Bold Prayers [Proper 24A - Exodus 33:12-23]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
Exodus 33:12-23
Bold Prayers
If one find’s oneself
in the presence of the British Monarch, one better behave appropriately. In such rarified company, a guest is expected
to arrive in advance of the monarch and leave before the royal exits the
room. In doing so, the guest must never
turn their back to the monarch; such behavior is considered quite rude. Do not initiate physical contact; that is not
your place. Shake only if shaken. Do not speak unless spoken to; do not sit
unless the monarch first sits; and do not eat unless you first witness food
enter the mouth of the sovereign. And
ladies, if you curtsy, please remember to limit your curtsy to a short bob, “keeping the back straight, hands by the
side, dropping the knees slightly and bowing the head.”[1] Above all, be polite and civilized; you are
meeting a royal after all.
Fortunately for him, Moses
was not meeting a British royal; Moses was only meeting with God. And so he, I suppose, was under no obligation
to exhibit such decorum. And so his
manners were not kept quite so in check.
Despite their
familiarity, it is surprising just how bold Moses is in the divine
presence. Moses had recently witnessed first-hand
God’s righteous anger. We heard the golden
calf story last week. God was
exceedingly upset in that particular story, even threatening to consume the entire
nation, before cooling off and changing course.
And still, in today’s
Exodus story, Moses comes out swinging.
Moses is confrontational. He is
demanding. He is bold. He speaks before he is even spoken to. He is neither meek, nor mild. He is the kind of guy who would probably sit
down in the presence of a standing British monarch – if you can imagine that.
But he is
effective. Moses prays bold prayers and God
listens to every one of Moses’ bold prayers.
God doesn’t get defensive when Moses gets challenging. God listens and responds. God hears and acts.
God knows Moses lived
in a dangerous world. He wandered
through a wilderness that was stubbornly chilled by the shadow of death. And he did so with anxious people. People who feared starving in the wilderness
and dehydrating in the desert. People
who were desperate for direction, who craved leadership. People who would give anything for some
reassurance, to know that everything would ultimately be OK. Moses lived with people, traumatized people,
fickle people, difficult people, AKA normal people. And they drove him crazy. And he loved them. And he absolutely refused to let God leave
them.
That is at the heart
of Moses’ bold prayer. You see, Moses
was their advocate. They complained
against him; he prayed for them. They
broke the rules; he prayed for them.
They made a golden calf; he prayed for them. He stood in the presence of God with their
names on his lips and their concerns on his heart.
They were his people,
but more importantly they were God’s people.
And Moses never let God forget that.
In the previous verses God promised to send an angel to guide the people
– an emissary, perhaps because God was still shaken by the golden calf fiasco
and was keeping some personal distance. But
Moses wouldn’t have it. A divine
representative was not good enough; Moses wanted God. He demands God. He tells God: “If your presence will not go,
do not carry us up from here.” They
would rather die in the desert then go without God. Moses would accept nothing less than God.
Moses is not polite
because Moses did not have that luxury.
His people were stranded in the desert, always on the verge of death. The Promised Land was in their hearts but it
was nowhere to be seen. In their
dangerous world nothing less than the presence of God would do.
We too live in a
dangerous world. Even now we are all too
aware of the bombs falling in the Holy Land, devastating families, erasing
histories, stealing innocence. The
shadow of death has grown long, and threatens to grow longer. And the entire world feels the chill of that
shadow. A world in which children are
named collateral damage is not a safe world.
And so this is no time
for polite prayers. This world needs
bold prayers. The stakes are too high;
the violence too awful; the trauma too invasive. It is time for the Church to stand in the
presence of God with the names of victims on our lips and their concerns on our
hearts. It is our holy work to remind
God that this world is hurting and afraid and desperately in need.
Pray your bold prayers;
pray them knowing that the God of Moses listens to every bold prayer. God did not get defensive when Moses got
challenging. God will not get defensive
with you. The witness of the Scriptures
is that God will listen and respond. God
will hear and act.
The same God who
planted dreams of peace in our hearts is faithful and able to make those dreams
come true. The same God who brought
order from chaos in the beginning is faithful and able to end the chaos of
war. The same God who gently sheltered
Moses in the cleft of the rock is faithful and able to shelter those under
siege. The God who raised Jesus from the
dead is faithful and able to overcome the forces of death with life.
Things in this violent
world often feel hopeless. And that is
why our bold prayers are necessary.
Those prayers are the seeds of hope planted in this age of despair.
In this age of
despair, God is present. And is
listening. So shout your prayers into
the presence. And keep shouting those
bold prayers until the Kingdom of God comes, until the tears of sadness are
wiped away, until violence and death are no more, until love is all that
remains. Keep shouting your bold prayers
to God until bold prayers are no longer needed.
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