Who Am I?

One of the things I love to do before worship is to ask people if they want to preach or lead worship that day. It happens most often at the 5:30 service because I have taken to sitting down at the back of the church before worship starts and just chatting with everyone who is there. Then people who walk in ask what I am doing and I tell them I’m taking the week off and they are going to preach this week.

I have to tell you I get some of the best responses from that statement. I hear things like, “I couldn’t do that,” “I wouldn’t know what to say,” “I don’t think you want to hear what I have to say,” “Im not qualified to talk to others about God,” “You don’t want me doing that,” “I would give the shortest sermon in the world, Pastor,” “Pastor, I don’t speak in front of people,” and “It wouldn’t be a pretty sight.” Sometimes someone will just laugh at me and keep walking to their designated pew. Let’s just sum it up by saying in my 10 years as a pastor I have never asked someone to give the sermon or lead worship on my behalf and ever had someone say, “yeah I’ll do that,” or “Let’s talk about a time when I can help out.” I’m still holding out for that day. Fingers crossed.

To be perfectly honest I get where people are coming from. I have shared with you before that being a pastor was not on my radar until my senior year of high school. In fact throughout grade school, junior high and high school I did everything that I could to avoid having to speak in front of people. I absolutely dreaded speech class and any other class that required you to present a project or topic in front of your peers. So I do get and understand people’s apprehension at preaching and leading worship.

In my mind I feel like the underlying theme behind all of the responses I get from people and I used to give myself is the statement or question, “Who am I?”. Who am I that I could lead worship, or who am I that I could speak about God and share the Good News of God’s grace to people gathered here. Which is probably why one of my favorite songs by the Christian band Casting Crowns is the song called, “Who am I.” It talks about how I am a flower quickly fading here today and gone tomorrow, a waved tossed in the ocean, and just vapor in the wind. Basically calling out on my very insignificance in this world. I am here for only a short amount of time and there are 8 billion other people on this planet so what is the importance of me in the grand scheme of all of this?

Who am I? That’s the root of all these statements and questions, and do you know what is also very interesting about almost all of them that I hear? Almost all of them have the word “I” in them. I’m not…I can’t…I would but…I don’t…me… It’s all about the person who is speaking. The concern is about what it means for them and to them and about them.

Moses has the same experience. In Moses’ encounter with God at Horeb he uses the word I quite a bit to try to basically excuse himself from what God is calling him to do. He even uses the exact phrase of, “Who am I…” in to ask God why God is calling him to confront Pharaoh and free the Israelites from the oppression that they have been experiencing. Moses has been raised by Pharaoh, he has killed a soldier and has run off to Midian to escape the wrath of the Egyptians. In his new life as we see he is a shepherd. I don’t think as a quiet sheep herder Moses quite expected to be called on by God to be the savior of the Israelites. Since Moses doesn’t feel qualified to do the job, and since he has a jaded background with both the Egyptians and the Israelites he wants comes up with another excuse of why would they listen to me and how am I supposed to convince them that you, God, have called me to do what you’re asking me to do. At the very least give me your name so they will believe me…hopefully.

In this moment God shares with Moses and thus with the Israelite poeple something very intimate about God. God actually shares with Moses a name that the people will forever know God by; I AM. Or in Hebrew eh yeh which is the first person form of the word and the third person form is Yahweh. God shares with Moses that God has a name and that name is Yahweh. I say this is intimate and I say this is profoundly significant because last week we talked about Jacob wrestling with the being at night and although we don’t know if it was God in the wrestling match, we do know that Jacob asks for a name and it isn’t given. Instead the being blesses Jacob as he promised and then leaves.

God reveals God’s very self to Moses so that people will know who God is and that Moses was sent by God. God tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM” which can also be translated many different ways. It could also be translated as I am being who I am being, or I am the Is-ing one, or I am the One who always is, or I am always I am, or even I will be who I will be. In all of these possible renderings of God revealing God’s self one thing is clear. God is present. God is active. The actual words themselves are present tense and God is telling Moses and everyone that I am a present God. I am God who is there for you. In fact if you look at all of what God tells Moses you can see that.

God says I have seen the Israelites affliction and I have heard their cry. I know their sufferings and I have come to deliver them. God is always there. And in response to Moses’ questions about “Who am I” God responds by telling him

“I will be with you”

Exodus 3:12 NRSV

He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

God isn’t sending Moses on some fools errand. God is with and will be with Moses the entire time that he saves the Israelites from Pharaoh. Ehyeh…I AM is with you. And God isn’t just with Moses, God tells Moses to tell the people that the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent Moses to them and that this is God’s name forever and God’s title for all generations.

This is God’s name and title forever and for all generations. I AM with you. The one who always is, is always with you. The One is is the one who is by your side. The one who does know who you are when you ask the question, “but who am I”. I AM who knows your struggles. I AM who knows your cries. I AM who uses a man who used to be in Pharaoh’s court, who killed an Egyptian soldier, who claims he cannot speak. I AM the one who is always there no matter what situation in life you find yourself in. That is my name now and forever.

This is our God. A God who loves, who cares, who is able to use anyone and everyone in this world to do God’s work so that everyone knows that God IS. God is present. God is active. God cares. God sees worth and goodness in each and every one of us. I AM. This is my name now and forever. I will never leave you or forsake you and the name you know me by will always remind you of that. I AM WHO I AM.

For all that and everything else God IS and does I say an enthusiastic…AMEN!