Invitation to Become
Session 9.36
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Introduction
This week we are looking at the story of the call of Moses together as it is found in Exodus 3:1-15. Moses was raised by the Egyptians in Pharaoh’s house as one of Pharaoh’s own. Eventually, though, Moses’ past catches up with him. He learns that he is a Hebrew. That information causes him to be unable to endure the unjust treatment of the Hebrew people.
Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15
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. 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.
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Invitation to Become
In the Bible Background Video I talk about God’s becoming and how we are all invited to join God in this. Moses is a part of this invitation. He is a great character in the Biblical narrative and part of the reason he is so great is because we are always waiting to see what will happen next in his narrative. He is rescued from the river by Pharoah’s daughter. He has to flee Egypt because he is so overwhelmed by the brutality he sees when he acts out and kills a man. He finds his way to a foreign land and marries a foreign woman. Now, in today’s story he is standing before a bush that is burning, but not consumed. Moses has led an incredibly interesting life. Perhaps it is his life that has made it possible for him to be the one who will eventually lead the Hebrew people to freedom. Moses is one who has never really been at home anywhere. After this story, he lives his life wandering in the wilderness with these people he rescues and that is where his life ends. There is a sense that Moses is more at home in his wandering than in being still.
In some ways I think that is true of God, too. In Scripture God is not a static character. God is always negotiating and shifting with God’s people. This is, in part, because God has chosen to work through human agency to heal the world. God ties all of God’s work to us humans. We are called to participate, to care for and to tend to the earth, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to feed the hungry and bring water to the thirsty. God has designed things so that we will work together with God to make the world whole again. Because of the design, God is always working with humans and adjusting to us and with us in the world. May we all learn to wander a little more, work at adjusting with one another, and learn from God’s willingness to be nimble and cooperative.
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Nikki's Video Script
Invitation to Become
This week we are looking at the story of the call of Moses together as it is found in Exodus 3:1-15. Moses was raised by the Egyptians in Pharaoh’s house as one of Pharaoh’s own. Eventually, though, Moses’ past catches up with him. He learns that he is a Hebrew. That information causes him to be unable to endure the unjust treatment of the Hebrew people.
After a flurry of events Moses runs away from Egypt, marries a Midianite woman, and by today’s passage finds himself standing barefoot before a bush that is burning, but not consumed. I think that if I were Moses, at this point I would have to stop for a moment and reflect on the events of my life that had gotten me to this place.
Our passage today is what is known as “The Call of Moses”. There are many “call” stories in Hebrew Scripture and they seem to follow a typical format. Most of the time God will issue a call to someone and then that person will begin to name all the reasons they are not the one for the job. If you think about this, it really is a good thing. Often times these people in Scripture who have experienced a call from God are judged by us because of their reluctance to acquiesce to God’s call. Yet, a call from God is no small thing. I think it makes all the sense in the world that those called by God would hesitate and feel uncertain about the task God gives them to do.
Moses begins by asking the question, “Who am I to do this task?” God’s response is not to prove to Moses why he is capable of the job, but rather to show him that he won’t be alone in the task. God assures Moses that He will be near.
Then Moses asks a question that makes a lot of sense. He asks, “Ok then, who are you?” Moses want to know why the people will trust him if he tells them that YHWH sent him. This is where we get that great line where God says, “I am that I am.”
Growing up I always loved that part of the story because God’s assurance in who God is always instilled confidence in me. As I studied the passage later in life I learned that translating this particular line from the Hebrew is actually a pretty difficult task. In Hebrew the being verb in this context is in the imperfect form. What that means is that the verb connotes continual action. In English we do not have an adequate way to translate our being verb in that form. A way we might do it is to translate that line to say “I will be that I will be” or “I am becoming that I am becoming.”
I love that God names or defines or describes God’s self as one in a perpetual state of becoming. There is the sense that God isn’t done and that God will never be done. Now it could be easy for us to be bothered by this idea. The idea that God is still growing and changing and developing. However, I think that we struggle with that idea because we believe that changing or growing or developing means that previous versions of ourselves were less than ourselves now. We live with this model that change means something no longer works and that’s a bad thing. I wonder, though, if God is in this perpetual state of becoming, is it then possible that change and growth and development are simply the nature of things and not something that we do because of need or because we lack something; or better yet that the need to change because something is lacking is not a bad thing?
Maybe God is in this constant state of becoming because the nature of God is to be in relationship with us. Relationships are these vibrant, growing, changing things in our lives. As people change and as we change the nature of our relationships change. So if God is in relationship with us then it would make sense that God is always becoming, as our relationship to God is becoming.
The other thing that I like about this description for God is that it offers us an assurance that God is never done. God is always at work with us and for us and through us. God is always responding to the world and all of its goodness and in all of its brokenness. Along the way God invites us to participate in this perpetual becoming. God wants us to do the things to which God is calling us with the confidence and assurance of knowing that the One who is still becoming is helping us to become, also.