The Presence of the Lord

 Exodus 33:12-23 (CEB)

Moses said to the Lord, “Look, You’ve been telling me, ‘Lead these people forward.’ But You haven’t told me whom You will send with me. Yet You’ve assured me, ‘I know you by name and think highly of you.’ Now if You do think highly of me, show me Your ways so that I may know You and so that You may really approve of me. Remember too that this nation is Your people.”

The Lord replied, “I’ll go Myself, and I’ll help You.”

Moses replied, “If You won’t go Yourself, don’t make us leave here. Because how will anyone know that we have Your special approval, both I and Your people, unless You go with us? Only that distinguishes us, me and Your people, from every other people on the earth.”

The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll do exactly what you’ve asked because You have my special approval, and I know You by name.”

Moses said, “Please show me Your glorious presence.”

The Lord said, “I’ll make all My goodness pass in front of you, and I’ll proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord.’ I will be kind to whomever I wish to be kind, and I will have compassion to whomever I wish to be compassionate. But,” the Lord said, “you can’t see my face because no one can see me and live.” The Lord said, “Here is a place near me where you will stand beside the rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I’ll set you in a gap in the rock, and I’ll cover you with My hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face won’t be visible.”

Matthew 22:15-22 (NRSV)

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Him in what He said. So they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that You are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for You do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought Him a denarius. Then He said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then He said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left Him and went away.

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. As you can see, the hallway and fellowship hall tiles are being replaced. It was quite noisy and dusty last Friday and Saturday, and some kind of chemical smell was giving me headaches. This week is the fall break in Lebanon schools, including Harney Elementary where Samuel goes. So I also got a Study Leave to stay with Samuel. Speaking of Harney school, a few weeks ago, I got a message from the school to attend PTO meeting. I didn’t know what that was, so I googled it and my cell phone said PTO is Paid Time Off, and I got more confused—Am I to discuss the teacher’s Paid Time Off? Well, now I know that PTO here means Parent-Teacher-Organisation. You know, there are too many abbreviations in English, sometimes unnecessary. In my first year in Canada, I met a guy while waiting forever at DMV and we had a good talk, then the topic changed to education. And that guy said, “I have B.S. degree.” I didn’t know what that is, and I again looked that up. That time, I did not have a smart phone, but I had a small portable dictionary from Casio. The dictionary said, B.S. as in cow manure. So I replied to him, “There is a degree for that? And you are proud of it? Well, I don’t have that degree, and I am actually glad that I don’t.” When I was a hospital chaplain, I had access to patients’ charts, and I found that doctors writing SOB in the chart. One day I told some of the doctors, “Hey, I know those patients are not behaving, but you cannot write SOB in the charts.” Then I was told that SOB means ‘Shortness of Breath.’ What can I say? I am not a big fan of English abbreviations. Anyway next Sunday, I will not preach. But you will have something far better. Scott Hutcheson will do the Reformation monologue since next Sunday is Reformation Sunday. I heard that he did it before and it was wonderful. So I am looking forward to it. Halloween is coming soon but it is Reformation Day to us. And there are not much difference between Halloween and Reformation Day in a sense that we have been scaring Catholics since 1517. So Halloween and Reformation are both scary.

Turmoil in Ministry

In today’s OT lesson, Moses is having a conversation with God. We need the context. When we begin to watch a movie from the half way, we don’t really understand what is going on. That is why we need the historical and situational contexts when we read the Bible. Here is the big picture of this story: Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt with many wonders and miracles. And the forty years’ journey to the promised land began. And in the middle of the journey, Moses went up to the Mount Sinai to get the historic Ten Commandments. While he was fasting for forty days and forty nights, Aaron his brother and the Israelites made a golden idol and went astray. And in the process of fixing the problem, the land was flooded with the blood of three thousand people. It was a such dramatic and traumatic turmoil. And God said to Moses, “Continue your journey, your faith journey and your life journey.” Moses being exhausted emotionally, spiritually as well as physically, responded to God like, “God, I can’t. I am exhausted. I cannot do this any more.” In you life, have you experienced something similar like this, when you had a traumatic experience and dramatic turmoil, which drained you emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially, or in any other ways that you are exhausted without any energy and resource, that you cannot go on any further, and that you cannot stand in your right mind even one more day? That is the situation where Moses was in today’s OT lesson.

