By Danny McKenzie
June 13, 1993

While we are engrossed in our public wailing and gnashing of teeth over the state of the world today, we need to take time to consider the manifestations of the Rev. Ernest Fitzgerald.

“The need of our day is not a code of ethics, but a creed,” Fitzgerald told 2,000 or so of us United Methodists congregated last week in Jackson for our annual conference.

In that one so very simple statement, Fitzgerald, retired bishop of the Atlanta Conference of the United Methodist Church, not only identified what is wrong with our society, but also what can be done to correct it.

Fitzgerald’s logic was as plain as his words: A creed, a system of beliefs, would, in layman’s terms, keep us honest. A creed would force us to come to know ourselves better, thereby forcing us to live together in harmony.

So many among us don’t understand their purpose for being. That hardly qualifies as a revelation. A day-to-day existence is the best they can do. Hope is not in their vocabulary.

And there are those who are getting by, some doing quite well, but who still have no purpose in life. They just know they’re supposed to work hard and everything else will take care of itself.

But that, Fitzgerald told us, is not enough. The human mind, he said, demands explanations to the ultimate questions of life, and that the simple accumulation of facts doesn’t always guarantee complete and satisfactory answers.

“We need to not only have something to believe in, but we need to know why we believe in it,” he said. “Our creed determines our behavior.”

Those of us trying hard to be Christians are familiar with the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and many others we read with great regularity – and sometimes pay attention to. Each time we read them we are looking closely at what we profess to believe in and who we, as Christians, are.

Introspection is good for the soul – for the soul of the individual, for the soul of the country.

Our Declaration of Independence is perhaps the closest thing our nation has to a creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. …”

Those very plain words were written by Thomas Jefferson nearly 217 years ago. How powerful have they proven to be?

Mr. Jefferson and those who endorsed his profound document were a group of unusual men whose brilliance was matched only by their courage. Their courage was made strong by their hope.

In the middle of complete chaos and total turmoil, these men determined there could be a better way of life. Seemingly, there was no reason for them to look to the future, but they did and they declared it would not be bleak. So, Mr. Jefferson wrote their “creed,” and they signed it. And the world was changed.

Who among us would say it cannot be changed again?

If, however, our society is to change for the better, those of us in our society must look at how we are living our lives. We need a creed to serve as a set of guidelines for our lives.

The Rev. Jack Meadors, bishop of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church, reminded us that “how we live can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“If we believe that the past was the best we can do, then that is what it will be,” Meadors said in the closing worship session of the annual conference. “But if we believe the best is yet to come, then that is what it will be.”

That, of course, should be the very first item on any creed of any nation or of any society. Understanding, then, that it will not be easy, we must always believe the best is yet to come.

We must have faith.

© Danny McKenzie

8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
11 Yes, all who are incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.
12 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.
13 For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”  Isaiah 41:8-13 (NRSV)

Through Isaiah, God makes clear that Israel is to save the world through servant-hood.  We understand that Christ fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy, but the prophecy has its roots in God’s call to Abraham and (as we are studying this quarter) Moses.  The people of Israel understood this call (understandably – they were human) to involve nationhood, worldly dominion.  After all, the exodus experience taught them nothing if not that the power of God was unlimited.  For the next several hundred years the people of Israel would struggle with God’s relationship with the nation, just as we struggle today.  We wonder why our loyalty and devotion are not rewarded in the way we want to be rewarded – without regard to whether it is the way God wants to reward us.

Too often we confuse our agenda with God’s agenda.  At the time of the exodus, God’s agenda was to free Israel from bondage.  To a degree, this was Israel’s agenda as well (although, as would soon be seen, the people quickly longed for the comfort of Eygpt’s civilization over the rough freedom of the desert).  But go back to the reason Moses was to give Pharaoh for letting the people go: it was to worship God!

When we answer God’s call, we will be empowered – so long as we are about God’s business.  It’s when we confuse God’s business with our own agenda that trouble can start.

We’ve been focusing on Moses all week – from his birth, to his identification with “his people”, to his sojourn as a “stranger in a strange land”, to his place in Israel’s history and understanding of itself, his role as leader/prophet/redeemer/law-giver, and finally to his death.  During the next few weeks we’ll explore Moses and the people of Israel in greater depth, particularly in the context of God’s call.

