“Be Transformed!!”

A Sermon Preached by

The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

When I say the name “Moses,” what comes to your mind?  The baby in the bulrushes?  The burning bush?  Charlton Heston?  How many of you remember the movie “The Ten Commandments?”  When Charlton – I mean Moses – comes down from Mt. Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, you know he has had quite an experience up there on that mountain.  His face shines with a new-found radiance and his bearing is assured and confident.  But you know, Moses wasn’t always that confident and self-assured. 

When Moses first encounters God in the burning bush, we can almost hear his knees knocking.  Moses has been a shepherd for 40 years which is a real come-down from the life he has been prepared for.  He grew up in Pharaoh’s court, as Pharaoh’s adopted grandson.  He was in training to be a leader in Egypt, but one day he sees an Egyptian taskmaster whip a Hebrew slave to death; enraged, Moses kills the taskmaster.  And then he flees to Midian.  And it is there that God gets Moses’ attention with the burning bush.  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, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” [Exodus 3:7-8].

Well, you can almost hear Moses rejoicing; God is going to deliver the Hebrews out of bondage and give them a land flowing with milk and honey!!  But then God drops the other shoe…Guess who God has chosen for the job.  God says to Moses, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”  [Exodus 3:10].

Moses is terrified at what God has asked him to do, and he expresses his humanity, his hesitancy, and his feelings of inadequacy, with several creative excuses.  Moses responds to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  [Exodus 3:11]. 

And listen to how God answers Moses.  God doesn’t say, “Moses, you’re great, you’re wonderful, you can do it!!”  God says:  “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”  [Exodus 3:12].

Well, Moses isn’t convinced yet.  So he questions God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  [Exodus 3:13].  In other words, if Moses isn’t able to squirm out of God’s call by asking, “Who am I?’, then he’s going to challenge God and ask “Who are you?” 

And God says to Moses: “I am who I am… the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.”  [Exodus 3:14]. 

Is Moses convinced yet?  Nope.  Remember, he fled Egypt 40 years previously because he has murdered an Egyptian slave driver; the Israelites might be skeptical, to say the least, at having a known murderer show up to lead them out of bondage.  So Moses says to God, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’”  [Exodus 4:1]

And God says to Moses, “What is that in your hand?”  Moses answers, “A staff.”  And God says, “Throw it on the ground.”  So Moses throws the staff on the ground, and it becomes a snake; and Moses draws back from it.  Then God says to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail” – so Moses reaches out his hand and grasps it, and it becomes a staff in his hand…”  [Exodus 4:2-4].  God gives Moses the gift of signs and wonders to prove himself to any skeptics among the Hebrews.  What God is saying to Moses is “when I call you to a task, I’ll equip you for it – I will give you the tools you need.”

Is Moses done arguing with God yet?  Nope.  Moses says to God, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”  [Exodus 4:10].  Moses says to God, I don’t talk well; now we don’t know exactly what Moses means – does he have speech impediment, or a fear of public speaking, or is he just not very articulate?  Whatever the problem, Moses feels inadequate to the task that God has called him. 

Listen to how God responds:  “Who gives speech to mortals?  Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?  Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.”  [Exodus 4:11-12].

Well, Moses tries one last trick to get out of this job that God has picked him for.  He begs.  “O my lord, please send someone else.”  [Exodus 4:13].  In response, God tells Moses that he will send his brother Aaron to work beside him. 

Did you notice that every time God responds to one of Moses’ excuses, God’s answers are not about Moses, but about God; in each case that Moses felt inadequate, God said, “I will be with you and show you how to do it.” 

And what happens to Moses?  He marches with courage ten times into Pharaoh’s court; he leads the people out of Egypt, and across the Red Sea, and through the wilderness into the Promised Land.  And when Moses dies, the Bible [Deuteronomy 34:10] tells us, “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses.”

Moses spends the first 40 years of his life learning that he is somebody in the courts of Pharaoh.  He spends the next 40 years of his life as a shepherd, a nobody.  And he spends the last 40 years of his life learning what God can do with somebody who knows he is a nobody but gives his life over to God.  After objecting to God five times, after trying to say “no” to God, Moses finally says, “Yes.”  It is then that God is finally able to work in Moses’ life, and Moses discovers God’s purpose for his life.  What a powerful story of transformation!!! 

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul tells us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”  Conforming to this world will not help us find meaning and purpose in our lives.  Meaning and purpose will be found through transformation; transformation occurs when the heart is changed; our hearts are changed by God.

As we enter this new church year, God invites all of us to be transformed, by saying “Yes!” to having our hearts changed by God.  And this is where transformation can take place -- here, in this gathered community of faith, here in the midst of worship; through the reading of the scripture, the singing of hymns, the saying of prayers.  Transformation can happen when we reach out to others in compassion and Christian love to others.  It can happen when we journey with others in an exploration of faith.  I invite you to get involved in the ministries and activities of this church this coming year; come to the bible studies, get involved in small groups, knit a prayer shawl. 

I know that many of you are busy with many other activities that fill your time.  But the Church offers something that cannot be found anywhere else.  The world can offer education to make you smarter, it can offer you great career opportunities to make you wealthier, it can offer you a nice home to make you comfortable -- but only the Church can offer you a way to have your heart changed by God.  And so, this year, say “yes!” to God, participate in our worship, ministries and activities this year, and be transformed!!  Amen.