June 2015 – Tawa Baptist

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 Tawa Baptist

Reluctant Moses

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-14 & 4:1-17

Title: Reluctant Moses

Structure:

Introduction

Back-bone

The dialogue

Conclusion

Introduction:

True perfection is the ability to include imperfection [1]

The teacher who perseveres with a difficult student

The wife who goes on loving her husband even though he doesn’t trim his nose hairs and keeps leaving the toilet seat up
The father who welcomes home the prodigal son or daughter
The mother who patiently stays up all night nursing her sick child
The humble who can laugh at their own mistakes
The leader who allows criticism even when it is unfair
Anyone really who is able to forgive others and most especially able to forgive themselves

Please turn with me to Exodus 3, verse 10, page 61 in your pew Bibles

Today we continue our series on Moses
Last week we heard how God spoke to Moses as a flame in a bush, calling him to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of slavery
This week we hear how a very reluctant Moses tries to evade God’s call
Moses is all too aware of his own inadequacy
But God, who is true perfection, wants to include Moses in all his glorious imperfection

Our reading is in two parts this morning – the first part from the middle of chapter 3 and the second part from the first half of chapter 4

From verse 10 of chapter 3, God says to Moses…

[Read Exodus 3:10-14]

Now we will skip to the beginning of chapter 4 on page 62 of your pew Bibles

From verse 1 we read…

[Read Exodus 4:1-17]

May the Spirit of Jesus help us to accept the imperfection in ourselves

Back-bone:

Most of you would have heard of the three classic parenting styles…

Brick wall
Jellyfish, and
Back-bone

The brick wall parent doesn’t give an inch

It’s my way or the highway
There is no flexibility, no grace, no understanding with the brick wall parent – they come off as hard and unloving
The demanding (sometimes brutal) discipline of the brick wall style often leaves the child angry, resentful and alienated
Brick wall relationships are brittle – they don’t cope well with earthquakes or other crises because they have no give

Jellyfish parents are the opposite to this

They don’t know how to say ‘No’ to their kids – they are too soft and give in all the time
Jellyfish relationships tend to lack integrity or substance
You can’t really trust a jellyfish – they won’t support you when the chips are down and they may even sting you

Then we have the back-bone parenting style

As the name suggests, backbone parents combine strength & support with flexibility
A back-bone relationship is one you can rely on – it has integrity and substance, but it also has grace & understanding
Therefore you can trust the other person

Now when I first heard this brick wall, jellyfish, backbone thing, like most parents, I felt guilty for not always being a backbone parent

In reality though there are no perfect parents – we are all a bit of a mixture of the three
And that’s okay – the world is not a perfect place and so children need imperfect parents in order to prepare them for an imperfect world

True perfection is the ability to include imperfection

If you turn to the back page of your newsletter you will see a table there

This table basically summarises God’s dialogue with Moses
On one side of the table we have Moses’ objections to God’s call
And on the other side we have God’s response

Verses	Moses’ objections	God’s response	Verses
3:11	Who am I? (I am nobody)	I will be with you	3:12
3:13	Who are you?(What’s your name)	“I am who I am” Or,“I will be who I will be”	3:14
4:1	What if Israel doesn’t believe me?	Here are 3 signs to help them believe you	4:2-9
4:10	I’m not a good speaker	I will help you to speak	4:11-12
4:13	Send someone else(or – send whoever you want)	I will give you Aaron as your spokesman	4:14-17

When God calls Moses to confront Pharaoh and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses tries to talk God out of it

Five times he resists God’s call on his life

Moses comes across as a bit insecure

He appears full of self-doubt and lacking confidence
But in a paradoxical kind of way Moses’ questions and objections are actually a good thing
It is helpful and necessary to deal with our doubts in God’s presence before going out to face the enemy

Not only that but Moses’ questioning of God allows a meaningful dialogue to take place

If Moses had simply said ‘yes’ to God without offering any resistance then the conversation would have ended
Moses might not have heard God’s name nor been properly equipped to face Israel and Pharaoh – he would have no answer for his doubts

The other good thing here, about Moses’ resistance, is that it reveals back-bone

The fact that Moses is able to stand up to God bodes well for when he will have to stand up to Pharaoh
Leaders need a certain amount of stubbornness
Pharaoh was a brick wall, against which a jellyfish would make no impression
If you want to shift a brick wall you need backbone – strength combined with flexibility

God responds to Moses’ reluctance with some backbone of his own

He doesn’t give Moses what he wants or let him off the hook
God could have done the job himself but he doesn’t
God is resolute in his plan to work with the imperfect Moses
By the same token he doesn’t bulldoze Moses either
God gives Moses support with flexibility
He dialogues with Moses

The Dialogue:

A dialogue is a two way conversation, sort of like tennis – one player hits the ball over the net and the other player responds by hitting it back

God serves a rip snorter to Moses saying, ‘I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country’

And Moses sends God’s serve right back over the net with, ‘I am nobody’
Or more literally, ‘Who am I to go the king of Egypt?’

