October 28, 2018 Reformation Sunday John 8:31-36

            I think it is safe for me to assume that you all want to be good people.  You may have to work hard at it, and what hard work it is!  A good person is an upstanding citizen who works hard and tries to contribute to the community - more than he or she takes from it.  It’s likely that you have a job, or if you’re retired, you did have a career that you worked at for years and years.  You try to live with integrity, being good, sincere, and honest.  You don’t abuse other people. You don’t abuse drugs or alcohol.  You try to make decisions that are good and healthy.  You respect and follow the laws.  Well, maybe you don’t follow every law every time.  You might ignore the 30 mile per hour speed limit signs on Lynaugh Road, unless of course you see a police officer parked by the side of the road.  Then you obey the signs.  But even so, you are a safe driver.  While you may go 30 you know very well that it’s a neighborhood and it isn’t safe to travel at Thru-Way speeds on it.

            If you’re an environmentally conscious person you may try to make purchases that support sustainability.  You own a hybrid car, or the most fuel efficient car out there.  You pay a premium for electricity to support renewable energy resources.

            Or maybe you choose American made goods over those from other nations, believing that is the best way to support fairness and integrity.

            If you’re a good person you try to keep your house or home in good order – relatively clean and tidy.  You keep things in good repair and in a way that your home is not lowering other home values in the area.

            If you’re a good person and you have kids, you know you have a big responsibility on your hands.  You want your kids to grow up to be well rounded.  You want them to have a good shot at life, which is ever so complicated.  You want them to grow up to be good people too.  But kids’ lives are super busy.  How much is too much?  And in the midst of all of it, there is their faith development.  What priorities do you set when there is the inevitable conflict between faith and activities schedules?  And if faith is the key to their development, how do you not have it come off as second place when you put something else above faith development?

            Some good people are in the “sandwich generation.”  Not only do they have kids, they also have parents to take care of.  That’s another big complication.

            Or maybe you’re retired and a senior citizen and you’re depending on your grown children for some things.  You don’t want to be a burden on them, but you don’t want to take unnecessary risks.

            Saying you want to be a good person sounds so simple.  Living out being a good person is not so easy! 

            And is being what our society calls a good person really being a good person?  You may remember me saying this before.  We all sin all the time.  Our sins are just things that are socially acceptable, even socially commended.  When I sit back and reflect on the American way of life since World War II I realize it is so consumptive it is appalling.  We consume far too much energy and material goods in our lifestyles to be healthy and sustainable – healthy and sustainable for the planet’s environment, and our bodies as individuals.  Yet over-consumption is part and parcel of being “a good person.”  You can’t meet all the social obligations of being a good person and at the same time live a lifestyle that is truly healthy and sustainable.

            In the gospel reading Jesus was talking to some Pharisees.  We chortle at their ignorance of their own history when they say, “We are descendants of Abraham.  We’ve never been slaves to anyone.”  As if!  We’ve just read the Exodus story.  Their history as a nation starts in slavery!  Plus they’ve been conquered and basically enslaved by just about every major empire that ever dominated the Middle East.  In the days of Jesus they may be technically not enslaved but they have little in the way of freedom and self-rule under the Romans.

            We laugh at them, but then realize that we too aren’t technically enslaved by anyone.  But how much freedom do we really have?  Isn’t “being a good person” basically a life of enslavement to sin?  Oh how social expectations can crush us!

            Times have changed, but I think being a good person in Jesus’ day was pretty complicated too.

            When I think of the trap most of us live in St. Paul’s words in Romans 7:22-25 come to mind, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord?”

            I think we first have to recognize the tension we live in, and we have to acknowledge that the state of our lives in one in which sin has entangled us.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be a good person!  But being a good person in our culture’s eyes will exhaust and kill you – and you’ll do a lot of damage besides!

            I don’t think we should ever lull ourselves into thinking that it is all okay.  Then we’re just as blind as the Pharisees unable to see our own failings.  We should certainly always feel the tension.  We should resist all that harms us, others, and the world.  But let’s also learn from Jesus’ words.  “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

            Here is the good news.  While God does not like seeing his creation or humans hurting, God’s love is bigger than any trap sin sets for us.  God’s ability to fix things is greater than our ability to break things.  God’s strength is stronger than any fortress that can ever be built.

