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14th Sunday after Pentecost (cycle a)
Proper 17 (22)

HumorPeace & JusticeNexGen Worship
 
Clergy Finance
| World Communion Sunday

Texts & Discussion:

Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
or
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8

Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

Other Resources:

Commentary:

Matthew Henry,    Wesley

Word Study:
Robertson
This Week's Themes:

God's Calling and
Human Response

Genuine Service
Christ and Suffering


 


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 Texts in Context | Commentary: First LessonEpistleGospel
Prayer&Litanies
|  Hymns & Songs | Children's Sermoms | Sermons based on Texts

 


Sermons:

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Still Blazing
a sermon based on Exodus 3:1-15
by Rev. Cindy Weber

 

"Gracious Lord, you who are always whispering to us, help us to listen" (Avery Brooke).

A while back I read about an Amish man who said, You people are always talking about trying to "find" yourselves. What we are trying to do is to lose ourselves.

There are some people who believe that their lives belong to themselves, and though they may not say that, though they may, in fact, speak loudly and frequently of an Almighty God, of a Higher Power, of a Personal Savior, you can tell by watching them, by watching how they spend their time and their energy and their money, that what they really deep down believe is that their lives belong to themselves.

There are other people who believe that their lives do not belong to themselves, and though they might not verbalize that belief very well, if at all, and though they may seldom speak of God, of conversion, of commitment, you can tell by watching them, by watching how they spend their time and their energy and their money, that what they really believe is that their lives belong to something Greater than, something Higher than, something Other than themselves.

This morning’s scripture reading is one that grabs hold of our attention, if for no other reason than that it causes us to question, along with Moses, to question who we are and what is God’s claim and call upon us. Walter Bruggemann says that, "The reason that we hold on to this old story and continue to ponder it is that either we are people who have had this extraordinary reversal of our life by God, so that nothing is ever the same again, or we wait for and yearn for such a moment that will break our life open. We hold this story because we know that there is more to our life than the ordinariness of life without the holiness of God."

Because we know the story so well, it’s hard for us to imagine how absolutely impossible God’s plan must have seemed to Moses. Go back to this place that you left 40 years ago, and call together the leaders of a people to whom you barely even belong, tell them that this God who they barely even remember is going to overthrow the powerful ruler that oppresses them and makes their lives so miserable that they can’t even see straight. Then go and tell that ruler to set them free. Then, once they’re free, create out of them an alternative community, one with different rules and different allegiances, one that loves and serves me.

One of the best things for us about this story, about this story where God calls Moses to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt is that Moses didn’t want to do it. Five times he argues with God, "But God, who am I to do this? But God, they won’t listen to me. But God, I don’t speak so well. But God..." [continue]