Interestingly, God takes Moses’ concerns seriously

God doesn’t deny what Moses is feeling
And he doesn’t disagree with Moses’ assessment of himself
God simply says, ‘I will be with you’
Which is sort of like saying, ‘Yea, I agree with you Moses. You’re not adequate by yourself. But I’m more than adequate, so don’t worry’
God is inviting Moses to trust him

Moses isn’t entirely sure if he is ready to trust the Lord just yet, so he fires the ball back over the net to God with another question

‘In case someone asks me, what’s your name?’
First Moses had asked, ‘Who am I?’
Now he asks, ‘Who are you?’

Names in Biblical times were significant

The Lord’s name is his story
It sums up who he is and what he wants to make known about himself [2]

In verse 14 of Exodus 3, God famously replies, “I am who I am” which can also be translated, “I will be who I will be”

God’s name doesn’t reveal everything about him but it does show us some things

Firstly, that we don’t define God – he defines himself
There is a certain divine freedom in this

‘I am who I am’ is quite open ended

It means, if we are going to be in relationship with God, then we must be prepared to cope with mystery
with not knowing
with loose ends and unresolved questions,
For God won’t be tied down or dissected

‘I will be who I will be’ indicates that God’s story is being told in human history and so it is unfolding even as history continues to unfold

In Tolkien’s book, The Lord of the Rings, the character Treebeard speaks of his name in this way…

“My name is growing all the time and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to” [3]

The people of Israel would come to know the meaning of God’s name through the history of his presence with them and salvation of them

We come to know the meaning of God’s name through Christ

Reluctant Moses tries to get the ball out of his court a third time by saying, in verse 1 of Exodus 4, ‘But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say…?’

At which point God gives Moses power to perform three signs
Turning a stick into a snake and back into a stick again
Turning a hand leprous and back into a healthy hand again
And turning water into blood

These might seem like pretty random things but I suspect they were freighted with meaning

The Pharaohs wore a crown on their head and on the front of that crown was a cobra snake, raised and ready to strike as a threat to Egypt’s enemies

By giving Moses the power to change his stick into a snake and back again I reckon God was saying, ‘Egypt is no threat to me, so you don’t need to feel threatened by them either’
Interestingly God told Moses to pick up the snake by the tail
This is the most dangerous way to pick up a snake for it can whip it’s head around and bite you
Just as God protected Moses from the snake, so too he would protect Moses (and Israel) from Pharaoh

With the second sign God tells Moses to put his hand inside his robe and when Moses does it turns leprous

Then when Moses repeats the movement his hand is made healthy again
This sign is different from the other two in that it was a sign which was done to Moses’ person – his own body

Lepers were considered unclean and were excluded from society

Moses had lived like a leper for a long time, in the sense that he had been excluded from Hebrew & Egyptian society
Moses also felt unfit or unworthy for the task God was calling him to
But God has the power to declare things clean
He has the power to open doors so those standing on the outside looking in may be included
God, who is true perfection, is able to include Moses’ imperfection – to declare Moses clean

The third sign, turning the water of the river Nile into blood, shows us that God has power over life and death and he is putting that power into Moses’ hands

Water & blood are both symbols of life and potentially death
Egypt relied on the Nile for its livelihood
Turning the river into blood would destroy the economy

These three signs prefigure the 10 plagues that will come on Egypt

Moses is becoming a bit desperate now – God just doesn’t seem to be getting the hint, so he says…

Lord… I have never been a good speaker and I haven’t become one since you began speaking to me. I am a poor speaker, slow and hesitant.

