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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

1 June 2014




Moses is tracking completely with God when the Lord says He has seen the affliction of His people, has heard their cries, knows their sufferings and has come to deliver them from Egypt and deliver them to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  He stays with Him when He repeats it all in verse 9.  Then, the Lord throws Moses a curve and loses him completely.  God has used the pronoun "I" through all the recitation and then says, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  It was the word "you" that changed everything.  Moses now asks a simple question, "Who am I…"  There was a time when Moses thought he could do something to alleviate the suffering of the people of God but that was long ago, in a whole different lifetime, when he was somebody in Egypt.  Now, he is a guy tending sheep for his father-in-law, living a quiet life of boredom.  Are you ready for God to call you out of boredom and into something amazing?

A short time before, these men were fishermen and tax collectors and now they are out healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, and raising the dead because Jesus had sent them out to do such things.  How can that be?  If we are prepared to say yes to God there is no telling what He will call us to do at a moment's notice.  Being available all the time, on call, listening for and to His voice is the key to being used.  The disciples had to make a choice to follow Him in order to get the call to action.  Even better than seeing these things happen through prayer and your life would be to hear Jesus rejoice as He does here when He hears them talking about what just happened.  If you keep asking the "Who am I?" question you will never get these opportunities.  You are a child of the creator, you have been given His Spirit and only await the call to serve.  He will give you all you need to do what He calls you to do.

The writer is speaking of Exodus 19, when Moses returned to the mountain of God with the people after they left Egypt.  The sight that time was quite different from what Moses saw in our first reading wasn't it?  Then, the Lord spoke from the burning bush, the second time was the fearsome sight described here when God manifested Himself to the nation.  In Jesus we see the love of God manifest for sinners and we come without fear or shame in order to bow before Him.  We are drawn by His love even though He is a consuming fire.  We need have no fear of that fire, it is a purifying, refining fire.  The question of "Who am I?"  is answered with, "Let me show you."  You are the beloved to whom He is giving the kingdom.

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