I AM Calls
A little over two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a training program sponsored by the Office of Emergency Management in Austin, Texas, for volunteers responding to major disasters. I spent two days learning about terrorism and natural disasters, about the fragility of our city infrastructure, and about how children… and adults… and the elderly respond differently to major disruptions in their lives. Speakers from the FBI, the National Morgue, major hospitals, and city planners covered each subject as thoroughly as they could in the time allotted. The two hundred and fifty (250) of us in the audience were amazed at the expertise that these speakers shared… and at how little we knew about human beings… and our nation’s ability to respond to a major catastrophe. Since that time, I have attended two additional training events and participated in two major disaster drills… and I have been certified to be called up as a volunteer chaplain in a disaster. Because I am still on their email distribution list, I can tell you that the City of Austin’s Office of Emergency Management has issued a “stand-by alert” status right now in preparation for Hurricane victims that may become refugees in that city.
Hurricane Katrina has filled our lives in the past week. We have all been horrified by the pictures that we have seen on television… and the stories we have heard from the victims. Yet, for those of us who have had some training in disaster response, there is nothing out of the ordinary happening in New Orleans that could not have been predicted before the disaster struck. Everyone knew that the city could handle a “Category Three” hurricane. Most of those in authority knew that anything higher than that would be a major catastrophe. And yet, in any major disaster, no matter how far ahead of time the warning goes out, there are those who will not listen… and those who cannot respond. And so the burden rests upon those who are willing to drop everything in their own lives and go to the aid of those who… whether through catastrophic misfortune, personal incapacity, or sheer stupidity… are now unable to help themselves.
I have a very healthy respect for disaster response volunteers. I listened to the best of them… those who worked in Oklahoma City… in New York City… and in Washington… not to mention the many natural disasters that have hit our shores and abroad… and I have heard them tell their stories. It is awe-inspiring to hear what they have done for others, without expecting anything in return. For those volunteers who continually keep their names on the list of those who can be sent to the site of any disaster worldwide, it is a call. It is a call… not to a white sand beach, clear tropical waters, friends and laughter… but a call to long hours of backbreaking labor among strangers in a place where food and water are scarce, communication nonexistent, and there is the absence of anything to laugh about. But they go anyway… because they have heard the call.
The call to serve comes to each of these disaster responders in a different way. Sometimes, it comes because a friend or family member has lost a life in a major disaster and the sense of helplessness they felt then was overwhelming. Sometimes, it comes because the pictures that all of us see on television of the suffering speak to particular hearts and compel them to action. Sometimes, a childhood lived with the reality of war… or danger … or constant threat provide years of experience in dealing with what to many of us would be impossible conditions. And sometimes, the reflection on a life of leisure highlights a sense of meaninglessness and lack of focus.
God’s call to serve came to Moses when he was out tending sheep… far from civilization. The call came in the form of a talking bush… I’ll admit that not many of us get such a call… but the call of Moses had much in common with the call of those who respond to disasters today. God wanted Moses to return to the land of his childhood… to familiar circumstances, but circumstances he left because of the oppression and violence. Understandably, he was reluctant to go, but deep in his heart he also knew that he was uniquely qualified to do this job… he who had once lived a life of privilege among the Egyptians and knew how to walk… talk… and act like the privileged… yet also one who was a Jew… and understood the injustice of their oppression. Who else could do this? Moses was uniquely qualified for this task.
God chose an ordinary time… and an ordinary place… to reveal himself to Moses… transforming… as God often does… the ordinary into the extraordinary. Life-changing events often happen that way… ordinary things in ordinary places that, through some act of God, we perceive in an extraordinary way. Which just says that God is more likely to reveal himself to you when you are washing dishes at the kitchen sink… or mowing the lawn… or feeding the horses… than in a huge coliseum on a star-studded stage.
We tend to think of Moses as a vigorous young man at this point in his life, but he was eighty (80) years old. He was certainly a healthy man of eighty, for he lived another forty (40) years, wandering around in the desert with the children of Israel. But the point that I wanted to make was that that God does not always choose to reveal himself to young people… ignoring our senior statesmen. This was definitely a second career for Moses… in fact, if you count his time in Egypt, it would have been his third career… and certainly not a career that Moses envisioned for himself.
An encounter with the Divine involves both revelation… and response. God revealed himself to Moses… and Moses responded… albeit reluctantly. I remember that in my seminary class, we once went through all the call stories in the Bible to see which person had protested their call the most vehemently. Moses won… with six different objections to his suitability… or ability to do the job. I know that, in Sunday School, I often received the impression that whenever God called you… you were supposed to respond immediately… and with great joy. Well, I have heard many people share the story of their call to God’s service… and not many of them responded either immediately… or with great joy. Most seminary students will tell you that they delayed their response to God’s call anywhere from six months to twenty years. Nor is it any easier to those who have already given their lives to Christ. Just ask my mother sometime about the time that God called her to serve in south Thailand…and ask my father about his call to serve a leprosy mission hospital in north Thailand.
In the reading from Matthew that John shared with us this morning, Peter protested the need for Jesus to make the journey to the cross. Jesus responded by saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Too often, when the call to serve comes, we do have our mind on human things… and we do not see God’s divine plan. Our protests deal with things in our own lives that we do not want to change… that we do not want to see disrupted. We want to be able to finish what we are involved with at the time… or enjoy more time with our families… or tie up the loose ends in our lives… before we take up that cross. Where would the people of New Orleans be today if all the volunteers who responded to the call for help decided to delay their response … to finish what they were doing… to spend time with their own families… instead of stepping forward to serve?
God spoke to Moses… and continued to speak to him… dealing easily with every objection that Moses threw out. Finally, in frustration, Moses said, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" And God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.” This is the first place in the Bible where God reveals his identity to any mortal. “I AM WHO I AM.” But what does this mean?
From our study of Old Testament times, we know that the personal identity of a stranger was never revealed unless… or until there was a relationship established between the person and the stranger. Do you remember the story of the three men who visited Abraham in his tent in the desert? Abraham offered hospitality to them… invited them in… fed them… entertained them… all before they were introduced. That God revealed God’s identity to Moses meant that Moses was called into an intimate relationship with God. But, while we often speak of the call of God as a “sending”…and Moses was sent to the children of Israel… note that Moses is not sent away from God. “I AM WHO I AM”… “You shall say I AM has sent me to you.” God is always present… I AM is always here. And it is interesting to note that, whether you are talking about the past …or the present… or the future… I AM is always there …wherever there is.
When we are called to serve God… and sent somewhere… to someone… to serve God… God is always present. I AM is always there… is always here… wherever we are… and wherever the problem is… and wherever the people are whom we are called to serve. Regardless of the time… the place…or the circumstance… the answer to the question, “Where is God?” is always the same. I AM. I AM is here. I AM is there. I AM is in the midst of the terror of war… the horror of flood… the devastation of the hurricane … the emptiness of sorrow… the pain of loss. I… AM.
So, I encourage you today, as you go about your ordinary tasks… in an ordinary way… to expect the unexpected. Listen to the voice of God speaking to you… through whatever medium God chooses… to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. And remember that wherever it is that God calls you to be, God is present there. For it is the great I AM who calls you… I AM who sends you… and I AM who will always be with you. Amen.