Sermon Exodus 3:1-15, Matthew 16:21-28 “Following God”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Exodus 3:1-15, Matthew 16:21-28 “Following God”
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
August 31, 2008

This past week Grace and I traveled to Philadelphia Pa on an important mission. While there we had a wonderful time and something really special happened. We saw something like the burning bush that Moses saw. Now we did not see a literal burning bush, but what we did see confirmed God’s presence with us just as the burning bush confirmed God’s presence with Moses. Before I tell you what happened will you pray with me?

Father in Heaven, we know that you are present with us when we need you. We thank you for your Holy Spirit which is with us and in our hearts strengthening us for the difficult tasks we find ourselves in. We know through your son Jesus how much you love us. And we ask that you let us follow you into a glorious future. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our rock and redeemer. Amen.

Matthew 16:21-28 21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." 23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Moses grew up in two different cultures. On the one hand he was a Hebrew and his Hebrew servants always let him know that he was mashea, the one pulled from the water. On the other hand he knew the privilege and power as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Eventually the stress of belonging to both the privileged class and a despised minority became too much. Moses grieved over the oppression of his people. And one day when he saw a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian, Moses reacted violently and killed Egyptian taskmaster. When his crime was discovered Moses fled to the wilderness to hide, and with God’s blessing, to survive.

The wilderness is where we go to deal with the enormous problems in our lives. Jesus knew something about the wilderness. He spent forty days and nights without food and water in the wilderness. Jesus knew that an even greater wilderness was in his future, the cross. And he knew that his followers would also experience a wilderness with their own crosses on their backs. Followers of Jesus, it seems are not immune from the wilderness.

A young woman I know went through a bitter divorce where she lost her husband, the school she had built, and her two sons. Unable to cope with the shame of this situation she entered into her own wilderness and eventually immigrated to America to start a new life. Even though she was a faithful Christian who was dedicated to prayer she was forced to carry her own cross of intense emotional pain and shame. The woman I am talking about is my wife, Grace. I am about to tell you what happened to Grace and me last week, but first, let’s get back to Moses.

Moses adjusted to his new life in the wilderness by getting married to the daughter of the Priest of Midian and caring for the priest’s sheep. Moses got to know the wilderness real well as he guided the sheep in search of grazing land and water. This led Moses to the mountain of the gods of Horeb. There Moses saw a remarkable sight: a fire burned in the mist of a bush, but the bush itself was not consumed. “Was this one of the gods of Horeb?” Moses must have thought as he stared at this incredible sight. And Moses knew that this must be very powerful god because it knew his Egyptian name. But Moses had to be greatly relieved when the god of the fire in the midst of the bush identified itself as the god of his people. The god of the fire in the midst of the bush was none other the God we have been reading about for the last few weeks, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses had seen an awesome sight and it turned out to be none other than the Lord, God of Israel.

Last week Grace and I encountered this same God, the god of the fire in the midst of the bush, as we traveled near Philadelphia. Here’s what happened. Recently Grace found out that her two sons had come to America. They are now exchange students living in the Philadelphia suburbs. We had no contact information. All we knew was that one was attending the Kennedy Kendrick Catholic High School in Norristown, PA. So we traveled to Pennsylvania to talk with the principal of that school. When we arrived at the school we saw a sign just inside the door. Here is what it said.

“Let it be known to all who enter here that Christ is the reason for this school, the unseen, but ever present Teacher in its classes, the Model of its faculty, and the inspiration of its students.”

When I read this sign I knew that God was with us in our journey. And even when the principal told us that she could not legally give out student contact information I was confident that we, with Jesus’ help, would find Grace’s two sons.

I decided to hire a lawyer to force the school to tell us how to contact the boys. Then, Grace remembered that she had met the senior pastor of the Eternal Life Korean Church in suburban Philadelphia at a Korean church revival in Glendale just ten days before. So we decided to call this pastor to ask for help. He invited us to his church for a conversation. We drove for around forty minutes though the narrow country roads of eastern Pennsylvania until we arrived at his church. Then we spent several minutes in the sanctuary in prayer asking God, the god of the fire in the midst of the bush, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the Lord, God of Israel to help us.

After prayer we met with the pastor. It was during this meeting that the god of the fire in the midst of the bush appeared. The Lord God of Israel was present in that room. It happened this way. During our discussion with the pastor it was discovered that Grace’s two sons, Jae Cheon and Jae Hyun were both active in the youth group of that church! Through prayer and the grace of God we had found Grace’s sons and were able to contact them. A miracle had occurred. God had acted to help us.

After meeting the god of the fire in the midst of the bush, Moses was given and important task. He was to use his skill as a shepherd for last forty years in the wilderness, his upbringing in the Egyptian court, and his love for his own people to lead the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, to the Promised Land. This was not going to be an easy task. Moses didn’t think he could do it. After all the Egyptian had a death warrant out for his head, and his only experience for the last forty years had been tending sheep. How could Moses convince Pharaoh to led the Hebrews go? And where would they go once they were freed? These questions must have been racing through Moses head as he pondered what God was asking him to do. And thankfully Moses had no idea, at this point, that the task God was giving him would take another forty years to accomplish.

When we embark on a task given to us by God we should not expect that the task will be easy to do or it will be accomplished quickly. We have to trust that God is at work guiding us and helping us to do what God wants us to do even though we can’t see the whole picture as God does. So we have to act on faith and trust that in God the work will be finished.

Doing the work of God is like taking up a cross. We have to deny our own wants and desires to focus on the needs of others. We have to trust that God will provide for us and our needs as we do God’s work of loving others. We are called to obedience and love supported by a strong faith.

The work of restoring the relationship between Grace and her sons was not accomplished this past week. But that is not surprising. These things take time and with the help of the very creator of time we have hope, and we need to be patient as God slowly acts. Our job is to pray and ask God what we can do each day. The fruits our labors may not be known until years later, maybe even past our own lifetimes. But with God directing our work we can act with confidence in the final result. So that is why we pray for Grace’s sons every day and try to visit them as often as we can because we believe that reconciliation is God’s plan and will come about in God’s time.

So Grace and I came home from Philadelphia without her sons. They are not ready for that step of coming to live with us. I’m not sure that we are ready for that either. But after this trip is obvious to me that the god of the fire in the midst of the bush was with us in Pennsylvania and will help us to restore the relationships that have been broken. We may now be in the wilderness carrying our own crosses but the god of the fire in the midst of the bush is there to love us, guide us, and lead us in her way in her own time.

God of the fire in the midst of the bush, we come to you today expecting miracles in our lives. We come expecting restore relationships. We come confident that you will be with us as our God as we travel though the wilderness with crosses on our backs. But we are also confident that in your time your will be accomplished on Earth, and for that we are most grateful. Amen.