Take Off Your Sandals!

Transcription

1 Take Off Your Sandals! Exodus 3:1-12 December 11, 2011 Rev. Sang-Kun Park Sacramento Korean Presbyterian Church Have you seen the movie Ten Commandments? The hero of the movie, Charlton Heston ( ), climbed the Mount Sinai approximately 40 times for the role. Some reporter once asked Charlton how he felt after he reached the peak of the mountain. He replied, Whoever climbs the Mount Sinai cannot go back to the same old lifestyle without change. He confessed, while climbing the Mount Sinai in preparation for the role, he felt God s presence at the mountain. There are numerous instances in the Old Testament that shows Mount Sinai as a holy place where one can meet God. The Mount Sinai deserves our attention not because it has a meaning of a sacred place but rather it has the meaning of God s holiness from God s presence. In that fateful day, Moses for some reason led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb even though he knew the wilderness of Midian like the palm of his hand. Normally, he would not take the flock out that far side of the wilderness, but he did on that fateful day. Was that just some coincidence? When the 80 years old Moses came to Mount Horeb, something caught the corner of his eyes. He witnessed a fire on a brush that was completely dried up. It is relatively easy for a dried up trees to catch fire just by the static electricity of branches brushing against each other through winds or by natural cause of lightning. In reality, even in our surroundings there are many forest fires caused by these measures. Thus there is no reason to be alarmed about a tree caught in 1

2 a fire. Furthermore, it is not even a big tree and also insignificant brush fire often withers and goes out on its own. However, amazingly this certain brush fire was on fire but it did not turn into ashes. This was the place where Moses destiny turned. Moses, a plain ordinary old man living a hopeless and uneventful life deeply rooted in self-inferiority complex, probably came across the burning brush saying, what does this got to do with me? However, there was still an unending thirst for curiosity left in this 80 years old man. The brush, which should have turned into ashes, was on fire but it did not burn and turn into ashes. What an amazing sight? How in the world! Once the curiosity mind took over, he couldn t control himself. Thus he needed to get a close up and further examine this phenomenon by leaving the flock and climbing the Mount Horeb. A well-known poem called My Heart Leaps Up by Wadsworth starts as follows: My heart leaps up when I behold/ A rainbow in the sky/ So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; so be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! I have discovered in Moses what Wadsworth wanted to portray in the poem. Also, I have gained an important life lesson. A meaningful life, a meaningful faith means not losing interest and curiosity in life. Not only did Moses curiosity change the course of his life, but was the initiating point in turning the fate of the nation of Israel. I was strongly challenged not to lose our hearts and minds to live our lives with sincerity no matter how weak our physical being becomes with aging. But what is the meaning of this amazing brush fire that won t burn? There is definitely a meaning behind this peculiar situation. The dried up bush represents the Israelites who are lowly and insignificant. The Israelites are in a pathetic slavery status just like a pitifully dried up bush. Even today, there probably are people in this kind of situation. 2

3 Do you remember a story of a forty-something woman who lost her 13 years old son in leukemia and a month later her husband fell into coma after a hit-and-run accident? The wife dutifully took care of her hospitalized husband while painfully making ends meet and taking care of her daughter. Due to much strain and exhaustion from overwork, she became sick and passed out bleeding. While in hospital, she discovers that she was in the fourth stages of a cervical cancer. Just think of this woman s reality that she is faced with which just seems like some type of a movie or a novel. Doesn t it compare to a dried up bush in a wilderness; nothing worth looking at? Even in the moments of despair, the woman introduces her story by claiming that she will not lose hope and live with courage for the sake of her daughter. Doesn t the sight of the woman, who is in a dire situation, represent the bush caught in fire of our time? There probably are people who are struggling just the same and that their lives are just like the bush caught on fire. But what really happened to the bush that caught on fire? The bush which was completely dried up and should have turned into ashes and disappeared did not burn up. What does that mean? The oppression and pain that Israelites are facing is a test just like the bush caught on fire. No matter how horrible the Pharaoh s oppression toward the Israelites, God s people will not burn up and disappear. Just as it is today and the past, God s people will never burn up and wither away. It is true that our troubles are hard and painful. And at times it hurts our pride. Also there are times where we get to the point where we feel like just giving up and saying I can make it without all these headaches. There are times where our rage boils to the point of blowing up. And we may experience fears of, If I continue in this path, will I burn up and disappear? But keep your faith. God s people do not burn away. The struggles and hardships will only make God s people more innocent, pure, and strong. It will provide an opportunity to witness the living God through our struggles and hardships in our desperate lives. 3