In the lesson scripture for today, we revisit God’s call to Moses’s that was recounted in Stephen’s speech in our scripture for this past Thursday.  Today, however, we include Moses’ response to that call:

1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,
8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” Ex 3:1-12 (NRSV)

Moses’s reaction was to hesitate, to shy away from the task.  That’s because he made the all too human mistake of thinking that he would be the one doing the work.  God’s answer - ”I will be with you” – is harder to accept sometimes than God’s call.  Even when we answer God’s call, we sometimes forget who it is that is doing the sending and we try (often with less than stellar results) to do the work on our own.  We must remember that all God requires of us in his infinite mercy and grace, is that we have faith when we turn to him and allow the work to be done through us, not by us. 

Indeed, as we’ve discussed before, the very word chosen to articulate the idea of “the church” – ekklesia – means to be called out: in the sense of being called out to serve.  That’s something that we’ve lost since the beginning of “modern times”.  We are so wrapped up in expressing our individualism, that we forget what it means to be part of community – to subordinate ourselves to God’s will and the service of others.

One neglected way of putting on the full armor of God is to “pray without ceasing”.  As mvtclass members know, I teach a couple of other classes as well – one of which doesn’t generally use the Adult Bible Studies series.  I had already thought of teaching a series in this class (which is focused on historical religious studies) on the Liturgy of the Hours.  Partly this was because I became interested in the concept not only of monastic prayer, but of cathedral prayer, when we did our study on the history of worship.  Partly it was because the references to Morning Prayer and Evensong that I’ve read quoted in novels (think P. D. James for one) always struck me as both comforting and beautiful.

 One thought that has recurred to me as I’ve explored this whole “blogging concept” is that – with our busy post-modern lives, maybe the only way to have daily communal prayer and study is virtually – in an online world.  It’s one of the reasons that I’ve added a feature to the right-hand sidebar that will provide the full text of the Daily Bible Study scripture from our quarterly lesson books.  That way, if you forget to read the verses before you leave the house in the morning (or if you forget where you put your book ), you can find it on the blog.  Whether you read any of the posts or comments, you can read God’s word – “the sword of the spirit” – and utter a brief prayer.  As virtual cathedral prayer, it’s not much, but it’s something. 

So – what are your thoughts on God’s call?

1 Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Isaiah 49:1-3 (NRSV)

Now for today’s lesson scripture from Psalm 119:

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances.
107 I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances.
109 I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.
111 Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. Psalms 119:105-112 (NRSV)

The Word of God is, in Ephesians 6:17, the “sword of the spirit”.  Israel is that sword, and it is through Israel that God will be glorified.  The word of God is the only truly offensive weapon mentioned in the “Whole Armor of God” section of the sixth chapter of Ephesians.  The word of God in Psalm 119 is the Torah – the law.  The Word of God – the ultimate achievement of Israel – is Christ.  The law can be seen as a weapon: to command obedience to a set of rules.  Or the law – as embodied in Christ – can be seen as a roadmap — a “way” to reconciliation with the Father.  Even more, it can be a way to please and worship the Father in joyful obedience – not fearful submission.  So, the “Sword of the Spirit”, when considered in this sense, is not a slashing, cutting, stabbing horror designed to end life, but a blade meant to cut through bonds that hold us in thrall to the “cosmic powers of this present darkness”, a beacon held before us like a commander’s sabre - pointing the way to Truth, to Righteousness and Salvation.

Well, anyway, that’s one thought.

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.
24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word,
27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.  Eph 5:21-33 (NRSV)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 ”Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise:
3 ”so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Eph 6:1-4 (NRSV)

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning.
23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.
24 You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children.
25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance.
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’
27 you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.  Ex 12:21-28 (NRSV)

The first issue, the one that seemed most obvious to me in today’s lesson, deals with the troubling story of God as “destroyer” of the first-born.  We see this same issue in Joshua and the other “histories” of the Tanakh (cf. 2 Samuel 24:16-17).  How do we explain and reconcile with a God of mercy the slaughter of innocents?  Even if we say that God was not the moving force (at least not the directly moving force) in this story, the “destroyer” was an agent of God’s will.  This leads us into consideration of how God’s justice can be understood in the context of not only the slaughter of the first-born of Egypt, but of the condemnation of those who have never heard the Gospel message.  The easy answer is found in St. John’s Gospel (I have other sheep . . .) but that’s a cop-out according to some scholars.  How do we answer these people?

