Sermons

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Walking Slowly
March 3, 2002
Eighth in a series on “Walking By Faith”
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Exodus 32

Good morning! Today we’re continuing our series on “Walking By Faith.” As we have followed the people Israel out of Egypt and into the desert, we’ve looked at their trip as not only a geographical journey, but a spiritual one. They (and we) have learned many things about what it means to walk with God. But today’s story shows them learning a particularly important lesson: the importance of walking slowly…even waiting. Walking slowly is different than not walking.

Now, you’ll have to bear with me for a minute, because we’re actually skipping over many chapters in Exodus. Jeff preached from chapter 18 last week, and today we’re in chapter 32…we’re trying hard to make it to Jerusalem by Easter! What we’ve skipped over is essentially this: The people Israel had arrived at the base of a mountain, Mt. Sinai. Moses had gone up the mountain to talk with God, and God had verbally told Moses the 10 commandments as well as many other ordinances for the people to live by. Moses returned and wrote it down, told it to the people, and Israel made there a pledge to God: “We will do this,” the people said with one voice. Then, a short time later, God calls Moses up the mountain once again.

[Note: the idea of a mountain is not insignificant here. Mountains often function in the Bible as special places, places where God is, symbolically and physically, closer to people. Elijah went up a mountain to hear God’s still, small voice. Moses does several times. Even Jesus goes up the “Mount of Olives” to pray, and he goes up the mount of Transfiguration in the story Marlene read.]

Things happen when people get closer to the presence of God. So, in chapter 24, God says, “Moses, come up again and wait…and I’ll give you tablets of stone, with the commandments I spoke to you.”

And so Moses goes up, and says to the people, “Hey, I’m just running up the mountain to Kinko’s to get a copy of the commandments, I’ll be right back.” And so he left. And the people waited. And sat. And sat. And waited. And they began to get anxious and worried. Forty days and forty nights Moses was away. That’s Biblical language for a really, really long time!

The people are in a tough spot. You see Moses wasn’t just A leader. He was THEIR leader. He spoke God’s word to them, he heard God’s voice for them, he WAS their connection to God. So the way they’d grown accustomed to hearing God wasn’t working anymore.

What had happened? What should they do? Should they wait?
Well, what they DID do…was NOT wait. Before you could count to 40, they had taken matters into their own hands. And they’d apparently had short-term memory loss, forgetting that God had already saved them repeatedly, and provided for them. If they couldn’t find the Living God anymore…they’d find a god of their own that was more accessible…more manageable. After all, what good is a God who doesn’t appear when you want Him?

This story reminded me of something. The more times I read it, I kept having this feeling… “This reminds me of something. What is it?” Finally, I thought of it. This story is just another version of a story from the book of Genesis…a terrible story, actually. The story of the first people, Adam and Eve, who are created by God, who are cared for by God and are given just one boundary: Don’t eat of the fruit of one tree. But when the snake comes to tempt them, they look around…and they don’t see God. Nowhere to be found. They don’t wait…instead, they take matters into their own hands. They, in fact, decide to do exactly what God has told them not to do. This Exodus story is so very similar. And frighteningly familiar to us. “Where is God?” He doesn’t seem to be around…so I’ll make my own way.

Will the Israelites live by faith? Or turn to idolatry? This is the choice they face. It is the choice we face. Will we walk slowly, even sit awhile and wait for God’s guidance? Or make our own kind of God? G.K. Chesterton once said that “when people stop worshipping the living God of heaven and earth, they don’t worship nothing. They worship everything.”

Just make a golden calf. It will, in fact, make your life quite a bit easier. Golden calves aren’t demanding. They don’t care if you pursue other gods. It’s perfectly okay with them if you just have a religious part of your life instead of a relationship with a God. Golden calves are piled all over the shelves of our lives. Every time we give ultimate priority to something which is not the God shown to us in Jesus Christ. Each time we follow something BESIDES God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength…the golden calf raises its head.

“God, I can’t trust you, I can’t wait any longer, I’ve gotta follow my career, I’ve gotta get to retirement, I’ve gotta pursue my dreams, I’ve gotta get my house, I’ve gotta raise my kids, I’ve gotta build my church…I can’t wait any longer to hear from you, I’m not even sure I WANT to hear from you”…another golden calf comes out of the fire.

Aaron plays a rather unique role in this story. Because with Moses gone, he’s the leader of Israel. And the people immediately get in his face, and say, “It’s time we write off Moses and his God, and get some other gods…like the other people of the Middle East…and you, Aaron…do it for us! Do it now!” Aaron doesn’t seem to totally capitulate…just sort of . He thought, perhaps, he could mix walking by faith AND idolatry. He says “Let’s have a feast day to YHWH…AND give me your gold, and I’ll make you a god.”

