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There’s a story that makes the rounds through various religious circles, told in different ways. It tells the story of a deeply pious man in a town that is getting ready to face a flood. He hears the evacuation order on a broadcast, yet he waits and prays. He says to himself that he is a righteous man and that God will save him.
As the waters rise, a rowboat comes by his house. The people inside yell at him, “The town is flooding! Climb into our boat and we’ll take you to safety.” But the pious man says, “I am a righteous man. I pray. God will save me.” With that, the rowboat paddles on by.
As the water rises, the pious man has to make it further up the house. At this point, a motorboat comes by. The people in the boat and yell out to the pious man, “Climb in our boat and we’ll take you to safety.” But the pious man says, “I am a righteous man. I pray. God will save me.” With that, the motorboat speeds on its way.
Finally the waters rise to the point that the pious man has to climb on the roof of the house. Then a helicopter comes by. The pilot drops a ladder and says, “We are the last ones leaving town. Climb the ladder and we’ll get you to safety.” But the pious man says, “I am a righteous man. I pray. God will save me.” With that, the helicopter flies away.
As the waters continue to rise, the pious man eventually drowns. As he finds himself at the Heavenly Gates, he demands an audience with the Lord. When it is granted, the pious man says to the Lord, “I am a righteous man. I pray. I thought that You loved me. Why did you let me drown?”
And God says to the pious man, “I sent you a broadcast, a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter. Why are you here?”
God has signs all around us. Some are miraculous. Some may seem more common. Yet if we are to answer God’s call, we need to be open to hearing the Lord’s words to us. We need to be ready to listen.
How do we recognize God’s call to us? That is the question our readings examine today.
One of the key ways we know that it is God talking to us is because the Lord’s Self revelation. When Moses encounters God in the Burning Bush, God tells Moses who he is talking to. This is the God of Moses’ ancestors: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God also gives Moses the Holy Name that God is to be known by. To understand the fullness of what God is saying to Moses, it is helpful to know that written Hebrew doesn’t have vowels, only consonants. In more recent times, a system of points has been added so that when reading Hebrew, you can tell what vowels need to be placed in the word and where they are to go.
The Holy Name typically does not have these vowel points placed. This reflects the wholeness of the name. When God says “I AM WHO I AM”, God is simultaneously saying,
“I AM WHO I WAS” and
“I AM WHO I WILL BE”
just as God is also saying
“I WAS WHO I WAS”
“I WAS WHO I AM”
“I WAS WHO I WILL BE” and
“I WILL BE WHO I WAS”
“I WILL BE WHO I AM”
“I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”.
In God’s Name, the Lord is showing that God is that which always was and always remains. To reflect this message, our Jewish Siblings replace the Holy Name for the word Adonai, which means “Lord”. Out of respect, we should too.
The Lord not only reveals who God’s Self in our encounters with the Lord. God also reveals God’s plan and purpose for us in the world. That is what we see in Matthew today. There Jesus tells His Disciples the plan. He tells them about His coming death on the Cross and the Resurrection. This is who God is. This is what God does.
Yet as we hear what God is saying to us, we need to be ready to receive those words too. We need to be ready to God’s Will, not just what we want to do.
In our reading from Exodus, we already get a sense that Moses is reluctant to do what God wants. What we won’t get to see in our journey through the Lectionary is what Moses says after this exchange. He keeps looking for an excuse, any excuse, not to do what God wants. Finally, without any other excuse, he asks God to send anyone else instead.
Ultimately Moses decides to do what God wants, but only after God gives him the support of his brother Aaron. Moses does eventually become the leader we all see him as now, but only after a lot of time building up his confidence in himself and in the Lord.
Peter too comes into conflict by trying to impose his own will over God’s. Our Gospel today comes just after our Gospel last week. Just after Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, he immediately turns around and rebukes Jesus for His plan. Jesus responds with the famous line “Get behind me, Satan!”
This passage in Matthew also occurs in Mark, though interestingly without the whole “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” bit.
Peter just can’t put himself aside to realize that God’s plan might look different from his, just as we saw with the Transfiguration this summer. He can’t put his ego aside, can’t listen to God’s call to action, and so immediate after his great moment of Faith, he receives just about the worst chastisement he could have from Jesus.
Peter too eventually grows and comes to understand Jesus’ mission. It takes a lot of time, and a few more mishaps, but he does grow into his role as one of the chief Apostles of the early church.
How do we recognize God’s call to us? We first need to know who God is. We learn that by gathering here together and hearing God’s Word. After we leave here, we take the time in our homes to delve further into God’s Word so that we might know God and who God is all the more.
Then we make sure that we conform our will to God’s Will. It is not about what we want, but what God wants. After all, we continual mess up things on our own, yet God is always able to come in and clean things up for us. That’s what God did in the form of Jesus.
If nothing else, we lean on what we learn from Paul in Romans today. Love is ultimately what matters. It is at the center of God’s actions in this world. God loved us when no one else could. God loves us, even though we don’t deserve it. It’s that Love which God wants us to live into. It’s that Love which God wants us to share.
To answer God’s call, we have to train ourself to listen. That’s not only to be able to hear what God is saying, but to be open to doing what God asks us to do. It took Moses and Peter time to do this. Even Paul needed his miraculous moment to be open to what God was saying. Take your time too that you may know when God is calling and that you may answer the Lord when that occurs.