Perhaps Moses thinks he’s got God here, because a leader needs to be able to communicate effectively

There was a king who lived during the Second World War who struggled with a speech impediment – can anyone tell me his name? [Wait]

Yes, that’s right, King George the sixth, also known as Bertie
He was the father of our current Monarch, Queen Elizabeth the second

A movie came out recently called the King’s Speech, which tells King George’s story

After his brother abdicated, Bertie reluctantly assumes the throne
He doesn’t want to be king because that requires public speaking – the one thing he can’t do well
Every time he opens his mouth in public he is vulnerable – for his greatest weakness is exposed for the whole world to see
Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue who helps him find his voice and lead the country through the war

Hitler was articulate and charismatic, some might say a gifted speaker – kind of the opposite of King George and yet, who won the war?

God does not call perfect individuals to leadership – he chooses what is weak in the eyes of the world to shame the strong
God did not miraculously heal Moses’ slowness of speech and he didn’t heal King George’s stammer either
But he does help Moses, as he helped King George
God works in and through real human impediments to further his purpose

True perfection is the ability to include imperfection

In verse 13 of Exodus 4, Moses says, No Lord, send someone else

This translation is something of a paraphrase
The original Hebrew is far more vague – it literally reads…
Send by whose hand you will send– which could mean…
Have it your own way [God] – do what you want – send whoever [4]

Either way it is clear that Moses is not happy to be chosen for the task

Verse 14 tells us God became angry with Moses at this

I don’t think God’s anger here is the anger of impatience

God is eternal – he literally has all the time in the world – he is the very definition of patience and long suffering
So why is God angry?

Well, it seems to me that often when God gets angry in the Bible it is because someone has mistreated what God values

For example, God values the poor & the oppressed – so if we mistreat them God will be angry with us
Likewise if God gives us something sacred or holy and we treat his gift cheaply or in an unholy way, then he is not happy

God has just given Moses a sacred call – a special job to do – and that job involves helping the poor & oppressed

But Moses has turned his back on the poor by rejecting God’s call – he has treated them cheaply as though they were nothing
So we can understand why God is angry – Moses has been careless with people God cares about

And yet God still has the strength and the flexibility to accommodate Moses

He says, ‘Okay then, I’ll send Aaron with you as your spokesman’
As it turns out Moses ends up doing most of the talking anyway

Conclusion:

True perfection is the ability to include imperfection

When we look at the ministry of Jesus we see quite clearly that he included imperfection

Jesus called very ordinary people to be his witnesses and disciples
Not only that but he had a reputation for hanging out with imperfect people – lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes and so on

In Matthew 5 Jesus says to his disciples…

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
You must be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect
And what does it mean to love your enemy?
It means to include them – include them in your prayers, include them in sharing good things – even though they are not perfect

The ones Jesus had the biggest problem with were the Pharisees. Why?

Because they had no tolerance for imperfection
They wouldn’t admit the imperfection in themselves and consequently they gave everybody else a hard time for being imperfect

It is one thing to include other people’s imperfection but it is another thing entirely to accept our own imperfection

Somehow imperfection is more tolerable in other people
In fact someone else’s imperfection can make us feel positively wonderful about ourselves – unless of course their failings remind us of our own, and then we are likely to give them a hard time

We do such violence to our own soul when we judge and condemn those parts of ourselves that we find unacceptable

We can be that brick wall parent to the child in us

We can be so hard on ourselves – so unforgiving of our own weaknesses and mistakes
We do well to remember that we are sacred to God
You are sacred to God – so be careful with yourself
The things you detest may be the very things God values the most

True perfection is the ability to include imperfection

[1] From Richard Rohr’s daily meditation for Tuesday 16 June 2015

[2] Motyer, BST Exodus, page 68

[3] J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, page 454.

[4] Alec Motyer, BST Exodus, page 81

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015 Tawa Baptist

Close Encounters

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-12

Title: Close Encounters

Structure:

Introduction
God’s humility – vv. 1-6
God’s love – vv. 7-10
Moses’ honesty – vv. 11-12
Conclusion

Introduction:

The Franciscan scholar Ilia Delio observes…

‘Before encounter, God is perceived as omnipotent power; after encounter, God is perceived as humble love.’