            We can be freed from the slavery of being a good person.  We are free from all that would bind us to sin.  I don’t think in this lifetime we’ll ever fully escape the conflict.  St. Paul certainly didn’t.  But he did know the answer.  “Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!”  It is Christ who rescues us ultimately and surely.

            Our next hymn, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty affirms that.  And perhaps even more so, our final hymn, A Mighty Fortress proclaims it.

            Think again about the slavery of being a good person and what it would cost you if you truly bucked up against the pressures of our sin-filled culture, then hear these excerpts mixing verses 3 and 4:

Though hordes of devils fill the land

All threat’ning to devour us,

We tremble not, unmoved we stand;

They cannot overpower us.

Were they to take our house,

Goods, honor, child, or spouse,

Though life be wretched away,

They cannot win the day.

The kingdom’s ours forever!

            Do you hear the defiance and confidence of Luther’s words?  They are words that empower us for the battle.

            Election day is coming up.  Forget what each side is saying.  From the perspective of faith, both sides are lying and being deceptive.  Both will not hear the truth of God’s will.  Both what to tell you to follow their party line and all will be okay.  Not so.  No one dares to speak the truth of the hard work, the discipline, and the sacrifice necessary to truly bring about God’s kingdom.  I’d like to hear the Lord’s Prayer start off a stump speech sometime.  And then have the candidate lay out his or her strategy to bring that prayer’s words into reality.  Do you see how far from truth we are?

It is Reformation Sunday, and we realize that our lives, our culture, remains in need of massive reform – constant reform – because sin is constantly attacking; often in clever ways, seeking to enslave us.

May the truth of God make us really free, and may it protect us in the battle that rages around us.  May it encourage us to face what we need to face and handle the consequences when we do it.  And may Jesus our Lord, the champion fighter, win the day so that we may rejoice.

October 21, 2018 Joshua's Leadership Begins Joshua 1

It is said that the best way to truly learn something is to teach it – and for today let me add, or to preach it.  Back when we started reading Exodus at the beginning of summer I felt there was a nice theological storyline taking place.  We start by meeting the Israelites in Egypt.  They’re enslaved.  They’re powerless.  They have no organization and no hope for the future.  But God hears their cries of despair and sends Moses.  God sends plague after plague upon the Egyptians.  Eventually they set the Israelites free.  It is clear that the Israelites did not free themselves, it was God’s work.  Through Moses God provides for them, leads them across the wilderness and to the Promised Land.  Along the way they receive God’s laws, they learn what God wants and they develop a leadership structure.

            By the time we get to today’s reading an entire generation has passed.  They’ve arrived at the Promised Land and are ready to take possession.  However, since leaving Egypt they’ve matured and now God will not drive out the people for them.  No, they will work along with God to lay claim to the Promised Land.

            It makes for a nice story.  And it makes a nice parallel to our own lives as Christians.  If we see ourselves starting as helpless and ignorant at baptism.  God then comes to us, chooses us, and saves us.  We then learn and grow and as we mature we are then ready to be in partnership with God working side by side for God’s kingdom.

            It all works out so perfectly, except that’s not what the book of Joshua is really about.  As I prepared to preach on it I realized something different.  Perhaps biblical scholar Robert B. Coote sums it up well when he writes, “First God commissions Joshua.  Then, in an orgy of terror, violence, and mayhem, God takes the land of Canaan west of the Jordan away from its inhabitants and give it to Israel under Joshua’s command.  Joshua, with the help of the priest Eleazar, distributes the conquered land to the tribes of Israel.  Having aged, like Moses he bids his people farewell, dies, and is buried.  Thus the book of Joshua explains how under Joshua’s command Canaan was conquered, the Canaanites were slaughtered, and their lands were expropriated and redistributed to the tribes of Israel.  It forms a triumphant finale to the Bible’s foundational epic of liberation, the savage goal toward which God’s creation of Israel and delivery from slavery in Egypt appears to point from the start.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 2, Pg. 555)

            And indeed when you start to really study Joshua you get just such a feeling.  I remember one of my biblical studies professors in seminary say he focused on studying Joshua while on a sabbatical.  He said the text often gave him jolts because in Greek the name Joshua is the same name as Jesus.  And so it was as if he was reading about Jesus doing this, and destroying that, and leading a slaughter here there and everywhere.

