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The odd pairing of God and human history

Exodus 3:7-12

Prayer: Please pray with me. God, you bid us “so come.” Invite us into your realm of compassion, and when we weary, grow afraid, or experience confusion, remind us of your promise, “I will be with you.” ~Amen.

Intro: Good morning, my name is Ryan Cosgrove, and I am an intern at the Lutheran Public Policy Office, as well as St. John United in North Seattle. I grew up in Iowa, and am attending seminary at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. My goal is to become an ordained pastor, like Rev. Kindem. Part of this process of ordination is a year-long internship. So, I am the fellow who got to leave the mid-Atlantic area, come to the mild winters, mountains and waters of the Northwest for a year of internship.

Pretty lucky, right?

Also, I would like to send greetings on behalf of everyone at the LPPO, and personally, I thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. Not only am I thankful today, I am flattered to be part of your celebration of the life, death and mission of the Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I commend you all on keeping this man and his march before you. Amen, right?

Going to try a little informal liturgy, in the tradition of black preaching. Throughout this sermon at specific times, I will say “Amen, right?” And, you can all respond, “Amen!” Also, I invite you to say Amen as the Holy Spirit moves you throughout this sermon.

Okay, as if this introduction hasn’t dragged on long enough, I want to speak about why I choose to preach today on Genesis. This story is all about calls. This sense of calling was very important to Martin Luther King, Jr. It provided the fortitude to continue in the long journey of justice. I also think the story offers us a word of hope today, well after the assassination, or martyrdom, of Martin Luther King.

I mean, after all these years, why do we still care about justice. Why is it so meaningful that American finally elected a black president? Why is it so distressing that Sunday is still such a segregated and unequal day of the week?

This gospel-filled story of Genesis has so much to speak to these issues.

This story begins with God speaking to Moses. And, I think we know this story do well we miss how incredible what God says is.

God doesn’t offer commandments, instead God says, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings.”

Wow. When God reveals God’s self, God reveals God’s self as a God who sees, hears, and knows the suffering of God’s people who are oppressed. Amen, right?

This is so profound. Apparently God is not content to sit on some removed throne as long as God’s people suffer.

When people suffer, God sees their suffering. God hears their cries. God knows their suffering. And this pain beckons God come down, and deliver (or liberate) God’s people. This is why, still today, after assassinations, the long journey of justice is not over.

When people suffer, God gets organized.

God bids Moses, “So come, I will send you” So come… A commentary I read called this call of God the “odd pairing of God and human history.” And, it is an odd pairing. This pairing is striking, it suggests that justice, that equality are not human constructs. Rather God is a God of compassion. The God who is our source of our, and the world’s being is a God with a heart of compassion. As Martin Luther King said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it tends toward justice.”

But there is much more here, too. I could go on and on about ethics with you all for the rest of the day, and that conversation would be entirely edifying. The social statements of the ELCA, which one of my professors remarked unfortunately tend to mean more to others than Lutherans, testify to the important dimension of justice within the tradition of ELCA Lutheranism.

But, stopping at ethical imperatives would miss the rest of the good news this story speaks.

Make no mistake, though, the fact that God is a God of compassion, and a God who calls us into that realm of compassion, is good news. Amen, right? The fact that we are our sister and brother’s keeper is good news. The fact that we are created into a common creatureliness with the rest of this creation is good news. Let’s not forget that.

However, after God tells Moses about God’s compassion, and calls Moses into that sphere of compassion, God gives Moses another promise. In the midst of Moses’ anxiety God says; “I will be with you.” God is with us…

Amen, right?

Justice matters because God sees, hears and knows the suffering of those who are oppressed. This is why justice matters. And it is the promise of God’s fidelity, God’s presence that gives us the strength to continue the journey of justice, even as we remember the heartbreaking end of our brother Martin’s earthly journey of justice.

It is this promise of God’s presence that sustains us in the midst of any difficulty.

When we are born, reborn, reborn, reborn, Amen, right? Reborn again and again into the sphere of God’s compassion, reborn into our baptismal identity, God is with us. This journey of justice is not a journey we walk alone.

God bids us, “So come,” and suddenly human history merges with divine love. Justice is no longer a topic of politik, but instead a call of love from a God who has heard our cries and liberated us.

When Jesus bids us, be merciful, Jesus does not do this as a taskmaster. Jesus’ invitation into a life of mercy is just that: an invitation. Live into this promise God has promised from of old. In the journey of justice, God is with us. And not just any God, the God who is with us is a God of love, a God who knows the pain of oppression.

This is the work of advocacy sisters and brothers. Raising our voices on behalf of those who God sees, hears and knows. Amen, right? The work of advocacy is to live into the realm of God’s compassion.

On this Sunday as we remember our brother Martin, his walk of justice, and God’s call. We also grasp a promise. In the divine call to the journey of justice, we are not alone, God sees us, hears us, knows us. Best of all we are sustained by God’s presence with us. Amen, right?

Indeed. Amen.