Elijah Became Exhausted

One of the greatest man of God, Elijah just won the big battle on religion in 1 Kings 18. He killed four hundred of Baal’s prophets and priests. Even though he won the battle, the battle itself was very exhausting, and Elijah became very tired with almost no energy left in him. And then the queen, who was a follower of Baal, made a special task force team to kill Elijah. Then Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. While on the run, he was drained emotionally and spiritually. Not only he lost his energy and strength, he also lost hope for his life and the purpose of his ministry. He sat down under a tree and asked God to kill him. Then God said to Elijah, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Let me translate their conversation in 21st century English. Elijah said to God, “God, I am tired and exhausted. I cannot do this ministry any more.” And God told him, “OK. Whatever. Go to church and continue your ministry.” What a great conversation! It may sounds cruel, but God had let him sleep under the tree and provided him food and drink twice. So when you are exhausted, under the weather, or depressed, then the Biblical solution to that is to sleep, eat, and drink. And that is exactly why I am taking one week off—to sleep and to eat. Probably not really to drink, maybe one bottle of beer just to celebrate the reformation and to honour Martin Luther who owned a brewery in Wittenberg.

We Must Go on

The story of Moses is actually our story. The story of Elijah is really your story. In your lifetime, you must have had some sort of turmoil and traumatic experience. You must have had at least one storm in your lifetime. If you don’t, praise the Lord, and I pray that you will not. But sadly most of us have such experiences because this is not a perfect world. After such experience, we lose hope. We lose faith. We lose energy and strength. We lose the sense of purpose in our life. Being exhausted, we cannot get back up. Honestly, after a big storm in life, not only the strength, we don’t even have a will to get back up. The sense of powerlessness devour ourselves. And we don’t even know how to pray. The words of prayer in our mouths are those of Moses and Elijah—“God, I can’t do any more. God I just wish to die.” But God urges us to go on in our daily lives, and to continue the ministry which God gave us. The ministry is not only for the pastors and minsters. As Christians, you all are ministers and servants of God the Most High. You have your own ministry, such as taking good care of your family, loving your neighbours, and strengthening random people you meet day by day. You may have a special ministry which you and God only know. So God tells us even when we are exhausted to continue our ministries and to go on in our daily lives. But we cannot go on even one more inch without the sense of God’s presence, and that is exactly what Moses is asking for, and he said, “Please show me Your glorious presence.” By this bold request of Moses, God was not angry. Just like Jesus was not cursing at Thomas when he asked for a proof of resurrection. God did not say to Moses like, “I am the God of Immanuel and I am with your all the time. And you are doubting it. You doubting Moses, burn in hell!” Instead God replied to Moses, “Sure, why not. But for your safety, I will show you only My back.”

For your own safety. What a comforting word! I have been driving in North America for about twenty years now, and I was pulled over four times, twice on high ways and twice on residential areas. Once I was pulled over for over-speeding in Colorado. The very first word that the officer said after I rolled down my window was, “Do you have a weapon?” while holding his pistol with one hand. So I politely replied to him, “I don’t, sir. I am from Canada. I didn’t know I must have one in America.” Thankfully I didn’t get a ticket for not having a gun or for over-speeding. The other time, I was driving in Saskatchewan, Canada. An RCMP officer, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, pulled me over, and told me, “I am really sorry that I pulled you over. But this is forest area, and especially in this evening time, the wild animals go crazy. So please slow down for your own safety.” So the phrase of ‘for your safety’ is very much comforting. The great God cares for the safety of Moses. Our awesome and mighty God cares for our safety. The Creator God who is bigger than the universe is caring for you. That is comforting.