            Like all of these oldest history stories in the Bible the story as we have it today is not in its original form.  It is entirely possible that a guy named Joshua did lead the nomadic Israelites in a military conquest of Canaan and settled them there.  But the story we have in our Bibles most likely took shape under the reign of King Josiah.  Josiah became king of the Israelites in 539 BC at the age of 8 because his father was assassinated.  As he matured he began a great reform campaign reducing government and economic corruption and purifying the religion.  In my opinion he was one of the best, if not the best and most faith-filled, king Israel ever had.  We Christians often overlook him preferring to focus more on kings like David and Solomon – both of whom were corrupt leaders by comparison.  Josiah was killed in battle by the Egyptians in the year 509BC at the age of 38.

            In the context of Josiah as king, the book of Joshua calls people to faithfulness in God and God alone.  It reminds them that they are God’s people and that God has been with them all along.

            Though Josiah made many reforms and strengthened Israel greatly, it was still a very weak country in the Middle East.  Powers like the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and the Babylonians all loomed large on the horizons.  The book of Joshua in the hands of a weak and struggling nation seeking to improve itself is one thing.  The book of Joshua in the wrong hands, however, can lead to horrible things.  Heavily weaponized modern day Israel uses the territorial claims of Joshua to justify just about anything.

            Scripture is powerful stuff.  We need to keep it in context.  And by context I don’t mean simple context like not cherry picking individual verses to suit your tastes while ignoring others.  I mean the context in which the entire piece of scripture was written.

            The gospel of Matthew has been used by Christians to justify all sorts of abuses of Jews.  Matthew would be horrified that his words have been used that way.  Its original readers were Christians who were scared, hurting, and their families and friends were being torn apart on religious lines.  Matthew speaks very differently in that context than when Christianity became stable and powerful.

            The New Testament contains all sorts of writings about slavery – about how slaves should obey their masters and not cause trouble.  That meant something very different from when Americans in the south were using those same texts as a theological justification for one race permanently enslaving another.  The role of women in the Bible is another such example.  On and on it goes.

            Know that when you read the Bible you are reading something very powerful.  I don’t think we give scripture enough credit or realize the power it has.  Therefore, like with anything powerful, we should use it with respect when called for, and not abuse with it.

            Always ask yourself what is the context of what you are reading.  Why was it written?  It almost certainly had a purpose on its own before it became part of the Bible.  That will help guide you to the intention of the writing.

            What does Joshua teach us as the end of the Exodus story?  That God is working.  God is moving.  God has an overall plan for this creation and we are a part of it.  We are to use our power along with God’s purposes.

            We read the most famous snippet of Joshua as our second reading, where Joshua says, “…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:15)

            That is a good and important verse for us to live by.  Who will Joshua and his household serve?  What will be their interests?  Is it to take ever greater vacations, or to build their retirement savings, or to own every more luxurious cars, or to conquer ever more land?

            No.  As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  It shows an ongoing singularity of purpose focused where it is supposed to be – on God.

            It is hard to believe but every aspect of earthly power is a lie – money, land, possessions.  If you use scripture to justify your desires for accumulations then you are missing scripture’s point.  Scripture will point you to God.  It will make you realize your brokenness, and it will witness to God’s grace.  From there we then engage the world – not fearing or rejecting things like money, land, and possessions, but for seeing them for what they are – tools… capabilities… things that can help us, until the time comes when we can lay them down and enter fully into God’s care.

October 14, 2018 Moses’ Death Numbers 27, Deuteronomy 34

You’ve heard me preach before that I consider things like the state lottery to be a tax on the stupid.  The government’s already taking a big bite out of the proceeds to fund things, and then if you win – especially if you win big – you still have to pay taxes on the winnings!  It’s a win-win for the government.

Of course all gambling is frowned upon by the church.  Oh, I’m not talking about things like making a friendly wager with a colleague over the outcome of a Bills game – although if you’re betting on an outright win the odds aren’t in your favor.  I’m talking about big organized gambling.  The root evil is the desire to gain without properly working for it.