4 God urgently called Moses, who was only led by his curiosity toward the burning bush without realizing God s presence. Mount Sinai is made up of mostly red-colored stones. In that mountain, someone called his name. How was he called out? Just imagine for a moment. How shocked Moses must have felt by hearing his name being called from a totally unexpected situation? The sight of the burning bush is not even in his mind anymore. Don t you think he was puzzled by whoever called out his name? In a poem called Flower by Kim, Choon Soo, it says, Before I called out her name, she was just a mere gesture. When I called out her name, she came and became a flower. Truthfully, when God called Moses name, at that moment Moses was engraved and left a permanent mark in the history of mankind. Even though Moses once was a failure, loser, and had lost any hopes in life at the age of 80 years old when God called out his name, Moses remainder of life had completely changed and carried a different meaning. I bless everyone that God s grace may be upon you so that your life too can carry a different and meaningful life in your history as God calls out your name. At the time God called out Moses name, the situation of Israelites in Egypt hadn t changed a bit. The Israelites were still slaves, the Pharaoh who tried to kill Moses died few years ago, but the succeeding Pharaoh was more oppressive toward Israelites, and Israelites were clamoring to get out of the suffering. Then, why did God show up this late? For the last few hundred years, or at least, 40 years ago when Moses raised the flag of revolution, why did God remain silent and only reveal Himself now? There is an important reason for that. Now, Israelites outcry was different than before. Before, they cried out because of mere hardship. If they could get out of the hardship, they didn t have any reason to leave Egypt. They thought they could enjoy their lives in Egypt. However, they couldn t bear the worsening oppression any more. They came to really hate Egypt. They were in such a shattered state that now they 4

5 would listen and respond to God s Words. That s when God s intervention began. When? At least when they were responsive to God s Words. God would wait until they would even try to listen to God s Words even though they were still stubborn and still arrogant. God s silence over 400 years was because of their stubbornness. If they became obedient to God earlier, their suffering could have been shortened. We also were all evil sinners. Despite that fact, only because of God s zeal on us, we could have responded to God s Words and grown to form a beautiful communion. Because God tolerated and waited for us with enormous patience, we could have faith no matter how measly it may be. It is absolutely not that we deserved it. Thus, faith is gift. God s classical tool for making an arrogant person responsive to His Words is hardship and oppression. Hardship is often used as a tool to humble people s heart to listen to the Words of God. Without hardship, no one repents his/her sins and returns to God. Numerous hardships made us listen to God s Words. Someone who lives all the way he wants to, despite hardship, is foolish. There is no hope in him. Look carefully at the case of Moses. God came to visit the scene of his life as a shepherd. It is a significant characteristic of Christianity that God comes to us in our daily lives. It is not that you can meet God by fasting several days to meet Him. The faithful are the ones who are faithful to their own life. God comes to visit us in the scene of our faithful lives. Think of the life of a shepherd Moses. Could there be anything progressive or anything interesting in it? At the foot was sheep dung, and in the air was sheep hair. Opened eyes at the cries of sheep, and fell asleep in the smell of sheep. The same repeated everyday for 40 years. However, God came into the scene of Moses faithful life. Observe carefully the first word of God toward Moses who was in awe of an unidentified divine entity who called out his name. "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy 5

6 ground." God was telling Moses that the ground he was standing on was very different from the ground he had been treading on. It means the ground where Moses stood on was holy. The ground Moses was standing on was holy not because of its geographic location. It was holy because of God s presence. Wherever God is present is holy. The first thing a sinful human being feels, when he encounters God, is a fear because of holiness of God. Thus, true transformation and revival of a believer begins with finding holy God in the scenes of one s daily life. True growth and revival of church is not simply to increase the number of its members, but when congregation is in fear of holy God. The ground Moses was standing on was holy because God s law (Word) would be proclaimed there later. It teaches us to take off shoes before the Words of God. Whether it was Moses in our story today, Israelites after Exodus, or us in the present time, a human being could be the most holy when one takes off one s shoes before God s Words with no condition. Church and its members are at their worst when they have too much to say and argue. Church and its members have much to say and assert when they are headed toward the world. Since they haven t met God, what they say and assert can only be based on their own idea or experience. Thus, at times they say absurd things without any fear. Church faces crisis and disappointment especially when human experience replaces God s Words. That is, one s own experience is made to be an absolute criterion. Then, church falls into darkness. However, a believer becomes silent when he truly encounters holiness of God. The Israelites kept complaining incessantly since the day they left Egypt to the wilderness. It s really amazing how much complaints the Israelites had about even a great leader like Moses! However some time after there was one time when the Israelites, who always were complaining, shut up their mouth tight and swore not to complain anymore. Do you know when it was? It was, 3 months 6

7 after they left Egypt, when they experienced God's holy presence at the foot of Mount Horeb where Moses had met God. So was Moses. Moses, who had lived 40 years in the palace of Pharaoh and spent 40 years in the wilderness with sheep, had not had an opportunity to experience the Holiness of God. God however came close to Moses and proclaimed God s Holiness before anything. In other words, God declared He was distinct from all other gods. The community of God has always backslid terribly when people took God as any other gods or consider Him as one of the many gods. Therefore true faith and true revival of the church begins with proper finding of God. Church growth is not based on increased numbers of members of a church as I mentioned earlier, but on fear of God s Holiness by all church members. Moses also first had to understand and realize this. Otherwise, he would stand in a proud position receiving God s glory himself when he becomes popular a bit in the future to come. If you've never experienced the Holiness of God, the purpose of your faith will eventually come down to receive glory in place of God regardless whoever you are, either a clergyman or an ordinary believer. In Christianity faith, there is nothing more dangerous than this. Therefore we only can live as people of God when we have profound meeting with God. What did God who declared the Holiness request to Moses? He wanted him to take his shoes off. Why do you think God asked to do that? What is the meaning of the shoes here? 1. Wherever man goes to some place, shoes take the lead. So shoes represent the fallen character and behavior of human. It symbolizes the sinful nature of man. As Moses took his shoes off, anyone who stands before God needs to be free from his sinful habits. They can never stand before God when they still commit habitual sins. 2. During the ancient times, slaves were not allowed to wear shoes. Taking the shoes off means in one word that you are my servant now. Now you 7

