This Autumn, we have been using the Narrative Lectionary as our source of weekly scriptures. The Narrative lectionary is a four-year cycle of Bible readings that connects the Biblical story from the creation events though the development of the early Christian church. Since the beginning of September, we have heard about Adam and Eve, Moses and Sarah, Joseph and his brothers, and the events of the first Passover. Each week, we are touching down on one of these major stories of our faith, and then jumping to another major story the following week.
This week, we are focusing on another important event in the life of our faith -- the day the exiled Hebrews panicked and made a Golden Calf to worship. This event was not their best moment – or our best moment as human beings – but we all have had doubts, and fears, and sleepless nights filled with worry.
Let us turn to this story and remember to be human is to make mistakes. We will read from the book of Exodus, chapter thirty-two, verses one through fourteen. Listen now to the word of God:
The Scripture Exodus 32:1-14
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”
So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’”
Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
HERE ENDS THIS READING OF THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD. THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.
Let us pray.....
The Message Golden Calf
What does the story of failure, of the people turning to away from God and towards a Golden Calf, have to do with World Communion Sunday??
When I sat down with our Lunch Bunch Bible Study this week, we had a little laugh because I couldn’t figure out how to pair our scripture for this morning with the special day we celebrate today. On World Communion Sunday, Christians all over the world will eat the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Every church and denomination has different traditions about when they will celebrate communion – We at Trinity celebrate communion on the first Sunday of the month; Roman Catholics have it every day; some Baptists have it quarterly; Jehovah's Witnesses have it once a year. But, today, we celebrate communion with Christians all over the world, of every denomination and type of church, with people composed of the diversity of God’s creation – young and old, every ethnic background, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, people from every nation and continent.
Christians all over the world meet each other at the communion table today, no matter what type of Christian church or Tradition we belong to. We are reminded that this table doesn’t belong to us – it is Jesus’ table. Jesus invites us to meet Jesus and each other at this table.
On the night before he died on the Cross, Jesus instituted what we have come to know as Holy Communion. The disciples and Jesus joined together for the Passover meal. The meal includes eating special food and follows a specific order so Jewish people remember the night God passed over the homes of the Hebrew slaves as the final plague was perpetuated on the Egyptians. During this special commemorative meal, Jesus interrupted things and took bread, thank God for it, gave it to his friends and told them to eat it and remember he gave his body for them. Then he took a cup of wine and told his friends that they should drink it – it represented Jesus’s blood and the covenant God made between God’s self and God’s followers. Jesus said his blood would be poured out so that we will receive forgiveness for our sins.
Today is the day Christians all over the world eat the Holy Communion meal together. Not only will this be an opportunity for Christians to feel close to each other, but it is also an opportunity for us to feel close to God. Jesus mandated the Holy Communion meal as a way for us to feel connected to God – we remember Jesus’ words and actions as we smell the juice and bread, see it broken and poured out, say and hear the words of our faith, and taste and eat the bread and drink. We experience our relationship with God with tangible actions and words.
In our reading from the Exodus story, we read a story of the Hebrew exiles trying to find closeness and connection with God and falling short. They had experienced miracle after miracle – God Passed Over them during the final Egyptian plague, Pharoah was finally convinced by God to free the Hebrew Captives, they crossed the Red Sea after God parted it, God fed the people with Manna - and Quail, God gave them clean water that miraculously flowed from a rock...the wonders never ceased. But, then Moses climbed up on Mount Sinai and didn’t come back down....he was the one they looked towards and who advocated on their behalf with God....and he was gone for a day....for a couple of days...for a week....for two weeks.......for a month....and still had not returned. They feared Moses was gone forever...they feared God had abandoned them forever.
So, they made a decision that will go down in infamy as the wrong decision. After the complained to Aaron, he gathered up their golden jewelry and formed it into a Golden Calf. They had left Egypt, but the people turned to an Egyptian God to protect them, Apis. In Egypt, bulls were symbols of strength, protection and fertility. The people were feeling abandoned and scared. They craved closeness with God. And, they made the decision to turn in the wrong direction.
God and Moses were up on the Mountain. They saw what the people were doing. They discussed how to handle it. God seems very “human” in how God reacts. The way the story is written down, it sounds like Moses convinced God to forgive the people. And, they were forgiven, even though they made a mistake, a terrible mistake.
Jesus came to many years after the Golden Calf was made. And, Jesus represented the God who forgives us when we fail. Jesus wants us to have a close relationship with God, so that we don’t panic and turn to whatever our “golden calves” may be. When we feel disconnected from God, we put a lot of stock in the things the world tells us are important: money, romantic relationships, our jobs, celebrities, our stuff. But, these things are like the Golden Calf – empty idols, empty promises. Jesus came to save us from our mistakes, to emphasise that God forgives us when we fail, to help us feel connected to God, and connected to the life-giving Holy Spirit of God. Jesus came to give us the real deal, not just false promises or false idols.
Today on this World Communion Sunday, we meet Jesus at the communion table. Jesus shares his body with us. Jesus pours out his blood for us. And, here at this table, we also meet other faithful Christians from all over the world. Here we connect with God. Here we find true peace. Here we experience the life-giving connection to the Holy Spirit.
Let us prepare to joyfully come forward and meet Jesus today at his table.
Amen.
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