The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
How do you get ready to meet somebody who is truly important and very powerful?
I suppose many people will get a haircut or go to the beauty parlor, pick out their best clothes and make sure they are clean and mended, take a bath, give extra attention to their grooming, and get dressed very carefully before going to that meeting.
But what if the President of the United States happens to stop his motorcade in your barnyard while you are cleaning manure out of the barn, or pulls up to your house while you are making bread and have flour all over your clothes and your hands? What do you do then?
You did what Moses did. You make the best of it, and try to make up in politeness and good manners what you lack in cleanness and nice clothes. And you feel a little bit, or a lot,
embarrassed about how you look and about what you are doing, so you try to be extra nice to the President.
That's about how Moses felt that day when he was looking after his father-in-law's flock of sheep out in the lonely, deserted countryside. He saw this bush that seemed to be on fire, but it wasn't burning up. That's weird. So he went over to get a better look, and heard this voice that seemed to be coming from nowhere, and the voice told him to take off his shoes because this was holy ground.
Well, of course, Moses was scared, embarrassed and worried about all this. So he obeyed, very quickly.
Naturally, the first thing he wanted to know was, Who are you? Why are you talking to me?
And he got the surprise of his life. I am God, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Now, I don't know what YOU might have done if you had heard that voice speaking to YOU. Myself, I think I might have fallen down on my face and covered my head with something. I'd be scared to death.
That's almost what Moses did. He covered his face with his cloak, because at that time everybody believed that if you ever saw God, you'd die. Moses didn't want to see God. But God was right here with him, and he didn't know why God had come to him, out in the pasture. I suspect he was very frightened.
We know the rest of the story, how God appointed Moses to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt where they were slaves, and how he tried to get out of the job, and how God wouldn't take "no" for an answer. And that began the long, exciting story of the Exodus, the escape from Egypt and the long trip to Canaan, where the Jews settled and changed its name to Israel.
But that's not what I want to talk about today.
What I want to remind you of is something you already know, and know very well. You have heard it many times from your parents, your Sunday School teachers and your ministers. You have heard it from TV preachers and you've read it in many books and magazines.
What I want to talk to you about today is: GOD IS HERE WITH US NOW. GOD IS WITH EACH ONE OF US, EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES.
The reason that I think it is important for me to remind you about this is very simple. If you look at the way people behave and the way they treat each other, would you ever guess that those people believe that God is with them all the time? And if they really did believe it, all the way through their hearts and brains, do you think the world would be a different place?
Well, it is true. the Bible says over and over: I am always with you, says the Lord. I will always be with you. I, Jesus, and my Father will come and live in you. I, Jesus, will send my own Holy Spirit to live in you and teach you and guide you. There are dozens of places in the Bible that tell us this same thing. GOD IS WITH US ALWAYS, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. God sees everything we do. Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, wants to remind the people to behave according to God's laws, because God is always with them, and knows what they are doing and how they treat others.
We are now in the middle of Lent. Wouldn't that be a good time to change our habits of thinking, so that we will remember that God is always with us, and that, if we ask, he will help us live and act as his laws tell us to do? And wouldn't that be a wonderful sacrifice for us to offer this Lent, for God's greater glory, for our own good, and for the good of the world? Amen.