Omnipotent power is unlimited power, supreme power, power which cannot be trumped by any other

Omnipotent power is overwhelming and fills us with fear
In contrast, humble love is down to earth, accessible love, love which empties us of all pretence and invites an honest response

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 3, page 61 near the beginning of your pew Bibles

In this reading we see God’s humility in the very down to earth way he speaks to Moses out of a bush.
And we see God’s love through his attention and concern for Israel, his oppressed people
We also see Moses’ honesty in objecting to God’s call

From verse 1 of Exodus 3 we read…

[Read Exodus 3:1-12]

May we encounter the Spirit of Jesus in this Scripture reading

God’s humility:

Aslan is the Lion in CS Lewis’ Narnia series

Aslan represents God

I suppose Lewis chose a Lion to represent God because of the particular images lions raise in the human imagination

We associate lions with power, strength & royalty (they are considered the king of the jungle)
Lions are also normally thought of as wild or untameable – something we can’t control and therefore something to be feared

Lucy may have been afraid of Aslan at first (before actually meeting him) – as we are all afraid of omnipotent power, but after actually encountering Aslan Lucy came to know this lion as humble love

The movement from perceiving God as omnipotent power to perceiving him as humble love is a movement from fear to faith – from terror to trust
It is a movement from hiding from God to being honest with God
This appears to be Moses’ experience in our reading this morning

Exodus 3 begins by telling us how Moses was going about his regular job – shepherding sheep & goats

Moses is quite a bit older by this stage – it has been many years since he ran away from Egypt
He arrives at Mt Sinai in the Horeb wilderness
Horeb basically means ‘wasteland’
This is a lonely place

Verse 2 tells us that, there (at Sinai) the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses as a flame coming from the middle of a bush

Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up
So he went closer to investigate
He doesn’t yet realise that the angel of the Lord is in the bush

Many Christians believe the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is a cloaked reference to Jesus – before he became human

An angel is basically a heavenly messenger and Jesus is the Word of God
Hence the angel of the Lord is God’s Word – Jesus in a different form

I’m not sure we should try to tie it down too much for there is a certain mystery here which we can’t explain

The point seems to be, God presents himself to Moses, on this occasion, as a talking flame inside a bush

There is significant symbolism in this

Fire is powerful and dangerous – it is not safe to get too close to fire but, at just the right distance, fire can warm us, comfort us and give us light

Furthermore, as Alec Motyer points out, the fact that the fire does not consume the bush shows us that Yahweh is ‘a self-maintaining, self-sufficient reality [who] does not need to draw vitality from the outside’ [1]

In other words, God is not like fire in every respect
Fire needs oxygen and fuel to survive – but God doesn’t need anything to survive – he is entirely independent and without needs
Creation depends on God but God does not depend on creation

It’s also interesting that God should be found in a bush

You can’t get more down to earth, more grounded, more humble, more non-threatening than a bush

God (who is bigger than we can imagine) is basically making himself small so that Moses can cope with the conversation

If God were to reveal himself to Moses (or any of us) in all his glory we couldn’t handle it – we would be completely overwhelmed
So God very graciously speaks out of a bush – he dresses down and makes himself small so that Moses won’t feel so threatened

Having said that, Moses is still pretty frightened by the whole experience

When he realises God is in the bush he covers his face because he is afraid to look at God
Before encounter, God is perceived to be omnipotent power – and therefore terrifying
Moses won’t always be so afraid though – and nor will God always seem so small
Moses’ perception of God is like Lucy’s perception of Aslan
Returning to Narnia for a moment, in the book Prince Caspian Lucy says…

“Aslan”, you’re bigger”.

“That’s because you are older little one…

every year you grow, you will find me bigger”

God starts small with Moses, but as Moses grows in faith he finds that God gets bigger too, until eventually the Lord is represented as a pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day

The beauty of it is we can never out-grow God nor be too small for him

Interestingly God introduces himself by saying…

I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
To me this says that God is known through relationship
It also indicates a continuity or connection between Moses and his forebears – it’s sort of a way of establishing common ground
A way of saying – I know your roots Moses, I understand where you come from – your family and me have got history, we go way back

But the part that is most interesting to me is God’s humility in identifying with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob

God could have introduced himself in a quite a big deal kind of way
He could have said, ‘I am the God of the universe – the God of the Milky Way, the God of infinite might, the God of eternity and time, bow before me mortal’ – but he doesn’t
God doesn’t give a list of his achievements
Instead in a rather humble and far more personal way he identifies himself with three imperfect human beings
That’s quite cool really

God’s love:

The Hunger Games movies have been quite popular the past 2 or 3 years

The Hunger Games is a variation on the ‘Exodus story with the ‘Capital’ parallel to Egypt and the oppressed ‘Districts’ parallel to Israel
President ‘Snow’ is like Pharaoh and Katniss is sort of like Moses
The story line and characters in the Hunger Games don’t match the Exodus account exactly but certainly they share similar themes

Returning to Exodus 3…

You might be thinking, ‘I get what you’re saying about God being humble, but where does the love part come in?’

Well, God reveals his love in verses 7-10, where he says…

I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated…

I have heard them cry out to be rescued…
I know all about their sufferings…
I have come down to rescue them…
I have indeed heard the cry of my people…
I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them…
Now I am sending you [Moses] to lead my people out of Egypt

I have seen

I have heard

I know

I have come down

I have heard

I see

I am sending you

Here we have seven statements of God’s love

The key to understanding is found in the middle of the list where the Lord says, I have come down

God’s seeing isn’t from a distance – up on a cloud somewhere

His seeing is up close and personal, for he has come down
Nor is his hearing detached or unfeeling, for God hears the cry of his people like a parent hears the unique cry of their child in distress
It tears at his heart
Likewise, God’s knowing isn’t just an intellectual head knowledge
God’s knowing is the understanding which comes from first-hand experience – for God has been present amongst his people throughout their suffering and has in fact suffered with them

Although God sees, hears and knows (first hand) the sufferings of his people in Egypt, Moses doesn’t – at least not to the same extent

Moses has been living away from his people for a long time and even when he did live in Egypt he was in the sheltered environment of the palace – so why does God want to send Moses to lead the people out?

Well, Moses may not have suffered in exactly the same way as his fellow Israelites, but he had suffered – exile is no picnic

Perhaps Moses’ exile was one of the things that qualified him for this particular task. As Richard Rohr says…

“It seems until you are excluded from any system, you are not able to recognise the idolatries, lies or shadow side of that system… There seems to be a ‘structural blindness’ for people who are content and satisfied on the inside…

It is always the forgotten one… who understands things more deeply and breaks through to enlightenment.” [2]

Perhaps it was necessary for Moses to be excluded and forgotten for a time in order for him to recognise what was wrong with the Egyptian system

That way he wouldn’t make the same mistakes with Israel

Moses’ honesty:

‘Before encounter, God is perceived as omnipotent power; after encounter, God is perceived as humble love.’

The movement from perceiving God as omnipotent power to perceiving him as humble love is a movement from fear to faith – from terror to trust
It is a movement from hiding from God to being honest with God

Moses has gone from being too afraid to look at God, to feeling comfortable enough to talk back to God

This is what an encounter with the God of humble love does – it makes honest dialogue possible
Moses responds to God’s request by saying, “I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt”
To us this might appear like humility – but actually it’s not

As our friend C.S. Lewis reminds us…

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less
In other words, humility is not the same thing as poor self-esteem
It’s not the same as doubting your value

God is humble in the sense of thinking of himself less

When we look at God’s words to Moses so far, we notice they are largely about other people – God says hardly anything about himself
Moses on the other hand is quite self-focused at this point
Thinking less of yourself (as Moses does here) is still thinking of yourself

God answers Moses, “I will be with you…”

In other words, think of yourself less and think of me more – you’re not alone

God also gives Moses a sign or a proof

“When you bring the people out of Egypt you will worship me on this mountain”

I think God is saying more than one thing at once here

At a surface level God is saying…
‘The proof that I have sent you is that you will be successful – you will bring the people out of Egypt and worship me on this mountain’

The flip side (or the unspoken part of this) is…

‘You won’t argue with me (as you are now Moses) you will praise me’

Going a little deeper – God is inviting Moses to trust him, for the sign requires faith, it won’t be fulfilled until after Moses has done what God asks

But at an even deeper level I think God is also saying to Moses…

‘You doubt your value, don’t run from who you are’ [3]

In other words,

‘I believe in you Moses – you are a leader – you were born to do this’

Conclusion:

Before encounter, God is perceived as omnipotent power; after encounter, God is perceived as humble love.

