"The Great I Am "

Exodus 3: 1-15
    August 31, 2008

The story is told by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel of four generations of Rabbis. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews. It was his practice to find a secluded area in the forest to mediate. He decided to return to the forest, light a fire and say a prayer in hope that God would hear of his people’s misfortune and save them. The misfortune was averted.
A similar circumstance occurred for a disciple of Shem-Tove, Magid of Mezritch. He knew of his mentor’s ritual and decided to do the same. He found the same place in the forest but was not sure how to light the ritual fire. He did offer a prayer with hope that it would be sufficient, and it was.
In a succeeding generation Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov found his people on the precipice of disaster again. Remembering the story of his predecessors, he decided to find the same holy place in the forest. But when he arrived, he did not know how to light the fire, nor did he know the special prayer. But the place seemed sufficient and his people were saved.
Years later misfortune again fell on the Jews and Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn considered how to invite God’s help. He remembered the story of the sacred place in the forest. However, he did not know how to find this place, nor did he know how to light the ritual fire, nor say the special prayer. All he could do was to share the story with his people and hope it was sufficient, and it was.
This story is about what is primary, and what is primary is our relationship with God. Our rituals and practices may be comforting, but the God of history requires only relationship.
When Moses asks God His name, the response is “I AM WHO I AM.” The Hebrew may also be translated “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE,” which increases its impact. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3: 6 NRSV) The voice from the burning bush was that of the creator, the faithful covenant God who had been with Moses’ ancestors from the beginning, and will be with them eternally.
It is clear from the patriarchal stories in Genesis that Israel understood its salvation would come from within the covenant community. Isaac and Jacob had to find wives in their homeland of Haran. The sojourn into Egypt was a result of Joseph’s attempt to save his family from starvation. And now, Moses, the son of Levite parents, is called upon for Israel’s salvation. Israel’s history is understood through the seed of Abraham.
While God’s choices are honored in retrospect, they certainly would have seemed strange through the eyes of their contemporaries. Moses is the son of Levite parents, but there is no indication in scripture of him practicing his religion. He was raised in Pharaoh’s court, not in Jewish culture. There are indications he becomes upset with Pharaoh’s treatment of the Jews, but the motivation may be nothing more than sensitivity or compassion. And as he encounters God in the non-consuming burning bush he seems not to understand it as a religious experience initially. God calls to him twice, “Moses, Moses!” and the response is “Here I am,” not “Here I am Lord.” And God had to order Moses to keep his distance and to remove his sandals “for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (vs. 5)
The most surprising aspect of God’s choice of Moses, though, was that he had fled from Pharaoh. He had killed an Egyptian and Pharaoh discovered his crime. Moses was a fugitive. This is the man God chose to free Israel from slavery in Egypt.
Moses is not an isolated case among God’s strange choices. Saul was a Pharisee who persecuted followers of Christ, even killed them. Like Moses, he experienced the voice of the divine from a light and was transformed into an instrument of God. The Apostle Paul, as he became known, was arguably the founder of the Christian church.
The story of Moses reflects how God responds to our human situation. “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.” (vs. 7) In his book A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone says “God meets us in the human situation, not as an idea or concept that is self-evidently true. God encounters us in the human condition as the liberator of the poor and the weak, empowering them to fight for freedom because they were made for it.” Moses is called to be God’s instrument of liberation, freeing God’s people Israel from slavery.
Moses’ call invites us to consider our own call. We may be waiting for some extraordinary event with the voice of God emanating from a burning bush to give us clarity. God’s call, however, is not always theatrical.
Tex Sample, a retired seminary professor, is a wonderful story teller. In Omaha recently, Sample shared a story of an emersion experience involving one of his seminary classes. His class was required to visit a honky tonk bar in Kansas City to experience the culture. Sample admitted that as he considered the possibilities of this night he approached it with fear and trembling. Just imagine the confrontation of mid-twenties metro sexual seminary students interacting with big-buckled cowboys with boots and ten gallon hats. Sample required his students to spread out, too, and not congregate around a single table.
What Sample witnessed was not what he expected. He feared the worst, but described the experience in terms of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit had to be present as the bar population and the students danced, conversed, and laughed together. This ordinary experience for Tex Sample became extraordinary. It was a transforming God experience.
God promises to be in the midst of our human experiences. God may be inviting us to a stronger relationship because WE are in Egypt. Or, it may be that God is calling us to liberate someone else from Egypt. It is scary to consider God’s call and it is sometimes difficult to discern what God is calling us to do.
Without a doubt, we will respond as did Moses. Who are you, Lord, and whom shall I say is sending me? And then we will wallow in humility with Moses’ response, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (vs. 11)
Moses’ call story reminds me of the Abbott and Costello routine of ‘Who’s On First.’ Who is on first, What is on second, and I Don’t Know is on third.........and God, the Great ‘I am’ is everywhere. God knows us intimately and responds to our needs. The Great ‘I am’ has been faithful from the beginning of time and promises to be with us eternally. In the story of Moses we are reminded of that primary relationship. God responds to us out of relationship, and we are called to be God’s liberating arm out of that same relationship.