If you bring to mind an image of a big casino with blackjack, and dice games, and roulette wheels you might find some of the verses from our Numbers reading a bit confusing or maybe even funny.  We read in Numbers 27:20-21 God saying to Moses, “You shall give [Joshua] some of your authority, so that all the congregation of the Israelites may obey.  But he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the decision of the Urim before the Lord…” 

Now what does that mean?  Nobody know exactly what this Urim was.  Most places in the Bible it is mentioned along with the Thummim, and both together used by the high priest to discern the will of God.  The best guesses are that these things were something like dice.  The priest would do something like say a prayer, toss them, and then interpret the results.  The idea being that since God didn’t speak directly from the sky, God would direct the Urim and Thummim to turn up the divine answer.  We’d call it chance, but they’d call it divine intervention.  Then again, how often have people prayed to the dice on the craps table to give them what they want.

Perhaps the whole tabernacle and early form of Judaism was the first recorded casino and the priests were the staff!

Actually, records of the Urim and Thummim are scarce.  Historically it appears that their use fell out of favor by the time of King David.  From that time on the prophets were consulted to learn the will of God.  That was probably a good thing.  How would like it if business or our political leaders used a Magic 8 Ball to guide their thoughts?!?

The key issue for all of this is knowing the will of God for individuals and for the nation.  Up until this point God spoke directly to Moses.  God told them right from wrong.  God gave them literal direction their travels.  God set the time frame. 

If we make the reasonable presumption that the text of Numbers and Deuteronomy don’t come to exist in the form that we have them today for about 1000 years from the history they present, we see the problems.  Who has authority?  Who speaks for God?  What is God’s will?  Does the king have that authority?  Is it the chief priest?  Is it an official prophet employed by the king, or some hick from the sticks like the prophet Amos who claims God gave him a message?  How can you tell what is God’s will?

By the time books like Numbers and Deuteronomy come to have the form they have today you have at the center of authority the law as God gave it to Moses.  And Moses’ words were ultimate words.  What are the final words of Deuteronomy that we read, “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face-to-face.  He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh, and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.”  (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)

Moses was the key authority for the Jews.  By Jesus’ day the sect called the Sadducees recognized the law from Moses as the only authoritative scripture and no other – not like the Pharisees who recognized the whole of what we call the Old Testament.  Even for them though, Moses was the all-time ultimate authority – the standard with which all decisions were made.

Moses’ authority and closeness to God were central.  Perhaps that is the best explanation of why Moses is not allowed to enter the Promised Land, but just glimpse it from afar.  No one knows for sure, but it is rooted in Numbers 20:12.  There the people need water.  God tells Moses to command a rock to yield water.  But Moses does not do that.  Instead he says to the Israelites, “Listen, you rebels, shall be wring water for you out of this rock?”  Then he takes his staff and hits the rock, just like he did once before.  While water does come from the rock God then tells Moses he will not enter the Promised Land because of it.

To me it seems trivial that Moses hit the rock rather than speaking to it, and then it is absurd that God would tell Moses he can’t enter the Promised Land over it.  But from the perspective of Moses being the key authority on God – that Moses was seen as always doing and carrying out God’s will perfectly – here Moses let’s his temper with the situation.  Here Moses acts to solve the problem in his own way and on his own authority – not God’s way and on God’s authority.  So, for the key authority on God to so disobey was a major breach of trust.

Perhaps this may seem like an abrupt turn for a sermon, but I think the key thing for all of this is what is authoritative in your life?  To where do you turn for truth?  Where do you turn for leadership, for life guidance?  And maybe more importantly, what does it take for you to change your mind about something, or change course in life?

Perhaps a simple trivial example is if you’re driving into Rochester and you hear on the radio that 490 Westbound is all backed up.  You’ll use that information to immediately plan a different path.  But what about more substantive issues?

A hundred years ago there were pretty clear places to go for truth and reliable information.  The local lawyer could give you solid legal advice.  The Bible was the authority for morals.  Medical doctors were considered authoritative, as were pastors.  Though everyone knew politicians and business leaders could be corrupt there was still a trust and respect for government leaders.

