Everyday Plagues

"Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with might acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people, the Israelites."  Exodus 7:4

Everyday Plagues
By Rev. William Dohle

I love Hollywood...don't get me wrong.  I watch more television and movies than many clergy, even those my age.

But sometimes Hollywood gets it wrong. Sometimes to show the drama they have to make it out to be more than it actually was.

That was their mistake in their latest offering on the History Channel, "The Bible."  In typical Hollywood fashion they took artistic liberties in portraying every one of the Bible stories.  Liberties that, I believe, diminished the story itself in many cases.

Take the text we have before us today.  The Ten Plagues.  Countless screenwriters and directors have tried to imagine what the plagues were like.  The show "The Bible" does the same.  Dramatically, Moses approaches Pharaoh time and again and Pharaoh dramatically says "No!"  Then comes the plagues, each of which are more supernatural than the last.  First the river turning to blood, then the death of the animals, then the locusts, then the darkness.  (Yes, the movie takes dramatic liberties with the order of the plagues too.).

This is all well and good...except that I don't think that's how the plagues went.  Oh they happened, don't get me wrong.  And they were God's work.  But God doesn't work in Hollywood style.  He doesn't today, and I don't think he did back then

Why??  Well... for starters when Aaron throws his staff down in front of Pharaoh and it becomes a snake(a miracle the mini-series never shows)...Pharaoh's magicians do the same!  "Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers and the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their secret art.  Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake." (Ex 7:11-12a).  Or when the river turns to blood, Pharaoh (who is not bathing in it at the time) turns to his magicians who "...did the same thing by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said."(Ex 6:22)  Turns out...Pharaoh's magicians could do this too!

In fact, if you look closely scientifically you will discover most of the plagues Moses brings occur naturally.  There were times(before the dams went up on the Nile) that the river would become like blood because of the silt floating in it.  Even the fish in the river would die because they couldn't breathe.  There were, at those very times, a multitude of frogs that would come up from the river.  Those frogs, when they died on land, would also bring in swarms of gnats and biting flies and those flies would bring the disease that caused the boils and that killed all the livestock in the land.  Even the plague of locusts have been reproduced...TODAY...where in the Holy Land they are suffering from such a plague!

So...what makes the plagues unique or special?  Well... it's not that they happened outside the natural order of things but that nature itself was used by God to free his chosen people, Israel.  God used creation to rescue his chosen people.  He didn't go outside of it.  He didn't send his angels and create a stir.  Instead, God used what was already around them so that "...you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians."(Ex 6:7)  He used what he had already created to rescue and redeem Israel.

Too often we look for some supernatural answer to our everyday problems.  We think that, because we pray, God should move heaven and earth to rescue us.  We wonder why God works plagues back at the time of Moses but doesn't act that way now.  Thinking these things are extra-ordinary, we look for extra-ordinary answers to our own prayers.  A cure no one saw coming.  A surprise gift from a stranger.  A miracle that can't be explained.

But most times God doesn't work this way.  Occasionally, yes, but most of the time God speaks to us through His Word, through His Creation, and through other people.  That is how the love of God is communicated.  That is where the answer comes to our prayers.

We pray for strength...and we find relatives popping up to help us out.  Relatives who take some of the burden so we can rest.  We pray for healing...and we find a new lease on life that helps us appreciate every moment of every day more.  We look for faith...and we are surrounded by our family and friends at church as they pray for us.

God's worked with his creation to save his people Israel, to bring them out of captivity.  God can work with creation in your life too, to comfort you, to strengthen you, and to bring you a future and a hope.

Open my eyes that I may see you working the extraordinary through the ordinary events of my life.  Help me recognize you there and give you thanks.  Amen.

Other-Help From God

"I have made you like God to Pharaoh..." Exodus 7:1

Other-Help From God
By Rev. William Dohle

I am not a real big self-help fan.

There's a time and a place for them, true, but so many of the books on helping yourself, especially the Christian ones, turn my stomach.  They seem so...selfish, as if the only thing that really matters in life to God is YOU being the best YOU you can be.  Ultimately at the center of the universe, what really matters is...you!  God's there to help...but to help YOU.  Listen to the titles of some of the popular books today and see if you can't hear that for yourself...

