THE WAY: PART IV
Five weeks ago, we began a sermon series based upon the sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the gospel according to John. There Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father…but by me.” Perhaps we could even say, “The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life.” While we seem to speak often of the truth of Jesus Christ and the life of Jesus Christ, very seldom do we speak of the way of Jesus Christ. The question thus becomes, “What is the Jesus way…and how do we go about following it?
As we noted initially, the Jesus truth – in and of itself – is not enough to attain the Jesus life. Jesus calls us to follow the Jesus way as well. Then we noted that the Jesus way is not a list of rules and regulations. The Jesus way cannot be codified or simplified or summarized. The Jesus way is meant to be lived. Then when we examined the life of Abraham, we discovered that the Jesus way involves testing and sacrifice. God has a unique way of sifting people when he wants to use them to accomplish great things for his kingdom.
Today we come to Part IV in our sermon series on The Way. Two weeks ago we examined the life of Abraham. Today we’re going to be examining the life of Moses. Thus, if I were to come up with a subtitle for this sermon, it might be The Way of Moses, or The Way of God’s Purpose. In any case, I invite you to come along with me as we seek to discern the Jesus Way.
The other day, my wife and I were walking the dog out at Woodcock Dam. As we passed a group of fishermen, I heard one of them say, “They’re just a couple of educated idiots. I’ll bet they don’t even fish!” I said to my wife, “Are they talking about us?” She said, “I don’t know!” The fact of the matter is, I have no idea who or what they were talking about. But their impressions of someone had clearly been formed…probably on the basis of one particular issue or encounter. I guess we all have a tendency to do that. We tend to pass judgments on people based upon our own perceptions, regardless of how limited those perceptions might be.
A lot of people have passed judgment on a man named Jim Tressel of late. Jim Tressel was the head football coach at The Ohio State University from 2001 until 2011. He won a national championship in 2002. He recently lost his job, however, amid accusations that some of his players exchanged sports memorabilia for tattoos at a Columbus tattoo parlor. What got Jim Tressel into trouble was the fact that he supposedly knew about it, and then he lied about it to NCAA investigators. Someone also told me that a recent Sports Illustrated article iterated a number of other rules violations that supposedly occurred while he was coaching at Youngstown State before he moved to Ohio State. The name Jim Tressel will forever be associated with cheating and lying and deceit in many minds based upon this one incident.
Let me tell you a story about another side of Jim Tressel. In my last church in Salem, Ohio, I had a member by the name of Jack Rance. I loved Jack Rance. He was on the Personnel Committee from the time I arrived in Salem in 1996 until the day he died in 2003. The thing I loved most about Jack was that he was always in church and he was always on my side. Now Jack was known in Salem, Ohio as Mr. Buckeye. He was the biggest Ohio State fan I ever knew. Even the most rabid of Penn State fans would have a hard time rivaling Jack. He had an autographed picture of Woody Hayes hanging in his living room. He had a football autographed by former Heisman Trophy winners Archie Griffin and Eddie George. He had an Ohio State Buckeye emblem on the toilet seat in his bathroom, and a Michigan Wolverine emblem inside the toilet bowl. That’s all I’m gonna say about that! Jack Rance was affectionately known as Mr. Buckeye.
In the spring of 2003, Jack was diagnosed with terminal cancer. For a time, he was at the James Cancer Research Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Someone from Salem called the Ohio State football office and told them that Salem’s own Mr. Buckeye was in the hospital there. Jim Tressel went to visit Jack Rance himself. He sat by that man’s hospital bed and talked football – and life – with him for 45 minutes. Nothing on God’s green earth could have made that dying man feel any better. That’s how I will remember Jim Tressel. He didn’t have to go visit a dying man in the hospital, but he did.
Perhaps there is more to us than meets the eye. Perhaps there are two sides to all of us. I think the side of love and compassion and goodness is the side of us that God tends to see. God sees the best in us. And because God sees the best in us, he knows what we can be. He knows what we can become. He knows what we can accomplish if we will but set our minds to it…and trust him to help us along the way.
Case in point, consider Moses of whom we read earlier. Moses, as you know, had a fairly interesting background. Moses was of Hebrew descent, and the Hebrew people were being held in bondage in Egypt. Yet the Hebrew people were becoming so numerous – and in the mind of Pharaoh posed such a threat to Egypt – that he ordered Hebrew midwives to let all female babies live, but to put all male babies to death. Yet the Hebrew midwives disobeyed
Pharaoh’s orders, so he subsequently ordered that all male Hebrew babies should be cast into the Nile River.
Moses’ mother gave birth to Moses, but she couldn’t bring herself to drown him in the Nile. So she hid him as long as she could, then she sent him floating down the Nile in a basket. She sent Moses’ sister to follow the basket on the shoreline to see what would become of him. As luck would have it, Pharaoh’s own daughter found the basket and wanted to keep the baby for herself. Moses’ own mother was commissioned to nurse him and when he came of age he went to live in Pharaoh’s house as Pharaoh’s adopted grandson.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Moses knew something of his roots. As a young man, he saw the suffering of his people and he was filled with compassion. When he stumbled upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he put a stop to it. He killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand. The next day, when he tried to stop two Hebrew slaves from fighting, one of them said to him, “Who made you a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses knew his deed had become public knowledge. Thus, he fled from Egypt and landed in a place called Midian. After rescuing the daughters of the priest of Midian from marauding shepherds, he settled in Midian and married one of the priest’s daughters. He became a shepherd himself. He had a wife and a family. Egypt was now but a blip on the radar screen of his life.