The second issue – more appropriate to the theme of this week’s lesson - has to do with submission.  Look again at verse 28.  God’s chosen people “went and did just as the Lord had commanded . . . “  We are saved by the grace of God.  We are saved to accomplish God’s redeeming work in this world.  We are not required, as a prerequisite to salvation, to “do as the Lord has commanded”, other than to believe in Christ and claim his promise of the ultimate priesthood.  As we impart God’s word to a wondering world, how do we prepare ourselve to address what may seem to be contradictions in our western understanding of the canon?

1  Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2  “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?
5 Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?
6  Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
7 “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:1-8 (ESV)

Help me understand what this means.  Clearly, the verses recount a series of examples of cause and effect and then end with God’s speaking, causing prophesy to occur.  Okay . . . I get it.  But how do we account for the title that the Adult Bible Studies Series gives to today’s lesson scripture – God’s secret revealed?  What is God’s secret?  Is it that we ignore him at our peril?  Think about this.  According to Peter’s epistles we are a “royal priesthood, a holy nation” just as Israel was.  We are known to God and know God.  When we, his people, deliberately choose not to reveal his word to others – to each other – to ourselves – we sin.  We sin in the worst way.  Wesley would say that we – who have been justified as God’s children – are in the “wilderness” when we ignore God’s word.   No – wait.  “Ignore” is the wrong word.  That implies “ignorance”, but we can’t claim a lack of knowledge any more than God’s chosen people could at the time that Amos was at work.

So, we don’t just “ignore” God’s word, we deliberately, knowingly disregard his word.  Indeed, we reject his Word.  His WORD – that is, God’s presence in this world.  For Amos, this meant exploiting the poor among us.  For his younger contemporary, Hosea, it meant disregarding our duty to worship God.  In simplest terms, one prophet castigates God’s people for ignoring God’s mandate that we worship him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5); another condemns us for ignoring God’s order that we love one another (Leviticus 19:18).

Now, we can engage in all the 21st Century rationalizations we want to, we can be as sophisticated as the limits of our intellect allow, but the rock bottom hard truth is that we are accountable.  We’re accountable for how we treat this world.  We’re accountable for how we treat each other.  We’re accountable for how we understand our place in space and time.  We’re accountable to God.  Maybe that’s not popular, but it is God’s secret revealed, lest any one complain afterward.  Get it?

     Worship is not optional, it is a commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Exodus 20:8 – This is not to say that we are only to set aside one day for worship, but rather it is the opportunity for the church to celebrate together and gather strength and support in one another’s arms, praising God and saying “Hallelujah” and “Amen” together.  It offers Christ the opportunity to walk amongst us loving us as a whole body, His body.   I believe that when the early churches read Paul’s letters that they actually felt his presence amongst themselves.  Do you feel the presence of our Savior when His Word is spoken from the pulpit?

     Consider this…what if the day you decide to not be present is the day that God has a very special purpose for your life and the life of His church?  We all have reasons to be absent from our church worship service from time-to-time – but do we take the time, when absent in body, to become united with our church family in worship and prayer during our scheduled worship services?  

     Maxie Dunnam asks – “Have you ever experienced a deeply moving worship service?” – I say – “Let’s share!” – Karen

Christ chose the Passover to reveal to his disciples that he was the Messiah and the law and the words of the prophets were fulfilled in him.  He was given in sacrifice for us and he commanded that we “do this” in remembrance of him.  Once again, the Greek word for “remembrance” is “anamnesis“.  This is not a simple act of recalling the words and acts of Jesus, but a communal reenactment of what he did that brings Christ’s presence “among us” — both his presence in sacrificial giving and his presence in future glory.

In recent years there has been increased attention paid in the United Methodist Church (and other liturgical denominations) to the Eucharist, drawing on a renewed understanding of the way in which this sacrament was observed in the first and second century Church.  In developing the versions of ”A Service of Word and Table” contained in the United Methodist Book of Worship and the United Methodist Hymnal, the General Board of Discipline relied on references to the Eucharist in the New Testament, early church documents such as the Didache, and the writing of church fathers such as Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome.

The manner in which we observe the Eucharist today can be traced back directly to as early as the beginning of the second century Anaphora of Hippolytus, which arguably was an accurate account of the manner in which the Lord’s Supper was observed by the first Christians.  And so, we join with Christians through the ages in celebrating His gift to the Church.