"Some Moses Stories For Our Time: What Really Upsets God"Dr.
James L. Mayfield
October 20, 2002
Text: Exodus 32:1-33:3 (selected verses read in worship) When the sermon ended last week, Moses was still on top of Mt. Sinai, where God was telling him what was expected of the Israelites. This took quite a long time. In the book of Exodus, it takes more than 10 chapters. The Israelites, who were only three months out of slavery, became anxious, worried, even afraid. Where was their leader, the one who led them from Egypt, whose rod had parted the Red Sea, who had pronounced that God would provide food and water for them, who had led them in victorious battle when they had been attacked? They had heard his sermons about being loyal to God, trusting God, obeying God, and they had made their commitments to God. But now their spokesman for God, their leader was gone and had been gone for what seemed to them a very long time. So, they took matters in their own hands and more or less demanded Aaron to give them something tangible to trust, something they could see to believe in. Moses was no longer present to assure them that God, who is beyond all they could see and touch was with them; so, they demanded they be given gods that made sense to them. "Make gods for us who shall lead us," is the order they gave Aaron. And like a pastor who does not want to upset the congregation, Aaron did what they demanded. As soon as the people saw the golden calf they declared: "These are the gods who have brought us out of bondage in Egypt." They ignored the true God, and all that God had done for them and gave all the credit for their blessings to an idol of their own making. It is at this point, the story of the golden calf moves beyond being an interesting Bible story and begins to meddle with the way we live. Like the Israelites, all too often, we do not give God the credit for our blessings, and instead, we give the credit to idols, to false gods we have created to lead us through life. It is easy to lose our awareness of God, and to create false gods. Who of us has not been like the shallow thinking, pragmatic farmer who said: "What do you mean, God has blessed me with this harvest? You should have seen this field when God had it by Himself. My hard work and the farming technology I struggled to learn and have used are what produced the crop -- not God." Shallow in his thinking, the farmer was insensitive to the reality that his life was a gift from God; his brain was a gift from God; his ability to work was a gift from God; the earth itself on which he farmed was a gift from God; the culture in which he lived that produced farming technology was a gift from God. All the shallow minded, pragmatic farmer could see was the work he had done making use of the gifts he had been given. I am not a farmer, but in my own way I have a tendency to view my life with the same limited, shallow vision of that farmer. And so, like those Israelites, I forget about the blessings of God and live as if my blessings are what I have earned and deserve. I do not give God the credit. Either I take the credit, or like the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, I give the credit to some phony god. Sometimes we make a god of our nation, and we say our blessings are from the nation. On the surface this is somewhat accurate, but it is finally as incomplete and as shallow a view of reality as that farmer's. Sometimes we make a god of capitalism, and we say our blessings are the result of having a capitalistic economy. On the surface this is somewhat accurate, but it is finally as incomplete and as shallow a view of reality as the farmer's. And all too often, we not only do this with our nation or our economy, but also with our family, our children, our careers, our being comfortable, our being financially secure, and the list can go on. It is easy for us to worship golden calves. It is easy for us to center our living around false gods we have created. In the story we read, God was more than a little upset. What upset God was that God thought he had an agreement with these people he had freed from slavery. Remember, these are the people who cried out to God to deliver them from bondage in Egypt. Well, God had done that through Moses. But now, out of their misery in Egypt, without Moses there to remind them about God, the Israelites forgot about God, and having forgotten about God, they made gods that made sense to them, gods that would serve their desires. And in their joy, they feasted and partied. They were free and in control. They now had gods that made sense to them. They now had gods of their making that would be devoted to their wishes. The Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had delivered them from Egypt, but now the Israelites were giving credit to a god of their own making. God, had provided for them and led them, but now they dismissed the Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and replaced him with a phony god of their own design and making. Well, even God's long suffering patience has its limits. God was angry. In the story, God was so angry, God was ready to wipe the Israelites off the face of the planet, and begin again with just the descendants of Moses. But Moses interceded. He talked God out of destroying the Israelites. Then, Moses went down the mountain. When he saw the behavior of the people, how they had either forgotten or rejected God and were now reveling in their worship of a phony god, Moses lost his temper - big time. In anger he threw down the stone tablets on which the commandments had been written and they shattered. He had the golden calf ground into powder, poured the powder into water, and made the people drink it. He confronted Aaron: "What did these people do to you that caused you to lead them in replacing the true God with phony gods?" Then Aaron spoke like many of us speak when we are confronted with the wrong we have done. What Aaron said was something like this: "Don't be angry with me; you know how these people are. After all, you were gone a long time and we really did not know if you were coming back. You might have had a heart attack. After all you are not a young man. Or you might have been killed in an accident or by a wild animal. The people needed something to hold onto, and when they asked me to make gods who could give them direction and comfort, all I did was what they asked. I just threw the gold they gave me into the fire, and out came this golden calf." In the story, Moses did not waste energy responding to Aaron. What can be said that makes any difference in the face of this kind of self-righteous defensiveness? There is more to this story about the golden calf - much, much more. But this is more than enough for us to chew on for one day. When I think about this story, or at least the parts of the story mentioned in this sermon, I am amazed, and a little embarrassed, at how often I am like either the Israelites or Aaron or, at times, both of them. How easy it is for any of us to forget about God and all that God has done in our lives. When we forget, any sense of gratitude we have to God seems to evaporate. Insensitive to God's activity in our lives, God seems to be only a vague, oblong blur that is irrelevant to our daily living. It is then we take the gifts God has given and begin treating them as gods, and we try to find meaning and direction for our living in our children or our careers or our comfort or our security or our nation or whatever or some combination of these. A sure sign that these good gifts have become the golden calves is revealed in the sacrifices we willingly make in their honor. What is more, when we are insensitive to God's blessings we are unable to experience the wonderful joy of true gratitude. Insensitive to all we have been given, we take credit for whatever is good in our lives. And, insensitive to God's presence, we become like Aaron doing whatever seems expedient and blaming others for whatever goes wrong. As I said, this story about the golden calf is a bothersome, meddlesome story, but one we need to remember. God, rescue us from our tendencies to be like the Israelites and from our tendencies to be like Aaron. Amen.
Pastoral prayer: Let us thank God for the gifts and blessings we have received. We have come here with a variety of concerns and problems. Let us ask God for guidance and help. God, it is easier for us to focus on our problems and our needs than it is to be aware of our blessings. Heal our insensitivity that prevents us from being aware of the many gifts you have given us. Forgive us when our blindness to our gifts not only keeps us from being grateful but also robs us of the wonderful joy that is part of true gratitude. Enable us to be aware of our blessings, not only so we can experience the joy of gratitude but so that we are able to face the future with hope knowing by faith that you who have blessed us in yesterdays will continue to bless us in our tomorrows. Help us be aware of our blessings so that as we face the future we will have the confidence, the hope we need to be able to deal with the challenges we must face and the crosses we must bear. Enable us to see your love at work in our lives so that as we live, your love is better able to work through our living. Help us see life through the eyes of Christ so that we are better able to live as he was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father ...." |