THE WORD IN SCRIPTURE Exodus 32
THE WORD IN THE
GOSPEL John 14:27
[Jesus said,] “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you.
I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled and don’t be afraid.”
MESSAGE
“May the peace of God that exceeds all understanding keep
your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.”
I say those words often. Too often, in fact. I say them at every
funeral or memorial service, usually as part of the benediction or final
blessing. Those words come from our reading this morning from Paul’s letter to
the church in the city of Philippi. The words represent one of Paul’s deepest
desires for all his Christian brothers and sisters:
“May the peace of God that exceeds all understanding keep
your hearts and minds safe . . .”
I’m pretty sure all of us would love to know and experience
that kind of peace. A peace so deep and profound that it make us feel perfectly
secure and safe. A peace we can hardly imagine, let alone understand.
But I don’t know many people whose lives are full of peace
like that. Unfortunately, most of the people I come in contact with experience
the opposite of God’s peace. And according to Paul, the opposite of the peace of
God is not war, or strife, or conflict, but anxiety.
Over the course of almost 2 decades in ministry, I’ve often
wished that if I could give help people with only one thing, it would be to
help them be freed from anxiety. Because anxiety seems to be a very toxic
thing: it can destroy people’s spirits, it can rob people of joy, and it can put
a serious strain on people’s faith.
I’ve provided pastoral care for lots of people whose faith
journeys were paralyzed by worry and anxiety over everything and anything: from
finances to health to family situations to death and dying. I’ve known people
whose faith suffered because they were worried that they didn’t have enough
faith to begin with. Talk about a vicious and self-perpetuating cycle!
Now, anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone
experiences now and then. Many people feel anxious, or nervous, when they’re
facing a problem at work, or before they take a test, or when they have to make
an important decision.
But some people suffer from anxiety disorders, which can
cause such distress that it interferes with a person's ability to lead a normal
life. An anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness that can cause constant
and overwhelming worry and fear. People with anxiety disorders often benefit
from counseling and medication.
But today, we’re talking about the kind of day-to-day
anxiety that almost everyone deals with.
One reason why anxiety is so deadly to our faith is that it
can cause us to turn away from God, and to try to find other things that will bring
us the peace and freedom from anxiety that we want.
Our reading from the book of Exodus makes that pretty
clear. In this passage, the people are resting in the desert after Moses led
them out of slavery in Egypt. Moses has gone up Mount Sinai to receive the
tablets of law and commandments from God, and he’s left his brother Aaron to
watch over the people.
This is a good example of how we sometimes find conflicting
stories in the Bible. If you remember from last week, from Exodus chapter 20, the
people received the Ten Commandments directly from God when they heard God’s
voice booming out of the clouds and smoke on the mountain.
But here in chapter 32, the story is told differently.
Here, God gives the commandments to Moses on the mountaintop while the people
wait expectantly at the base of the mountain.
And this is one reason why we are challenged to look at the
Bible not as a history book full of facts, but as a collection of stories of
faith that reveal truth about God. The truth here does not lie in the
particulars of the details of how the people actually received the
commandments. The truth is that God provided the Hebrew people with a set of
commandments that would help them become God’s people who lived according to
God’s ways.
So, anyway, here in chapter 32, we learn that Moses was up on
that mountain for 40 days. And the people felt he was taking far too long. So anxiety
started to creep in. Moses was, after all, the symbol of their deliverance. He
was the one who channeled God’s power to free the people from their slavery
under the Egyptian pharaoh.
The people's anxiety about Moses' absence appears to have
gone into overdrive because almost immediately, they say to Aaron: “Come make
gods for us, who shall go before us, because we don’t have a clue what has
happened to Moses.”
So, the people gather up all their gold jewelry and give
them to Aaron, who casts an image of a calf. Let’s watch one person’s vision of
what that looked like:
That clip is from Cecil B. DeMille’s epic movie, the Ten
Commandments. Of course, we don’t know what the golden calf actually looked
like, or what the people actually did to “worship” this idol. But Mr. DeMille
gave us a good show about it, didn’t he?
Anyway, he portrayed the golden calf as this big, life-size
thing.
But most scholars believe that the calf was small, maybe
like this, because the Hebrews just wouldn’t have had the tools or resources
available to make a really big calf.
When the people saw this calf, this golden idol, they say, “THESE
are your GODS, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
In other words, the people were allowing their anxiety
about Moses being gone so long get the best of them. They turned away from God,
the true source of their salvation, and turned instead toward an idol, a golden
calf – a false god, that couldn’t save them from anything.
And sadly, that’s exactly what happens to many people today.
Anxiety makes too many people turn to false gods that they hope they will help
them find the safety and peace that they crave.
I’ve seen people who are so anxious about having enough
that they turn to the false gods of materialism and greedy stockpiling of money
and supplies.
I’ve seen people who are so anxious about growing older
that they turn to the false gods of expensive and even dangerous medical
procedures that are designed to promote a youthful appearance and feeling.
I’ve seen people who are so anxious about being alone that
they fall prey to the false god that says that it’s better to be in a
relationship, and so they remain in or begin a relationship with a person who
is abusive or unloving.
I’ve seen people who are so anxious about what other people
think of them, that they turn to the false god of popularity, and they spend
far too much time and energy trying to impress and please others instead of
being true to themselves and content with who they are.
I’ve seen parents who feel so anxious that something bad
will happen to their children, that they turn to the false god of
overprotectiveness.
I’ve seen people who are so anxious about dying that they
turn to the false god of denial: pretending death just isn’t going to happen to
them, and doing nothing to prepare themselves or their families for the
inevitable.
Like that little golden calf, these false gods cannot save
us from anything. They can’t give us the peace we long for – that peace that
passes all understanding.
There’s a story about someone who asked God, “What surprises
you most about human beings?”
God answered: “That they lose their health to make money
and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously
about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the
present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die
as if they had never lived.” (unknown author)
Paul tells his Christian brothers and sisters in Philippi,
“Don’t be anxious about anything. Instead, bring all your requests to God in
your prayers and petitions.”
Notice that Paul is NOT saying, “Bring God all your
problems, and God will take care of them.” Nor is he saying, “Tell God your
worries, and God will take them away.” Paul is not giving the people a lesson
in how God answers prayers – that’s a topic for another day – and for another
sermon.
Rather, Paul is telling Christians to pray in everything,
bringing everything, no matter how trivial or how insurmountable, to the God
who loves us.
And we don’t even have to ask God to do something specific
for us. Because if we’re honest, then we have to admit that sometimes we simply
DON’T really know what we need to ask for so that we can face a particular
problem or situation. Sometimes the most effective prayer can be as simple as
telling God that something is making us feel anxious or worried, and then expecting
nothing more than just a deep experience of God’s holy presence.
Paul is calling Christians to cultivate a deeper
relationship with God through prayer – a relationship that can keep us steady
and faithful in the midst of the problems of life that cause us to worry or
feel anxious.
By taking our concerns to God, we are acknowledging that
God is greater than our anxiety, and stronger than our worry. Turning to God
keeps us from turning to those false gods that ultimately let us down, and cost
us unnecessary effort and money and time.
Turning to God in prayer when we’re feeling anxious means
that we are working with God to cultivate the kind of peace in our lives that
is grounded in the living, loving presence of the true God, who alone is our
peace and our salvation.
We can’t erase worry and anxiety from our lives. We can’t
control the things that cause us to worry and feel anxious. That’s precisely
why they make us feel anxious!
BUT . . . we can control how we respond to our anxiety. We don’t
have to let it rule us, and we don’t have to turn to those false gods. Instead,
we can turn to our God of love, compassion, and peace.
The peace of God that exceeds understanding is not a peace
that keeps us safe from feeling anxious at times. Rather, it’s a peace that
keeps our hearts and minds safe from falling into the despair that usually
comes with anxiety. It is a peace that gives us the confidence in knowing that,
no matter what life may throw at us, we are inseparably connected to God.
As Jesus so beautifully put it: “My peace I give you. I
give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled and don’t be afraid.”
Amen.
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