Sermon 20th June 2010
Today, our trainee Lay Reader, Simon Brindley, preaches, based on the reading from Exodus 32:1-14
Even now, when I hear the name “Moses” I am reminded of something that was broadcast on British Forces Radio, in 1970, to thousands of British servicemen and their families stationed in what was then West Germany, all of 40 years ago…. and a cold shiver runs down my spine. At that time there were about a dozen English-speaking senior schools in Germany for the children of army personnel and other British people living there and each year, the British Forces Broadcasting Service would hold a radio quiz, a sort of university challenge for schoolchildren. I was 13 years old and the son of the school chaplain or “the padre” as he was known and I was on our school quiz team. “In the Old Testament, which famous character was found, as a baby, floating in the bullrushes?” came the question to me. You could almost feel the school audience breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s two points for us then....he’s the padre’s son. How could he possibly get that one wrong??”…..Yes, you’ve guessed it…..my mind went blank and…..(pause)…. “..er…Solomon….?” came the answer. Oh the shame of it….the shame! So if I suddenly get Moses’ name wrong as I speak this morning, please have sympathy…..there’s a painful history behind it!
You’ll probably remember the story of course….hundreds of years before Moses, Joseph had arrived in Egypt after being sold into slavery by his brothers and when they were finally reconciled, together with their father Jacob, the family all went to live in Egypt. In the hundreds of years since then, the descendants of this Israelite family had themselves actually become slaves to the Egyptians. The King of Egypt at that time was so concerned at how many of them there were and that they might become a threat to him, that he gave orders for all the Hebrew boys to be killed at birth. Moses’ mother hid him for 3 months after he was born, but when she could hide him no longer she put him in a waterproof basket in the rushes at the edge of the river where he was found by the king’s daughter who adopted him as her own son and he grew up in the King of Egypt’s household.
When he was a young man, Moses saw one of the Hebrew slaves being killed by an Egyptian. So he killed the Egyptian and hid the body but as a result Moses had to flee to a land called Midian where he married the daughter of a man called Jethro. And you probably remember how Moses was looking after Jethro’s sheep and goats one day when God Himself spoke to him from a burning bush and told Moses that He had chosen him to lead the oppressed Israelites out of Egypt and take them to a new, rich and fertile land.
After some persuasion, because he didn’t see how he could possibly do this thing, Moses agreed. He went back to Egypt, met up with his brother Aaron and together they asked the King of Egypt to let the Hebrew people go…and eventually, after a series of dreadful plagues culminating in the original Passover, where the angel of the Lord passed over the houses and killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt, the Egyptian king relented and allowed the Israelites to leave. So Moses led them out into the desert with a pillar of cloud in front of them by day and a pillar of fire to lead them by night.
It’s an astonishing story and the highlight is probably when the Egyptian army comes after the Israelites and a strong wind causes the Red Sea to open up in front of the people of Israel and allow them to walk safely through but the wind then drops, the sea rushes back and swallows up the entire Egyptian army before they can get across, an event so powerful in the memory of these people you’ll find it recorded in their worship poems and songs which have come down to us in the Old Testament, for example:
“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he does for his people! He made a dry path through the Red Sea and his people went across on foot”
are the words of Psalm 66, verses 5 and 6.
You may also remember the story of what happens next as Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert and it’s a story of hardship and miracles as time and again God provides and Moses leads until after a few months they all come to the foot of Mount Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. And there God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and a large number of other laws which will govern the way this people are to live and which will cement Moses’ place in Jewish history as Moses the Law Giver. There are so many laws and instructions, just at this stage, that it takes over 10 chapters of the book of Exodus to describe them and Moses is away up the mountain for a long time as God sets out the terms of his new covenant, his new promise to the people of Israel and then finally sets out the commandments themselves on two tablets of stone.
So what do the people do, these people who have survived seemingly endless plagues, seen the sea itself parted as God led them safely through, seen endless miracles including God’s provision of manna, the bread from heaven and also quails, birds in abundance to feed them when they were hungry? You would think they might just be prepared to be patient…just for a while? But no…as Aaron puts it to Moses when Moses comes back down from the mountain top, “these people are determined to do evil..” They start complaining that Moses has been away for a bit too long. So that’s that then, forget him and that God he keeps talking about, forget being brought safe thus far, forget something as commonplace as that parting of the Red Sea, let’s melt down our gold and make ourselves a new god, let’s shape it into a golden bull and we can worship that instead. The golden bull must have been the one who led us out of Egypt! And while we are at it, let’s all get drunk, have a big party, throw all our standards out the window and sleep with anyone we want! Why not eh? Moses has been gone a few weeks so he’s obviously not bothered!