Soren Kierkegaard tells a parable of a king and a maiden which helps to illustrate the humble love of God. [4]

Once there was a rich and powerful king who fell in love with a beautiful woman

This king was no ordinary king
Every statesman trembled before his power and might
World leaders brought him tributes and showered him with the best of everything their lands had to offer
People were so afraid of him that no one dared breath a word against himOne day, while out walking, this most mighty of men was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a beautiful woman
The king had his intelligence service investigate the woman
And they found that she was not rich and powerful like him
She was simply a regular person with an ordinary job, paying her bills like everyone elseAt first the king tried to ignore his feelings but unexpressed love turns into pain
The more he tried to ignore what he felt the more he couldn’t help thinking about her until eventually the king could stand it no more
There was nothing for it but to declare his love for the beautiful maiden
And to find out if she held love in her heart for him
Perhaps that way he might find some peaceBut the king was no sooner on his way to her house than he realized something
How would he know whether she really loved him or not – whether she would be truly happy at his side?The king knew he could impress the woman with his power and wealth
He could visit her in his helicopter with all his body guards
He could fly her to Paris for dinner and shower her with jewellery, but grand gestures like that might only deceive them both
For then the maiden would never truly know whether she loved the giver or just his gifts
Elevating the maiden would only alienate her from him further In an ironic kind of way the king’s very power and wealth made it difficult for people to get close to him
The king didn’t want a cringing fearful subject for a wife
He wanted someone who would be honest with him
He wanted someone he could trust
He wanted a friend and a loverFor this is the nature of love, that it desires genuine equality with the beloved So, motivated by love for the maiden, the king humbled himself
Putting aside his claim to the throne he took on a new identity to win her hand
He rented a place in her neighbourhood, became a carpenter and suffered much – for this was the only way she could know him and relate with him on equal terms Humble love you see

God doesn’t want to force or manipulate or control people
God wants people to relate with him freely, willingly, because we trust him and because we love him

The goal with God is not following orders

The goal is mutual friendship
The goal is not grudging service
The goal is joyful worship
Not duty – but delight
With the goal of right relationship in mind God does not overwhelm us with his power – He descends to us in humble love

It’s shocking really that God Almighty would seek equality of relationship with humanity

But that is exactly what he did with Moses
And what he has done with each one of us through Christ

[1] Alec Motyer, BST Commentary on Exodus, page 56

[2] Richard Rohr, ‘Things Hidden’, pages 92-93.

[3] I think Aslan may have said this to Edmund in one of the Narnia books

[4] This is not Kierkegaard’s original parable, just a paraphrase of it

June 7, 2015 Tawa Baptist

Just Moses

Scripture: Exodus 2:11-22

Title: Just Moses

Structure:

Introduction
Punitive justice
Restorative justice
Social justice
Conclusion

Introduction:

“Peace without justice is tyranny” [1]

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 2, verse 11, page 60, near the beginning of your pew Bibles

Today we continue our series on Moses in the book of Exodus
I’ve given this morning’s sermon the title ‘Just Moses’
Partly because we see Moses on his own quite a bit in this reading
But also because, in this passage, Moses realises that the peace Egypt enjoys is a false peace – it is in fact tyranny for it is peace without justice
From verse 11 of chapter 2 we read…

Read Exodus 2:11-22

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

In this reading Moses demonstrates three kinds of justice…

Punitive justice, restorative justice and social justice

Punitive justice:

On the wall here is a picture of a woman (a virgin actually) holding a sword in one hand and set of scales in the other

Who can tell me what this symbolises? [Wait]
Yes, that’s right – it is a symbol of justice

The virgin woman represents purity and innocence

While the scales represent even handedness or fairness – the idea of weighing the evidence equitably so that justice is served
But also the idea of making sure the punishment measured out is in balance with the crime committed
The sword represents not only the power to punish but also the precision to clearly separate the issues in dispute

This image finds resonance with the Bible in a number of respects…

Quite often in the Bible wisdom is personified as a woman

And wisdom is what is needed for rulers to exercise justice
Hence it is a woman (the symbol of wisdom) holding the scales of justice

The Bible also talks about the importance of using honest scales and in not going overboard with punishment

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus indicated that God’s justice fits the crime, when he said…

The measure you use for others is the measure God will use for you [2]

Likewise, in the book of Hebrews, God’s word is described as a double edged sword separating the thoughts and attitudes of the heart, [3] so an accurate and fair judgment can be made

And of course, the sword is also a metaphor of punishment
In his letter to the Romans, Paul talks about the government having a God given role in executing punitive justice…
For he does not bear the sword for nothing. He [the government] is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer.

