A Presumptuous People, October 12, 2008

Exodus 32:1-14
Matthew 22:1-14
We are a PRESUMPTUOUS people, filled and pre-occupied with our own anxieties.
Would that we could be the people we envision ourselves to be: Joyful, Faithful, Ethical, Moral, Just, acting to follow through on clear priorities... However, Jesus aptly names that when Called, we have other things to do. The parable describes that among those called, the first is a wealthy land-owner who claims “I have just bought a piece of property and must go inspect what I have bought. The point is not that he bought land sight unseen, but that having bought this land, he wanted to go stand in the middle of his possession and see all that was his. He wanted to walk up and down upon it and take pride that all this was his and his alone. He could not be distracted by a responsibility, even to the King.
The second is a business man who claims to have recently purchased ten pair of oxen and he wants to try them out. The point is not that the fields need to be plowed, not that the oxen are in any danger, but simply that he has bought ten pair of oxen, and like our having a fleet of new cars, he cannot be content until he has driven each, he wanted to touch them, put them into service, he wanted to witness what profit they could provide for him. He could not be distracted by a commitment even to their King.
The third professes, I just got married myself, ignoring that he could have brought his bride to share the honor of attending the King's son's Wedding, ignoring that he could have understood how important this was by having himself gotten married, ignoring this could have blessed his marriage, he wanted to be alone. He saw his priorities foremost. He could not be distracted by an obligation even to the King.

We put our own wants ahead of the world's needs, our demonstration of free will ahead of God's plan. It is the middle of October in Central New York, we have a National Holiday celebrating the discovery of our Continent by Western Europeans over 400 years ago, and on this weekend off the temperature is going to be 75 degrees. Some of us, cannot wait for the first snow, others want to return to mid-summer when the weather was not as beautiful in our eyes as the Autumn has become. Still others, want to hold this moment in time, preserving the color of the leaves, the smells, sound of geese, failing to recognize that the smell is of decay, color the change brought by the trees withdrawing moisture into their roots, flocks preparing to fly.

The Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, even Computerization, each were attempts to equalize all humanity, that with public education, with access to information and technology, the human condition would be improved. In so many ways our circumstance has been improved. We now live in a time where quality health care is described as both a basic Human Right and a Moral Responsibility, rather than a privilege of the aristocracy, or an obligation of the State. Where access to owning a home has been perceived as a right all in our nation could attain. Where education is perceived as not only available, but essential. Where technology has made things available cheaper, faster and smaller than ever before. But with all this we do enjoy, we still are human, like two year olds we still want more and we want what we want when we want. Binding our anxiety, we presume to demand our fulfillment of our desires, hurrying up life, foolishly trying to get it over with.

This is the story of God's creation of the Garden of Eden and The Fall of Adam and Eve, all over again. God had saved the people. God brought them out of slavery and oppression into nature's wilderness, which the people presumed to be AN EXILE. God fed the people and gave them water, God gave the people the LAW and Commandments, which the people did not have to, but freely accepted. The Covenant was cut, offerings were made, the smell of the burnt cereal offerings filled their nostrils, the blood of the sacrifice of ten bulls was sprinkled on the people to seal them in God's Covenant. In the intervening 12 chapters, between Chapter 20 where they receive the 10 Commandments and 32 which we read this day, Moses went up Mount Sinai where God planned and specified in great detail what the Ark of the Covenant would look like, how the Tent of meeting was to be adorned, how the Tabernacle was to be filled with music, all to inspire the people with awe. The purpose of worship was not to be an obligation, not a tax paid to the gods for fertility, pleading for blessings, or changing the economy to benefit our portfolio. God's desire was for the people to be in relationship with God to co-create a Tabernacle and Tent and Ark representative of the Covenant Relationship God had made to this people setting them apart for all history, setting them apart from all others, saving them and preserving them throughout generations. BUT Moses was gone too long. The people became anxious for leadership. The people were idle, and they wanted to do something with their anxiety, so with the blessing of Aaron the idle people made an IDOL of Gold. Inso doing, just as the first humans ate of the FRUIT God commanded not to eat, this people broke the commandment to have no other Gods.

