Axis of Right Relationship
Exodus 3: 1-10
Romans 12:9-12
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
(With gratitude to God for the work of James A. Sanders, inspiration for this message.)

I recently received an e-mail message from my friend and colleague Dave Stark of Stiles Hall at Cal.  It begins  "Do you remember September 12, 2001?  National boundaries collapsed as an outpouring of sorrow and compassion flooded New York from around the world, sowing an Axis of Friendship.  Americans discovered friends in unlikely places, none more unlikely than Tehran, Iran.  Thousands of Iranians spontaneously lit candles in solidarity with the families of 9/11 and the American people."

"Axis of friendship" is an obvious juxtaposition to the term "Axis of Evil," a term used in January 2002 by President Bush to describe an alliance of threat and terror.

Focusing attention on an "axis of evil" we move toward fear, distrust, and violence.  Focusing attention on an "axis of right relationship", we move toward love, hope, and peace.

In 1953 President Dwight David Eisenhower spoke prophetically about what is at stake.  He said, „]"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

The story of Moses and the burning bush, which we heard a few moments ago, is not only about God and Moses. It is about alliance and alignment ... an axis of right relationship.
 
Though Moses was an alien child in Egypt, he was raised in Pharaoh‚s house by Pharaoh's daughter as her own.  But there came a day when Moses realized that his people were not the powerful Egyptians.  His people were the Israelites who were suffering. And he could not bear it.  He struck out violently, killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a slave worker.

Then, Moses, a fugitive from justice, a murderer, a young man without family, or a homeland, fled to Midian.   He made a new life for himself. But he was still seeking.  One night, he was working out in the fields for his father-in-law Jethro, tending the flocks, in a desolate wilderness area known as Sinai ...That's right, Mt. Sinai.

And there -- Moses, refugee baby, murderous young man, worker, seeker, encountered the Holy.  An angel of the Lord appeared in a blazing flame of fire that engulfed, yet did not consume a living bush. Moses was amazed, wanted to know why, and he turned to move closer.
  
Then the voice of God ... spoke to Moses from the midst of the fire...
Moses had wandered into the truth that those who suffered were God's people, too. God knew their misery and suffering.  God heard their cries.  God said to Moses, "I have come down to deliver the people...to bring them from oppression, into freedom, into a good land..."

If the text had stopped there, Moses would have been satisfied, having found what he was seeking:  God cares!  God knows the suffering of the people! God has come to save, rescue, liberate and lead the people out of bondage!  

But God didn't stop there.  God said, "So come, Moses, I will send YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt..."
(**Choir sings breaks into chorus: "Go Down, Moses...."**)

Wait a minute.  Moses thought God was going to go to Pharaoh and bring God's people out of Egypt.  Now God told Moses that he would be sent to do it!

Moses had a couple of questions for God.
His first question was "Who am I?" "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?  Who am I that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Who am I?" And God‚s response was, "I will be with you..."

The answer to the question of identity is relationship, right relationship with God and community.  Moses, amazed by the Holy, asks "who am I?" and God answers, "I will be with you."

Jewish spiritual teacher and prophet, Abraham Heschel said, "Wonder, rather than doubt, is the root of knowledge...Doubts may be resolved, radical amazement can never be erased."

When we feel particularly unworthy, unwelcome, unsure of who we are, when we are in times of struggle, moments of decision, confrontations with our calling, or with evil, and we question who we are and why we are here...God‚s response is...  "I will be with you."

When we face complex questions about scientific, technological, political, moral decisions, we ask, "Who am I to decide?" "Who am I to act?" "Who am I to speak, to lead, to challenge, to change, to question, to claim purpose in life?" God‚s response is...  "I will be with you." 

Moses‚ second question of God was "who are you?" Before he risked his life to free a people he did not know, before he went back to a land where he was wanted for murder, before he confronted Pharaoh, Moses wanted to know who sent him: "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,‚ and they ask me, "What is God‚s name"‚ what shall I say to them?'"

God responds, "I AM in that I AM."  God's being is in God‚'s being.  We cannot not fully know, name, limit, or claim God. God is free to be God.

Moses encountered God ... voice ... fire ... power he could neither name nor define ... but presence he could experience.  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,  "God is the beyond in the midst of us."

The axis of right relationship runs directly through our lives with both promise and obligation.   

When we wonder ... who God is, who we are called to be; when we seek to be whole and healed, when we risk right relationship with those who are suffering... our neighbors ... and our enemies,  we find ourselves set in the midst of conflicts, challenges and more questions.

Intertestamental and Biblical Studies Scholar James A. Sanders, wrote,
"I sometimes wonder if we are fully aware of how subversive and revolutionary the Bible is.  Careful studying of the Bible in its historical and political setting is disturbing, not comforting. Those who... say that studying the Bible is an escape from reality simply have not studied it....here is a story from beginning to end... of turning things upside down and inside out.... We somehow think God should honor our efforts on his behalf; instead God always seems to come up with another question, another challenge."   (God has a Story, Too, p. 1979)

... On the third anniversary of Katrina with the imminent threat of Hurricane Gustav, as we face the many storms that threaten our nation and others,.. with war in Iraq, conflicts in Iran, Afghanistan, Georgia and throughout the world, as we spend the hope of our children, ... these two things we know:  We are called to right relationship in our lives, families, communities, and world.  And God‚s promise remains ... "I will be with you."