Song: My Lord Did Trouble Me | Voting Rights Walk |

Friends,

I'm in Denver for a work retreat. I guess I think the routine is take risks, and then take rest. Repeat!

-Liz

Who am I in relation to God?

I love the story of the burning bush. It is full of interesting language and has prompted all sorts of word studies. Who is God we ask of this text? What does God's name tell us about who is God?

But today I want to look at Moses. Somehow this encounter with God is what sends him back to the land of his birth. After this meeting with God Moses effectively risks his livelihood, his relationships, and his life, to face the Pharaoh who has enslaved his community.

Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:10-12

The most important question for Moses is not "who is God" but rather, who am I, now that I have heard from God?

God's directions to Moses seem much more direct and clear than the directions God gives to me. I have only a vague feeling, a summary of what I have studied of biblical texts, a gut sense of what is needed to create what is right in the world. Moses has a mandate: bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

Although you have to admit, that is a pretty big project and there are not many details in the original plan. Still God calls Moses, and Moses responds. What he has as support is simply this: God says "I will be with you."

This lectionary text is paired with the Matthew story because Jesus instructions are the same:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? Matthew 16:24-26

What good is it for Moses to farm the land outside the city when his people are slaves inside the city. What good is it for me stay safe when my neighbors are being arrested simply for being immigrants, when pregnant and trans people are denied their rights to make their own healthcare choices, when medicare, snap, and disability payments are being cut? I cannot solve all of these problems, but I cannot ignore them, either. I feel clarity in the message that I am sent into the danger. That we are sent.

The work to create a common good requires that I prioritize the safety of the community. That I be willing to take risks for the good of the community. That I risk embarrassment, shame, being late with a work task, perhaps risk my life for the good of the world.

Which is easy for me to write here in a blog. It is much harder to do!

There is the risk of a protest, the risk of a parade. The risk to stand by kids trying to go to school. The risk of a phone call or a letter to an elected official. The risk of a sermon, a bible study, of showing up as a church to a local event. Dr. King took a risk to keep speaking even as there were threats against his life. Blue hats take a risk to keep peace, and soldiers take risks to protect schools and museums.

And there are smaller sacrifices that we see all the time - a parent who adjusts career and life choices for the sake of a child, choosing to care for a friend or a parent who is ill.

God is speaking from a burning bush. God offers hard news, and only the promise that they will be with us. We are being called to act. To be a church that responds to the needs of the world, now.
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What risks is your church taking? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.

A group of many organizations together is walking 1000 miles to Memphis in support of voting rights. Read about this movement. (If it asks you to subscribe you can click below to read the article first.)

Susan Werner has a gospel album for agnostics, but some of her songs really speak to my faith. Here is My Lord Did Trouble Me (4:36).

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