Exodus 32:7-14
The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, `I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
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There’s no way around it. This is a hard weekend to preach. Not only because of the passage from Exodus that I want to think with you about in a moment but because of yesterday being the ninth anniversary of September 11 and remembering all the people who lost their lives in that disaster and in the years of war since.
It’s also hard for me because of all the stuff I’ve been seeing in the news lately. Like many of you I’ve had mixed emotions surrounding everything I’ve seen and heard.
On September 11, 2001 I was with my parents in Memphis, Tennessee. I had just flown in the night before on September 10 and my flight had been delayed because of thunderstorms so I got in rather late and stayed in bed while they went downstairs for breakfast. When I turned on the news that morning I could hardly believe my eyes at what I was seeing. There were waves upon waves of shock and fear moving through my body.
Probably because George W. Bush and I have a lot of Texas running through our blood I agreed with him on a couple of points. I felt that a reaction needed to happen. Nine years later I wonder.
I also happened to have been a second year seminarian when all of this was going on which changed everything. All of a sudden theology mattered. It became a matter of life and death how we began to view the “other.” Were we going to look at everyone as strangers and outsiders and not trust anyone ever again? Were we going to step back and look deep within ourselves and ask the tough question of why someone would do this to us?
Nine years later I still have a lot of questions and haven’t resolved all of my own thinking.
And then I have this passage from Exodus to deal with this morning that seems to have something to say to us.
You see Moses had gone up the mountain to get the 10 commandments from God. Moses and the Children of Israel didn’t live in a technological world where Moses could download an app for his iPhone or download a PDF file from the Internet to get them. He had to carve them on stone. He was gone 40 days and the people got restless. Rather than being patient, they wanted an instantaneous response. They wanted a god they could see and worship. Aaron, not being the best #2 and not being willing to take a stand as a leader lets the people run all over him. He gives into their request and forms an idol for them. You and I know that in this text the idol takes the shape of a golden calf, but to be honest it really doesn’t matter what it is. An idol is anything that takes the place of God or gets in our relationship with God. So the people worship a creation rather than the Creator.
And if we follow this passage to where our reading ends this morning we encounter a God who seems willing to start all over again. To destroy everyone and everything except for Moses and have Moses become the new Abraham. But Moses is able to intercede for the people and to talk God down from wiping everyone out. It even seems if we take this text at face value that God is willing to change God’s mind. That God can make mistakes.
I lift up this text to also lift up the current controversy about the Cordoba House by the World Trade Center site that has been in our news so heavily the last few months. Two years ago when I was part of the New Clergy Program at the Chautauqua Institution in New York I had the privilege of meeting Imam Feisal and his wife Daisy. At the time, the Chautauqua Institution was dealing with the pushback they were receiving for opening a Muslim House on the campus to go alongside all the different denominational houses like Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal and even a Jewish house. A number of people at Chautauqua were protesting the opening of a Muslim house given the events of 9/11. But the Director of Religion, the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell was able to shift the conversation. Building an inclusive place is hard work. It requires everyone to make efforts to build bridges and understand the other. It doesn’t mean accepting everything wholeheartedly, but it means trying to be tolerant and understanding.
Imam Feisal belongs to a sect within Islam known as Sufi. It’s a mystical branch of Islam. I don’t think we really have an equal within our Christian tradition, although Quakers in my opinion, come rather close. Sufis look for enlightenment from a number of different sources and not just within their own tradition. If you happen to have seen Imam Feisal’s op-ed piece in the New York Times last Tuesday you notice that he quoted Jesus Christ in the reasoning for building this community center.[1] To develop a deeper love for God and our neighbor. To be a witness for interfaith work and to have a place for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to pray.
I don’t know about you, but I’m keenly aware that the world we live in has shrunk and we are in touch with people in far corners of the earth and who hold far different belief systems than we do in an amazing way. I believe that the God I’ve come to know in Jesus Christ is calling each of us to stop, take a deep breath, and listen. To be willing to be challenged by people who are different than us. To suspend our judgments until we have an opportunity to weigh all the facts. To try and build a community of love, justice, and peace. Amen.
[1] “Building on Faith” by Feisal Abdul Rauf published in the New York Times on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/opinion/08mosque.html?scp=1&sq=imam%20feisal%20op-ed&st=cse
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