St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church

Sermon by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Lent 3 March 11, 2007 Exodus 3:1f

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 desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in the flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 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.” Do not come any closer, God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 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. 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. 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 a spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—“

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

It was really nasty outside—a week ago—Friday! It was cold and windy. There was this frozen stuff falling out of the sky—kind of snow—kind of sleet—kind of rain—kind of blowing sideways. It was just plain nasty! I was sitting at the stoplight—by Kwik-Trip waiting for the light to change—when I caught sight of a really big guy—jumping out of his car and running towards me. You know how you have this very quick argument in your head—fight or flight? I decided in about 2 seconds—no—I could not take this guy! He had this funny sort of smile on his face. He stopped—reached out—took the little gas cap that was dangling—and cranked it in. Then pushed the little door shut and ran back to jump into his car! I thought to my self—wow! Would I have done that—jumped out of my car in this freezing rain—to fix the gas cap of someone in front of me? I’m pretty sure if I would have seen someone’s gas cap loose I would have thought to myself—what a loser! And sat—exceedingly smug in my car with the seat warmer! Shame on me—again! This morning God’s Word is again law and gospel. There is a German word—“immer” which is I think perfect. It means always—now and forever—default—always! God’s Word is immer law and gospel! It is because of God’s grace that God’s Word is rightly divided—law and gospel. How great is the love of our Heavenly Father—that he does not just look down from heaven on us in our self-inflicted pitiful situation and shake his head. Instead he sends his one and only Son to rescue us from sin and all its deadly consequences.

Today God’s Word encourages us: Let Us Take Off Our Sandals

I. Let us kneel in awe in the presence of the LORD.

2. Let us worship our forever Deliverer!

The story of Moses begins during painfully difficult times for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel. For a time people throughout Egypt were thankful for Joseph—the son of Israel—who understood about 7 years of plenty—followed by 7 years of drought and famine. Store up food during the years of plenty—and there would be plenty of food not only for Egypt—but for people from everywhere! But then there came a time when people didn’t remember Joseph any more. “Look,” he (the Pharaoh) said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor…but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly. Exodus 1:8-14 Oppressed---ruthlessly—bitter—hard—ruthlessly--paint a painful picture! The children of Israel cried out to the LORD. It got so bad—the Egyptians were throwing little baby boys into the Nile River to drown them. That’s when little baby Moses was born. You know the story. For three months his parents hid him—but when they couldn’t hide him any longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister Miriam kept watch. The LORD made it so that the daughter of the Pharaoh found Moses—sent him home to his birth mom to be nursed—then moved him into the palace—to grow up—learning the wisdom of Egypt. By the grace of God—Moses grew up—remembering that he was a child of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses remembered he was a member of the people of the promise of the Lamb of God—who would take away the sins of the world. Moses—when he was young didn’t understand that he needed to wait for the LORD’s time—to lead God’s people. He learned the hard way—lashing out in such physical violence that he killed an Egyptian slave driver. And had to run when his foster father Pharaoh wanted him dead. And Moses learned from the burning bush—that now was the time—to tell the mighty Pharaoh—this is what the LORD says—let my people go!

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in the flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” The angel of the LORD—is not simply an angel—a messenger created by God—to serve God and help people. The angel of the LORD is God himself—the Son of God in Old Testament times—come to help his people! What amazing grace is this—that God himself should be so merciful as to come and talk to one of his lowly creatures! Rather than squishing Moses like an annoying little bug—the LORD calls Moses to be his worker—to lead his people from painful slavery to freedom!

When the LORD saw that he (Moses) had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Do not come any closer, God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 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. Moses was no longer living in the palace of the Pharaoh. He was a shepherd—in his work clothes—smelling of sweat and sheep—with soil and sand between his toes—with sheep raisins on the bottom of his sandals. His hands were calloused and dirty—his hair greasy and wind blown—his beard long and scraggly. And suddenly he was in the presence of his Heavenly Father! Moses fell—literally fell to his knees on the ground—his face buried in his hands and the rocky ground—because he was afraid to look at God! Do we have that respect for our Heavenly Father? We can learn that respect when we are very little people—who come to church—when we come to church all the time—Sunday after Sunday after Sunday—Wednesday after Wednesday after Wednesday in Lent and Advent. We learn that respect when we are little people—when we go to the bathroom just before Church begins—so that we don’t have to go to the bathroom during church. We show respect when we are young people and come to church with our friends—and pay respectful attention to God’s Word—instead of visiting and messing around. We show respect by going to sleep maybe even a little early on Saturday night—instead of staying up past midnight or one or two Saturday night—and then wonder why we are sleepy in Church. We show respect for God and his Word by literally being on our knees at the communion rail—again and again. We show respect by wearing our best to Church. It doesn’t need to be a tailor made Armani suit. It doesn’t need to be a $50 dollar silk tie. But we show respect for our Heavenly Father by wearing the best we have—by wearing modest clothes that are never too small, too tight, too short, too thin, too anything!