Pause..
It’s easy, isn’t it, to lay into these Israelites…just look at them! Evidence of God’s presence and God’s provision is staring them in the face but as soon as they get the chance it’s all back to normal and their basic instincts, forget God and just do what you like. We’re not harming anybody…Let’s just worship something that looks nice and shiny and doesn’t demand too much of us…
Pause…
But I wonder whether at the heart of this story is not something incredibly human and something that actually rings very true in our own experience? I wonder whether we are not better looking at this story from the bottom of the mountain among the people watching Moses coming down with the heavy tablets of stone in his hands…is that him?.....what on earth is he carrying?? rather than from the top of the mountain through Moses’ eyes as he treads wearily downhill, sighing.. looking down at the noise and the rabble below..
Have you ever had an experience where you have cried out to God to help bring you though a difficult time..whatever that might be?…a problem for your child being picked on at school, perhaps issues for your child around a change of school, financial worries, safety, illness of a close friend or relative, a crisis at work or in your family…Lord give me strength just to get through this day or this night…Lord don’t let these waves overwhelm me, Lord get me safely to the shore, bring me safely to dry land and cut off those who are coming after me and my family…the bullies, the authorities, the creditors…those who would make my life a misery. Free me Lord and I’ll be free to follow you and I’ll never doubt you again. Have you ever had an experience similar to that? I know I have…
And have you ever found yourself on the far side of a crisis, all is well, life is back to normal, there’s football on TV, a few drinks with some mates….all is well… and a few weeks later that reliance on God is starting to drift a bit…because all is well..
He doesn’t seem to have been around much for a while…
I’m OK aren’t I? I’m actually feeling quite strong today, I’m a coper, a strong man, this feels good…I reckon I can do this on my own now….and anyway there are some pretty good rational arguments you know that God doesn’t even exist at all.
Have you ever drifted off in that direction, whether occasionally or in a big way? I know I have…..from time to time.
And have you ever had an experience where some thing that means a lot to you or that looks really good or attractive begins to take over your life just a bit too much and to push some of the most important things out of the way? For some people it can be work…just one more deal, just one more promotion then I’ll be free to spend more time with my children…..for others it might be sport…just one more race, one more bike ride, I reckon I could shave ten minutes off my best time next Sunday…that’s OK, the family can go to church for all of us…for others in our society it seems to me that it can be money itself….I remember once hearing a keen young Christian I was introduced to talking very excitedly about the £34,000 worth of fittings that had come with the house he had just bought. £34,000 eh? And all of it fittings….gosh…and this was in the 1980’s….OK, OK. Have you got any other things in your life that you value highly to impress people with?
Have you ever worried that some thing that means a lot to you or looks really good or attractive is becoming valued more than it really should be? Are there things that have more worth to you than they really should….do you give them more worth than they should have. Do you worship them? I know that from time to time I have faced that challenge in relation to things that make me tick.
Please note here that I am not saying at all that we should deny ourselves things that give us pleasure…I am reasonably convinced that we cannot effectively love others over time unless we also love ourselves and give ourselves time and space….but I do think what God asks of us is not to be replaced at the heart of our lives. These things have a rightful place but they should not take God’s place. They should not become false Gods. They should not be where we put our ultimate trust. They are of limited value. I believe God longs to be at the heart of our lives and not an add-on, barged out of the way by worldly standards and our very human desires…..but it is a very human thing that we replace our loving Creator God so easily with things that look superficially attractive….I think it would be rare to find anyone in our churches who did not understand that dilemma. Perhaps we are not really that different from the Israelites after all.
