Go Down, Moses

Proper 23B; Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Mark 10:17-31; St. Paul’s, Smithfield

October 11, 2015Jim Melnyk: “Go Down, Moses”

When Israel was in Egypt land,
Let My people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go.

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;
Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go (LEVAS II, 228).

Thus began Bishop Michael Bruce Curry’s final sermon to the clergy of our Diocese at our final Clergy Conference together.  The powerful words of “Go down Moses,” joined in by all the clergy of the Diocese, reverberated throughout the nave of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, and echoed the words of our Old Testament lesson for that day – God’s call of Moses by the burning bush – the call for Moses to go back to Egypt, the call for Moses to challenge Pharaoh, and lead God’s people to freedom.  “Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land; tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.”

           

If we were challenged to come up with a list of Top Ten things you might hear in a Michael Curry sermon the number one thing would probably be “GO!”  As we heard last week – we are a journeying people – we are a pilgrim people.  We are called into relationship with God and then we are sent out to proclaim the life-changing, liberating, message of the God who loves us and gives us life. 

Moses tries just about every trick in the book to get out of following God’s call – a clarion call of freedom for the Hebrews held so long in slavery.  God sends Moses to stand against the power of Egypt and lead an oppressed, captive, people free.

           

That same call by God is heard centuries later by the prophet Amos, who watches as the political-religious leadership of the nation does their best to imitate Pharaoh at his worst.  “Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground! They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine” (Amos 5:7, 10-11).  

Amos isn’t talking to Egypt’s Pharaoh, but rather to the Northern Kingdom’s latest incarnation of Empire.  But make no mistake; it is as dangerous for Amos to proclaim a Word of God against King Jeroboam II as it was for Moses to stand against Pharaoh – and speaking a word of prophecy to Jeroboam certainly isn’t something Amos aspires to if we read further in the book that bears his name.  When challenged by one of the priests of Bethel Amos proclaims, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (7:14-15).  But Lord, I have a job.  I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamores – and I’m rather good at it!  I hear what you’re saying, Amos.  Now go!

I doubt there has ever been a time when those in power – especially those who abuse the power they have – when those in power welcome a word that challenges their status and the actions of their lives.

And what a word Amos speaks!  “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you…. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate…” (Amos 5:14-15).

Hate evil…love good…establish justice.  Amos goes where he is sent and speaks a word of challenge to a world of power – with a hope that the leadership of the Northern Kingdom might change their way of being – might change the way they treat their people – while the armies of Assyria sit brooding to the east.  Jeroboam and those who follow him ignore what Amos proclaims and the Northern Kingdom falls.  “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate….”  Something as simple as caring for all God’s people; and the leaders of the Northern Kingdom fail the test.

The Word of God spoken by Amos was a challenge in the eighth century before Christ – and it’s no less challenging today.  His words are words of discomfort spoken in a modern day world of affluence – and I daresay most of us, if we are paying close attention to the words, feel very comfortable saying “Thanks be to God” as the lesson comes to a close.

Enter Jesus and the man with many possessions and we find the lectionary framers continuing the challenge begun with Amos.  “Good teacher,” he asks Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  I find the response by Jesus quite interesting.  Jesus responds with the portion of the Ten Commandments focused on how the people of God are to relate to one another – with commentary on how human beings are to order our common lives.  We can only conclude that the first section of the Ten Commandments – the section that deals with our absolute love for God – was simply presupposed – a given.  We find that the questioner is a good man. 

He has kept these commandments of God – he has kept this Torah teaching ever since his youth.

Mark tells us that Jesus looks at the man, and loves him – and these are powerful words because we don’t come across such a reaction by Jesus very often in the gospels.    Then comes the kicker – then comes the challenge to “go!”  “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor – you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, and follow me,” says Jesus (Mark 10:21).  Oh, how the command of God – how the command of Jesus – to go can be so difficult for us!  Our story tells us that the man went away grieving, for he had many possessions.  And we cannot help but wonder how much the struggling man’s response grieved Jesus. 

So, this is where the preacher makes the obligatory statement about how Jesus doesn’t demand that we all sell everything that we own and give it to the poor, and that Jesus doesn’t have anything against those of us who have so many possessions in our lives. 

But Jesus does say to his disciples “how difficult it is for those with many possessions, with wealth, to enter the kingdom of God. [Not because we are wealthy, but because of the way] wealth and its trappings can obscure our view – [can obscure] our understanding of God’s kingdom and how the challenge to overcome our possessions can become a reality for us and for those around us. Possessions have such great power in Jesus’ time and certainly, certainly have power in ours” (Lorraine Ljunggren).

What gets in our way of living out the relationships in this world that God calls us to honor?  It might very well be our possessions – it might very well be our wealth that gets in the way.  It might be our attitudes towards those who differ most from us – whatever that perceived difference may be – that gets in the way.  It might be our need to feel comfortable and safe.  It might be our need to feel in control – to be in control – of our lives.  Where are you challenged?

“The wealthy man in the Gospel story asks about life beyond this one, but Jesus turns the focus to life in the here and now. It is in the here and now that we first experience the kingdom of God which is eternal in some way we can’t yet comprehend. God will take care of the eternal piece. We’re to take care of the temporal piece.

Amos wants the people of the Northern Kingdom to hate evil – to love that which is good – and to establish justice in the here and now. The Prophet’s voice rings across time calling us to the same transformative work” in our present time (Lorraine Ljunggren).  And God’s call to both – to Amos and to the man who approaches Jesus – each begins with the challenging command to “go!”

The current Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, the Very Rev. Gary Hall, wrote recently, “The Jesus movement is one with social and cosmic implications. What Jesus is up to tells us something about the beating heart of the universe.

The kind of love and justice and compassion we see both in and around Jesus show us the final truths about God and us. Signing on to follow Jesus means committing oneself to heal and bless and change not only [one’s self] but the world” (Gary R. Hall, “Following Jesus will always be a minority enterprise,” 8/23/15). 

Some seventy years earlier Anne Frank, a young woman forced into hiding and eventually killed by the Nazis, wrote: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” (Synthesis Today, October 8).

As God went with Moses and Amos, and as God went with Jesus and I believe went with his struggling, would-be follower, God will go with us.

When Israel was in Egypt land,
Let My people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go.

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go (LEVAS II, 228).