The Burning Bush -- A Message for September 28, 2025

    

 Last week, my friends, we focused on a few stories from the life of Jacob, the son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. Jacob inherited the Covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah and was promised to be blessed by God and to become the father of as many children as the stars in the sky. Jacob got a good start on the many offspring promise – he had 12 sons and a daughter. 

When his sons were adults, there was a famine in the land of Israel and Jacob and his descendants all moved to Egypt. Initially, they lived in the region of Goshen which was perfect for grazing their sheep. And, Joseph, Jacob’s son, was a powerful figure in the Egyptian government, so his family was protected and safe. But, over the decades and centuries that followed, Jacob’s descendants became slaves in Egypt – they were resident aliens and the Egyptians started to exploit the labor of the foreigners in their midst. 

The Egyptian government, led by their Pharaoh, became fearful of their slaves. They made them live in substandard housing, allowed them smaller and smaller food rations, gave them unreasonable work quotas to fill, and finally told the midwives who worked with the slaves to murder all the boy babies born to the Hebrew women. The Egyptians wanted to control the population of the outsiders who lived in their midst.

Moses was born to a Hebrew family when things were very difficult for the slaves. The midwives had been ordered to kill the boy babies by throwing them into the Nile River – so when Moses was three months old, his mother placed him in a basket and put the basket in the river – a bit of malicious compliance. Moses’s basket was discovered by an Egyptian princess who adopted Moses. He was raised in the royal palace among the princes and princesses, but always knew he was different – he was a slave adopted by the royal family.

When he was a young adult, Moses killed an Egyptian man who was tormenting a Hebrew slave. Afterwards, the Hebrews still viewed Moses as a privileged overlord, not one of them, and the Egyptians wanted to kill Moses for being a murderer, not one of them. So, he ran away to the country of Midian, married the daughter of a priest, and became a shepherd. Once again, he was a foreigner living as an outsider in another strange land.

Today, we read a portion of Moses’ story….his calling by God to become a prophet and leader of the Hebrew people….

Listen now to our Scripture reading, starting in Exodus chapter 2.  

Scripture Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; 4:10-17

23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 

24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 

25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 

2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 

3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 

6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 

8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 

10 So now, go. I am sending 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 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation.

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 

12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 

15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 

16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 

17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…..

Message The Burning Bush

Moses was a reject. He was rejected by the people of his birth – the Hebrew people saw him as one of the Egyptians, the people who forced them into slavery and who constantly tormented them with added labor. The Egyptian people saw him as a Hebrew – perhaps he had been adopted by an Egyptian princess, but he was still not one of them. He wasn’t born as an Egyptian, and therefore, he would never fit in, he would never be one of them. Moses was rejected by both the people of his ethnic background and the people of his adopted background.

After he murdered an Egyptian bully, Moses was hated by each group. And, the Egyptians totally were against him – they wanted to execute him for being a murderer. So, Moses ran away. He ran away to Midian.

There, he found refuge in the family of a priest. Good to know that a minister overlooked the problem of Moses being an outsider, a refugee from Egypt, someone born into slavery. In Midian, Moses found hospitality, found welcome, found acceptance, and found a family. 

As the son-in-law of Jethro, Moses also had a vocation. He became a shepherd and tended to the family’s sheep. Perhaps this was a demotion from being a Prince in Egypt, but Moses finally had a place to which he belonged.

And, then God appeared.

God interrupted Moses’ finally calm life.

God sometimes appears in very strange ways – a whisper – a baby –  a pilar of cloud and fire – a dove…. And in a burning bush.  Moses saw the bush burning…there was explanation for how it caught on fire. And, the bush was not being consumed.

When he walked over to investigate, God began to talk to Moses. God told Moses that God had work for Moses to do. God was going to send him to Pharaoh to appeal on behalf of the Hebrew slaves.

