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Pent 13 Proper 17A RCL August 30, 2020

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Beth Crane

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26. 45c
Exodus 3:1-15
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

Last week, we read the inspiring story of the birth of Moses. The new Pharaoh was a cruel tyrant, but Moses’ parents, his sister, the midwives, and the princess all showed profound courage, and Moses’ life was saved. When he grew older, he was adopted by the princess and went to the palace to live.

Much has happened between last Sunday’s reading and our lesson for today. To summarize, the young man Moses leaves the palace and sees the sufferings of the Hebrew people. Though he is a prince, he still identifies with his own people. He sees an Egyptian trying to kill a Hebrew man, and he kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. His sense of justice calls him to defend his fellow Israelite.

A short time later, he goes out again, but this time he sees two Hebrew men fighting each other. He confronts the man who is at fault and tells them not to fight. He is trying to teach his people to work together, not against each other. But the man who is at fault confronts Moses and asks him whether Moses is going to kill him the way he killed the Egyptian. Soon, Moses realizes the king is looking for him. He escapes and goes to Midian.

He stops by a well and meets the seven daughters of Reuel, the priest of Midian. Some shepherds harass the young women. Moses defends Reuel’s daughters and waters their flock. Once again, he is defending and protecting those who are vulnerable. Moses fights for justice everywhere he goes. The young women see him as an Egyptian, but he sees himself as an Israelite.

The young women arrive home early and their father asks them how they watered the flock so quickly. They tell him about the Egyptian young man who protected them from the shepherds and watered the flock in record time. Reuel realizes that this is an extraordinary young man and welcomes Moses to visit the family. Eventually, Moses marries Reuel’s daughter Zippporah and becomes a shepherd.

These events have a deep connection with Grace Church because Keith’s ancestor, Reuel Keith, founder of Virginia Theological Seminary, was named after Reuel, the priest of Midian, who welcomed Moses into his family and thus became a mentor and protector to the man who would lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt.

This brings us to today’s reading. God has heard the cries of God’s captive people in Egypt. Moses is faithfully going about his daily work as a shepherd. He is alert.  He pays attention to the world around him. And he notices a most unusual thing— a bush that is on fire but is not consumed. He goes to investigate. And God calls to him. Moses realizes he is on holy ground. He is in the presence of God, and God is calling him to lead God’s people out of slavery.

Like so many people called by God over the ages, Moses does not feel up to the task.  And God tells Moses something very important.  God assures Moses that God will be with Moses every step of the way. God does not call us to do difficult things and them leave us alone. God walks with us, God leads us and guides us.

God helps Moses understand who God is—“I am who I am.” And the wonderful thing about Hebrew verbs is that they are all tenses at once—I am who I am; I was who I was; I will be who I will be. God is dynamic and eternal. God will guide Moses as he leads the people out of slavery into freedom. God has chosen a leader who sees the suffering of God’s people, defends his own people, protects those who are vulnerable, and tries to bring justice in every situation. As we know from reading the Scriptures, leading God’s people to the promised land was not easy, but God was with Moses on the journey.

In our gospel, Peter cannot bear to think of Jesus suffering. In his effort to banish this thought, he gets in the way of our Lord’s accepting his own cross, and Jesus admonishes him and tells him to get out of the way. He even calls him Satan because he is so upset that Peter, in showing compassion for our Lord’s suffering, is actually deflecting our Lord from his vocation. Each of us has our own cross to bear. Each of us will suffer in one way or another as we try to follow our Lord and be faithful. We may have rifts with family members. We may lose friends. We may not achieve success in the world’s terms. But in the end these crosses also lead us into life in a new dimension.

Our epistle for today is addressed to a community which is suffering persecution. “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor….Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer….Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly…Live peaceably with all….If your enemies are hungry, feed them.” This is the vision of God’s shalom which Jesus expresses in the beatitudes and which his mother, Mary, sings about in the Magnificat.

What are these readings saying to us in this time of Covid 19? Moses was the person God chose to lead God’s people out of slavery. He did not feel that he was up to the job. When God calls us, most of us do not feel adequate to the task. We are part of a long line of people, a “great cloud of witnesses,” who say Yes in spite of all our misgivings and, with the grace of God, do our ministries to the best of our ability, depending solely on the grace of God.

Jesus came to show us what a life centered in God’s love looks like. Paul, born a Pharisee, a persecutor of the Church, met our Lord on the road to Damascus and was blinded for three days by the light of that love. In our epistle for today Paul offers us a poetic blueprint of living the life in Christ and being ministers of reconciliation.

Jesus has called us to live the Way of Love, and I’m pretty sure that not one of us feels that we are up to the task. But we are in very good company. Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah. and so many heroes and heroines of the faith felt inadequate, too. Nowadays, sharing God’s love with others involves being careful not to spread Covid 19. It has been difficult to do all the things the medical experts are telling us to do. but here in Vermont we have the lowest statistics in the country, and, as our Presiding Bishop reminds us, keeping people safe and saving lives is our first priority. 