How often, when we are anxious, depressed, filled with fears and blah, we try to fill that void with something gold, something that sparkles, that is new, tangible, malleable, able to be owned and controlled. But that chocolate, the land we own and possess, the oxen and cars and tools of production, do not satisfy.

God had planned to co-create a relationship that would inspire. God had planned that worship like a fine feast would be planned and simmered, developed and nurtured for the people to find fulfillment. The people wanted to have something that would fill the void. Something they could point to when anxious and follow the ritual of their making to that which they owned and possessed, and having paid the duty, having fulfilled their obligation, all would instantly be right with the world. Mom could kiss the boo-boo and make everything right. Dad could repair the broken toy as good as new.

The struggle of God and Moses, the struggle we each encounter, was what to do when the covenant is broken. God's response is “LET ME BE ALONE” so as to get even with this people. God is not simply going to let the people that God saved go after idols of their own making. God is not simply going to kill and destroy. God had created this people, like the act of creation itself, so God would plunge them into primordial chaos. AND MOSES, this man of faith, says “NO LORD”. God says “Do not worry, I will make a great nation out of you, I promised this to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who was renamed Israel, long ago, I promise this to you as as a person of faith as well.” And Moses says “NO GOD.
You are a Rational, Reasoning God, and this is a teachable moment, not a time for vengeance.
Your Reputation with other Nations, with all the world, is on the line, if you do this, no one is going to remember the people broke covenant and made a golden idol. The people will recall God set them free and killed them.
Repent God, and allow the people to repent. And Moses recounts for God the story of faith, the story of Abraham and Isaac and Israel. And this Nation called Israel, as well.” Then Moses came down the mountain to call the people to also repent. Throughout time, we have described God as UnChanging, what we mean by that is that GOD'S COMMITMENT, GOD'S FAITH and COVENANT IS, though God can repent, forgive, choose to enter in and make a difference.

How rarely do we as people of faith do what Moses did! Rather than inventorying our assets. Rather than counting our accomplishments, or going off to be alone. Rather than checking and repositioning our portfolios. To stop, to recall the “spiritual” moments in our lives, to retell our stories of faith.

I recall about three years ago, going along with the Boy Scouts as an Advisor as they climbed the Presidential Range of the Appalachian Trail of the White Mountains. We began the hike, and the mountains became taller and taller when suddenly it occurred to me that these boys were seventeen year olds and I was middle aged. That first day, I convinced myself that all I had to do was survive, keeping up, until we got to the camp that night, and I would not have embarrassed my son, so I could hike down the following day. When midmorning we reached a plateau and looked out over the 50 miles of mountains we would be hiking, I recognized there was no way down, all we could do was trust God and trust one another to get us through this journey.

I recall a weekend about two years ago, when we had a wedding planned for a Saturday afternoon, and during the week there was a death of another family. What none of us could have anticipated, God's sense of humor, was that the mother of the Bride and the daughter of the deceased were best friends, so that morning the mother of the Bride sat with her best friend and consoled her at her loss, and that afternoon the daughter of the deceased sat beside the Mother of the Bride proudly watching the daughter they had raised together walk up the aisle.

There was a man who was very angry at life. He used to throw things and swear, lose his temper and spit on people. One day a friend sat down with him and said “What's wrong with you hat you do this?” He responded that he acted out this way at Church, because they Church preaches forgiveness, so no matter what he did, people had to forgive him. His friend told a different story, that when he had been very young his mother had died, and the whole church took responsibility to love and care and act as mother for a mother-less child. Rather than a place that had to forgive, this was a people who demonstrated love and commitment and faith.

The question is not, is there brokenness in the world. There is. The question is whether we bind our anxiety to shiny objects filled with empty calories that entertain us to death, or whether we see these as faith stories, examples of God in our midst and we change.

Realize, it is not enough, simply to be baptized, to have once long ago claimed a relationship of faith. The parable of the Wedding Garment is that the King invited everyone, good and bad. When the King entered the Banquet Hall, the ing saw one who had not prepared for a Wedding Feast, but who had simply come for a free meal. Elsewhere, those who were caught recognized their wrong and prayed for the opportunity to change. This one did not, he could see nothing other than his own hunger and desire.