Where are you going? Why are you going there?
Where are you going, Moses?
He thought he was going to the Promised Land. But he wasn’t. God showed him where the people would
eventually end up, but Moses would not be the one to lead the people home.
That seems like a very cruel fate, almost like God is
playing cat and mouse with Moses. If
Moses was so great and so wonderful, why didn’t he, full of vigor and keen
eyesight, get to enter the Promised Land? In chapter 32, Yahweh said that both Moses
and Aaron ‘both broke faith in the presence of the Israelites and did not
uphold God among the Israelites.” The
ancient Hebrew language uses stronger language than this translation, words
like ‘acted treacherously’ and ‘did not sanctify God’ in front of the
people. Pretty stark accusations.
In other words, God accused Moses of waffling, of not
keeping faith, of failing in his leadership.
Which makes me wonder – if Moses, the paragon, the most
courageous leader ever experienced by the Hebrew people, wasn’t able to keep
the faith, what chance do normal humans have to be leaders?
Except there was one leader that was greater than
Moses. One who had gone through similar
trials, according to the gospel of Matthew.
As an infant, this leader’s life was threatened by a scary king, just
like Moses in the bulrushes. This
leader lived in Egypt as a child. Lived
in the wilderness, where there was little food to eat or water to drink,
alright, it was 40 days, not 40 years, but still that was a parallel. A leader that Matthew said would often go up
to the top of mountains to have powerful experiences of God. Who would come down from the mountains and
have new powerful teachings to share with his followers. Who dueled and competed with those who sought
to challenge his power just as Moses had dueled with the priests of
Pharaoh. And just like Moses, when he
competed with them, his answers were so profound, so deep, so committed to God
that his opponents were left speechless.
This new Moses talked of a new kind of law, written not on
stone tablets, but on the hearts and minds of followers, who talked about
living a sacrificial life. He was guided
by the signposts of love of God and love of neighbor. This new Moses was unwavering in his
commitment to God and to the message of a new community of faith where anyone
could have a relationship with God as intimate as the relationship people had
with their own parents. He was so
committed to God and to the message God had sent him with, that he was even
prepared to die as a witness to that message.
That commitment was unshaken by state-sanctioned torture and execution.
And unlike Moses, his death wasn’t the end of the
story. However we interpret Easter, the
truth is that at a profound level, Jesus’ message was not stopped by his death,
nor were his followers intimidated into silence by his execution. Instead, they became emboldened to spread his
message near and far, and it continues to inspire and motivate change and
growth.
Jesus is still radical today when his teachings call for
people to be treated equally no matter where they are born or what language
they speak. Jesus is still challenging
us when his parables point to guaranteed incomes. Jesus still inspires us today when he showed
love and care towards people like tax collectors, lepers, Samaritans and
more.
Moses knew the answers to the two questions Mayor Powell
asked in her interview this week. He
knew where he was going. To the Promised
Land. He knew why he was going there,
because it was a land where the people of Israel could live free. But he didn’t know what Jesus knew, that the
Greatest Command, Love God, and the one similar, love your neighbor was the
answer to the third question he didn’t know the answer to. The answer of how will you get there?
There are many debates on how to do something. We’ve seen that recently with the leaked
report on the new Social Studies curriculum for primary school children. We’ve seen that with the plans to remove
Chain Lakes and other parks from protective legislature. We’ve seen that with the angry debates and
name calling around wearing masks. We’ve
seen that with the confrontation between first nations and lobster fishermen in
Nova Scotia. We’ve seen that with
campaigns such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too. We’ve seen that when United Church ministers
across Canada are ridiculed for their political commentary on issues of
universal healthcare, living wages, accessible childcare, environmental issues
and more. We’ve seem that when we hear
stories such as Rev. Paul Walfall who has preached in this very building tell
us that he’s tired of being followed around by security guards every time he
goes to Walmart because he happens to be shopping while black.
Where are we going?
We are going towards a community of God that protects the vulnerable and
respects all people regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual identity,
language, country of origin, ability and more.
Why are we going there? Because until we all are free, none of us are
truly free, and because God calls us to that journey of freedom. How are we going? With a reminder that unless we do everything
through the lens of Loving God and Loving our neighbor, we labor in vain.
A wiser United Church minister than me summed it up like this
“While Christianity is inherently political; it is a politics from above marked
by the persuasive power of love, not the politics of below which is marked by
the coercive power of the state.” Now
more than ever we are called to exercise love and resist coercion in whatever
form we find it. Love of God, Love of
neighbor in everything we do. May God
bless us as we discern how to do so in these changing times. Amen
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