This means that we will not be able to hug each other, or share Communion, or sing together, or have a coffee hour with actual food—for a while. We don’t know for how long. In the meanwhile, “Let love be genuine, love one another with mutual affection, rejoice in hope.” Live the Way of Love. Amen.

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Pentecost 13 Proper 17 September 3, 2017

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Beth Crane

Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

Last Sunday, our opening reading was the beginning of the life of Moses. We remember that the Pharaoh had ordered that all the Hebrew baby boys should be killed. Because of the courage of his mother and sister, and because of the compassion and courage of the Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses is brought up in the palace of the king and when he comes of age, the princess adopts him as her son.

 

Even though he has grown up with all the advantages of a noble upbringing, Moses still identifies himself as a Hebrew. One day, he goes out into the city. He sees his fellow Hebrews doing forced labor,  and he comes upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. The next day, he goes out and sees two Hebrews fighting with each other. He tells the one who is at fault that he should not fight with his fellow Hebrew. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman wisely notes that Moses is encouraging solidarity among the Hebrew slaves.

 

The Pharaoh soon hears that Moses has killed an Egyptian and sets out to kill Moses. Moses flees to Midian. He sits down by a well. As we remember, in the desert, the well is the town center, a place of refreshment and a place to meet people. The seven daughters of Reuel, the priest of Midian, come to draw water. Some shepherds come and drive the young women away from the well. Moses comes to their defense and waters their flock. The young women go home, leaving Moses at the well.Their father, Reuel, asks them how they have gotten home so early, and they tell him that an Egyptian helped them to get rid of the shepherds and then watered their entire flock for them. This tells us that Moses, although he identifies himself as a Hebrew, still carries enough signs of being a part of the Egyptian royal court that these young women see him as an Egyptian.

 

Reuel senses that this is an extraordinary young man. He has rescued Reuel’s daughters. Reuel sends his daughters back to the well to invite Moses to break bread with them. Eventually, Moses marries Reuel’s daughter Zipporah and she has a son. Moses names him Gershom, saying, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.” In Hebrew. “ger’ means alien. Moses knows what it is to be different, to be an alien in a foreign land, even though he was raised in the king’s house. In defending his fellow Hebrew, in encouraging his Hebrew brothers to support each other instead of fighting, and in driving the shepherds away from the young women, he shows his commitment to justice and his willingness to fight for those who are vulnerable.

Here is this young man. Moses, a Hebrew raised in the palace of the King of Egypt, who has had to run for his life and is now living in Midian under the protection of Reuel, the priest of that place. Incidentally, the name Reuel means “friend of God.” (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 4, p 54.)

In our reading for today, time has gone by, and Moses is tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. Scholars tell us that Jethro is another name for Reuel. (Brueggemann, The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 1, p. 711.) Moses is doing his work, and he sees this most amazing thing—a bush that is engulfed in flames but is not burning up. It is there, glowing.

Moses goes toward this amazing incandescent shrub burning with the luminous presence of God. And God calls his name. Moses answers in the words so many of our biblical heroes and heroines use: “Here I am.” As Herbert O’Driscoll points out, Moses is fully present in this moment. He is not rushing to the next task, He is not thinking of what he has done yesterday or what he has to do tomorrow or next week. He is there, in that moment. God tells him to take his sandals off, for this is holy ground. And God tells Moses who God is. And Moses is afraid.

God tells Moses that God has noticed the suffering of God’s people in Egypt, and he has chosen Moses to lead the people to freedom. And God says that most crucial thing, that God will be with Moses throughout the journey to freedom. Moses has many questions, and God keeps saying to him in various ways, that God is giving Moses this ministry, and God will guide him every step of the way.

The story of Moses speaks to us this Sunday for many reasons. First, it is a miracle that he survived beyond infancy. Secondly, even though he had a royal upbringing, he had compassion on those who were suffering oppression. He defended the Hebrew man who was being beaten; he encouraged his Hebrew brothers to work together instead of fighting, and he defended the daughters of Reuel who were being harassed by the shepherds. He had to run for his life, but he made a new life for himself with the protection of Reuel. He was just going about his daily work when God chose him to lead his people from slavery to freedom. He was present to that moment and he said Yes to God’s call, even though he was wondering how in the world he would be able to lead these people to the promised land. As we know, because we have read the rest of the story, leading those people was no picnic. But they got there.

In our epistle for today, Paul is reminding us of the qualities of a Christian community, and, as we know, the main quality is love. “Love one another with mutual affection…rejoice in hope…persevere in prayer.”  And Jesus calls us to take up our cross. Someone has said that our lives are intended to be cross-shaped. We reach up to God and we reach out to others with God’s love.

As we reflect on the ministry of Moses leading the people to freedom and the ministry of our Lord leading us to freedom from everything that would imprison us, and the love of God that is at the center of everything, I thank God this day for the many ministries that people in this community do in order to help both people and animals to move from slavery to freedom, from suffering to peace and joy. I also thank God for Reuel, the priest of Midian, who nurtured and protected Moses, the liberator of God’s people, and for his namesake, the Rev. Dr. Reuel Keith, beloved priest and scholar and founder of the Virginia Theological Seminary.  Amen.

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