So what then does Moses bring back down the mountain from his long period of absence? I think first he brings understanding of human frailty in his pleading with God to show mercy to the people…and he also brings ten commandments, ten rules for living written on two tablets of stone:
- worship no God but me – there is only one Creator God who sustains the universe;
- don’t worship idols – don’t give created things more value than they in truth deserve;
- don’t misuse my name – respect the one who gave life to you and everything around you;
- rest once a week – don’t drive yourselves too hard and fail to give yourselves time to recreate yourself and to remember me;
- respect your father and mother – they will try to show you how to live;
- don’t murder – the gift of life is too valuable for you to take it away like that;
- don’t commit adultery – the bond of trust and affection in families is too critical for everyone involved for that;
- don’t steal – there will be chaos in society if you take what belongs to another;
- do not accuse anyone falsely – justice is critical to a fair society and proper self esteem;
- don’t hanker after what anyone else has – it will not serve you or society well in the end.
I remember seeing a programme some time in the last year or so where the former Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe set out to defend the ten commandments and to argue that a society based on them is better than a society without these rules. She was lambasted by the TV presenter Stephen Fry who wanted to argue that societies based on the ten commandments had inevitably been oppressive. For me this is not a debate on which to try to score cheap points. All I would say is that on this argument I think I would side firmly at the end of the day with Anne Widdecombe and I am not a natural conservative. I think God knew what he was doing when he gave the Israelites rules to live by. I don’t find anything to disagree with in these laws. I don’t see anything oppressive..
Rather, I think there is something fundamental going on here. I actually believe we need guidance from outside, we need to understand that there are principles that are in the end good, perhaps we need to understand that left to our own devices we will inevitably put ourselves and our selfish desires ahead of others. I heard a passionate defence recently of the humanist perspective, at a talk being given in my Office to a group of 80 or so people of different faiths. “Do anything you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else” was the one rule we were asked to consider. I just didn’t find it compelling….it didn’t seem to me to have the urgency that is needed to deal with real problems in real life. Interestingly, it seemed that very few people in the room found it compelling either, whether they were Moslem or Hindu, Jewish or Christian.
Do we need to rediscover the idea that what God gives us is in the end for our good, it is the gift of a loving heavenly father who understands our frailties and weaknesses. It is a gift not intended to oppress us but to build us up in a lifelong relationship with the God who made us?
Of course as Christians we believe that there is whole new chapter to God’s gift, where everything comes together in God’s new covenant as God himself comes to earth to join us…..but that story we also know, that story is for another day and I don’t think His is a name that we would ever get wrong, even if we found ourselves under the pressure of a radio quiz show.
(Amen)
Even now, when I hear the name “Moses” I am reminded of something that was broadcast on British Forces Radio, in 1970, to thousands of British servicemen and their families stationed in what was then West Germany, all of 40 years ago…. and a cold shiver runs down my spine. At that time there were about a dozen English-speaking senior schools in Germany for the children of army personnel and other British people living there and each year, the British Forces Broadcasting Service would hold a radio quiz, a sort of university challenge for schoolchildren. I was 13 years old and the son of the school chaplain or “the padre” as he was known and I was on our school quiz team. “In the Old Testament, which famous character was found, as a baby, floating in the bullrushes?” came the question to me. You could almost feel the school audience breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s two points for us then....he’s the padre’s son. How could he possibly get that one wrong??”…..Yes, you’ve guessed it…..my mind went blank and…..(pause)…. “..er…Solomon….?” came the answer. Oh the shame of it….the shame! So if I suddenly get Moses’ name wrong as I speak this morning, please have sympathy…..there’s a painful history behind it!
You’ll probably remember the story of course….hundreds of years before Moses, Joseph had arrived in Egypt after being sold into slavery by his brothers and when they were finally reconciled, together with their father Jacob, the family all went to live in Egypt. In the hundreds of years since then, the descendants of this Israelite family had themselves actually become slaves to the Egyptians. The King of Egypt at that time was so concerned at how many of them there were and that they might become a threat to him, that he gave orders for all the Hebrew boys to be killed at birth. Moses’ mother hid him for 3 months after he was born, but when she could hide him no longer she put him in a waterproof basket in the rushes at the edge of the river where he was found by the king’s daughter who adopted him as her own son and he grew up in the King of Egypt’s household.
When he was a young man, Moses saw one of the Hebrew slaves being killed by an Egyptian. So he killed the Egyptian and hid the body but as a result Moses had to flee to a land called Midian where he married the daughter of a man called Jethro. And you probably remember how Moses was looking after Jethro’s sheep and goats one day when God Himself spoke to him from a burning bush and told Moses that He had chosen him to lead the oppressed Israelites out of Egypt and take them to a new, rich and fertile land.
After some persuasion, because he didn’t see how he could possibly do this thing, Moses agreed. He went back to Egypt, met up with his brother Aaron and together they asked the King of Egypt to let the Hebrew people go…and eventually, after a series of dreadful plagues culminating in the original Passover, where the angel of the Lord passed over the houses and killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt, the Egyptian king relented and allowed the Israelites to leave. So Moses led them out into the desert with a pillar of cloud in front of them by day and a pillar of fire to lead them by night.
It’s an astonishing story and the highlight is probably when the Egyptian army comes after the Israelites and a strong wind causes the Red Sea to open up in front of the people of Israel and allow them to walk safely through but the wind then drops, the sea rushes back and swallows up the entire Egyptian army before they can get across, an event so powerful in the memory of these people you’ll find it recorded in their worship poems and songs which have come down to us in the Old Testament, for example:
“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he does for his people! He made a dry path through the Red Sea and his people went across on foot”
are the words of Psalm 66, verses 5 and 6.
You may also remember the story of what happens next as Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert and it’s a story of hardship and miracles as time and again God provides and Moses leads until after a few months they all come to the foot of Mount Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. And there God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and a large number of other laws which will govern the way this people are to live and which will cement Moses’ place in Jewish history as Moses the Law Giver. There are so many laws and instructions, just at this stage, that it takes over 10 chapters of the book of Exodus to describe them and Moses is away up the mountain for a long time as God sets out the terms of his new covenant, his new promise to the people of Israel and then finally sets out the commandments themselves on two tablets of stone.
So what do the people do, these people who have survived seemingly endless plagues, seen the sea itself parted as God led them safely through, seen endless miracles including God’s provision of manna, the bread from heaven and also quails, birds in abundance to feed them when they were hungry? You would think they might just be prepared to be patient…just for a while? But no…as Aaron puts it to Moses when Moses comes back down from the mountain top, “these people are determined to do evil..” They start complaining that Moses has been away for a bit too long. So that’s that then, forget him and that God he keeps talking about, forget being brought safe thus far, forget something as commonplace as that parting of the Red Sea, let’s melt down our gold and make ourselves a new god, let’s shape it into a golden bull and we can worship that instead. The golden bull must have been the one who led us out of Egypt! And while we are at it, let’s all get drunk, have a big party, throw all our standards out the window and sleep with anyone we want! Why not eh? Moses has been gone a few weeks so he’s obviously not bothered!
Pause..
It’s easy, isn’t it, to lay into these Israelites…just look at them! Evidence of God’s presence and God’s provision is staring them in the face but as soon as they get the chance it’s all back to normal and their basic instincts, forget God and just do what you like. We’re not harming anybody…Let’s just worship something that looks nice and shiny and doesn’t demand too much of us…
Pause…
But I wonder whether at the heart of this story is not something incredibly human and something that actually rings very true in our own experience? I wonder whether we are not better looking at this story from the bottom of the mountain among the people watching Moses coming down with the heavy tablets of stone in his hands…is that him?.....what on earth is he carrying?? rather than from the top of the mountain through Moses’ eyes as he treads wearily downhill, sighing.. looking down at the noise and the rabble below..
Have you ever had an experience where you have cried out to God to help bring you though a difficult time..whatever that might be?…a problem for your child being picked on at school, perhaps issues for your child around a change of school, financial worries, safety, illness of a close friend or relative, a crisis at work or in your family…Lord give me strength just to get through this day or this night…Lord don’t let these waves overwhelm me, Lord get me safely to the shore, bring me safely to dry land and cut off those who are coming after me and my family…the bullies, the authorities, the creditors…those who would make my life a misery. Free me Lord and I’ll be free to follow you and I’ll never doubt you again. Have you ever had an experience similar to that? I know I have…
And have you ever found yourself on the far side of a crisis, all is well, life is back to normal, there’s football on TV, a few drinks with some mates….all is well… and a few weeks later that reliance on God is starting to drift a bit…because all is well..
He doesn’t seem to have been around much for a while…
I’m OK aren’t I? I’m actually feeling quite strong today, I’m a coper, a strong man, this feels good…I reckon I can do this on my own now….and anyway there are some pretty good rational arguments you know that God doesn’t even exist at all.
Have you ever drifted off in that direction, whether occasionally or in a big way? I know I have…..from time to time.
And have you ever had an experience where some thing that means a lot to you or that looks really good or attractive begins to take over your life just a bit too much and to push some of the most important things out of the way? For some people it can be work…just one more deal, just one more promotion then I’ll be free to spend more time with my children…..for others it might be sport…just one more race, one more bike ride, I reckon I could shave ten minutes off my best time next Sunday…that’s OK, the family can go to church for all of us…for others in our society it seems to me that it can be money itself….I remember once hearing a keen young Christian I was introduced to talking very excitedly about the £34,000 worth of fittings that had come with the house he had just bought. £34,000 eh? And all of it fittings….gosh…and this was in the 1980’s….OK, OK. Have you got any other things in your life that you value highly to impress people with?
Have you ever worried that some thing that means a lot to you or looks really good or attractive is becoming valued more than it really should be? Are there things that have more worth to you than they really should….do you give them more worth than they should have. Do you worship them? I know that from time to time I have faced that challenge in relation to things that make me tick.
Please note here that I am not saying at all that we should deny ourselves things that give us pleasure…I am reasonably convinced that we cannot effectively love others over time unless we also love ourselves and give ourselves time and space….but I do think what God asks of us is not to be replaced at the heart of our lives. These things have a rightful place but they should not take God’s place. They should not become false Gods. They should not be where we put our ultimate trust. They are of limited value. I believe God longs to be at the heart of our lives and not an add-on, barged out of the way by worldly standards and our very human desires…..but it is a very human thing that we replace our loving Creator God so easily with things that look superficially attractive….I think it would be rare to find anyone in our churches who did not understand that dilemma. Perhaps we are not really that different from the Israelites after all.
So what then does Moses bring back down the mountain from his long period of absence? I think first he brings understanding of human frailty in his pleading with God to show mercy to the people…and he also brings ten commandments, ten rules for living written on two tablets of stone:
- worship no God but me – there is only one Creator God who sustains the universe;
- don’t worship idols – don’t give created things more value than they in truth deserve;
- don’t misuse my name – respect the one who gave life to you and everything around you;
- rest once a week – don’t drive yourselves too hard and fail to give yourselves time to recreate yourself and to remember me;
- respect your father and mother – they will try to show you how to live;
- don’t murder – the gift of life is too valuable for you to take it away like that;
- don’t commit adultery – the bond of trust and affection in families is too critical for everyone involved for that;
- don’t steal – there will be chaos in society if you take what belongs to another;
- do not accuse anyone falsely – justice is critical to a fair society and proper self esteem;
- don’t hanker after what anyone else has – it will not serve you or society well in the end.
I remember seeing a programme some time in the last year or so where the former Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe set out to defend the ten commandments and to argue that a society based on them is better than a society without these rules. She was lambasted by the TV presenter Stephen Fry who wanted to argue that societies based on the ten commandments had inevitably been oppressive. For me this is not a debate on which to try to score cheap points. All I would say is that on this argument I think I would side firmly at the end of the day with Anne Widdecombe and I am not a natural conservative. I think God knew what he was doing when he gave the Israelites rules to live by. I don’t find anything to disagree with in these laws. I don’t see anything oppressive..
Rather, I think there is something fundamental going on here. I actually believe we need guidance from outside, we need to understand that there are principles that are in the end good, perhaps we need to understand that left to our own devices we will inevitably put ourselves and our selfish desires ahead of others. I heard a passionate defence recently of the humanist perspective, at a talk being given in my Office to a group of 80 or so people of different faiths. “Do anything you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else” was the one rule we were asked to consider. I just didn’t find it compelling….it didn’t seem to me to have the urgency that is needed to deal with real problems in real life. Interestingly, it seemed that very few people in the room found it compelling either, whether they were Moslem or Hindu, Jewish or Christian.
Do we need to rediscover the idea that what God gives us is in the end for our good, it is the gift of a loving heavenly father who understands our frailties and weaknesses. It is a gift not intended to oppress us but to build us up in a lifelong relationship with the God who made us?
Of course as Christians we believe that there is whole new chapter to God’s gift, where everything comes together in God’s new covenant as God himself comes to earth to join us…..but that story we also know, that story is for another day and I don’t think His is a name that we would ever get wrong, even if we found ourselves under the pressure of a radio quiz show.
(Amen)
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:14 pm
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