"I Declare!"

"Change Your Words.  Change your Life."

"The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around What You Want"

"What on Earth Am I Here For?"

The reason I struggle with self-help books isn't because God doesn't want us to be happy.  He does.  It's not because He doesn't promise power.  He does.  But why he promises both of these...that's another question.  In today's reading from Exodus, God promises a whole lot of power to a rather powerless Moses and Aaron.

"See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."(Ex. 7:1-4)
  
Wow!  What power God has given Moses!  "I have made you like God!"  That's pretty powerful.  And Aaron has been made into Moses' prophet, to say what Moses tells him to.  That's real power there!  Between the two of them, they are to free God's people Israel.

But notice who the power is for.  It's not for Moses.  It's not so that Moses can have a comfortable life or that Moses can earn lots of money, have a big house, a gorgeous wife, a nice life, and go to heaven after he dies.  God doesn't give Moses power for himself.  Instead God has empowered Moses to help others.  Its for the people of Israel, for his countrymen, that Moses will be God.  It's for God's people, Israel, that Moses is given such power and authority.  It's for others...not for himself.

Should Moses ever turn and use his powers for himself, that power will disappear.  God is doing this for Israel.  Not just for Moses.  Moses is included in God's redemption, true, but as part of the larger people of Israel.

The same applies to us too.  The Holy Spirit calls, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us...but it does so as we are in service to others.  As we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger.  In other words: When we are attending to the needs of others.

When we do this, when we attend to those needs, THEN (and only then I would argue) does the power of God rest upon us.  When we turn that power upon ourselves and center the world on us and our problems and our happiness and our own fulfillment, than God's strength wanes.  God himself is seldom to be found in such self-seeking, self-centered living.  Or God is used as anything else.  A means to the end and not the end itself. 

We have given into self-help too much.  We have forgotten that we cannot help ourselves.  Self-help is a lie!  It is God who helps us.  We have forgotten that the focus of our lives is not ourselves.  It is truly God and others.  As the two greatest commandments say: "Love God...and love your neighbor as yourself."  Those are the greatest commandments and the only thing we are truly empowered for in this world.

So try this...invest your life in others.  Get out of the tragic therapeutic circle that centers your attention on yourself and your problems and see how God steps in.  Feed the hungry at your local shelter and see how good it makes you feel.  Give something to someone in need and see how your own day is brightened.  Reach out to others.  Share the power of God.  It's not easy (it certainly wasn't for Moses)...but it's worth it!

I am trapped, Lord, in only thinking of myself instead of thinking of you and others first.  Release me from this trap and empower me to serve.  Amen.

Uh...You're Repeating Yourself...

"Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant." Exodus 6:5

What Did I Tell You Again?!
By Rev. William Dohle

Why...why...why do parents have to repeat themselves over and over and over again??

I always swore I'd never sound like other parents.  "My kids will listen the first time!"  I had visions in my head of my children, the marvel of all, who listen the first time.  I could almost taste the quiet that would descend upon our household.

Ha!  Was I mistaken.  Like other children, my kids have learned the art of selective hearing.

Take the simple chore of doing the dishes.  I start by telling my youngest son to empty the dishwasher.  Then I tell him again...and again...and again.  Finally he gets up to do it.  Then he stops.  Mid-emptying he stops to see what his oldest brother is doing.  And it takes him a little...encouraging...to start up again.

Once it's empty then it's my oldest son's turn.  He usually takes on a little more dramatic of an approach.  He throws himself on the ground and says, "No!"  Then, when he says he's going to do it, he's really not.  You've got to mention it again and again he'll argue about it.  Finally...finally...after a little persuasion he'll get up and do them.  Once he starts...he finishes (usually).  But he always ALWAYS forgets something.  And then you have to remind him to reload said item.

And don't get me started about my daughter.  Unless she WANTS to do it, she doesn't.

So why do parents have to repeat themselves?  Where does this come from?

