Before I begin today’s sermon, I would like to extend a word of thanksgiving and praise for the kindness you have shown to my wife Gerda and me as we have worshipped with you and been part of this community for about a year. You may be able to tell by my accent that I am not a native Californian. Should you need interpretation of this sermon you can check with Robert or Robbie. There have been a few who have quietly come up and said, “I am from the South too.” Almost as if to say, “I am an alcoholic.” So if they have self-identified themselves you can check with them as well. It is an honor, privilege and a responsibility that I take seriously this morning. To try in some small way to bring the word of God to you. Grace and Peace to you from God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today I want is to go back and look at Moses and to look again at his call by God to go forth and free the sons and daughters of Israel that were being held captive in Egypt. Now Moses was one of those guys that had a great son-in-law job. He had married into a little money. His father, Jethro, was the priest of Median. Of course his father-in-law did not want him to hang around the club and play golf, cards and drink with the boys. So he gave him this little job to do which was to tend these sheep.

So Moses finds himself in the wilderness besides Mt. Horab. He runs across a bush that is burning but it really is not burning. Not only that it talks. It tells Moses to take off his sandals for he is on holy ground. And it goes on to tell Moses that he is God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, wants Moses to go down to Egypt and free the children of Israel. Moses said, “Well, who am I that I should go? I am just a poor lowly shepherd. Even these sheep do not belong to me. And even if I considered going, who would I say sent me?” “Tell them that I am what I am sent you Moses.” Moses said, “That’s not too much to go on but it sounds real good. But when I go down there and tell the people of Israel that I am what I am sent me they are going to think I have been in the sun too long. What about a sign? Yea, if you could give me a sign that would be much better then saying I am sent me.” “What is that in your hand, Moses,” said God. Moses replied, “It is a rod. It is one of the most important things that I have. It helps me to tend the sheep and to keep my balance on rocky ground.” God said, “Throw it down Moses!” Moses says, “It is a snake God, and a big one at that. I think I will be leaving now.” God tells Moses to pick it up by the tail. Moses replied, “Lord, you may be I am what I am and make this bush burn and this rod into a snake but we do not pick snakes up by the tail.” The Lord said, “Pick it up Moses!” Moses replies, “It is a rod again, God. That is a lot better then telling them I am what I am sent me. But I should have told you this right off. I have this speech problem with speaking in front of people. I have this brother, Aaron that even sounds like a preacher, send him.” God said, “No Moses, I want you to go and free my people.” Well we know the rest of the story. Moses went down to Egypt and freed the sons and daughters of Israel. He had heard the call and the call came with a challenge. To free God’s people.

Few if any of us I am sure have heard God’s call through a burning bush. Like the burning bush, God comes to us in unusual and strange ways. And often from unexpected sources. God came to us in and through the person of Jesus Christ, his only Son. A person from Nazareth. A place said with the same condensing way as we say Mecca and Thermal. What good could come from there? Through his son he called twelve disciples, ordinary people. People with no social standing; fishermen, tax collectors, a traitor. He called each and every one of them through his son and he gave them a challenge. “To go into all the world and to make disciples.”

How did your hear the call? Have you heard it? Was it in church or during a period of personal agony? Or was it a still small voice in the middle of the night? Was it in a time of joy or sorrow? Were you alone or were you with others? Did you hear it from a neighbor, a friend or a stranger?

John Wesley, the Anglican priest who was considered the founder of the Methodist church, heard the call when he went to Evensong service in London at Aldersgate Church. He did not want to be there. He did not want to go. He would have preferred to stay home. But he went and he wrote, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.”

How many times have you heard God’s call? I dare say most of us have heard it more then once. I want to tell you about the time a heard God’s call. It was not the call into ministry but another time I heard it. I only served in a local church for 3 years. I found out that was not what I was very good at. I had grown tired of you. I was tired of the unwillingness to try new things because we had always done it this way before. I was tired of being the janitor and opening up the church. And being available as the whipping boy for anyone who was having a bad day. I scheduled myself to go to a minister’s conference which was one of the other things I would rather take a beating for than go. Because other than being on a church committee, going and being around other clergy and preachers was the last thing I wanted to do. But I heard this story and I heard God’s call through it so I will share it with you.

