God Told Me to Tell You
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The commandments at Sinai
20:1 Then God spoke all these words,
20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
20:3 you shall have no other gods before me.
20:4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
20:7 "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.
20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
20:13 "You shall not murder.
20:14 "You shall not commit adultery.
20:15"You shall not steal.
20:16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
20:18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance
20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die."
20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
I don’t know about you, but coming face-to-face with even a small sample of the profound presence of God Almighty is a scary thing. Not because God is “scary” or tends to bully one when suddenly in God’s presence, not at all, but because a direct “audience” with God changes us. When God manifests Godself one-on-one with a person, the message imparted is always life-changing. Always. If it is a “correction” message, the subject of the communication is immediately compelled to “fix” their error, whatever it may be. If a sinful activity, the repentance is swift and powerful, on the part of the one receiving the direct message. I have heard more testimonies of persons who had one of these divine “visits” in the midst of either an errant behavior or a poorly chosen life direction, and each one ends with a change of direction. Immediately. Many years ago, I met a man who was in jail for a variety of small offenses that had added up to an open-ended sentence in the county lockup until a trial could be mustered. In jail, the man “came to himself,” to use biblical parlance, and began to read the Bible given to him when he was incarcerated. One night, as he felt his life was slipping away under the weight of his feeling of meaninglessness, he petitioned God for help. Suddenly, he “felt the presence” right there in the cell with him, and he began a heart-to-heart with what he understood to be God, Godself. He told God that if God could get him out of jail, he would truly turn over a new leaf, and would immediately seek out Christian community. His story was that he “heard” God give him the thumbs up on his proposition, and he immediately feel into a deep sleep. He was awakened in the early evening by two jail guards and a representative from the District Attorney’s office who told him that a decision had been made to release him on his own recognizance, if he signed a form agreeing to attend a hearing. He was shocked—actually beyond shocked. (It actually got better, down the road, as at the subsequent hearing, all charges against him were dropped!). The young man walked out of the jail with the Bible he had been reading, and saw a man walking by whom he knew. Making good on his promise to God, he asked the man if he knew of any Christian fellowship meeting that evening. The man directed him to the home of a couple who opened their home each Monday night to a group of young people for prayer, Bible study, and Christian fellowship, and “Jim” walked across town and presented himself and his remarkable story to a surprised group of young adults in that fellowship. I was among them. (This was long before I answered my own call to ministry, and the couple whose home we met in would one day become my in-laws.) “Jim” stayed true to his word, and the promises he made before God that night in jail were kept for the remainder of his days.
No matter the outcome, it IS a scary thing to find oneself in the presence of the living God. I had my own “first meeting” in college one night in my dorm room. I experienced that “presence,” and found myself engaging in my own dialogue with God. As it turned out, it was God’s way to begin the “calling process” that would come to fruition just shy of a decade later, when I and my family sold our home and moved to seminary. The scary part for me was the massive change in direction my little “visit” with God brought to my life. The loving part of it, though, was that God offered me the same promise God gave Israel, and my friend, Jim: “I will be with you.” And indeed, God has, and IS!
As a pastor, I counseled many folk who were “disappointed” that they had never had such a direct encounter with God, nor had they ever felt they had “heard God’s voice.” I offered them a few suggestions as to how they could prepare themselves to be better “listeners” to God, but I always also warned them that if they were successful in their pursuit, they should be ready to have their lives diverted, changed, or otherwise conscripted to move in a new direction, at God’s behest. A few had this experience, including a handful who wound up in some full-time manifestation of Christian ministry, ranging from media, to scholarly pursuits, to the pulpit. One does not hear God’s voice just as an “accessory” or a simple “encouragement” in life. God’s presence, God’s voice, and God’s empowerment usually comes with a contract for “work.”
It’s no wonder that Israel asked Moses to be their intermediary with God, not wanting to subject themselves to God’s “scary” presence. In verse 19 of today’s passage, they tell Moses: “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” They had witnessed what had happened to Moses since the burning bush days, and they weren’t up for the same kind of life-changing marching orders. Basically they said, “You tell us what God wants to tell us, and we’ll listen.” Honestly, while this “God told me to tell you” tactic provides some insulation from the direct presence of God, it’s not really a good idea. In the earliest days of the Christian charismatic renewal (back in the late 1960s and into the earliest years of the 70s), there was a lot of that going around. On several occasions, during my own foray into the “Jesus Movement” as a young adult, I had several very “spiritual” friends caught up in the “gifts of the Spirit” approach me and say, “God told me to tell you [thus and so].” I guess I had enough of that “Moses spirit” in me to resist this second-hand messaging. If God wanted to tell me something, I fully expected God to “say” it through God’s Word as I studied the Bible myself, or God would pipe up. Seriously, there was a lot of that “God told me to tell you” stuff going on back then, and frankly it often was a manipulative tactic on the part of the “messenger.” It sometimes got ridiculous. Male “leaders” in the movement were using the “God told me to tell you” line to get a girl to go out with them, and one situation to which I was privy, a man I knew used this line to “propose” to a female peer. There were a lot of good things that came out of the Jesus Movement, including some good Christian music, a variety of decent Christian books that aided in my own faith development, and even a few well-regarded translations of the Bible. The “personalization” of one’s practice of the presence of God wasn’t all bad, as before this emphasis of the charismatic renewal, the “standard” spiritual practice was going to church on Sundays and listening to sermons, or maybe attending a curriculum-based Sunday School class. Home “sharing groups” and Bible studies enriched many during this era, and eventually even the church got on board with new ways to nurture their “flocks.”
You are probably surprised that I approached this particular passage without focusing on the Ten Commandments, which really are pretty important. The first halfg of them reminds Israel how important it is that “God is with us,” and how to BE “with God,” which was the one common factor that kept them drawn together as a living, thriving, community of faith. The second half of the “Top Ten” gave them the basics of how to live together in mutual respect and harmony. Think of the wonderful summary Jesus gave us to make TWO out of TEN: “Love God; Love Neighbor.” There you have it, and without any “God told me to tell yous.”
Friends, the kind of intimacy Moses had with God led him from herding sheep to delivering the whole people of God in his day, and the writings of his—and their—exploits still inform and inspire us today. Still, each of us must find our way to nurture our faith in such a way that we provide fertile ground—and tuned ears—to hear what God’s Holy Spirit is “saying” to us, even if the Spirit’s enduring presence IS the abiding presence of God with us in the post-Resurrection era. God IS still with God’s people, and through the agency of the Holy Spirit, leads, guides, instructs, imparts wisdom, and empowers God’s people with the gifts and grace necessary to participate in the continual unfolding of the Kingdom of God in our world. Still, I miss the inspiring experiences of the Jesus Movement days, and the charismatic renewal, flawed and sometimes misdirected as they were. My prayer today is that the schism my own denomination just experienced will ignite a new “fire” in the people called United Methodists, and that our church will experience a new age of renewal, not by harkening back to some previous “safe harbor” or by re-embracing dogmas and doctrines that restrict and exclude, but by sampling the newness of what God is doing through the Holy Spirit that will move us FORWARD into a new day, together. And may our inclusiveness and our willingness to follow the leading of the Spirit TOGETHER, in both humility and peace, transform us all. In the name of Jesus, the “author and finisher” of our faith. God’s WORD told me to tell you! Amen.