Finding God’s Presence

God proved that He is with Moses by showing Himself. Moses found God’s presence in a rock. Many times the rock in the Bible carries the symbolic meaning of divine protection. Psalm 78:35 sings, “They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.” In the divine protection, Moses found God’s presence safely because God is the Rock of salvation. In the parable of building a house on a rock or on a sand, Jesus confirms that He is our rock. And thus Moses symbolically found God’s divine presence in Jesus Christ who is our eternal Rock of salvation.

Likewise Elijah also found God’s presence. There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces, but the Lord was not in the wind. There was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. There was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. But finally when Elijah was standing on the mountain, there was a sound of sheer silence or gentle whisper. There in the silence, Elijah found the presence of the Lord. The mountain, being close to the sky, many times represents in the Bible the church, where we come to worship God. The temple of God was on the Mount Zion. The Ten Commandments, which was the Word of God, was received on the Mount Sinai. Many great men of faith met and worshipped God on the Mount Horeb. So that Elijah found the presence of God on the mountain in a sheer silence is that he found the divine presence at a church, and not on a special day but a normal regular day just like today.

We don’t have to go to a special place to find the presence of the Lord. Because Jesus Christ who is the very God came to us. John testifies, “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” An angel told Joseph, “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us.” Through the Holy Spirit, and through Jesus Christ, the presence of the Lord is always with us, so we do not need to see God like Moses and Elijah did. Jesus also affirms it by saying “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” So with the presence of God with us, we can go on even after a turmoil and a storm. But we do need to sleep, eat, and drink.

Giving God What Is His

But then, what do we need to continue? In today’s NT lesson, the Pharisees came to Jesus with Herodians. I think it was kind of funny. Herod was the king at that time—not the Herod the Great but one of his sons, and the Herodians are the supporters or the political party members for Herod. In this context we can say that the Pharisees brought the IRS audit officers to Jesus and asked Jesus the trap question. Also the historic context is that Israel was under Roman empire. We may say that it was much like Palestinians under Israel’s control in modern years. We may say like this way: they came to a Palestinian movement leader with Israeli IRS officer, and ask the question, ‘Do we need to pay tax to Israel government?’ By the way, the Palestinians in West Bank do pay tax to the Israeli government. And also the official currency in Palestine is the Israeli Shekel. In this situation, if Jesus answers to pay tax, then people will call Him a betrayer of the people and may stone Him. If Jesus says not to pay tax, then IRS officer will audit Him and sue Him, and it was possible to get lifetime sentence or death. Jesus knowing all the malicious intentions of the Pharisees, answered them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” So we need to continue to give God the things that belong to God. Then what are the things which belong to God? We need to give God praise and worship. We need to give God respect. We need to give God honour. We need to give God glory. We also need to make other people join us in glorifying our God, which Jesus commanded us by saying, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” And above all, we need to give God love. God commanded us through Moses that we “shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And loving God is obeying His words as Jesus urged His disciples and thus us, “If you love me, keep my commands.” Actually Hannah says this a lot these days. Whenever Samuel is not behaving and says, “Mommy I love you,” Hannah says “If you love me, listen to Mommy!” So I guess Hannah now understands very well how Jesus felt toward His disciples.

Conclusion

Friends, sometimes we are energetic. Sometimes we are exhausted by toils, turmoil, storms and many other difficulties and hardships in life. Then we are dismayed, losing hope and even the purpose of life. But by finding the divine presence of our God of Emmanuel, we can be renewed. And we can continue our good works in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. And because we love our God, let us obey God in all the ways we can in our daily lives. And please remember that this church is where you can find God’s presence, and any normal quiet day like today is when you can find the divine presence of Jesus Christ. Let me finish with a beautiful poem from Isaiah: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Amen.