Maybe the answer to those questions can be found in Exodus.  After Moses has come back to Egypt to speak to the Israelites.  After Pharaoh has increased their load.  Then God does something he's had to do before.  He repeats himself...again!

“I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant." (Exodus 6:2-5)

Now, why would God have had to say this again?  What is the purpose of this happening here and why repeat himself?  And why, after God declares this to be true, does Moses once again repeat his old excuse. 

"If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips."(Exodus 6:12)

Moses repeats this twice to God, as if God didn't hear him the first time at the burning bush or the second time just moments before.

"Now when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?"(Ex. 6:28-30)

Why all this repetition?  Maybe we see here God's patience with us and with our own humanity.  We are not super heroes.  We do not possess super-human memory, able to remember in detail what is important in life.  We are human.  And as humans our memory isn't always that perfect.  We forget things.  Or we remember things wrongly.

We need reminders of God's grace and mercy.  We need reminders of who God is and what God's all about.  We need constant reminders of God and his work in this world.

We too need reminders of our own humanity.  Of our limited nature.  Of the fact that we can't do it all or be it all or live it all, as we'd like.  We are those who speak with faltering lips.

That's why we need to gather in worship.  At churches, in whatever denomination, we hear God's Word reminding us over and over again of his amazing love for us.  We are reminded that Christ Jesus died for us and that in his resurrection we are given life.  We confess our sin and remember that we are only human, that we speak to each other and God with faltering lips.  Through Holy Communion, we are given the body and blood of Christ "in remembrance of me", given with forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, to remember and proclaim Christ's death until he returns.

We do the sing the same songs, say the same thing, and do the same actions over and over again so we can remember.  So we can know, as Moses did, that God has not forgotten us.  He remembers his covenant.  He remembers his mercy.  And nothing will separate us from His love!

God, we remember the wrong and forget the right.  We easily forget you and what you gave us.  Remind us again of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Listen up, God!

Even today my complaint is bitter;
    his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
If only I knew where to find him;
    if only I could go to his dwelling!
I would state my case before him
    and fill my mouth with arguments.  Job 23:1-3

Listen up, God!
By Rev. William Dohle

Every so often, a question comes to me that really makes me think.  That question came yesterday, sitting with a friend as he struggled with life.  The question echoed in my soul, for it is a question that I've wrestled with too.  What is that question?  The man asked me:

Is it alright to be angry with God??

As I struggled with trying to answer that question, I was reminded of the times when I was angry with God.  I have, in the past, struggled with God's inaction in my life.  God can feel so distant sometimes, especially when prayers go unanswered.  Unanswered prayers lead to disappointment lead to frustration lead, sometimes to anger and to times when I've wanted to just cry out against God.

Is it alright to be angry with God??  "Yes it is..." I told him, then I tried to explain.

Anger and disappointment are things we struggle with in life.  We struggle with expressing them to our co-workers and our boss.  We hesitate and wrestle with speaking these words to our loved ones.  And, as for God, we're terrified to express our anger and disappointment with him.

"It must be me God," we tell Him.  "I don't have enough faith.  I haven't prayed hard enough.  I just don't want the right things!"

But speaking words that don't express our emotions betrays the relationship we have with God.  If God is here FOR US and if God is love and grace...then God can take our anger!

Imagine a relationship in which you didn't get angry with them.  Every mistake was your fault.  Every problem yours to bear.  When you asked the person for something and they didn't respond as you thought, your only course of action was to think it was your fault.  You did something wrong to cause their silence.

That would be no relationship worth having!

A relationship involves being happy... and sad...and angry...and grumpy...and loving...and forgiving...and all of that.  A relationship involves a whole rainbow of emotions.  Even anger.  And anger, expressed right, is healthy in a relationship.  Even a relationship with God.

If you want an example of that... look to Moses!  Moses struggled with God.  Wrestled with God.  Moses' relationship with God wasn't dependent upon him.  If it was, Moses would have left a LONG time ago.  No, Moses relationship with God was dependent upon God.  And because of that, Moses was free to be as angry as he needed to be.

"Moses returned to the Lord and said “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?  Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” Exodus 5:22-23

Can you hear the anger in these words?  Can you hear the hurt, the frustration, and the disappointment?  God SAID he'd rescue his people...and he hasn't at all.

