Recorded Sermon

This month contains a silver anniversary.

Something significant happened exactly 25 years ago. Ronald Reagan was president, leading the fight against communism. He told a story about a collective farm in the Soviet Union, one in which a state commissar grabbed a farm worker and said, “Comrade, how are the crops?”

“Oh,” said the farm worker, “Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.”

The commissar corrected him, “This is the Soviet Union, comrade. There is no God.”

“That’s all right,” said the farm worker, “there are no potatoes.”

But that’s a joke — that’s not what happened in February 1983. That month, Ronald Reagan proclaimed 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.”

You remember it, don’t you? “The Year of the Bible.”

I didn’t think so.

Sure, 1983 was better known for the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H, which ended after 11 years and 251 episodes. It was the same year that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007. Oh, and this might surprise you: Microsoft Word was first released that year.

But 1983 as “The Year of the Bible”? It’s hard to remember. I certainly don’t.

President Reagan’s proclamation said, in part, “Today our beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we have seldom, if ever, been tested before.” That was true then, and it is true today.

He went on to say, “We will need resources of spirit even more than resources of technology, education, and armaments. [The Bible is] the writing that Abraham Lincoln called ‘the best gift God has ever given to man … But for it we could not know right from wrong.”

“The Year of the Bible” came and went, and few people — if any — remember it. But we still need the “resources of spirit even more than resources of technology.” The Bible remains one of God’s greatest gifts to us, revealing God’s will and showing us what is right and wrong. It is a book that should be approached with gratitude and urgency … not just one year, but every year.

Today’s passage from Exodus gives us an excellent place to begin. Here, God instructs Moses to “take two tablets” — the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, into a cloud that contains the glory of the Lord, and receives the gift of two tablets. But he soon discovers that the laws of God can be hard for people to swallow.

The Lord had announced the Ten Commandments several chapters earlier, delivering these laws in a terrifying display of thunder and lightning and smoke. This sound-and-light show causes the people of Israel to tremble and stand at a distance, and they say to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:19).

Moses tries to reassure the people and calm their fears, saying, “God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin” (v. 20). But the people remain at a distance, and they let Moses walk between them and God.

The Lord then gives the warning, “You shall not … make for yourselves gods of gold” (v. 23). This is a clear and logical extension of the Second Commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (v. 4). But do the people remember it? Do they keep it? Or does it disappear as quickly as “The Year of the Bible”?

Wait and see.

In today’s passage of Scripture, Moses climbs up Mount Sinai to be close to God. The Lord says to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction” (24:12).

The glory of the Lord is like a devouring fire on the mountaintop, a fire surrounded by a thick cloud. Moses enters the cloud, and stays there for “forty days and forty nights” (vv. 17-18) — a very long time. Moses goes where no one has ever gone before, into the active and dangerous presence of Almighty God himself, and no one knows if Moses will ever return.

In Reagan’s joke about the Soviet Union, the communist commissar says, “There is no God.” But in today’s passage, Moses doesn’t make that mistake — God is in his face, alive and powerful, like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain.

So God is real, and he is teaching Moses right from wrong. At the end of their mile-high conversation, God gives Moses “the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (31:18).

“Take two tablets,” God says. “They are a powerful prescription, and some of the best gifts I’ll ever give you.” They say: No other gods … no idols … no misuse of God’s name … remember the sabbath … honor your parents … no murder … no adultery … no stealing … no false testimony … no coveting.

Now you might be wondering why God gives Ten Commandments … instead of Nine, or Eleven. Comedian George Carlin answers this question by saying that ten sounds official and important. It’s a psychologically satisfying number, such as in “The Top Ten,” “The Ten Most Wanted,” “The Ten Best Dressed,” “Ten Commandments of Faith and Fitness.” So, according to George Carlin, having Ten Commandments was really … a marketing decision.

Yeah, right. If only it had worked. Ten is anything but a magic number.

In chapter 32 of Exodus, the Israelites quickly become impatient. They gather around Aaron, the older brother of Moses, and say to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (32:1).