And, Moses threw out a bunch of excuses. He wanted to continue his safe, calm life as the son-in-law of Jethro in Midian. But, God didn’t allow Moses to turn down God’s proposal. God would send Moses, accompanied by his biological brother Aaron as his spokesman, to appeal for the release of the Hebrew slaves. 

This is a lengthy and complicated story. But, we know Moses answered God’s call – he fulfilled God’s command. He went back to Egypt. He negotiated with Pharoah. He eventually got the Hebrew slaves to be released. When Pharaoh changed his mind, God parted the Red Sea and the Hebrews crossed into safety. Moses led the Hebrews through the wilderness for forty years and to the Promised Land.

Again, this is another example of an unlikely person who was put into an important role to further the Kingdom of God. Moses was an outsider….a reject…a murderer…a refugee…an immigrant…a lowly shepherd. And, God used him to negotiate with the powerful Pharoah, lead the Hebrews to safety, guide and lead them for forty years, and nurture them until they were prepared to enter the land of Israel. 

Sometimes, we are uncomfortable when people say they are changed for the better. We are suspicious when people who have been convicted of crimes say they are reformed, that they are ready to turn over a new leaf. If we know what they have done in the past, we are always suspicious they will commit the same crime in the future, will behave the same way in the future or worse.

Yet, in the Bible, God repeatedly uses people who have made terrible mistakes to do God’s work. Moses was a murderer. David was a murderer. David committed adultery. Abraham lied about his relationship with Sarah. Rahab was a prostitute. Paul encouraged the killing of Christians. Jonah ran away from God. Mary Magdalene has been accused of having an unsavory past. 

God repeatedly uses people who have made terrible mistakes to do God’s work.

This is a reminder for us. If we feel unworthy, remember God uses broken people to do God’s work. God uses people with sad and terrible pasts to do God’s work. God uses outsiders, and refugees, and liars, and murderers to do God’s work. God uses us, and people like us to do God’s work.

This story is also a reminder for us to treat each other with grace and compassion. We can be judge-y. We discriminate against people who have stains in their pasts. We struggle to accept when people say they have changed, that they have turned over a new leaf. We must remember that with God’s help, everyone is capable of transformation. With God’s help, everyone is able to start over again. With God’s help, all people can change for the better. So, when people tell us they are different now, we can still be cautious, but let us be open-minded and allow them to show us. And, when people show us that they have changed, let us work to forgive them.

God uses broken people to do God’s work. People like Moses. People like us. Let us work to listen to God’s guidance in our lives and do the work God calls us to do. 

Amen. 

Jacob Steals A Blessing -- A Message for September 21, 2025

  This morning, we return to the early stories of our faith. Last week, we focused on the story of the difficult choice Abraham was forced to make – whether or not to sacrifice his young son. 

Today we will focus on a story of events that occurred later in Isaac’s life. Isaac married his cousin Rebecka and they became the parents of only two children: fraternal twins Esau and Jacob. Esau was born a few minutes before Jacob. Even though the boys were twins, their birth order made a big difference in their lives.

In Ancient Israel, when an estate was divided among the heirs, it was divided by the number of sons plus one. The oldest son received the extra share. In the case of Esau and Jacob, this meant Esau expected to receive two-thirds of his father’s estate. As the oldest son, he also was supposed to receive a special blessing from his father. Blessings like this were considered legally binding and were considered prophetic – whatever was said during the blessing was believed to be able to predict what would happen in the future.

In a very silly moment, Esau told his brother Isaac that he would trade his special birthright as the oldest son with him in exchange for a plate of food. Brothers and sisters joke around with each other. But, this joke was so absurd that Esau probably assumed Isaac would regard it as a joke, not a binding covenant. Isaac was a trickster, though, and things did not work out in Esau’s favor.

So, let us turn to the story of the two brothers at a crucial time, when Isaac was prepared to bestow his special, binding blessing on his oldest son.

We pick up the story at Genesis 27….listen now to the word of God….

Scripture Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. 

Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 

Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 

She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 

Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 

He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.

The hairy hands were enough to convince Isaac incorrectly that Jacob was Esau. Another absurd occurrence in the midst of a very serious situation.

Esau discovered the betrayal almost immediately….as soon as Jacob was blessed and left his father, Esau walked in with his specially prepared food. Isaac couldn’t undo the blessing. Instead, he gave Esau a lesser blessing. Esau was so angry he vowed to kill Jacob. 

Jacob believed Esau was going to kill him. So, his mother helped him flee – she sent him to live with her brother who lived a several days' journey away. On the way to safety, Jacob had a strange dream. Listen now to the story of the dream:

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 

When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 

There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 

Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 

He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

Message Jacob Steals a Blessing

In the dream about Jacob’s ladder, God blessed Jacob…God blessed Jacob and extended the Abrahamic covenant to him and his offspring, even though Jacob had behaved badly to his brother and father. What does this say about God? Why would God reward such a flawed person?

Jacob’s family is the epitome of toxic. His parents had favorite children. His mother connived against his father and his brother. The boys were pitted against each other by their parents. Their father was raised by his grandparents to be the fulfillment of all of their dreams…yet his grandparents had their own share of dysfunction. 

Jacob left one toxic family system and entered another. He sought protection and rescue in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban, who used him for labor, tricked him into marrying a wife he didn’t want or pick, and later had to flee with his 12 children and four wives from the wrath of his uncle-slash-father-in-law. Jacob’s own children tried to kill each other, sold one of their brothers into slavery, and one of his sons raped his own sister. Not an ideal family-system.

Yet, these messed up people and this messed up family is blessed by God. These are the people who are our ancestors in the faith – the patriarchs and matriarchs of Judaism and Christianity.

We believe in a God who blesses imperfect people. I hope none of us come from families of origin that were as terrible as Jacob’s, but there are people in this room who have come from toxic families. We may be currently navigating relationships with people who are not easy to get along with or with whom we don’t feel safe. And, we know stories about our friends and neighbors and know that people we know have troubled, messy lives. 

The people in the Bible, like Jacob and his family, are examples of how God uses imperfect people. The example they set for us is that no matter how unworthy we feel, no matter how flawed we believe ourselves to be, we are still capable of doing helpful and just and useful and Godly actions in our lives. We must not let our pasts define us. We must not allow our pasts to predict our futures. God loves us. God needs us to do God’s work in the world. We are called to be attentive to guidance of the Holy Spirit – maybe the Spirit is speaking to us in our dreams, or in the quiet times of our days, or when we are walking around our neighborhoods clearing our heads. God has work for us to do. And, God will use us to care for God’s creation, to love God’s people, and to work on God’s behalf to repair our broken world. 

So, take heart, and remember, no matter what kind of family we are part of, no matter what mistakes we have made, no matter what we haven’t done yet in our lives, we are being called by our God to do God’s work in the here and now. So, let’s listen to God pulling on our heart strings. 

May it be so. Amen. 

Abraham's Real Test -- A Message for September 14, 2025

 Friends, we are in the second week of September. During our worship services, we use a series of readings called the Narrative Lectionary that recommend our scriptures for the week. The scripture readings are chosen to fit together in a narrative – if we follow the suggested readings for the four year cycle, we will cover a large swath of the Bible and have a clearer picture of the story of our faith.

One of my seminary professors loved to say that people are messy – we rarely get everything right. We make mistakes. Tragedies befall us.

The story of our faith is also messy. The Bible is a record of believers and how they related to God. In the written words of the Bible, they wrote down how they experienced God. Sometimes they believed God to be loving and good; other times, they were afraid of God, and afraid of God’s vengeance. Sometimes, they were unsure – they didn’t understand why God did things the way God did them.

Today’s reading is one of the most difficult passages in our Bible. It is a “text of terror” – a story that we don’t usually hear preached about because it is so upsetting. Although I remember learning about this story when I was a little kid, it certainly is one of the uncomfortable stories modern parents probably avoid exploring with their children. 

