tossing off the baggage that is pulling down on me

toss it in the river & be free

A sermon from Mt. Sinai:

Most of the time it strikes us as decidedly good news to hear that in Jesus Christ we’ve been adopted into the holy family of Israel…

Well, today is no such day. We hear about the behavior of these Hebrews, and are tempted to protest, they’re not my kin!

The trouble, though, is the behavior we hear about hits closer to home than we care to admit. This stiff-necked people’s conduct betrays a family resemblance, whether we admit it or not…

And that isn’t all that’s unsettling, either. There’s also God’s behavior. God’s behavior that isn’t familiar whatsoever…

In the scripture we watch as these two forces collide. 

The behavior of a people that’s more familiar than we care to admit, crashing into the behavior of God that’s completely unusual. 

To really catch the force of this impact, we have to walk back: God chooses Abraham to be the father of a chosen people. God will give that wandering Aramean offspring and a land to inhabit. And in their old age Abraham and Sarah finally give do birth to that miraculous chid of laughter. 

Isaac, in turn. has two sons of his own. The scoundrel younger son stealing birthright from his older brother. Jacob living each day by his whits. That promise following him through all the exploits. Until finally, in Egypt of all places, that promise made to his granddaddy began to look like it might actually be fulfilled…

It’s in the first chapter of Exodus that Pharaoh makes a policy of drowning the newborn hebrew boys, so numerous had Abraham’s descendants become. 

That wasn’t enough to stop God’s promise, though. The child of the reeds was lifted up from the river. In Exodus 9 that same boy stands up to Pharaoh. Moses uttering those famous words, “let my people go.”

With signs and wonders, God does indeed lead the people to freedom from the most powerful dictator in the world. Exodus 7 through 11, recounts the ten plagues. And chapter 14 tells of the Hebrews’ harrowing escape through the Red Sea. In chapter 20 the people get far enough away to stop. At  Mt. Sinai, where God speaks to them directly, giving the revelation of The Law. 

Afterward God calls Moses up the mountain for further revelation. 

God has freed the people. Now God gives them the Law so that they might know how to live in freedom. Next God will lead them to the promised land, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham. 

But to today we stop with the people, chapter 32. Or 40 days after Moses went up the mountain…

For everything God has got the people, we see 40 days is all it takes to undo everything God’s done. 

In his absence, the people gather around Aaron, Moses’ right-hand-man. They ask him to make a god for them. After all, they rationalize, Moses is gone and who knows what’s become of him. Maybe one god is as good as another, they bet…

What’s really troubling, though, is what the people don’t talk about; God.

After all, Moses didn’t bring the people up out of the land of Egypt; God did!

See, the people don’t just ask for a god in lieu of Moses. They’ve already put Moses in lieu of God!

This is how it goes, though. The moment you forget God, you fall into idolatry, assuming we have to be the ones to save ourselves. Even though we know we can’t.

The people try of sooth their anxiety with a golden calf. A stand-in for Moses’ faithfulness. A stand-in for God even.

Tragically this story is no different than a lot of what you might read in any church newsletter, for example. Or, a newspaper…

It’s at this all too familiar moment, that something unexpected happens. As Psalm 106 puts it, Moses stands in the breach. 

Stammering, no doubt. Refaced, sure, Moses speaks up. Apparently shocked by his own actions, his own words fail him; “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold,” he admits. Then he ventures, “But now, if you will only forgive their sin,” and he can’t finish, his voice trails off.

This is not what anyone was expecting to happen. Least of all, Moses. Apparently.

Unusual though Moses’ behavior might be. Sticking his neck out for these stiff-necked people. It only gets weirder with God’s response to Moses’ insubordination.

Not only does God give Moses a hearing. God actually obeys Moses. Worst of all, God changes God’s mind! God decides not to give the people what they have coming!

You can just sit there, but I know this is outrageous behavior! 

When’s the last time any of you changed your mind? And here God does, even though God’s in the right! That’s crazy…

Moses is stiff-necked with God, and God doesn’t mind! Moses reminds God of the promise all the folks down the mountain have forgotten, and God doesn’t mind!

In this strange moment, God takes this all too familiar scene and does something unexpected! God does what the people don’t: God remembers.

Though the people fail to remember God, God does not forget them. God remembers the promise made to the people, although they have forgotten.

In the end, the very reason God ought to let the people have it, is the same reason God doesn’t! They’re stiff-necked. They deserved to be cast off, but they need to be saved. And God choses their need over their comeuppance. Think of that…

Because it’s strange. It’s not what anyone would expect. That these would be the people God would decide to make a people out of…

But, and here’s the rub, that’s what it means to live by grace. 

God takes this behavior that’s all too familiar, and does something unexpected. When we don’t repent, God does. When we forget, God doesn’t. 

God flips the script!

And that, sisters and brothers, is what it means to be adopted into the family of Israel. Even with scripture like this.

It’s not the family traits we’ve inherited, although we’re just as fickle. It’s isn’t the genes we share, although we’re just as prone to amnesia. It’s not even our genealogy, although our family tree has just as many crooked branches. 

No, what it means to be a part of the family of Israel is to have a gracious God. A God who remembers, when we forget. A God who repents, when we don’t. A God who will listen to the likes of us.
All to keep the promise made to Abraham. The promise made to you when you were baptized into this dysfunctional family. 

That’s what it means to be made a part of this family. 

To have a savior called, “messiah.” To have a Lord named, “Jesus.” To say that Hebrew who lived briefly, died violently and then rose is the full revelation of what God has been up to since the beginning to this very moment. 

That’s what God is doing right now: God is bringing you into this family history that continues by grace.
Now two opposing forces collide. 

God meets our infidelity head-on.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten the promise God made to you. Right now, God doesn’t. Perhaps you’ve dug in your heels, refusing to repent. Right now, God does. 

Right now, God suffers all those sacrifices we’ve make to our sacred cows. Opps, I mean golden calf. Just like that day around the mountain, God does something strange. God refuses to hold onto being right, to have you instead. 

At this moment God’s mercy overwhelms God’s justice, for you.

That’s what makes you a member of the family of Israel. With all the baggage that comes with it. Which is fine, because you have plenty of your own, don’t you? I know I do.

Here’s the good news, God’s going to take that baggage. No longer do your sins determine your family history, now what God has done, what Jesus does. 

You don’t have to be perfect to be a part of this family. To have God love you like a child. You just have to need God. And seeing as how God has brought you here, apparently you do. 

We all do. That’s what it means to be here. To be a part of this family. This is your history. Welcome home.