraham and how important that is to Christians now. In today’s Old Testament lesson, we also have a very important moment in Salvation History, the Calling of Moses.

We pick up our story as Moses is out shephe4ding the flock for his father in law. You’ll remember that this was the same Moses that was put into a basket by his mother and pushed out into the water to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, then subsequently raised as a “Prince of Egypt”. This is the same Moses who, when he grew up and found out that he was a Hebrew, saw an Egyptian soldier beating a fellow Hebrew slave, and in a fit of righteous anger, killed the soldier, necessitating his flight from Egypt into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.

You’ll recall that he was taken in by a family, married their daughter, and became a shepherd for his father in law – probably the lowest position imaginable at the time. From highest to lowest – Moses had a retrograde career path up to that point!

Despite that however, Moses receives an unusual visit. The text says that ‘an angel of the Lord’ appeared to him in a blazing fire. In verse 4 we read that God called to him in the midst of the burning bush. From this, we understand that the angel of the Lord and God are one and the same.

Theologians have interpreted this as a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is similar to Jacob wrestling with the Angel, and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego being accompanied in the fiery furnace by another who looked like a ‘son of man’. In hindsight we can see that Jesus had a plan for Moses all along.

Of course, Moses has no clue Whom he is dealing with, but is quickly told to take off his sandals – that the place where he is standing is Holy. He is then told that he is being addressed by the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses very sensibly drops to his hands and knees and hides his face, fearing to look up.

(Friends, this is where we get the idea of fearing god. Put yourself in Moses’ position: He’s minding his own business, when all of a sudden, the Lord God, the Creator of the Universe pays him a call… We call God Holy. That means that he is separate from us, that he is so totally different from us that unless He revealed Himself to us, we would have no knowledge about him. He is the God of Glory – eternal weightiness. When He appears to humans, the brilliance of his presence is overwhelming, and we cringe before Him. This is why we naturally fear Him.)

Yet the fear we have for God is tempered by His Goodness. And this Glorious God has not come to destroy or terrify Moses, but to offer him a job – if indeed you can call it an offer. It’s more like a command. “Moses, take a message! Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. I’ve heard their cries and I want to deliver them from their oppressors!”

It’s a very emphatic message. The God of your forefathers has chosen you to be a special messenger and to do a great work for God. You should be honored and excited. But immediately, Moses starts edging out onto thin ice with God. “Who am I that I should go and do this?” Moses begins to question God’s judgment. He has some poor self-esteem goin’ on and he just doesn’t know if he’s the guy to do the job.

What is God’s response? “I will be with you.” He even offers to give Moses a sign – he would come back to Mt. Sinai and worship there. But Moses asks a second question:

“Who shall I say is sending me?” Here’s a guy who is interviewing God! It’s as if he is saying, “Now, who are you again, and what is it that you want me to do?”

But the Lord very patiently explains, “I AM WHO I AM has sent you.” This is God’s proper Name. When we say ‘The Lord’, this is a title. But ‘Yahweh’ is God’s first Name, the name by which he will be remembered for all generations.

“Now, Moses, go and tell’ em that the God of your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has sent you… and here are some more instructions,” says the Lord.

Reading beyond our text today into chapter 4, we read that Moses goes on to question God two more times: “What if they will not believe me?”, and 4:10: “I’m not eloquent!” Finally, he flat-out tells God to “Please send someone else!” (4:13).

And then comes one of the most chilling sentences in the entire Bible: “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses…” (4:14).
If he wasn’t afraid enough till now, this is the time to start trembling in your boots! Brothers and Sisters do not ever do this! If God comes calling, do whatever he tells you! Be like Mary: “Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to your will.” That’s the right response! Just obey and don’t argue! Do not get into a place where the anger of the Lord burns against you! It’s not a good thing.

At any rate, most of us will not experience such a very direct and confrontational call, or vocation, from God. In fact, as author Carolyn Gratton says:

"Vocation is a matter primarily of being". It is not simply what I do… but in its deepest Christian sense, our true calling is to live in unbroken harmony with God, just as Adam and Eve did before the fall. Our True Vocation is to reflect the Imago Dei as we live in covenant relationship with Him. Out of this basic knowledge of who I am comes the knowledge of what I should do.

Theologian Walter Bruggeman states, "Vocation means finding a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God."

Looking at the life of Jesus, he himself demonstrates this relationship between being and doing in his statements about Himself. As a boy of twelve he says to his astonished parents "Did you not know I must be about my Father's business?" Later he announces his ministry by quoting from Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." To His followers He proclaims, "I come that they might have life and might have it abundantly...And to the disciples, he says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jn. 14:6)...He who has seen Me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:9)...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many..(Mt 20:28) Prophesying his death he says, "(the Son of Man) will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again (Lk.18:31).

These statements all show that Jesus' sense of being or identity was intricately linked with his sense of mission in the world. Both of these in turn constituted His Vocation. Expressed in a formula, it looks like this: Identity + Mission = Vocation.

(Deacon Mark Goldman then came and shared with us for a few minutes a little bit of his sense of calling to the priesthood.)

I think this will illustrate for us something of how God gets our attention and lets us know he has something for us to do – in addition to being something.

There is much more to say about discovering one’s True Vocation in life, and we have only really skimmed the surface, but may God give us the grace to hear what He has said to us today and apply it correctly. AMEN.