Growing No Feathers
Sermon
The Divine Salvage
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third)
When Imelda Marcos was criticized for having 3,000 pairs of shoes in her closet, her excuse was: "Everybody kept their shoes there. The maids ... everybody."1 When Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped a Beverly Hills policeman, her excuse was: "I am from Hungary. We are descendants of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun. We are Hungarian freedom fighters."2 Moses balked when God spoke directly to him, asking him to go liberate a nation of slaves. Moses' excuse was, "I'm not very good with words."
None of these excuses worked. Moses was God's choice even though he was not a natural for the job. He was a Hebrew raised in an Egyptian home and married into a Midianite family. He had, by his own admission, no answers, no authority, no talent for making speeches. Moses wasn't looking for the job. He was drafted. He seemed an unlikely candidate, but he was exactly who God was looking for. It didn't have so much to do with the timing in Moses' life as it had to do with God's timing.
God had reached a point of saturation. God had seen too many stumble under hard loads, had heard too many lashes, God had come to know the daily humiliation of the slaves. The Exodus account tells us of this timing: "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the people of Israel, and God knew their condition" (Exodus 2:24-25).
God needed someone who was fed up with things as they were and was filled with compassion. Yahweh needed someone who had also seen, heard, and known the life of a Hebrew slave. Every year of Moses' youth he learned about their misery, a misery orchestrated by his own class. And he learned compassion, but his empathy had no outlet. He was Pharaoh's adopted grandson, which made him too close to criticize. With no outlet, one day he exploded! He murdered an Egyptian taskmaster. He killed for a slave. He was so sympathetic, he threw away everything and became an outlaw.
God looks for someone who is filled with the compassion of divine will. In 430 B.C. the historian Thucydides recorded: "It was in those who recovered from the plague that the sick and the dying found the most compassion." Still today, empathy gives zeal. Struggling alcoholics find the strongest motivation from recovering alcoholics. Parents of missing children expend their energy looking for other children who have disappeared. Many respond to the cries they have become accustomed to hearing. Like the man in the city who was walking with a friend on a busy sidewalk and stopped to draw attention to the sound of a cricket. The friend, amazed, wondered how he picked up on that insignificant sound among all the sounds surrounding them. The man responded that you hear what you listen for. To illustrate his point he dropped a coin on the sidewalk. At the sound of that solitary coin everyone all around them stopped and turned in the direction of that sound.3
God drafted Moses because Moses heard the cries of the Hebrews. We are reminded by the apostle Paul that "all things work for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Everything that happened to the Hebrews was "recyclable." God could use it for the good. Those who trust just have listen for God's direction.
In our bulletin we have a prayer list. It is not just a checklist for our prayers. It is also fertilizer for our compassion. In our prayers, as we say the words of trust and faith, we also develop our sense of compassion. The deeper we pray for others, the more compassion God has to work with within us. To pray for someone's illness is to have compassion for them as victims. Every scrap of compassion in our lives makes us a possible candidate for the work of God.
But it takes more than compassion. Moses had left Egypt. He had found a way out. He made his way into the Sinai Peninsula into the wilderness land and to the Mountain of Horeb, otherwise known as Mount Sinai. His escape was a dress rehearsal for his people. They, too, would come and camp at this mountain. He was not only filled with compassion for his people, but also he was filled with options. And among these options were God's plans.
Helen Keller has said, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." The ones whom God drafts for service are not only full of compassion, they also have the energy of mind and spirit for God to use them. We can excel in compassion, but God passes over us because that's where we stop. We love our church, but hold our breath when something needs doing. We say, "Yes," to helping out with the community center, but we breathe a sigh of relief when we're let off the hook. We wish our children were better educated, but we don't want to make suggestions at the school in case we're volunteered to implement them.
Moses is chosen because he can go back and by returning he can show his people God's way out. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, a young German theologian, Dietrich Bon-hoeffer, came to America to teach and write. He toured and worked in the States until an older theologian, Karl Barth, wrote to him and asked him why he was in America when the German people were suffering. In response Bonhoeffer knew he couldn't avoid the dilemma he thought he had escaped. He went home and joined a plot to assassinate Hitler. Shortly after a failed attempt on Hitler's life, Bonhoeffer was arrested. Only a few days before the conclusion of the war, he was executed. Perhaps it is because he returned home that Bonhoeffer's writings are known around the world. He went back into harm's way, even into death. But in doing so he showed us the way of God.
