“When Things Change—We Pay Attention”
Exodus 3.1-15
Sunday, August 30, 2020
When things change, it is essential to pay attention.
If we aren't paying attention, if instead, we are too distracted, we will miss what is happening.
Attention is the key to so many things in our life. We have to pay attention to walk across the street. We know our relationships are more satisfying if we pay attention to one another. Our business affairs require our attention.
Paying attention is noticing and being with something without trying to change it. Attention takes the time to explore fully, discover whatever there is to know about something and watch as things change by themselves without our trying to 'fix" anything. Attention is patient, and attention is kind. No rush. No burden. No criticism. If we intend to fix or change or reject something, we minimize our capacity to pay attention to what is happening.
Paying attention. We could say that's what's happening in Exodus up to this point. The midwives paid attention to what was happening, had compassion, and saved the Hebrew boys.
Next, pharaoh's daughter came down to the river, saw what was happening, notices baby Moses in a little ark, has compassion, and took action to save Moses.
In today's text, we read of how God sees and hears the Hebrew people's cries—the oppression from the pharaoh on God's people does not escape God. God took action to save God's people. What God did is what the pharaoh's daughter did to Moses. God hears the cries, God has compassion, and God acts. Are you paying attention to what is happening in this story? God is not interested in the empire with its unjust practices. God does not see and hear pharaoh, the perpetrator of the oppression of the Hebrew people. Instead, like with Hagar, God sees God's people's misery brought upon the implementation of a system that sought to dehumanize and oppress. God sees, and God hears the people—part of who God is a God who sees and hears the people in need.
Finally, we see Moses in the same situation. Moses kept watch over his father-in-law's flock when he entered into a wasteland—literally what Horeb means. In this wasteland, an angel of God appears to Moses in a burning bush. The best part of this interaction, and perhaps this story, is that Moses was not expecting to encounter God—hence the irony of the wasteland wilderness where this event takes place. God calls to Moses through the bush, and later with his voice. Moses responds appropriately, "Here I am." God gives urgent directions to recognize the sacredness. Only afterward, God identifies God’s self as the God of the patriarchs. And Moses acknowledges through covering his face. Moses did not wake up that day and decide that he would lead the Israelites out of their oppression back to the land of Canaan. That was God’s decision, but Moses responded to the unexpected call appropriately—for the time being.
And now, Moses must pay attention to what God is saying.
And we do too, for that matter, for in this next scene, we see God's heart and for whom God is most concerned.
Just as pharaoh's daughter saves Moses, God calls Moses to do the same for God's people. God continues to speak, offering compassion in hearing the misery and the cries on account of oppression. To make sure we get the point about God's compassion, the author reiterates how God "knows their suffering." A few verses only cover the enormous period of time from the patriarchs to Moses, but God was there. And even though God was silent, God was neither distant nor detached. God had great compassion for the oppression that the people endured. And the burning bush informs our reading of the bold declaration of God that God will deliver the people into “a land flowing with milk and honey.” God remembers God’s covenant and promises to sustain the people just as God can sustain the bush.
Now comes the most relatable interaction in the Bible. God calls Moses and Moses objects. Moses asks, "Who am I that you will send me to pharaoh?" How many of us have had the same thought, right? Yet, and this is important, God does not assure Moses as a leader because of his natural skill nor charisma. Instead, God assures Moses because God is faithful. Moses' faults will not matter, as God promises him, "I will be with you" (verse 12). And if that assurance is not enough, God sends a sign to solidify Moses' calling. The confidence is not in his human abilities, but in the God who sends him.
The final scene in our story is when God gives God's name to Moses. He wants to know how he will justify to the people why they should leave, and God says, "I AM WHO I AM. Thus, you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you." We could spend all year trying to figure out what exactly this "I AM' name means. And while it would be a fruitful and fun study, we must pay attention to the story at hand and what is unfolding before us. Which is this:
God hears the cries and sees the misery of God's people. God is paying attention to the ways the empire is treating the Hebrew people. God acts because God remembers God's covenant and promise to God's people—God acts with compassion and calls a stammering shepherd to lead God's people out of slavery. In God's naming, God is giving to Moses what Moses needed to hear: that God is the one who causes things to pass. God is one who delivers on God's promises. God is the one who will be present in faithful ways to make possible what is not otherwise possible.
God pays attention to detail. When God saw the oppression of God’s people, God could no longer sit idly by. God took action because God remembered God's covenant with the people. Part of our role as people called by God is to see and remember. See the pain in the world that God would want us to heal and remember that God is in our midst. We first have to pay attention. We have to notice as God noticed—we must see the misery and listen to the cries of the people.
Friends, to notice, or pay attention, is the first step toward embodying compassion, toward enacting God's love in the world—or justice. One cannot care for what one has yet to notice—to love is not to trample over but to notice and tend to, which is what is happening in this text today. We see the heart and concern of God—and it is compassion for the most vulnerable.
Today's text is also one that invites us to pay attention to each other. The story invites you to put down your cell phone and stand barefoot in your backyard while considering how the ground and the moment are holy. Friends, we need to remove our shoes more and pay attention to the world around us, for it permits us to listen to others' voices and experiences—and it reminds us that curiosity is a holy gift. Perhaps the best gift we can give to each other right now is our undivided attention.
Think about it, how often is our experience of the Divine connected with us taking the time to ask a person, or even a place, what is your story? Please tell me who you are and let me into your life. When we connect in this way, our attention goes beyond the surface level of relationships, and we engage in an intimate sharing of our lives. Our curiosity deepens our connection. As we give our neighbor and our place our undivided attention, we open ourselves up to a burning bush moment—encountering the Divine in each other and our places.
So, church, what are you paying attention to these days?
Better yet, what will you pay attention to moving forward? Where might you remove your shoes to encounter the Divine? Where in your life or who in your life is need of compassion? How is God calling you to stand up and speak out for those treated as less than human?
I can’t answer these questions for you. But I can invite you to pay attention—because when you do, especially when things change, chances are you’ll slow down just enough to notice how God isn’t as far off as you think. God might be as close as your favorite burning bush.
May it be so. Amen.
