Sermon from August 27, 2006

He had always had his head in the books. He had great, long conversations about the state of the universe. All the profesors loved him. But he wanted more. He wanted to move out of his head and discover what his heart had to say. He wanted to climb mountains, not read books about them; he wanted to learn how to dance. . . he wanted to do crazy, outrageous things. But wanting that wasn't doing it. Did he really have the capacity to do something more?

She wanted to be an engineer all her life. Her father had been an engineer, her brother had been an engineer. It was in her blood. . . until she got to the university. She hated the engineering classes, but fell in love with art. . . who was she? Whose child could she possibly be?

A small town guy, everyone knew him: his family, his basketball performance from last year, his sock size. He didn't do anything without the whole town knowing about it. And now he was here. . . Yes, there were old friends to hang with, but there was also the freedom to get lost in the crowd and be anything he wanted. There was something inside him now, ready to bubble up to the surface.

She wasn't sure who she was. She seemed to take on the personality of the person she dated. It was almost as if she feared being alone, because she didn't know who she really was. Deep in the darkness of night, she'd try to figure it out: Was the real her lively and vivacous like Dan, quiet and intellectual like Joe, or crazy and fun like Al? She wasn't sure.

He had dated her since their freshman year in high school. They had been together forever. But she had stayed home to commute to a nearby school, and he had come here. Things between them seemed like they were changing. He was changing. He wasn't sure who he was anymore.

When we are in college, we usually face an identity crisis. We realize that we no longer have to be the person we have always been. We might ultimately do that, but this is a time of stretching and exploration. Who we are depends upon a lot of things.

Your history, your roots - these are your foundation. But your history doesn't determine everything.

Who you become involves the experiences you have, the ways that you choose to push outside of yourself, your willingness to get to know folk who are different than you. . . . It is not only more deeply exploring the world around you. It is also exploring the world inside of you, exploring your rich internal life. Growth is an active process. It doesn't just happen to you. you make choices every day that impact who you will become.

Moses was a man who struggled with an identity crisis. He wasn't sure who he was. But we do know some things about him. He was born of two Levite parents, which meant he was born to be a leader. But he was born during really turbulent, scary times. The Pharaoh had ordered all the male Hebrew babies to be killed. His mother was a woman who risked much to save her son. She was clever. . . and her plan was brilliant. When Moses was three months old, she took him and laid him in a basket and hid him in the reeds by the river. His sister watched to see what would happen, for this was a bold and risky move. The Pharaoh's daughter often bathed in that place. When the Pharaoh's daughter found the baby, she saw he was one of the Hebrew babies, and she chose to save him. She would adopt him and call him Moses, which means "to draw out." Moses would live up to his name and draw the Hebrew people out of their oppression.

His sister arranged for his mother to nurse him and to get paid to do so. This child was under protection of Pharaoh's daughter. He could not be touched. When he was old enough, he was brought to the palace and housed as royalty. Now, this child must have been confused about who he was. For as his mother nursed him, she must have also nourished him with the stories of the Hebrew people - of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. . . . I suspect this child knew who his people were. Yet when he was brought to the palace, he ate at the family table with royalty and heard their stories about the Hebrew people. He recognized those who were like him, waiting on him and cooking for him. He learned about the Egyptian gods. His people were hunting and struggling, and yet he was the grandson of the Pharaoh. In his confusion, I suspect he yearned for his early days when his "nanny" (his mother) told him who he was, when everything was clear. But he had to discover who he was going to be.

He was a man who bristled at injustice. He went to visit his people one day and saw an Egyptian beating a slave. He killed the Egyptian, and when the word got out, he fled for his life. All of this was leading him to something important. His birth, whose home he was raised in, his fight for his life.

He ended up in a town in Midian and became a shepherd. One day he noticed a bush burning but not consumed. He stepped aside. God called out to him: "Moses, Moses. . ." Then God introduced God's self: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Moses knew what that meant. He covered his face - for if you see God's face, you would die. But then God had quite a conversation with him, face to face. God called him to go back to Egypt to lead the Hebrew people out of oppression. Moses was reluctant. He wasn't ready to call himself a leader yet. He had a million questions. He asked a key question, "What do I tell the people if they ask your name?" The translation says "I am what I am."

A better translation is, "I am who I will be." God is not just a God of the past or the present moment. But God will stick with Moses in this journey. God is unfolding before Moses. Moses needs God to fulfill his calling. God needs Moses to fulfill his promise as the God of his people in the future.

Just like Moses, we often feel as if we live in many worlds.

Jesus was a man who knew who he was. But before he got clear about that, he spent a lot of time in the wilderness being bothered by the tempter. He had to make a choice about what kind of person he was or wasn't going to be. Out of the wilderness he came, saying: "This Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Jesus' future, his identity, was dependent on God in his life. God's future was tied up in Jesus.

It was great: after Jesus had made this great pronouncement, a voice in the crowd is heard to say, "Isn't that Joseph's son? We knew him when he was bouncing on Mary's knees. Didn't he give John's son a black eye one day. . . and get lost on a trip once? Now, who is he saying he is?" Don't limit yourself by who others tell you you are.

Who are you, besides confused?
You are a child of God.
You are a woman, or a man of God.

You will wander around in the wilderness for a while. You will make daily choices that will help to form you. Remember your history. . . and the history of your people.

Remember that God is a God of the past, the here and now, and the future. God has got her hands on you. Remember that God knows you.

Who God is is a defining presence for you, by the choices you make and by the awareness you give to your life.

Be ready to be startled by a burning bush.