It is said that some American slaves used an expression when speaking highly of another slave who would not escape and desert his family. It was said he "grew no feathers." Bonhoeffer knew he belonged in Germany. Moses knew that despite his Egyptian upbringing and his Midianite family he was first a Hebrew, and it was time to go home and help his people. Bonhoeffer and Moses "grew no feathers."
And there's a final reason why Moses is the hero of the Exodus. Not only did he have compassion and a plan, he also knew the name of God. Previously, God wasn't known by name, but God told Moses the divine name, "I Am Who I Am." Moses stood in front of a burning bush that did not burn and heard the voice of God: "I Am." He took off his shoes to celebrate the great "I Am." He was told that despite the current suffering of his people that God is "I Am": the One who is present, now, watching, planning, sending, preparing. More important than Moses' past is God's present with him. More pertinent to the Israelites' needs than Moses' background is God's current presence.
"Who are you?" Moses asked. And God answered, "I Am the God of Abraham," not, "I was the God of Abraham." God assured Moses, "I Am going with you," not, "I will meet you there."
To do God's work, God must be persistently present. Our earthly parents send us off to school and pick us up at the end of the day. Our earthly parents care for us until it is time for us to take over and have our own families. But not our heavenly Parent. As draftees into God's service, first and foremost we desire to work with God, for our Lord is the great "I Am."
To put ourselves in a position for God to make us useful, we have to keep shedding our shoes. We have to take them off so we can walk in other people's shoes and know how they feel, and what their options are. We have to kick off our shoes every so often to wiggle our toes and touch the holy presence.
We may never see the burning bush, but we can still hear the names that resonate from its flames -- the names of those who fill us with compassion. We can hear our name, as one worthy to be used. And we hear God's name, "I Am going with you."
Tempe Lee Fussell
____________
1. Leigh W. Rutledge, Excuses, Excuses (New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1992), p. 66.
2. Ibid., p. 68.
3. Synthesis: A Weekly Resource for Preaching and Worship in the Episcopal Tradition (February 6, 1994), p. 4.
None of these excuses worked. Moses was God's choice even though he was not a natural for the job. He was a Hebrew raised in an Egyptian home and married into a Midianite family. He had, by his own admission, no answers, no authority, no talent for making speeches. Moses wasn't looking for the job. He was drafted. He seemed an unlikely candidate, but he was exactly who God was looking for. It didn't have so much to do with the timing in Moses' life as it had to do with God's timing.
God had reached a point of saturation. God had seen too many stumble under hard loads, had heard too many lashes, God had come to know the daily humiliation of the slaves. The Exodus account tells us of this timing: "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the people of Israel, and God knew their condition" (Exodus 2:24-25).
God needed someone who was fed up with things as they were and was filled with compassion. Yahweh needed someone who had also seen, heard, and known the life of a Hebrew slave. Every year of Moses' youth he learned about their misery, a misery orchestrated by his own class. And he learned compassion, but his empathy had no outlet. He was Pharaoh's adopted grandson, which made him too close to criticize. With no outlet, one day he exploded! He murdered an Egyptian taskmaster. He killed for a slave. He was so sympathetic, he threw away everything and became an outlaw.
God looks for someone who is filled with the compassion of divine will. In 430 B.C. the historian Thucydides recorded: "It was in those who recovered from the plague that the sick and the dying found the most compassion." Still today, empathy gives zeal. Struggling alcoholics find the strongest motivation from recovering alcoholics. Parents of missing children expend their energy looking for other children who have disappeared. Many respond to the cries they have become accustomed to hearing. Like the man in the city who was walking with a friend on a busy sidewalk and stopped to draw attention to the sound of a cricket. The friend, amazed, wondered how he picked up on that insignificant sound among all the sounds surrounding them. The man responded that you hear what you listen for. To illustrate his point he dropped a coin on the sidewalk. At the sound of that solitary coin everyone all around them stopped and turned in the direction of that sound.3
God drafted Moses because Moses heard the cries of the Hebrews. We are reminded by the apostle Paul that "all things work for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Everything that happened to the Hebrews was "recyclable." God could use it for the good. Those who trust just have listen for God's direction.
In our bulletin we have a prayer list. It is not just a checklist for our prayers. It is also fertilizer for our compassion. In our prayers, as we say the words of trust and faith, we also develop our sense of compassion. The deeper we pray for others, the more compassion God has to work with within us. To pray for someone's illness is to have compassion for them as victims. Every scrap of compassion in our lives makes us a possible candidate for the work of God.
But it takes more than compassion. Moses had left Egypt. He had found a way out. He made his way into the Sinai Peninsula into the wilderness land and to the Mountain of Horeb, otherwise known as Mount Sinai. His escape was a dress rehearsal for his people. They, too, would come and camp at this mountain. He was not only filled with compassion for his people, but also he was filled with options. And among these options were God's plans.
Helen Keller has said, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." The ones whom God drafts for service are not only full of compassion, they also have the energy of mind and spirit for God to use them. We can excel in compassion, but God passes over us because that's where we stop. We love our church, but hold our breath when something needs doing. We say, "Yes," to helping out with the community center, but we breathe a sigh of relief when we're let off the hook. We wish our children were better educated, but we don't want to make suggestions at the school in case we're volunteered to implement them.
Moses is chosen because he can go back and by returning he can show his people God's way out. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, a young German theologian, Dietrich Bon-hoeffer, came to America to teach and write. He toured and worked in the States until an older theologian, Karl Barth, wrote to him and asked him why he was in America when the German people were suffering. In response Bonhoeffer knew he couldn't avoid the dilemma he thought he had escaped. He went home and joined a plot to assassinate Hitler. Shortly after a failed attempt on Hitler's life, Bonhoeffer was arrested. Only a few days before the conclusion of the war, he was executed. Perhaps it is because he returned home that Bonhoeffer's writings are known around the world. He went back into harm's way, even into death. But in doing so he showed us the way of God.
It is said that some American slaves used an expression when speaking highly of another slave who would not escape and desert his family. It was said he "grew no feathers." Bonhoeffer knew he belonged in Germany. Moses knew that despite his Egyptian upbringing and his Midianite family he was first a Hebrew, and it was time to go home and help his people. Bonhoeffer and Moses "grew no feathers."
And there's a final reason why Moses is the hero of the Exodus. Not only did he have compassion and a plan, he also knew the name of God. Previously, God wasn't known by name, but God told Moses the divine name, "I Am Who I Am." Moses stood in front of a burning bush that did not burn and heard the voice of God: "I Am." He took off his shoes to celebrate the great "I Am." He was told that despite the current suffering of his people that God is "I Am": the One who is present, now, watching, planning, sending, preparing. More important than Moses' past is God's present with him. More pertinent to the Israelites' needs than Moses' background is God's current presence.
"Who are you?" Moses asked. And God answered, "I Am the God of Abraham," not, "I was the God of Abraham." God assured Moses, "I Am going with you," not, "I will meet you there."
To do God's work, God must be persistently present. Our earthly parents send us off to school and pick us up at the end of the day. Our earthly parents care for us until it is time for us to take over and have our own families. But not our heavenly Parent. As draftees into God's service, first and foremost we desire to work with God, for our Lord is the great "I Am."
To put ourselves in a position for God to make us useful, we have to keep shedding our shoes. We have to take them off so we can walk in other people's shoes and know how they feel, and what their options are. We have to kick off our shoes every so often to wiggle our toes and touch the holy presence.
We may never see the burning bush, but we can still hear the names that resonate from its flames -- the names of those who fill us with compassion. We can hear our name, as one worthy to be used. And we hear God's name, "I Am going with you."
Tempe Lee Fussell
____________
1. Leigh W. Rutledge, Excuses, Excuses (New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1992), p. 66.
2. Ibid., p. 68.
3. Synthesis: A Weekly Resource for Preaching and Worship in the Episcopal Tradition (February 6, 1994), p. 4.