8 need to give up your rights and all the vested interests. You cannot express self-assertion anymore for yourself. So taking off the shoes naturally means giving up of self-assertion. Being a disciple of Jesus and becoming a believer means declaration of the abandonment of selfassertion. Now I am not the master of my life but the Lord is. I am your servant. I put down all my rights. This confession is the key of faith. However, many people are pretending to be the owner of their life even they confessed I am your servant. There are also quite some people out there claiming they are the owners of their life to begin with. Such an attitude cannot respond to the call of God. 3. Taking shoes off is to abandon your own talent, honor, and pride as God asks you to humbly have an obedient attitude. Moses, you had acted rashly believing in your own talent and power, and became a loser in the past. Now you need to take off your shoes of arrogance to discard such pride and obey to my commands. The only thing people, who are wearing the shoes of pride, can do is to self-destruct. 4. Finally the shoes symbolize the past of Moses. It means that he needs to set himself free from all failures, sense of inferiority and wounds of the past. But Moses couldn t easily overcome from inferiority of mind. He kept making excuses and blaming himself as an incompetent and powerless loser. No matter what we need to do, we can t do any job right with an inferiority complex. When God decided to send Moses, he evaluated himself saying Who am I. About 40 years ago, Moses himself was a leader and a judge of Israel. But now he keenly realized his inadequacy and was seized by shabbiness and inferiority complex saying how possibly could I manage such a big job? When I was in ministry in Korea, a mother who lived in countryside visited her son who was one of our church members. I treated her a dinner. I remember she was deeply grateful to me mentioning I never deserve this hospitality at all. 8

9 The once great prince, Moses, who took enormous pride in himself, was now reduced to an elderly eighty year old political exile in the wilderness who moped around saying, "who am I?" If Moses was not willing to free himself from this state of mind, he would ultimately be useless to God. Moses, through an unexpected meeting with God, had the opportunity to molt off his 80 year old self and be transformed. Extending from his inferiority complex, Moses asks, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" The original Hebrew text, includes "furthermore/in addition" to it. Meaning that just the thought of facing Pharaoh again, for him who escaped from Egypt as an exile, would cause him to have "seizures," then what sense did it make to even lead the sons of Israel out of Egypt? At that instant, God says, "Certainly I will be with you." The literal translation from the original text is "as long as I am with you." Exodus is not simply a book of historical facts. Exodus was definitely not humanly possible. God-sized acts are possible only when God is present. This is the promise God made to Moses who was beaten down and self-defeated at the time. Their conversation might have sounded like this Moses, remember how you thought so great of yourself in the past, and how arrogant you were? Now you may think that you are nobody and cannot do anything in complete despair, however, as long as I am with you, you cannot even imagine what great things you can achieve! As long as I am with you!. This is God's promise of EMMANUEL. Even though God did not provide a million soldiers to go with Moses, this promise was a more solid guarantee than a million soldiers. This applies to us as well. Is there anyone who thinks very lowly of him/herself? Is life getting so hard, it is beating down on you? No matter how hard and difficult your circumstances are currently, as long as God is with you, your life will not end in vain! Until you came to this place of worship, where did your footsteps lead you? 9

10 What type of shoes were you wearing in terms of morality, personality and character? When one meets God, those shoes are the first to come off. As we meet God today, what type of shoes are we wearing today? I am sure that the sandals Moses had on were not acceptable to God. And so God asked him to take them off. Do we have on shoes/sandals of life that is not acceptable to God today? Shoes are symbolic of our walk in life, our habits, and our personality. We are blessed when we take off any pair of shoes that are ill-fitting. When we do so, a new life will begin because we are answering God's call. I bless that 1. As God called Moses, He will also call you by name. He will renew the value of your name by His grace. 2. You will experience God's Holiness and be moved to take off any filthy or sinful shoes. 3. You will live victoriously with the promise that God is with you, that you may be free from a sense of shamefulness or worthlessness; and may you have hope that as long as God is with me, I also can do great things for God's glory. 4. We will accept God's perfect will for us that we become true worshippers who through worship will meet God and know his truth. As time goes on, other things may end up like legends, but God's unchanging truth forever transcends history. May this truth change us, and train us. Know that if we fail to worship, our lives will inevitably fail as well. May we, like Moses, meet God in his Holy mountain and develop a deep relationship with Him as a true worshipper and live the rest of our lives victoriously. 10