Exodus 3:1-12

[1] Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

[2] There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

[3] Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up."

[4] When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."

[5] Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

[6] He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

[7] Then the Lord said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,

[8] and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

[9] The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.

[10] So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

[11] But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

[12] He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain." [NRSV]

Exodus 4:10-17

[10] But Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

[11] Then the Lord said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

[12] Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak."

[13] But he said, "O my Lord, please send someone else."

[14] Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, "What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad.

[15] You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.

[16] He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him.

[17] Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs." [NRSV]

INTRODUCTION:

Excuses, excuses, excuses. We all use them don't we. We all come up with them when there is something we don't want to do. Or something we forgot to do.

Did you hear about the young Palermo man arrested for stealing a car, who had one of the most novel excuses I've ever heard. He'd found the car in front of a cemetery, he explained, and thought the owner was dead. (1)

Then there are excuses written by parents for their children being absent from school.

"Please excuse Freddie for being out yesterday because he had the fuel."

"My son is under doctor's care and should not take fiscal ed. Please execute him."

"Please accuse Michael from being absent on Jan 30, 31, 32 and 33 because he was aleing."

"George was absent yesterday because of a sore trout."

"Please excuse Betsy for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot."

"Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip."

"Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend a funeral."

And lastly, my all time favorite. This excuse covers everything. "Please excuse Fred for being. It was his father's fault." (2)

Frank and Ed were friends. One day Ed came over and said, "Hey, Frank. I saw that you bought a new length of rope. I was wondering, could I borrow it to take my dog into town?"

Frank looked up from what he was doing and said, "No, I'm sorry but I need that piece of rope to push my wheelbarrow up that hill."

Ed was puzzled and said, "Frank are you feeling OK? You can't push a wheelbarrow up a hill with a piece of rope. That doesn't even make sense."

Frank said, "I know, but it doesn't have to make sense. When you don't want to do something, any old excuse will work."

Frank was right of course. When we don't want to do something, when we've made up our mind we're not going to do something, any old excuse will work. It doesn't have to make sense to anybody else but us.

Someone has defined an excuse as: "The skin of a reason stuffed with a lie."

All of us make excuses. Some of are even tempted to make excuses to God like Moses and Pharaoh in our passages this week.

Look at Moses. We know his story. Briefly, the families of Jacob and Joseph grew and prospered for years. But then a new king took over who didn't know Joseph. Over a period of time, the Israelites lost power, came into disfavor and eventually found themselves in a slavery. The Israelites were seen to be too numerous and a threat, so, male genocide was ordered. But not before Moses could be born.

And then we see God's hand, God's Prevenient Grace at work. Moses' mother sends him down the river in the reed basket. Pharaoh's daughter finds him and decides to raise him. And lo and behold, Moses' mother is chosen as the nursemaid. And don't you know that the whole time she rocked him and fed him as mothers always do, she talked to him and told him where he came from and the stories of his people? Of course she did. Wouldn't you?

Moses was raised in Pharaoh's household. But one day, saw a taskmaster mistreating one of the Hebrew workers and intervenes. He checked to make sure no one was watching and murdered the taskmaster. Caught the next day, he fled for his life. He wound up in Midair and became a shepherd.

One day while tending the flock, Moses saw something that was so intriguing that he had to stop. He saw a bush on fire but not consumed. And as he came closer, he had a close encounter with God. And their conversation sounds a whole lot like all the excuses we read.

It seems that every time God called, Moses had an excuse. And for everything that God wanted Moses to do, Moses had an excuse. But notice, that for every excuse Moses had, God had an answer. You see, God doesn't called the equipped. God equips the called.

I. WHEN GOD CALLS:

A. And I believe that God calls all of us. We may not recognize that call. We may rush right on by the burning bush or think it's just the summer heat. We may close our hearts to anything but what we want to do. Or we may close our ears and shut off anything but what we want to hear but God calls each of us. God calls each of us to be in a loving, caring, responsive relationship with God.

You see, I believe that God called both Moses and Pharaoh to set the Israelites free. The difference between the two is that Moses heard and obeyed. Pharaoh heard and chose not to obey. Over and over again in the Scripture, we're told that "God hardened Pharaoh's heart." And that has always troubled me. Why would God keep Pharaoh from releasing the people God wanted released? I understand the need for them to depend totally on God but the people learn that in the wilderness.

And then it dawned on me. God didn't literally harden Pharaoh's heart. God simply called Pharaoh to let the people go, to set the people free. The pride of Pharaoh's position, the pride of his power, the self centered nature of thinking he was equal to God is what hardened his heart. The harder God called, the more insistent God's voice, the more determined Pharaoh became NOT to cooperate.

B. The difference between Moses and Pharaoh is that while Pharaoh said, "No!" Moses said, "Yes!" Granted, Moses' "Yes!" was filled with all kinds of excuses and exceptions but the point is that Moses heard God's call and said, "Yes!"

