Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost (A) 2017

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Exodus 33:19
Theme: Moses and God’s Glory

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

We cannot escape the deepest need of the human soul. It is the need to have direct knowledge of God. Did not even the greatest saints have doubts? Moses asked to see the Lord’s glory. Moses wanted to know. It was a genuine human desire. The disciples wanted to know too. They enquired of Jesus. Philip expressed it in John chapter 14. Phillip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."1 And what does Jesus say? “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.”2 Moses was given a similar answer. The Spirit makes the Father known only through the Son.

Direct knowledge of God does await all the faithful. It will be the ultimate reward of faith. But, dear friends, if the imminent presence of God was immediately tangible to us at all times, if we could experience God just as empirically as we do conversing with a friend or eating a meal, there would be no need for faith. One day this will be the case. Perhaps Enoch possessed a faith so exceptionally strong that there was little difference between his experience on earth and his rapture to heaven. “What does the Scripture say, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”3 So close was Enoch’s journey with God that God spared him from death.

But for now- and for the rest of us, God clothes Himself in human attire. He hides Himself in created things. The redeeming God is not a God who normally smashes networks of evil, and demolishes the agendas of Satan through supernatural or cosmic displays of His authority. Yes, He has this power. He can collapse the universe in an instant. He can topple nations and rulers by brute force. He chooses, instead, to abolish the darkness of sin through humility. He submitted to death to spare us of everlasting separation. He shows His strength in gentleness. He clothes Himself in words of forgiveness, in baptismal water and in bread and wine. He handles sin and its consequence in this manner.

Us mortals tend to handle sin in a different way; either we try to justify it, or we try to hide it. In trying to justify it we seek to convince God, ourselves and other people that it was unavoidable or of no serious consequence. In trying to conceal it we naively think that if other people are unaware, that God hasn’t noticed either. Even if we understand intellectually that God does know, we often have no evidence that we are under judgment because of it. In effect, we give ourselves license to keep on sinning. This is a dangerous deception. The Bible says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”4 God knows us better than we know ourselves. In short, we should not try to fool anyone. The call to repentance involves just such integrity. The words of the Spirit are clear, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”5

Moses deeply desired to know God’s truth and to do His will. The following of God’s will involves a continual refining of our faith and sanctifying of our lives. What we want isn’t always what we need. God redirects our ambitions and our desires for the well-being of our souls and the benefit of others. In doing so our faith is tested. God even allows temptations and through them builds our character and perseverance. Yet in doing so God never deserts us. Commenting on the rebellious actions of the Israelites, St. Paul says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”6

Dear friends, the way out, the way through, and the way in is Jesus. He is the only object of our faith. The Scripture says, “…through faith [we] are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”7 We are justified before God, declared righteous, only by grace, for Christ’s sake, received through faith. Our worthiness is found in Christ alone. This glorious good news is the heritage of the Reformation. Convictions have consequences. Beliefs have repercussions. This truth is worth dying for. Without it all hope would be lost.

From a worldly standpoint, faith takes the ultimate risk. It involves putting all one’s eggs in the same basket. Christians put all their hope in Jesus Christ. For unbelievers this is not only a risk, it is a waste of time. But for us it is a preview of eternity. Christ not only served us from the cross, He continues to serve us from the heavenly throne. We are baptized into His inheritance. We dine at His royal table, receiving the bread and wine of immortality. Now we can serve because we have been served. We can give because we have been given to. We can sacrifice because we have been sacrificed for. We can love because we have been loved.

Many people, even Christians, miss the crux of who God is when they see Him as a Sovereign who primarily wants peoples’ praise and allegiance- as if to build His ego.
It is both interesting and important to note that in His earthly ministry Jesus never commands people to worship Him. He never says, “Bow down to Me.” Rather He states plainly who He is and leads people to understand the conclusion. He rebukes unbelievers, He comforts repentant sinners, He demands strict obedience; but He never commands people to fall on their knees before Him. That will be reserved for the final judgment. God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. God does not delight in people who bow down to Him out of fear or merely honour His name in hopes of gaining some favour from Him. He delights in those who trust that He is good and gracious and follow His will because they believe He has their best interest in mind. We worship the triune God as revealed in Jesus Christ because we see through the eyes of faith a God who loves us at all costs, a God who is eternally faithful and fulfills His promises. Our faith is in the living God who desires to share life with His people.

We’re not as far removed from the circumstances of Moses as we may think. Moses, too, would have to wait for the Messiah to see the glory of God. He asked God, “How shall it be known that I have found favour in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?"8 God said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." 9 It’s hard to ask for a better promise than that! Christ is God’s presence among us. In Him all of our needs are met and our rest will be eternal! Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
22 October 2017
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 John 14:8 2 John 14:9
3 Genesis 5:24 4 Hebrews 13:4
5 1 John 1:8 6 1 Corinthians 10:11-13
7 1 Peter 1:5 8 Exodus 33:16
9 Exodus 33:14