Today what is authority?  Where is our Moses?  Do you believe the news?  Our president has made the term “fake news” a daily part of his vocabulary.  Of course many side with the president’s views and throw stones at most mainstream media.  And many believe mainstream media and throw stones at the president.  What about scientific authority?  What about scientific findings?  Do you believe those scientists who claim the planet is warming due to human activity or do you reject it?  Maybe that gets at the deeper question.  What makes you believe or reject?

My theory about what is authoritative is this:  people are inclined to believe what they want to believe.  They tend to believe those things which make them feel good about themselves and their lives.  They tend to reject those things which make them feel bad or guilty.  They tend to reject those things which call for a drastic change in life that will make life harder for them or more painful.  They embrace things that make life easier and more convenient.

Does that fit you?  It fits me!  I’m all for anything I want to hear, and if I don’t want to hear it I immediately start to try to pick it apart.

Into that does come God’s truth, and it comes to us in many and various ways.  Certainly the words of the Bible teaches us basic morals and the principles of living by giving of ourselves for the betterment of others. 

But there is a lot more.  We learn that lot more through Jesus, who is the new Moses.  Jesus taught us just how broken and imperfect we are, but in the midst of that brokenness God still loves us and empowers us.  Jesus taught us that though we may fail in technical righteousness God is interested in something deeper – relationship with people built upon love. 

What is truth?  God is love and God loves you.  God wants to empower you not for an easy life of convenience and luxury, but for a fulfilling life of work, purpose and meaning.  I think we need to ask ourselves in our world of all sorts of information and things clamoring for us to call them “true” this: Not, what is God’s will, or what does God want me to do, but, What builds the goodness of God’s creation and the value of the people around me.

In fact it’s very simple.  If it hurts, diminishes, tears down or destroys someone -or the earth’s goodness- we should work against it.  If it builds up, enhances, empowers or celebrates without tearing down someone else -or the earth’s goodness- then we should embrace it.

Our goal in life is this – to have our life’s story be God’s story.  God will not then bless us because of good behavior, but God’s blessings will come to us because we are in sync with God’s own designs which are eternal.  May you have the insight you need and the trust in God to follow God’s will.

September 30, 2018 Moses Reassured Exodus 33

            By about this point in the Exodus story I’m imagining Moses is pretty stressed out.  He’s over 80 years old and been called out of being a shepherd to go back to Egypt, which he fled in the first place because he murdered someone.  Now he’s supposed to go back and free the Israelites from slavery by the power of God, whom the Israelites do not know.  Moses goes, he meets lots of opposition, but he stays faithful.  By the power of God the people are set free.  Then there is trouble at the Red Sea.  There is also trouble with food and with water.  There is constant grumbling from the people.  Then more trouble with God coming to give the commandments.  It is almost as if Moses has to not only lead this uncooperative people but he also has to keep God’s temper under control. 

            Last week we read about what happens when Moses steps away from the people to talk to God.  They immediately get Moses’ brother Aaron to make them an idol to worship.  Moses gets mad.  God gets mad.  The people are scared.  You didn’t read these parts, but the story gets weird.  God orders the Levites to kill 3000 people and God sends a plague to kill many more.  That brings us to today and we again find Moses trying to keep the people under control while also placating God.

            Talk about stress!  I did a Google search of memes about stress.  Listen to some of these results:

-No matter where you are in life, celebrate it!  It’s either a product of your growth or a place that will help you grow.  Cheers to today!

-Don’t let people pull you into their storm.  Pull them into your peace.

-Storms don’t last forever.

-Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure out everything all at once.  Breathe.  You’re strong.  You got this.  Take it day by day.

And one more: -Keep trying.  Be believing.  Be happy. Don’t get discouraged.  Things will work out.

            And I want to say, “Yeah right.  Try telling Moses that!”  There’s lots of cheap sayings out there meant to cheer us up.  I suppose if you’re in a bit of a funk over something fairly easy that sort of advice is fine.  But what about the real things in life?  What about medical pains and conditions that just won’t get better?  What about financial stresses beyond your control?  What about people caught in abusive relationships or systems?  What about family dynamics that just overwhelm you and you know won’t get better?