So, despite our discomfort, let us turn now to Genesis Chapters 21 and 22.  

Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 

Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 

He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 

Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 

So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

Message Abraham’s Real Test

This story sounds horrible to us – Isaac was the special son born to Abraham and Sarah after a prossibly 60 year wait. They longed for a son of their own during the many years of thier marriage. And, God promised them that if they followed God, left their homeland, and migrated aroud the Middle East, that they would one day have human descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Their opportunity to have grandchildren and descendants hinged on Isaac having children of his own. So, what was God thinking when God told Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him??!!??

This story is very troubling indeed.

Many ministers hestiate to preach on this text. We struggle to figure out what the “good news” is in this story from our faith.

But, we are not immune to sometimes thinking that God is cruel. Even though we like to think of ourselves as rational, and mature, and educated, and enlightened….we sometimes succumb to thinking in a very black and white way. If we experience a tradegy, or a loss, or a disappointment, we sometimes blame God for the problem – why did God let this happen to me? What did God allow this bad thing to happen to someone I love? Why is God punishing me in this way? Why is God out to get me?

When we read about God telling Abraham to kill Isaac, we read about a God that is punitive and irrational and cruel. He put Abraham through a horrible trial in order to test his faith and obedience in God. This doesn’t fit into a more New Testament way to imagine God – God is love. The Letter of 1st John explores this again and again: “ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.“ We are more comfortable conceiving of a warm and fussy and loving God, not the punitive, Old Testament version of God.

This story from Abraham’s life may tell us more about Abraham thant it tells us about God. Abraham lived in a time period when child sacrifice was common. Abraham lived in a area where child sacrifice was common. Abraham grew up in a culture where child sacrifice was common. When crops failed…when droughts occurred…when wars were looming, people sacrificed children. They thought that killing children would appease their gods, and motivate thier gods to do what they wanted. 

In the events we read about this morning, Abraham starts to follow the child sacrifice rituals. He travels to a special worship site. He brings wood and the victim. He sends away the servants. He has the victim, Isaac, carry the wood himself – creepy but what they did. Isaac questioned his dad because this was something they hadn’t done before, but he was probably old enough that he knew the neighbors sacrificed human children and was worried about what was going to happen to him. Isaac was loyal and trusting and willing to do what his father demaded….Isaac allowed himself to be tied up. And, in the nick of time, God called the whole thing off.

In the moment that God made Abraham stop, God redeemed the situation. God provided a ram to be slaughtered. From this point onward, God said that no more children should be sacrificed. A custom of the ancient Middle East, that children must be sacrificed to appease the gods, was ended forever for the faith that came to dominate the Middle East….all believers from the families of faith that see Abraham as our forebearer are against the sacrifice of children…Jewish people don’t sacrifice children, Muslim people don’t sacrifice children, Christian people don’t sacrifice children. Child sacrifice is no longer a part of any world religion.

We weren’t there when this incident took place. We weren’t in Abraham’s head. Jewish scholars and rabbis have suggested that this story is part of our scripture to teach us that even when we think we are being directed to do something by the voice of God, if what we are being asked to do goes against God’s nature and who we know God to be, then the voice we are hearing is likely not God’s voice – We should therefore revaluate our actions. Some of the stories of our faith teach us what we are not supposed to do.  

When God intervened, he saved Isaac’s life. Our God is a creative force for good – God wants life, not death. God wants good, not evil. God gave Abraham and Sarah an important mission, an important calling, to be the forebearers of countless people. When we chose to believe in Jesus, we were grafted into the line of succession, the line of descendants that were birthed by Abraham and Sarah. 

So, even when people get things wrong, or when they may think God is telling them to do something wrong, we are called to strive for health, wholeness, and love in our relations with each other. God’s nature is good and just…let us work for goodness and justice in our world and in our relationships with each other. Amen.