One day, as Moses was minding his own business, leading his flock of sheep, he noticed a burning bush. The bush seemed to be on fire, but somehow it was not consumed. When he turned aside to see that great sight, the voice of God cried out to him, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses did the only thing he could. He answered the call of the burning bush.
God was calling Moses to do a great thing for him. He wanted Moses to go back to Egypt and say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” Moses was a murderer. He was literally a fugitive from justice. Yet perhaps there were two sides to Moses as well. Perhaps God saw in Moses what he could become. He knew what Moses could accomplish if he would but set his mind to it, and trust God to help him along the way. The trick here, however, would be convincing Moses of it first.
God said to Moses, “I have seen the suffering of my people, Israel. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” To which Moses replied, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out?” God said, “I will be with you. And this shall be the sign for you, when you have brought my people out of Egypt. You shall worship God on this mountain.”
Moses replied, “So I say to the Israelites, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what will I say to them then?” So God told Moses what to say. “Say, ‘I Am who I Am. I Am has sent me to you.’” To which Moses replied, “But what if they don’t believe me? What am I supposed to do then?” Then God showed Moses how to turn his staff into a serpent and how to make his hand become leprous. To which Moses replied, “But I don’t speak so good. Don’t you think someone else could do a better job?” Why it almost sounds like a church nominating committee trying to recruit deacons and elders, does it not? Moses came up with one lame excuse after another. It’s an absolute wonder that God stuck with him.
Eventually Moses acquiesced. He went into Egypt and faced down Pharaoh. Imagine the courage that must have taken. Pharaoh knew Moses had killed one of his subjects. Moses was literally walking into a lion’s den. Ten times Moses spoke God’s word to Pharaoh: “Let my people go.” And ten times Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he would not let God’s people go. So ten times God sent plagues upon Egypt. After the last plague – the angel of death who took all of Egypt’s first-born sons – Pharaoh relented. Then he changed his mind again. When the Hebrew people were up against the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s chariots came charging after them. And that’s when God parted the Red Sea. The Hebrew people passed safely to the other side, while Pharaoh’s army was swallowed up by the sea.
Now you would think that such a dramatic rescue would convince the Hebrew people that their God was a God who could be trusted. Their God was a God who could do anything. Yet once they were in the wilderness, they did nothing but complain. They complained when they had no water, so God brought forth water from a rock. They complained when they had no food, so God sent bread from heaven. They complained when they grew tired of bread, so God sent quails that they might have meat. Then what did they do when Moses was atop Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments? They built a calf out of gold and said, “This is your god, O Israel; the god who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
The Hebrew people spent the next forty years wandering in the wilderness. The trip from
Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken closer to forty days than forty years. Why did they wander for forty years? It has been suggested that Moses was a man. And being a man, he refused to stop and ask directions! Now that may very well be, but I think there might be a little more to this story than that.
The Hebrew people, led by Moses, wandered in the wilderness for forty years. And in those forty years, they were utterly dependent upon God. They relied upon God for food. They relied upon God for water. They relied upon God for protection and they relied upon God for guidance. They were literally being shaped into the people of God. And what happened to Moses in the end? He climbed atop Mount Nebo and looked upon the Promised Land. And there it was that he died. He led his people for forty years in the wilderness, but he never set foot in the Promised Land himself.
What does that mean? For years my answer was always this: It’s the journey that counts, not the destination. And that’s a good answer, I suppose. But when it comes to Moses living out the Jesus Way, I think there just might be another answer as well. Moses fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. And once he fulfilled God’s purpose for his life, he was granted rest from his labors.
The message here is clear. God has a purpose for our lives as well. We need to discern that purpose and do our best to fulfill it. But here’s the catch. There may be more than one purpose to our lives. And once we fulfill one purpose, we would be wise to look for the next one.
Of all people, Conan O’Brien has a marvelous take on that in a speech he recently delivered
to the Class of 2011 at Dartmouth. Now I’m no Conan O’Brien fan. I don’t think I get his brand of humor. That aside, listen to what he had to say. O’Brien said:
Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One’s dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course. This happens in every job, but because I have worked in comedy for 25 years, I can probably speak best about my own profession.
Way back in the 1940s, there was a very funny man named Jack Benny. He was a giant star, easily one of the greatest comedians of his generation. And a much younger man named Johnny Carson wanted very much to be Jack Benny. In some ways he was, but in many ways he wasn’t. He emulated Jack Benny, but his own quirks and mannerisms, along with a changing medium, pulled him in a different direction. And yet his failure to completely become his hero made him the funniest person of his generation.
David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson, and was not, and as a result my generation of comedians wanted to be David Letterman. And none of us are. My peers and I have all missed that mark in a thousand different ways. But the point is this: It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention…Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.
Now Conan O’Brien was talking about fulfilling one’s dreams. I’ve been talking about fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. But the point remains the same. You may sense God’s purpose for your life changing as well. And that’s okay. Keep searching for God’s purpose for your life every day. Live it out as best you can, and when you fulfill one purpose, start looking for the next one. The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life. A part of the Jesus way has to do with fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. Once Moses did so, his life came to an end. If we fail to do so, perhaps our lives will never even begin. Amen.
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