In Exodus 2 we read how an adult Moses went out to visit his people

Moses you will remember had been raised with the royal Egyptian family after Pharaoh’s daughter took him under her wing to protect him
Moses’ upbringing had been a relatively privileged one
He received the best education available and never wanted for a thing
So he wasn’t treated like a slave as his Hebrew kin were
And this was probably necessary for God’s purpose
To be effective in leading Israel out of slavery Moses needed to think like a freeman – not like a slave

It is quite significant really that Moses sent himself

He could have stayed in the comfort of the palace
He could have sent a servant to check things out and bring back a report
He could have given money
But he didn’t – Moses gave himself and that takes courage

This reminds us of Jesus who left heaven and came to earth to give himself

When Moses saw the suffering of his own people

And when he saw an Egyptian kill a Hebrew he felt compelled to act
In quite a deliberate & premeditated way Moses looked around to see no one was watching & then killed the offender, hiding his body in the sand

Some people are a bit hard on Moses at this point – they say he was an angry young man or that he was impetuous and lacked self-control

I don’t think we should be too quick to judge Moses though
The text doesn’t actually say Moses was angry – although it is reasonable to infer that he was
It takes a lot to kill a man and it is hard to imagine Moses not feeling anything here
Whatever he may have felt I don’t think Moses had a problem with anger
I think he had a problem with injustice – he had no tolerance for it
And that is actually a good thing. As Benjamin Franklin said…

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

Many of us were brought up with this idea that anger is always bad and we must never get angry because that suggests we are bad

And to be fair, anger is bad when it’s misplaced – when we take our rage out on some innocent third party
But outrage is not wrong in itself – it can be an appropriate response to injustice
If you cut yourself you bleed, if you see injustice you feel angry
I think God made us like himself, to be disturbed by injustice
So that we will be motivated to do something about it

It appears Moses was affected by the injustice he saw

He wanted to restore some balance to the scales of justice
So he killed the Egyptian as a punishment
We might call this punitive justice – justice which makes things even by taking something away

The Law of Moses would later include elements of punitive justice

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
The idea here is not so much to enforce a punishment as it is to limit the extent of the punishment
To ensure that people don’t go overboard in carry out their vengeance

Punitive justice is not ideal in that it takes something away

It’s a lose / lose scenario – no one wins
‘An eye for eye will make the whole world blind’ [4] – as they say

Having said that, punitive justice will probably always be necessary, at least until Christ returns

It can be a deterrent for many people
And it may placate people’s anger for a time
But it doesn’t have the power to transform people
Punitive justice, by its very nature, influences people by external force
Genuine transformation comes from the inside, not from the outside

By killing the Egyptian Moses didn’t really achieve much – there would be plenty more task masters just as brutal to replace the one Moses eliminated

And the result for Moses was a loss of freedom
Moses was forced into exile and obscurity by his actions

Restorative justice:

Earlier we showed a classic image of justice – a woman carrying balanced scales in one hand and a sword in the other

Here’s another image of justice…

Or a couple of images actually

One of two people shaking hands
And the other of a group of people sitting in a circle talking
These are images of restorative justice

The image of a woman carrying scales and a sword is quite impersonal

Justice isn’t merely a mechanism – like scales or a sword
Nor is it an end in itself
Justice is an inter-personal relationship – justice must serve relationship

The next day, after killing the Egyptian, Moses returned and saw two Hebrew men fighting

Once again Moses is confronted with an injustice and finds himself unable to resist getting involved – he says to the one in the wrong,

“Why are you beating up a fellow Hebrew?”

What we notice here is that Moses takes a different approach from the day before – Moses doesn’t resort to violence, instead he uses his words

He tries to restore the relationship by talking about it

Punitive justice takes something away – Restorative justice puts it back

So for example, if someone steals your car and crashes it, then punitive justice takes something away from the offender without giving anything to the victim

Neither the offender nor the victim get a say in the matter – it’s lose / lose
Restorative justice though, gives the victim a voice and the offender the opportunity to make it right – it’s potentially win / win

On the wall here is a table comparing & contrasting punitive justice & restorative justice…

Punitive Justice	Restorative Justice [5]
What rule has been broken?	What happened?
Who is to blame?	Who has been affected and how?
What will the punishment be?	What needs to be done to put things right?