Of course, in retrospect, we can see that God rescuing his people wasn't enough.  He was to show Pharaoh who was God of the heavens and the earth.  In his showdown with Pharaoh(which is what is coming next) God would finally answer for all Israel: "Is our God stronger than Pharaoh?"

But here... in this time with Moses... Moses is angry and disappointed and upset with God!

And... God doesn't care!  God doesn't seem to mind Moses' anger.  He doesn't say: "Hey, buddy, if you had done what I told you, how I told you then you wouldn't be in this mess."  He doesn't say: "Hey, Moses, why didn't you pray to me BEFORE we went to Pharaoh?  It's your own fault!"

God doesn't say either of these to Pharaoh...and he doesn't say it to us too!  God still takes our anger, as he took Moses' anger.  His shoulders are wide enough for your burdens.  His feelings are strong enough for your complaints.

Look at his Word.  Read the Scriptures.  Just about everyone in them struggled with their anger with God...but God loved them just the same.

And he loves you too!

So... let it all out, he can take it!  Write an angry letter to God, read it aloud, and throw it away.  He won't hold it against you.  Take a walk and rail to the heavens.  It's fine.

And after you express your anger, just sit there in the silence that follows.  Sit in the quiet and wait.  God will show up, as He showed up to Moses.  God will speak his words of peace and hope and love into your heart.  God will assure you of His presence and of his grace.  And He will continue to walk with you, even if you're still angry, all because He loves you!

I read about Moses, God, and wonder how you loved him.  And then I think about my own life and wonder the same about me.  Assure me of your love and grace, even as I struggle with expressing my anger and disappointment with you.  Amen.   

 

Words that Disturb

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:11-12


Words that Disturb
By Rev. William Dohle

"Sticks and stones will break my bones...but words will never hurt me!"

As a child these words seemed true.  But as an adult, I can't believe how false this truly is!

Words aren't harmless.  They are dangerous!  Words change the world.  They upset the status quo.  Words can get you ostracized and fired, or loved and cherished.  They can incite love or violence.  They can divide or call together.  They can bring peace or cause war.

Even simple words change the world.  Think of the words "I love you..." and how dangerous they are to speak in a relationship.  These three words change everything.  They can lead to a deeper relationship or break up a good friendship.  The words "I love you" can seal two people together for a lifetime or cast them apart.

Words are dangerous things.  They can, and do, hurt!  And will, and do, heal!

Moses learns this lesson the hard way.  Fresh off his meeting with the Israelite elders, Moses and his brother, Aaron, approach Pharaoh on his throne to say: "“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”(Ex. 5:1)  Sounds simple, doesn't it?  Not too complicated of a thing to ask.  These words shouldn't disturb, should they?  But Pharaoh already sounds angry.

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go."(Ex. 5:2)

Moses tries to calm the situation down.  Or at least explain himself.  But he does so with more words and words are dangerous.

“The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”(Ex. 5:3)

Again, Moses isn't threatening Pharaoh.  He actually sounds more frightened for himself and his people.  "Let us go...or GOD may strike US with plagues or with the sword!"  Moses is worried about HIMSELF and HIS PEOPLE.

But Pharaoh doesn't get that.  And these words that Moses speaks affect him in a way that Moses NEVER imagines or intends.

“Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!”  Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”  That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’  Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

What?!  Why did Pharaoh say THIS?  What made him so...mad?  Moses and Aaron came to him with no sword or shield or anything to really threaten him.  They came with only God's Word and a simple request.  Why did Pharaoh react like this?


The reasons are the words themselves.  Those words were powerful.  Straight from God, those words had the power to change...everything!  And they did.  But not right away.  The "powers that be", the "god" of the Egyptians, wasn't going to die without a fight.  Pharaoh fought, and fought hard, to keep things the way they were, but ultimately he failed.  God really did redeem his people, starting with a few simple words.