Aaron complies with their request, and asks for donations of gold earrings. He melts them down, makes them into a golden calf, and announces, “There are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (v. 4). Aaron proclaims a festival, and the people eat, drink, and raise the roof in revelry.

It doesn’t take long for the people to break the Second Commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” along with the follow-up prohibition, “You shall not … make for yourselves gods of gold.” When Moses approaches the camp and sees the golden calf and the dancing, his anger burns fiercely and he throws the two tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. Then he burns the calf, grinds it into powder, mixes it with water, and makes the Israelites drink it (vv. 19-20).

Moses shoves the calf down their throats. Talk about a bitter pill to swallow.

The people are punished, but eventually they get a new set of tablets from God, on which are written the Ten Commandments (34:1-28). And from that point on, the people struggle — as we do, every day — to keep these commandments, and be obedient to God.

So, what is the message of Moses on the mountaintop? Clearly, commandments are not going to be effective because there are ten of them, instead of nine or eleven. People are not going to read the Bible just because a president announces that 1983 is “The Year of the Bible.” And scaring people with thunder and lighting and smoke is not going to motivate them to do the right thing.

The message of Moses on the mountaintop is that we each need an experience of God — an encounter with the God who’s alive and powerful and gracious and loving. We have to enter into God’s presence, and spend time with God — as Moses did. Only then will we be able to take the two tablets, and really accept the Ten Commandments, as a set of standards for faithful living.

A pastor named Scott Stoner has made the point that “following commandments is not the same thing as being in relationship. When we’re in close relationship with someone, we want to do the right thing out of our commitment — not because we’re commanded to do the right thing.” When Moses goes up the mountain, he moves closer to God, and enters into a deeper relationship with him. What gets the people of Israel in trouble is their faithless decision to stand at a distance from God. Because they tremble and step away, they quickly stumble and begin to worship the golden calf.

Let’s not be like the people of Israel, who see the glory of the Lord on the mountain, and assume that God is unapproachable. They fear that they’ll be consumed in the fury of God’s fiery presence, and so they step back. And when they step back, they fall back into faithlessness.

Scripture invites us to do the opposite: “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you,” says the letter of James (4:8). On this first Sunday of Lent, I would challenge every one of us to use this season of Lent to make an intentional and conscious effort to be in closer contact with God. If you develop a close relationship, you’ll find that the keeping of the Ten Commandments becomes a whole lot easier.

Not that drawing near is always a pleasant experience. Notice that Moses had to step into the cloud to experience the reality of God’s presence. He’s in a cloud! Moses is in a fog!

When we’re going through a period of confusion and disorientation, it could be that we’re exactly where we need to be, and that we’re precisely where God is as well. When we’re going through a time of discernment, such as we are here at FPC, trying to figure out the future direction of our music program — that’s exactly where God is going to meet us. You cannot always see the path ahead of you when you are walking in the fog, but you can move safely forward if you slow down and take your time.

So where does Moses get the closest to God? Not in the sunshine of a clear day.. He finds God in a fog. He discovers the power and the presence of the Lord when he steps into a cloud and trusts God to lead him. He walks by faith and not by sight, and in the process he discovers that God is walking right along with him.

The same can be true for us. Right here. Right now.

Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, the same length of time that we will spend in the season of Lent. Let us use this time to enter the cloud, and move closer to God. We’ll discover that God is with us, and that our relationship with God can deepen. We can do this each Sunday in our service of worship. We can do this in small groups, gathered for prayer and Bible study. We can do this in the class being offered on Sundays at 10 a.m. by Jessica Tate and Cate Rodman — a class on the disciplines of Christian life. We can do this in quiet time at home, when we come into God’s presence “and wait there,” as Moses did.

Closeness to God is always better than distance. And love of the Lord is always a better motivator than fear. So let’s make an effort to move closer to God, discover how real he is, and let this reality begin to shape us.

God’s two tablets are good medicine, designed to teach us right from wrong, to help us instead of hurt us. But we will never discover this unless we enter the cloud and develop a relationship with the Lord.

Let’s get moving, and meet God on the mountaintop. Amen.

Sources:
Brueggeman, Walter. “The Book of Exodus.” The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994). 879-883.