The story is told by a fellow named Tony Campolo, an American Baptist preacher out of Philadelphia. Tony was a good person. He had gone down on a thirty day mission to the Caribbean to teach villagers to grow more corn per acre and his thirty days were up. He was standing and waiting with bags in his hands at the little dirt runway where the pilot would pick him up. The pilot would than take him to a larger airport where he would catch a jet home. He saw the plane coming into the pattern and he knew it was about time to go. Before the plane landed, this woman came out of a bush with something in her hands. As she got closer he saw that it was a child whose arms and legs were no bigger then my thumbs and his stomach was distended and his eyeballs were a yellow mass. She came to him and said, “Mister, please take my baby and make my baby well.” Tony was embarrassed as most of us would have been. Because he thought he had just done something good and he wanted to go home. He mumbled something that the plane was here and he had to go. She came to him again and said, “Mister, please take my baby and make my baby well.” By now the plane had stopped and Tony grabbed his bag and jumped in the plane and put his bag in the backseat and told the pilot, “Let’s get out of here I cannot stand this anymore.” As the plane was turning around to prepare for take-off he heard pounding on the side of the plane. He knew that the woman was saying, “Mister, please take my baby and make him well.” As they were climbing out to altitude, Tony started sobbing and the pilot turned to say, “What’s the matter?” Tony said, “I have just seen the Christ and I said no sir. Not today are you coming in. For in that child was God calling me through his son Jesus.” I heard God’s call through that story— that through all of you who are abstinent and hard to get along with and difficult and do not give all the money you should—God was calling me. You, who are the same people that I had, God was calling me through you. Through each and every one of them, God was coming to me. The same as you come to Father Robert and Father Dan in this congregation.

How many times have you heard God’s call? I believe that we have the opportunity to hear God’s call each day that we wake up. That each day God is calling us. I believe that God is calling us to follow in the footsteps of those twelve disciples he called through his son Jesus. He calls us. He challenges us to follow in those footsteps of his Son. He blesses us with time, talent and treasures to accomplish that challenge. God entrusted to Moses a rod, which would turn into a snake and part the Red Sea so that the children of Israel could be free from the chariots and armies of Egypt. He imparted to his son, Jesus, himself. He imparted to the disciples the Holy Spirit which would act as their counselor as they went before to make disciples of all the world. And to each of you and to me he has given us talents to meet the challenge. To follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

Gerda and I, both being German, are always running a little late to church which is somewhat unusual for our ancestry. When I look in the parking lot I got to say some of you got more then five talents. Some of you have taken those talents that God gave you and really turned them into some treasure. Part of the challenge to follow in the footsteps of Jesus is how we use the talents, time, treasures and abilities that God has given us. The point of the story of the three stewards and talents is not about how much money you have but it is about how you use those gifts and graces that have been given to you. There is not much that I am convinced about the afterlife. I have to take it on faith. But there is one thing that I am absolutely, 100% convinced about. On that day we cross the River Jordan and come face to face with our God the question will not be, “did you play cards, drink or dance?” The question will be, “How did you use the gifts that I gave you?”

If we have heard the call and accepted the challenge to walk in the footsteps of Jesus then we must use all of the talents we have been given. For to walk in those footsteps, and for those who have been at this alter or some other alter and professed your heart to Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior you have heard the call and accepted the challenge. And to do that means you must walk up Golgotha and be crucified between two thieves. Moses was not sure about going to Egypt. He would have liked to send his brother, Aaron but he did. Jesus was not sure about dying for the sins of the world. From the cross he cried, “My God, my God why has thou forsaken me.” But he did. And the disciples, that motley crew of average common people, were not sure about going out into all the world and making disciples, but they did. Since that day Christ formed his church on Peter, there have been a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. Not just from this church but from all Christian churches and they were not sure either, but they did.

Today the question is, “Will you hear the call?” Will you respond to the challenge with every talent that has been given to you? It will not be easy. It will be the hardest challenge you have ever done. For you must walk up Golgotha. God does not call us, he does not give us a challenge, and he does not equip us with talents in which to accomplish a challenge without a promise. The Psalmist wrote the promise down. As we conclude today’s sermon. Let’s not conclude it with just a call to challenge with the talents. Let’s conclude with the promise.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

The Rev. Sam Hook