            I’ve shared before about my aunt and uncle who couldn’t have children of their own so they adopted: one, two, three kids.  They had a strong healthy family.  Then they were contacted to see if they would accept an emergency adoption of a child whose mother was on drugs during the pregnancy.  The child would surely have some issues but they were unknown.  My aunt and uncle, in the love and care of a stable family decided they could offer this newborn a good chance at life.

            Let me tell you, he was a holy terror from day one.  Uncontrollable – often needed to be kept on a leash and sometimes the other end of that leash was tied to a tree.  As he grew he became worse, constant injuries and run-ins with the police.  His brothers and sisters had to keep their doors locked at all times to keep him out of their stuff.  Therapists, specialists, you name it, they tried it; to no effect.  Trips, vacations, holidays, family fun events all ruined by this terror of a child.  This is not true -just my imagination- but instead of having a file on him at the local police station I imagine they had a whole drawer on him!  It is as if the other kids in the family gave up their childhood to support this guy.  

            Telling my aunt and uncle and their other children to just hang in there, or this storm will pass, or that God has a purpose for it, is just plain nonsense.

            My cousin was killed in his early 20s in a motorcycle accident.  What was the point of his life?  What was the point of the sacrificing?  There was none – at least not that I can see.

            I keep telling myself I’ll get a copy of the book by Kate Bowler, Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved.  What do you do when you’re caught in stupid, helplessness?  What do you do when your whole life is heading nowhere?  You’re treading water at the moment but you know you can’t keep it up forever.

            I think this is the mindset we need to bring to Moses as we come up to our text today from Exodus 33.  His problems aren’t going away!  This storm will not pass!

            Moses does two things.  One is very very subtle.  The other is more obvious.  The subtle one, and it is the foundation of the second, is that Moses recognizes the need for God’s presence.

            What is it that makes the Israelites unique?  Nothing.  There is nothing about these freed slaves that gives them and identity.  They have no heritage of land at this point.  They have no resources, no uniquenesses.  There is absolutely nothing about them that sets them apart from any other nomadic people in the Bronze Age.  The one and only thing that sets them apart from anyone else – the only thing that makes them unique – is that God chose them.

            Do not underestimate how profound and essential that is to their identity, and it speaks to ours as well.  What made them a people?  God.  Who made them special?  God.  Where does their value lie?  With God and God alone.  What is their only hope for a future?  God.

            Our identity as individuals and as a community of faith is similarly rooted.  When times are tough –so tough that cute memes are an insult- we turn to God; which is just what Moses did.

            And that’s the second thing.  Are not Moses’ questions and requests of God exactly the same as our own?

            Here are Moses’ prayers to God from Exodus 33:

            Show me your ways…

Let me feel your presence…

Let me see your glory

These are bold prayers to make!  They are insistent upon God.  Theologian Walter Brueggemann notes this, “[These prayers] are concerned with the person and presence of God.  Moses’ mind does not wander onto other agendas, but stays fixed on the presence as the crucial issue for his people.  Second, Moses knows when to stop, for after vv. 21-23 he goes no further.  Moses is a model for prayer, because he takes into full and knowing account the one with whom he must do business.  He acknowledges not only the sovereignty of God but also his own considerable freedom in prayer.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 1, pg. 942)

So, when you feel overwhelmed, when problems are just too great, or when there seems to be no hope or progress for the future, remember whose you are.  You are God’s.  You are not your job or your income level or your social status or how many friends you have.

You are now, have always been, and will always be, God’s.  Nothing else gives your life -your existence- any purpose or meaning.  That’s not a cute meme.  That’s a powerful and profound truth.

Will it solve your problems?  That would be nice, but it might not.  Will it make you a happy person?  That would be nice too, but it might not.  But it does mean that you are secure.  In that security we can find hope.

We’ll be looking at the Exodus story for a few more weeks.  If you know it you know that Moses does not reach the Promised Land.  The people he led move into it under Joshua’s command.  While you could say the story has a happy ending Moses does not get to participate in it.

And sometimes life truly is too much.  But God’s promised presence is that God will be with us always – through thick and thin, through easily solved problems and through unsolvable, unbeatable problems.  And God’s presence takes us into the promise of eternal life.  For we do well to remember that when things are too overwhelming that is our final and ultimate reality.

Let me conclude with these words of St. Paul’s from 2 Corinthians 4, “So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting ways, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”