Our words can have the same power, especially when they are from God.  Words from God have the power to heal and to harm, to kill and to bring to life.  The same word has been known to heal one person and offend another.  And God's Word spoken in church is even more powerful.  Spoken from the pulpit, sermons have the power to inspire or incite rebellion.  They have brought communities together or split them apart.

The Word of God, spoken anywhere, will affect change.  It just does.  Not just a surface change that can be easily dismissed, but a lasting, internal change that will always have the powers that be raging against it.

So the next time you are called on to speak a word of grace to a graceless world, a word of love to the loveless, or a word of forgiveness where forgiveness is not welcome, take heart.  The next time your words cause others to fight against you, fear not.  God goes with you!  God speaks through you.  And though the world rage against you, God will overcome!

Word of God, we greeted your coming by hanging you on a cross.  Prepare us with your Spirit, that we may endure persecution and see your word fulfilled.  Amen.
    

"Who's That Guy!?"

"Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, 'I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.'"  Exodus 2:21-22

"Who's that guy?!"
 By Rev. William Dohle

We are spoiled in our world today!

Last night I had the chance to Skype to my family in Utah and show them the face of our new baby boy, Nicholas James.  It was quite an event, with my brother and his family, my sister and hers, and my parents all gazing at the cute baby on the screen.  Despite some lighting difficulties, all got to see the face of our new son "live" on screen.

Imagine if you couldn't do that, though.  Imagine if the ways we communicate, through the internet or over the telephone, or even through what we now call "snail mail" were all gone?  What if, after seeing someone leave,  you never saw or heard from them again until if and when they return?  And when they did return, they might look and think and even act like a foreigner, an outsider, a wanderer?

If you can wrap your head around that, if you can see yourself there, then you can possibly imagine what Moses' friends and family were all thinking upon his return.

Moses had, as you remember, disappeared.  He had run away from Egypt and escaped to live with the Midianites, another group of nomadic people living east.  Once there, Moses met and married Zipporah and, as married people do, the two of them had a son.

Moses never forgot where he was from.  He never forgot that he wasn't "from" Midian.  In fact, he names his son: "Gershom" which means, "Foreigner."

Moses never thinks he'll return though.  He hasn't seen that far ahead.  Not until God talks to him through a burning bush and he gets told to return.  Then, and only then, does Moses turn around and head back home.

Only Moses isn't returning like he left.  Movies like "Prince of Egypt" and "The Ten Commandments" fail to take this into account, but Moses is a very different guy when he returns.  Not only does he have a foreign wife and a new son to introduce everyone to, but he also has a mandate from God.  A message for Pharaoh.  Moses has been told to shake things up!

Before he leaves he has a strange encounter with God, where God is trying to kill him in the night and only by circumcising her son and touching it to Moses does Zipporah, his wife, save him.  It is a strange encounter, but one that illustrates the point.  Moses and his family are not from around here.  They don't even bear the mark of the covenant upon them.  Here comes an outsider and his family to bring deliverance to God's people.

Moses meets Aaron next and explains things to him.  You can only imagine what the two of them are thinking as they walk along the way and as they enter the tent with the elders of Israel.  Here he is, a foreigner.  An outsider.  A wanderer.  An Egyptian.  Adopted Son of the former Pharaoh.  Here he is a murderer with his outcast Midianite family here to bring God's Word.  Moses has nothing going for him.  What will they think?  What will they do?

But upon his return, after hearing of Moses and all his experiences and after hearing of God's deliverance, the elders of Israel bow down and worship.  They have accepted Moses.  Not because they recognize him or even accept him and his strange family.  But because the Word of God is with him.  They are grateful even for the familiar turned foreigner in their midst.  For the foreigner has brought good news of deliverance, and "lovely are the feet of those who bring good news."

Sometimes I think of how far removed I am from Moses and his experiences...until I look around me and realize that I live far from the land of my birth too.  I communicate with my family back home through the wonders of technology.  I am a foreigner here.  Without God and His Spirit, without His grace and mercy and his calling in my life, I would be lost.  I am here because of a call.  A call from God to serve his people in this place.  I did not hear God in a burning bush.  I heard him in my heart.  But he told me the same he told Moses.  "Go...and I will be with you."