Maybe God doesn’t really care about having full control. But the mixing never works. Every time the Church tries it, we get into trouble. Even church communities have idols. Maybe it’s a building, maybe it’s a program, maybe it’s growth or finances or pride in some reputation…maybe those things are more important, if the truth were told…than waiting on God’s voice. One of our Confessions in the Presbyterian Book of Confessions, The Brief Statement of Faith, begins this way: “In life and in death, we belong to God.” Either that’s true or it isn’t. Either we belong to God…or god belongs to us. But we don’t belong to God and also live how we choose or run our own lives.

If only Aaron could have waited. If only he could have told the people to walk slowly, to walk by faith and stick with what they knew to be true: God Almighty had been with them on each step…he would not abandon them. But he just couldn’t do it. He’s not alone, in the Bible. In the story of the Transfiguration that Marlene read, there is good old impetuous Peter, on top of a mountain in God’s presence, and witnessing some amazing things…he couldn’t wait, he couldn’t walk slowly and see what God was doing…No, up he jumps and shouts out “Hey, Jesus, gotta great idea! We’ll stay here forever, I’ll build the booths, and we’ll have a rip roarin’ worship service!” I wonder what God had for him if he had slowed down to listen.

That’s usually what it comes down to, this walking slowly: listening. I actually was reminded of it this week. I know it doesn’t work this way for all runners, but for ME: running is not a spiritual time. I run for physical exercise. Occasionally, I can focus long enough to pray about something for about a minute and a half…but usually what runs through my head is something like: “Whew…when did the oxygen on top of Queen Anne get so thin? I’m switching sides of the street before that poodle gets a bite out of me. Actually, 5 miles is too far…I’ll start with 5 blocks.” Running doesn’t usually get me closer to God, it’s too noisy inside. But walking…for me, walking can be a marvelously intimate time with God. I can think about something instead of where my next breath comes from. I can listen. I can notice the living world around me, the people, the trees, the sky.

Walking slowly means putting ourselves in places where we can hear God…finding our own mountains, so to speak. Just like Jesus went away into the desert, or off by himself to pray. A few Saturdays from now, on the 23rd, Marlene will lead a day of prayer at the Dominican Reflection Center in Edmonds. We do this several times each year. It is a fabulous day, and place…to listen to God. Where you can see the water, look at the Olympics, walk these beautiful grounds…with very little intention other than to have space to listen to God. I can tell you from personal experience, it is always hard to make time for it in your schedule. But it is always an incredible thing to do.

We talked two weeks ago at the Alpha retreat on Whidbey Island about different ways we hear God: in the scripture, in prayer, in the voice of the community, in circumstances. And the funny thing is, while all of these things are effective…none are guaranteed. We don’t control God. God doesn’t usually respond to our formulas. And sometimes it seems like he’s not even there, like he’s going to insist that we have the room to walk by faith. Sometimes we are called to walk for awhile almost blindly, to remember who and what God has been in our lives. So we walk slowly, so we can hear God when he speaks. Whenever we go blindly off on our own…we seem to end up dancing around a golden calf.

That’s where Moses found the Israelites when he came down the mountain. And he was hot. He threw those brand new stone tablets down on the ground and smashed them…just like the people had smashed their new pledge to follow closely after God. The whole plan, the whole thing God had designed and intended had been destroyed. There was nothing to do except pick up the pieces of broken tablet and throw them over in the scrap heap with that old apple core.

And Moses is not the only one who’s mad. God is angry…but it’s not the end. God says to Moses, “YOUR people, YOUR people are stiff-necked (notice that suddenly these are not God’s people they’re Moses’! Sort of like for parents…when the kids aren’t behaving it’s “Anne, YOUR kids…”), they refuse to learn…I’ll wipe them out, and make a great nation out of you.”

To Moses’ credit, he doesn’t say “Sounds great!” Instead…Moses talks God out of it. It’s an interesting twist in this story. Moses doesn’t remind God that the Israelites are actually great folks…they’re not. He doesn’t ask God to spare the people because of HIS credentials, he knows he has no right. What he does is simply call to mind for himself and for God…who God is. “Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…how you swore to them, I will multiply you, and give a land to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever.” Remember, God, who you are: (chapter 34) “the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Moses reminded God that he was a God of mercy and compassion. The God who doesn’t give up.

We know that side of God as well…sometimes, when we walk slowly enough to listen. Isn’t it amazing that after bites of apples, and golden calves…after broken promises plugged-up ears and sins and idolatries more than we can count that we, weak-hearted people like us stumbling and fumbling around…are able to say, God is still with us? We experience it most clearly in Jesus Christ, where for yet another time the people of God said “No,” but God’s “Yes” counted for more. Our hope is in Christ, our only hope in getting through the desert…and sometimes we are called to walk slowly, to listen, and just to wait. The French scientist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote these words, which have grabbed me this week:

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
We are, quite naturally,
Impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.”

Trust in the slow work of God. The point doesn’t seem to be racing through the desert…but learning to walk by faith…slowly. Amen.