There is no redemption in punitive justice but there is opportunity for redemption with restorative justice

The Law of Moses would later include elements of restorative justice

Leviticus 6, for example: If anyone cheats his neighbour out of his stuff then he must return what was lost or stolen and add 20% to it

Later Jesus would give strong emphasis to a restorative approach

When Peter came to him and asked, ‘Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times?’
Jesus replied, ‘No, not seven times, but seventy times seven’ – meaning as often as it takes

Moses may have had the right idea in acting as a peace-maker and trying to restore the relationship between the two Hebrew men, but his input wasn’t appreciated

The man in the wrong answered, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian?”
Moses was only trying to help but he was rejected by his own people
I think this would have hurt Moses – it would have left its mark on him

This was Jesus’ experience too

When Jesus challenged the religious leaders by asking…
Why are you laying heavy burdens on your own people,
Why are you beating them up with unnecessary shame & guilt,
Why are you making their lives harder?
They crucified him

After Moses learned that Pharaoh was trying to have him killed, he fled for his life to the land of Midian

Social justice:

So far we have looked at two different kinds of justice: punitive & restorative

God is interested in a third kind also – what we might call social justice

‘Equality does not mean justice’

Giving everyone the same box to stand on doesn’t make it fair because not everyone is the same height
The tall guy doesn’t need a box to see over the fence
The short guy needs two boxes
Distributing resources & opportunities so everyone has what they need to see over the fence is social justice

One day, after running away from Egypt, Moses finds himself sitting by a well when seven young women come along to draw water for their flocks

As they do this some other (male) shepherds drive the women away
Once again Moses is confronted with an injustice

You’ve probably heard the saying,

‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime’
Well that’s okay but what if the man doesn’t have fair access to fishing equipment or to the fish pond itself?
Then we have a social justice issue

Driving the women away from the well so they couldn’t water their flocks was a social justice issue

And as one who can’t stand to see people abusing power Moses takes action to help correct the imbalance
This time though he doesn’t use violence or diplomacy
He doesn’t try to punish the shepherds nor does he try to restore the broken relationship
This time Moses simply waters the flocks for the women

Now there may be some who would say, ‘That’s a poor solution because it doesn’t empower the women to do it themselves – and it reinforces unhelpful stereotypes about women not being able to cope without men’

Well, that’s not how I see it

If the goal is to bring about social change, so that women shepherds are allowed fair access to the well for watering their flocks, then the change needs to come from inside the male shepherds
I’m talking about changing attitudes and values and mind-sets
Internal change comes about by being with someone who embodies that change – experiencing someone who is a living example of the change

Just outside the Wellington railway station there is a statue of Mahatma Ghandi with the quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world”

I wonder if this is what Moses was aiming for when he watered the women’s flock
Yea he was doing it for them – but perhaps he was also making a statement to the other male shepherds
Perhaps his act of chivalry would have made them stop and think about their actions so they felt a little ashamed for how they had behaved
Maybe next time they would remember Moses’ example and allow the women access to the well – who knows?

What we do know is that Moses found acceptance and a family for his efforts

Whether Moses was able to change attitudes by his example or not the Law of Moses would later include elements of social justice

In the book of Numbers (chapter 27) the five daughters of Zelophehad asked for an inheritance in the Promised Land because their father had no sons and Moses granted it to them
Social justice you see – giving everyone fair access to the fish pond, giving everyone the means to see over the fence.

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve considered three different kinds of justice…

Punitive justice – where people are punished by having something taken away from them
Restorative justice – where the loss (and hopefully the relationship) are restored
And social justice – where everyone gets fair access to the fish pond, or the watering well

There is a true story which illustrates all of these kinds of justice at once

Many of you would have heard it already but it’s worth retelling

Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII

He was a colourful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.

One bitterly cold evening in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city

LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself
Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread
She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving

But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges

“It’s a real bad neighbourhood, your Honour.” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions—ten dollars or ten days in jail.”

But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

Everyone in the court room gave the mayor a standing ovation [6]

Mayor LaGuardia made sure the requirements of punitive justice were met and at the same time attempted some social justice

The woman was also restored in that she now had money in her pocket with which to pay the grocer for the bread she had stolen

There was someone else of course who managed to satisfy the requirements of punitive, restorative and social justice all at once & that was Jesus, on the cross

He took our punishment
He made it possible for us to be restored to right relationship with God
And he provided access for everyone to drink from the well of life
For [in Christ] there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ [7]

[1] Attributed to William Allen White

[2] Matthew 7:1-2

[3] Hebrews 4:12

[4] This is often attributed to Mahatma Ghandi although it is unclear if he actually said it

[5] http://www.restorativeschools.org.nz/restorative-practice

[6] Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pages 91-2

[7] Romans 10:12