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… It wasn’t easy being an Israeli—living in Egypt—being mistreated, used and abused. It isn’t easy living in our world today either! We live in a world. We live in a country where people seem more and more concerned about themselves—what pleases them—what they want—and how angry they become when anyone or any thing gets in their way. While I think it’s true that life has been frustrating—ever since Adam and Eve tasted poisoned fruit in Eden. It seems that people have become increasingly violent—when things don’t go their way. There was a professional basketball game the other day. With literally seconds to go in the game—the officials called a foul—two free shots—which would be just enough to tie—to tie the game. The coach of the team penalized screamed—hollered—waved his arms—and literally ran out onto the court! That’s very obviously against the rules. A technical foul was called. Plunk! Plunk! Plunk! In go three free shots. You lose! You lose not only the game—but because you lost your temper you lose the respect of everyone watching! And far worse than all of that—is the fact you sinned! That’s wrong because God says it’s wrong! People have ever since the invention of the automobile—been bad drivers—rude and inconsiderate drivers. Ever since there was more than one car on the road—there have been drivers who cut other drivers off. And while it is certainly not pleasant to have someone drive around you on the shoulder—then cut in front of you—we now live in a world where the irritated person will throw a cup full of ice or worse into your car—or perhaps roll down their window and literally shoot you! I will be the first to admit it used to bother me greatly when people in the 13 item or less check out lane would have 14 items—and I think it was a thoughtful person who made up the new signs that say about/some what near/pretty close to 20 items or less on the sign. But it has always been a fact that if a person goes through the quickie lane with a whole load of groceries—it isn’t right to look at them with snake eyes—or to shout obscenities at them—or to literally sock them in the nose so hard it bleeds! This is wrong! And we are no better than the cruel Egyptian slave drivers if we become physically violent when things don’t go our way!

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 a spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— The LORD sent Moses—to rescue about a million people from sore bondage and slavery in Egypt. Our Heavenly Father sent his one and only Son—to pay for the sins of the whole wide world! A little princess was born this past week in Morocco. Did you know that? The King of Morocco had a baby daughter—born this week. And the King was so happy—that he pardoned or reduced the prison sentences of some 33,054 prisoners. This was the largest pardon ever issued in the history of that kingdom. Almost 9,000 will be set free and over 24,000 had their sentences reduced. Some of these prisoners had chronic illnesses or physical handicaps. Some were very old. Some were people with a baby in their tummy or children at home. Some were people from other countries. So—the King—trying to show noble values—has let go about half of the people in his prisons. As wonderful as that might be—it pales to insignificance—compared to what Jesus did. Jesus took our place—and suffered the punishment we deserved. Jesus died in our place—so that every sin of every person in the whole wide world—might be forgiven! That’s Jesus’ forgiving love—for everyone everywhere!

The LORD would come to bring them up out of that land into a good a spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— The LORD—the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel—came down to rescue his people from Egypt. The Lord Jesus came down from heaven to rescue us from sin and guilt—from the eternal destruction we deserve because of our sin! There was a terrible fire this past week in New York—in the Bronx. Some 21 people lived in a three story brick home built about 106 years ago. There was a terrible fire—they don’t know for sure why. Maybe it was a space heater up against an old mattress. Maybe it was one of those power strips—where you plug in a whole bunch of things—that was overloaded—and overheated—and burst into flames. It was a terrible fire. People stood outside—helpless to put out the fire—when out of the smoke and flames and dust—came in a little bundle—a baby tossed by her mommy through a broken window. A man named Edward caught the baby. It wasn’t long—before through the smoke and dust came a second bundle—another little baby. Edward caught that one too. Now—if you were the mommy—or better yet—if you were one of those babies—what would you do? I would imagine you would want to know that Edward’s last name is Soto—Ed Soto. I would imagine you would want to know where Ed lives. You would want to know Ed’s favorite kind of cookies—his favorite kind of cake—his favorite kind of ice cream—his favorite everything! Then—wouldn’t you want to spend all your free time and more—doing nice things to Edward? Wouldn’t you make it your mission in life—to show appreciation to Edward again and again—because he saved your life? The lives Edward saved—he saved for what? Some 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 years? Jesus came to save us for eternity. The human mind can’t wrap itself around eternity—can it? How do you understand forever and forever? That’s how long we will be with Jesus in Heaven. Perhaps not so much timelessness—but endless time—time that passes—and never stops. When God made creation—before there was sin—there was time—planets in such a place—planets in motion so that there are days, weeks, months and years. There are seasons—winter, spring, summer and fall. There is the passage of time—day and evening. One day—by grace alone—we will be home in heaven—where the grace and goodness of God will never ever end. Even so—come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz