"Reassurance"

Text:  Exodus 33:12-23

Theme:  “Reassurance”

19^th Sunday after Pentecost

October 19, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

A.A. Milne is the brilliant author who gave us Winnie the Pooh – that dear, sweet literary and cartoon character of childhood.  As most of you know, Winnie the Pooh has a collection of friends – like Piglet and Eeyore – who join with him in his various adventures, misadventures, and so on and so forth!

One day, little Piglet comes up to Winnie the Pooh from behind.  Piglet whispers:  “Pooh?”  “Yes Piglet,” Pooh replies.  Piglet takes Pooh’s hand and says:  “Nothing.  I just want to be sure of you.”

As I said, A.A. Milne is a brilliant author.  In that simple exchange, from a delightful childhood story, he identifies and unpacks a need – and, perhaps, the need:  the need for reassurance.  “I just want to be sure of you.”

There is this weird irony playing itself out in these days.  On the one hand, we admire – perhaps even laud and magnify – the self-assured, confident individual.  He or she has done his or her homework.  He or she is comfortable in his or her skin.  Such a person takes on the day with as powerful outlook and a confident stride.  But there is a flipside to this.  We also have our doubts. We harbor various skepticisms, strong skepticisms – certainly about others, and sometimes about ourselves.  This irony goes back and forth, to varying degrees, every day.  What’s the takeaway?  Reassurance is a need, and reassurance is needed more than we care to admit.

When reassurance is needed – and I mean really needed, where do we find it?  Who do we turn to?  Who will be the Winnie the Pooh to our Piglet?  When natural disaster strikes, is it FEMA?  When a West African pandemic arrives in our country aboard an airplane, is the reassurance that it’s going to be okay come from the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security, the CEO of Texas Health Resources, the mayor of Dallas, the Center for Disease Control, a congressional sub-committee, the White House? 

This past Tuesday, I was in the Rio Grande room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Denton.  After receiving my flu shot, I sat spellbound listening to a biomedical ethicist.  The chaplain’s association was hosting a clergy/physician roundtable discussion.   And, armed with statistics from the Journal of the American Medical Association, this presenter shared the highest rated things that give the patient, the primary caregiver (usually the spouse or significant other), and the doctor the most assurance when there is a medical event that requires hospitalization. 

Among all three respondent groups (patient, caregiver, and doctor), each of them listed a correct diagnosis as the most important thing.  In short, people yearn for the truth; they want the facts.  Another factor that gives reassurance to people is spirituality/religion.  Out of seven factors to list, spirituality and religion came in fifth place among the doctors.  In the patient group, however, it came in second.  Among the caregiver group, it came in second.  And I’m here to testify that this little tidbit of information raised the eyebrows of more than one doctor in the room.

By the way, I learned from reliable sources that the patient population at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas has gone down significantly.  People think “That’s the ebola hospital”, and they don’t go.  Notice how powerful fear and anxiety are when it comes to taking action or not taking action!  The higher the fear and anxiety, the higher the need for reassurance!

Enter the Word of God and today’s text from Exodus.  Here we have an exchange – not between Pooh and Piglet, but between God and Moses.  When Moses first emerges in Bible history, he is confident about one thing.  He doesn’t need any reassurance as this matter is concerned. He is totally confident that he is not confident.  In Exodus 4:10, Moses says to the Lord:  "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."  He was confident that he wasn’t confident of his ability to speak or to lead.

God had other ideas, however.  Moses was the man who would lead the people.  And eventually, Moses hit his stride and fulfilled his role.  He was reassured.  He eventually had an Aaron to go with him.  It’s just like Martin Luther had a Philip Melanchthon who reassured him; it’s like I have my Diana; it’s like Rosa Parks had her Martin Luther King, Jr., and Martin Luther King, Jr. had his Rosa Parks.  They complemented – if not, complimented! – one another.   Reassurance often comes in the form of key people in our lives.  Thank God for them all.

Yet, in today’s text, Moses needs more. He goes to God.  I read this account over and over again, and I couldn’t escape the conclusion that – and this may sound irreverent – Moses is bossing God around.  It’s like, “Alright God, this is what I need and this is what you’re going to do for me.  Period.  End of discussion.”

All this came from a man who thought he couldn’t speak – before Pharaoh or before God!  My, how things have changed!  I love this gritty, substantive approach to God.  It’s raw, anxious, frustrated, bitter, and real.  It’s not this kind of polite, satin-gloved piety that believers sometimes employ.  It gives God a piece of the mind instead of a hug or a handshake – or something “appropriate” like that.  I mean, God could vaporize Moses in an instant.  Moses knew that.  There’s nothing to lose, so why not have at it?  In our text, Moses haves at it!

Moses is the Piglet to the Pooh.  Moses is the patient, the caregiver, and the doctor all rolled into one. He knows the diagnosis and prognosis.  And, by God (literally!), he needs reassurance.  Reassurance regarding what?  Reassurance that he is not alone in the venture he is about to undertake where so much was at stake.

As it turns out, God gave Moses roughly ninety percent of the reassurance he yearned for.  Not bad!  Those are pretty good numbers.  I’ll take 90% pretty much any day!   There’s one request, though, that God didn’t fulfill according to the terms Moses set forth.  He wouldn’t let Moses see Him face to face.

God said:  “I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”  Sound familiar?  “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”

Out from that cleft in the rock, out from the midst of this story comes a load of reassurance for each one of us.  Moses didn’t see God face to face.  We do not either, but one day we will.  “Now we see in a mirror dimly,” wrote St. Paul.  “(but one day) we shall see face to face.” 

Will God be Pooh to our piglet?  Will God reassure us with divine presence? 

Jesus says:  “Wherever two or three of you are together in my name, there am I in the midst of you.”  Then:  “Lo, I am with always – even to the end of the age.” 

“But Lord, is this enough?” we ask.  God answers:  “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

I close with sharing one reason why I am proud to be a Presbyterian today.  I’m proud to be Presbyterian for lots of reasons, but one comes to mind.  A big emphasis in our reformed, Presbyterian tradition of Christianity is the sovereignty of God.  In other words, God is in charge.  With all that is going on; with all that we face as individuals, as a church, and as a society, God is in charge.  As my brother Jim Nance reminded me at The Nicodemus League meeting last Wednesday, “Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the heavenly Father knowing it.”  Sparrows do fall.  Guns and bombs do kill.  Viruses do sicken.  But God knows.  And in Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead, God loves.  Nothing can separate you from that.

So enjoy that reassurance today!  Feel free to let it flow, like a river, through the new week before you.  I wonder if Pooh said it to Piglet.  I’m sure God says it to us:  “You can be sure of Me.”

Amen.