What was the difference? Pharaoh heard the voice of God. But it filled him with nothing but fear. Fear of change. Fear of losing his power. Fear of someone greater than he. Fear of losing the status quo.

Moses heard the voice of God and heard something completely different. Moses heard the voice of God and it filled him with life, hope, joy, awe and wonder. And it filled him with a vision of the future for a people in bondage. It was that relationship which gave each of them their identity in this story.

II. GOD EQUIPS:

A. Like Moses and Pharaoh, God calls each of us. And when, like Moses, we trust God and answer that call with a "Yes!" God equips us for the journey. You see, God doesn't called the equipped. God equips the called.

There at the burning bush, Moses kept coming up with excuse after excuse as to why he couldn't do what God called him to do. And with each excuse, God provided a way to overcome that excuse.

Moses said, "Who am I?" And God said, "Don't worry, I'll be with you."

Moses said, "What am I supposed to say when they ask who sent me?" And God said, "Tell them the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent you."

Moses said, "How are they going to believe me? I'm just a shepherd." And God said, "I'll show them signs and wonders through you."

Moses said, "Find somebody else, I'm not a public speaker." And God said, "What about your brother Aaron. I'll speak to you. You speak to him. And he'll speak for both of us."

Don't you think that about this time God was tempted to let loose a lightening bolt or two? If it had been me, I'd have given up and found somebody else. That's one of the reasons I'm not God. The point is this, for every objection that Moses had, God found a solution. God called Moses because God wanted Moses. And when Moses finally said, "Yes!" God equipped him for the journey and the job.

B. In 1942, hysteria over the Japanese involvement in World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, led to the relocation of over 110,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. In one of these camps, Carole Doi, a third-generation Japanese American, was born.

Years later, Carole married a man who had also spent time in the camps. When she delivered their baby daughter, they noticed that the child's feet turned inward, the toes facing each other. Carole was determined to do whatever it would take to help her daughter walk normally.

For four years Carole provided the child with corrective shoes. Her daughter was walking normally by age six, but Carole wasn't satisfied. "I wanted her to do anything in which she would use her legs," she says. The girl chose ice skating.

The girl was a natural on the ice. Before long, the youngster was bugging her mother for more rink time. She'd refuse to leave the ice until she got a particular move right. Soon Carole was rising at 4 a.m. to get her daughter to the rink. Finally, after 15 years of lessons, young Kristi Yamaguchi represented her country in the Olympics.

As the U.S. flag was hoisted during the 1992 medals ceremony, Carole and Jim Yamaguchi watched Kristi receive the gold medal. Kristi Yamaguchi stood on that victory platform because of a mother who stood behind her and helped her conquer. (3)

God told Moses, "I will be with you." And just like Kristi Yamaguchi's mother was with her every step of the way, God was with Moses every step of the way. It wasn't easy. Sometimes it was very trying and the simple thing would have been to give up. But Moses persevered and God kept God's Word. God was with him every step of the way. And finally, the children of Israel were set free.

Why? Because God looked past the excuses into the heart of Moses. God looked past all of Moses' objections to the vision which God had been planted in Moses' heart. Moses looked at himself and saw only a murder and a shepherd. God looked at Moses and saw the potential leader. Then God equipped Moses for the task and the journey.

Because God doesn't call the equipped. God equips the called.

CONCLUSION:

Robert Manning tells the story of a lonely, motherless boy of fourteen who met two new teachers in his freshman year of high school. One said to him, "I don't like your attitude." The other said, "I think you are a very fine boy."

Because he wanted to be happy, the boy chose to remember the teacher who understood the dream in his heart. The last day of school he walked into her room, bashful, half-afraid, and stammered out the words, "I want to thank you for what you said to me one day last October. I have never forgotten your words."

Her picture was on his desk throughout his college years, and she was to influence his life and life's work for half a century. Then, on her fiftieth college anniversary at Earlham College they met for the first time since high school days. "I wouldn't have known you," Robert Manning said. "You have changed so much in fifty years." And before the seventy-two-year-old teacher could reply, Robert Manning added, "I had forgotten how beautiful you are." (4)

What a difference someone's perception can make. Pharaoh looked at Moses and saw nothing but a murderer. Someone who had lived in his house only to betray him. Someone who now had the audacity to demand the release of all the slaves. Pharaoh looked at Moses and said, "I don't like your attitude."

God looked at Moses and said, "I think you are a very fine man." And Moses lived up to God's expectation by answering God's call.

God calls each of us. God calls us into ministry together. And into our own unique ministry. And when we say "Yes!" to God, despite all the excuses, God equips us for the task and for the journey. Because God doesn't call the equipped. God equips the called.

What is God calling and equipping you to do?

1. Parables, Etc. (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), February 1985

2. The Autoillustrator, (Greeley, CO, 1993)

3. Keith A. White. (Gleaned from Dynamic Preaching, May 1996, Volume XI, No. 5, p. 14.

4. Donald McKinney, Living With Joy (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976), as reported by Christian Communications Laboratory