Wherever the call of God takes you, whether it be to far away lands, as a literal foreigner there, or across the street or aisle to meet your neighbor in his own land, the promise given to Moses is the promise given to us today.  "I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

God, you have called us to paths uncertain and ways yet untrodden.  Equip us that no matter how foreign we feel, we might step out in faith.  Amen.

"I Don't Get It..."

"Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses."  Exodus 4:29

"I Don't Get It..."
By Rev. William Dohle

Have you ever told a joke that...bombed??  Something you found extremely funny?  Something that touched your heart?  You shared it with someone and then they just looked at you funny.

"Huh..." they said.  "Okay..."

The more you tried to explain it, the more they just didn't get it.

That's what I think of God's humor sometime.  We just don't get it.

Parts of the Bible are written to be extremely funny.  They're hilarious in fact.  But we, with our "take it all too serious" nature just don't get it.  We don't understand it.  And we wind up just looking at it and going... "Huh..."

Take Moses for instance.  Moses has just been called by God to lead the people of Israel out of the way.  Only he doesn't want to do it.  He's come up with every excuse in the book and strangely God doesn't listen.  Instead, God has told him... "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?  I know he can speak well.  He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.  You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help you both to speak and will teach you what to do.  He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him."

Now all the movies that depict Moses have him speaking to Pharaoh.  They have him talking well in fact.  In the Ten Commandments, he's boldly walking up to Pharaoh.  In The Prince of Egypt he does the same.  None of them really understand what's going on here in the text.... Namely... MOSES ISN'T TALKING!

That's right.  He's not talking to Pharaoh.  Not really.  Like some crazy game of telephone, where one person whispers in the ear of another, God is whispering in Moses' ear, Moses is whispering in Aaron's ear, and AARON IS SPEAKING!  Aaron is doing the work!

It's like some divine joke!  Instead of getting somebody who knew what they were doing.  Instead of getting some great orator or some mighty man like we picture in the movies, God chose Moses, a man who couldn't even speak!  A man who had to whisper in Aaron's ear and have Aaron play telephone with Pharaoh.

Can you imagine it!  Here they go, walking up to Pharaoh.  Pharaoh asks, "Why are you here?"

Moses whispers in Aaron's ear.  And Aaron says: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: "Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness."

Pharaoh looks puzzled.  "Uh... what?"  Or, more precisely in the text, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go?  I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go."

Moses whispers in Aaron's ear again.  "The God of the Hebrews has met with us."

No wonder Pharaoh refused.  He was probably rolling with laughter!  He probably thought this was some dumb joke!  "Get back to work!" he tells them with a laugh.

And when it turned out that it wasn't a joke...Pharaoh got even more angry!  This wasn't some mighty man coming to him demanding his rights.  It was a criminal!  A shepherd!  An outcast!  True Moses might have grown up in the Pharaoh's home, but that was a long time ago!  And to think that this man was playing some joke on him.  It was absurd!

We too find ourselves in Pharaoh's shoes...not really understanding God's sense of humor.  We think that he should send the mighty, the proud, the powerful, the rich, and the strong to save the day.  Instead, God sends the weak and the frail, the poor and the downtrodden.  God sends us!  And he does so in a way that doesn't make sense to the world.  He does so in a way that is, in fact, rather humorous!

God whispers in the ear of pastors and teachers, friends and family, and we, in turn like Aaron, relay that message to others.  We pass it on.  Sometimes its clear as a bell.  Sometimes we pass on what God is trying to say.  But other times we do not.  Other times our own agenda gets in the way and we think "God couldn't possibly have meant that!"

But still God whispers to our hearts and acts...not in the mighty way we'd think of truths and principles, but in the subtle way of humor and laughter.  Like Aaron, we carry the message to a people who look at us puzzled.  It doesn't make sense to the world...but that is God's humor at work after all.  Is it any wonder that we remember the things that make us laugh more than anything?  Let us remember that God invented laughter and invites us to laugh with him, in joy and hope throughout time!

God, I just don't get your humor sometimes.  I just don't understand how you could choose the foolish and the weak like me, but you did.  Give me confidence in your calling and trust in your grace, in Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen.