Call to Worship
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits
-- Psalms 103:1-2
Let us celebrate life.
Let us worship God.
Song: Holy, Holy; holy Lord God
Prayers
Blessed are you, God of hope, the Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the holy law on Sinai.
You call us home from the exile of selfish oppression to the freedom of justice,
the balm of healing, and the joy of sharing.
For these and all your mercies, we praise you:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen
Song: Be still for the presence of the Lord
Prayers
Prayer of Confession:
Precious Lord, strip away the mask we wear during the week to "get by." Lay our soul bare before you today. Help us to recognize genuine love. Teach us the love that hates evil and holds onto to what is good. Strip away the mask that holds our emotions in check when we should share your love with someone. Let us see the joy of giving to others. Show us the power of blessing those who persecute us. Strip away "the mask that grins and lies and lets the world think otherwise" about a child of God.
(Silence)
Words of Assurance & Forgiveness
An altar, a pew, a seat on the bus, a kitchen table — all become holy ground when we confess our sins to God. Today, in this holy place, God meets us, hears us, and forgives us. In this holy place, God empowers us with genuine love to be shared with a hurting world. Be for God, a holy loving people.
Notices and Offering
Setting the Scene: Carol!
Song: Let my people go
Bible Readings:
Bible Reading: Exodus 3:1-15 Robert M
Hymn: Christ whose glory fills the skies
Talk:
Have a look down for a moment! What do you see?
New carpet? Shoes, feet?
Do you like the new carpet? Many thanks to those who have put extra hours in this week so we can enjoy this today - particularly to Joan who has worked lots of extra hours this week to steward the building while the men have been lying it.
When you look down you see new carpet - and you see Holy Ground. When a church is build the land is set apart for the work of God, seen as sacred and sanctified for the purposes of God's Kingdom. This Holy Ground has been seen as Holy for a long time. Many feet of Holy men and women have stood in this church, and the church that stood here before it. (Book from Ann - great read!)
Often in old churches you see a foundation stone laid that says "To the Glory of God". This building is set apart for the Glory of God - but what do we mean by The Glory of God? What is the Glory of God?
In our reading this morning we find Moses face to face with the Glory of God in the burning bush. The angel of the Lord appears in the Burning bush and God says to Moses: Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
Moses more than anything else in the Old Testament is connected with the glory of God.. If we read his story we find that again and again he faces the glory of God in a burning bush, up a mountain, in the desert, in front of Pharaoh, to name but a view. The mystery of God's glory was there time and time and time again.
Yet if we could speak to Moses this morning we might have a problem with that. For this man who knew so much about the glory of God appeared inconsistent. Here was a wanted man - a murdered - Maybe he murdered in self defence, yet he was indeed a murdered and he had ran away rather than face the consequences of his actions.
The people who had to lead didn't always like him, they didn't like his style - they criticised him left, right and centre. They didn't like the way he led them, didn't like the way he fed them - in fact that didn't even like his wife! They mooned and complained and were as awkward as they could be.
So, what kept Moses going
Innocence - No
Eloquence - No
Popularity - Certainly not
What kept Moses going was that he had seen the Glory of God.
The glory of God kept Moses faithful when:
When the task is too big for him
When the enemy is too strong for him
When the people are too much for him
And when the reward is too small for him.
In the same way the Glory of God keeps us going today. In those moments when our hearts know God in all his fullness, those God moments, those times when we glimpse into the Kingdom, and see difference.
The writer to the Hebrew's says: ( 1: 3) The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
At Bethlehem - The Glory of God shone from that stable. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us - and we beheld his glory. (And the word became human and moved into our neighbourhood - Peterson)
We see again the glory of God on the cross. And it's the glory that burst from the tomb and now dwells with His people. We now are aware that our body is the temple of the Living God - and the Glory of God is seen in his people. God's glory continues to be revealed through Christ in our lives.
We need to v reminded of the glory of God when the task is too big for us.
Moses task was so big. Basically - go and round up those few thousand people and get them out of Egypt. No easy task, no simple solution, no alternatives - just do it!
These was indeed a challenge, and remember Moses was comfortable in Midian - away from his guilty past, away from his confusion of being an Israelite raised as an Egyptian, it was a lot more peaceful being a shepherd in the household of a priest.
We too need to avoid being over comfortable for we too need challenge.
Our task should not always be easy - we need to be challenged, to grow.
We need to be prepared to embrace new things.
Moses faces the glory of God in the burning bush. God comes to Moses and challenges him to change.
I wonder about the symbolism of the bush - what did it mean, a bush burning but not consumed? Some would say the Bush represents Israel , revealing that like the bush under immense heat and pressure - Israel cannot and will not be consumed.
Yet I see the Bush as like Moses - just a little bush - nothing spectacular here -but on fire with God. The fire of God did not consume it but used it to reveal his glory. Moses saw himself as a normal guy, nothing extra ordinary, but God would use this ordinary man to deliver his people and do a spectacular thing, Moses would be on fire for God as he was faithful to God.
Through the bush God says to Moses "I can use you" , and Moses replies "Who am I" and what's more God - who are you
God replies: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. "I AM WHO I AM." These great words that contain the mystery of God himself - Yahweh, Yahshua, Jehovah. This name indicates that God is fulfilling His promise that He had given for generations. And, that promise was all about deliverance – deliverance from bondage.
To see "I am" written down in the Hebrew it simply appears as m YHWH - it is a Tetragrammaton, 4 letters, 4 consonants which reveal the name of God - we don't even know the vowels in between, because the Jews had so much reverence to the name of God that they never pronounced it, they called Him Adonai (Lord, my supreme Lord) or Elohim (the Almighty One)... but they never wrote the vowels in between. When we hear that God said "I am who I am" - we stand on Holy Ground, for God reveals his name and his true identity to us.
Moses begin to recognise this as he stands before the bush, bare foot, hiding his face, God reveals even more about his identity:
Yes, he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob - but he is not simply a God of the past - but a God of the present. He is a God who sees, hears, understand and acts on behalf of his people.
"I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; (seen)
Moses had seen what his people were going through and he fled from their misery and pain and remained in Midian . Moses had seen the misery of his people and ran away, God had seen the misery seen their plight, and now he reminds Moses of what Moses would rather choose to forget! Moses stands on this Holy ground and is confronted with his worst nightmare, the misery of his own family back home.
God see his people, he sees their misery, and he sees their condition.
We have a God who sees the world today:
God sees the misery of the people of Iraq, he sees the misery of the people on the Gaza Straight,
He sees the misery of the people is Niger and West Africa.
He sees our misery, our heart-ache.
This is the God who speaks to Moses, not a God of the past - but a God of the present - this is our God who sees our misery.
I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. (heard)
And more - he is THE God who hears.
I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. As the people of God have cried out in pain and persecution - God has heard their cry. It has reached Heaven, their cries have resounded in the eternal palaces, in the very presence of the Holy God. He has heard their cried for justice and freedom.
We have a God who hears the cries of our world today.
God who hears the cries of the new Pope this week when he said " There is a
strange forgetfulness of God" among the people that has led to a "feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction."
God hears the cries of the bereaved, and the oppressed.
He hears our cries in secret, in our private places.
And he knows: (Ex 3:7)
Indeed, I know their sufferings, (Understand)
God understands their suffering - here we see a God of great empathy, he understands what they are going through.
We have a God who understands our suffering. Whenever we suffer, through grief, pain, heart-ache, loneliness, hunger, self pity. God knows our suffering, he understands our humanity.
At times other people may not understand you. You may feel totally isolated and alone. Friends at those times God understands your suffering. Carol spoke to us earlier about Sickle Cell. Carol most of us here don't fully understand the implications and complications of this condition, I remember you saying to me once that I was learning the hard way about Sickle cell - my response was no - you were learning the hard way, I was learning something as I journeyed alongside you. - yet God understands all our suffering.
Here is God - Not just a God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - but a God who sees, hears and understands Israel then and our world today!
So ok - you may think - do something God!
Moses must have been relieved when God said to him: Ex 3: 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians. God is Hands on!
Yes! Result ! Action.
God has come down to deliver the Egyptians! Hallelujah - ok God how are you going to deliver these poor oppressed Israelites in Egypt, what are you going to do for them. - listen to this….
I am going to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey!
Sounds great Lord, say more……………..
9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
10 So come, I will send you
Poor Moses: Me! You'll send me! Me - O dear!
We know what Moses said next - I can't do that - not me, someone else, anyone else - not me!
Yet from this Holy Ground Moses went to do the will of God - not without reluctance, not without doubt, but needing constant reassurance and strength from God himself.
Friends, look down again, remember this is Holy Ground. >From this Holy Ground God send us out to be His messengers, his people.
He says to us - I have seen, heard, understood the problems of the world today, the problems in your community, your church, your family. And I have come down to deliver them.
Friends, we know that God has indeed come down - he has come down in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the redeemer, deliverer, and Saviour of the world. He came to put right what Adam did wrong. He came to lead captivity captive to God's love and grace.
And because of him we, like Moses, are involved to be agents of deliverance, Paul invites us in (2: Cor 4: 6) to "Let our light shine out of darkness," For God made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
As Moses turns away from the burning Bush he is a now a man of mission and purpose, a man who had encountered the God of his fathers, a man who is compelled to respond to change him ways and follow God's will for him?
As we move away from this Holy Ground, are we people of mission and purpose? Worship should be an encounter with the living Christ who is the Glory of God himself, are we compelled to respond to change our ways and follow God's will for us?
Moses was the man to do the work of God in his generation - and we are called to serve our generation. This task is great - but the Glory of God is even greater. Thank you Lord, Amen
Hymn: Lord, I come before your throne
Intercessions
We made a bush - by symbolically putting branches into oasis and praying for those areas of life where God sends us as individuals to bring freedom and deliverance. Then it was draped with a golden scarf to signify the Holy presence of God. We prayed:
Lord you see the misery, hear the cries, and understand our world today - and you send us to be your messengers. Use us for your Glory, ablaze with your Holy Spirit to make a difference. Thank you Holy God. Amen
Hymn: I the Lord of sea and sky
Benediction
A Blessing To Serve --
"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that you will know Him deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy. Amen
And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things that others tell you cannot be done.
Amen