A, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 17 - Exodus 3:13-15 "The I AM Full Stop"

Exodus 3:13–15 (ESV)  Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers 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.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”  God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Our world is full of information!  Everyone wants to tell us something!  Who is it that you listen to?

Social media, YouTube, the internet, broadcast media, talkback radio, the bloke over the back fence, politicians, comedians…  There are so many from which to choose!

Perhaps you choose not to listen to anyone!  You have been hurt by bad advice and look for answers within yourself, your own understanding of things!  What you judge to be good and what you judge to be evil!  There’s so much noise out there, so you withdraw to your thoughts within.

Or further still, maybe you just like not to think about anything.  The noise of society tires you, so you try to retreat into a place of perfect silence.  Like the ten thousand, in Simon and Garfunkel’s song, not wanting to disturb the sound of silence!

Our world is full of information!  To whom do you listen?  What is it that informs you?

The great danger of listening to the many and various sources of information out there, is that more than not, you will be misinformed!  Whereas, listening to what’s within, there’s a danger of being ill-informed!  And not listening to anything or anyone, you will find yourself uninformed.

So, we need information, immediate life without it suffers, and without information we cannot seek eternal life!  But the trick is getting the right information?  But how to get it and from whom?

If we look within for information about life, the answers we get will seem like they give us life, but the life we find will ultimately destroy life elsewhere!  The life of our feelings and mood can destroy the life of our physical being or mental health.  Within the heart one seeks life, but there, one finds, “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:19 ESV)  The information we get from our own good and evil ill-informs us!  It’s information that leads to illness, dying, and eternal death.

Okay, so we don’t want to be uninformed or ill-informed!  But neither do we want to be misinformed either.  There are so many charlatans and con artists out spreading misinformation and causing heartache today.  And it’s growing!  Inside and outside the church!  It’s here there’s the temptation to go scampering back into the self.  But this is not the answer that gives life.

Moses was a Levite living in the court of Pharoah.  But he was on the run after murdering an Egyptian whom he witnessed beating a Hebrew slave.  He thought he had covered up the murder after burying the Egyptian in the sand.

However, “When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”  He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”  When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.”  (Exodus 2:13–15 ESV)

The information Moses had from within and from without, told him to run.  And it’s after running and settling in Midian he has a strange encounter with a burning bush that burned without being burnt.  Curiosity got the better of him, so he stopped to see what was going on.

God speaks to Moses out of the bush.  God informs Moses that he has heard the cry of his people in Egypt and, through Moses, was going to deliver them from the hand of Pharoah and the Egyptian taskmasters.

But like us today, all the information known to Moses makes him question what God says to him.  God says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,  and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey… Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:8-9a, 10 ESV)

Moses is hesitant to go back into the melting pot that’s Egypt.  But God’s call does not leave Moses ill-informed, despite the death sentence that loomed if Moses returned to Egypt. 

Nor is Moses uninformed!   He’s promised, God will be with him, and informs him he will bring him with the Israelites, back to the mountain, to serve God. 

Neither was this misinformation!  Moses’ credibility before his fellow Israelites would be backstopped by God.  Moses was given God’s name!  Not just a name of an unknown God, but the name of the God of Israel’s Fathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God’s name is beautifully simple, but profoundly complete!  This name comes from the simplest of verbs, in any language, the verb “to be”, “I AM”. 

His name captures the eternity of his existence.  What God and his name tells us is that back in the past, “I AM”, right now “I AM”, and in the future “I AM”.  In other words, God was, is, and will be, present in name, word, being, and promise! 

God’s being to Moses was a full-stop.  He is the source, middle, and end of all information.  The be all and end all of all existence!  Moses was completely informed by God in the simplicity of his name.  The great I AM in Hebrew, is from the verb, to be, hâyâh, from where we get the name Yahweh, or Jehovah.  In most English bibles when this name used, it’s usually printed as Lord (capital “L” with small capitals “ord”).

The name of our Great I AM is our full stop.  So simple, pure, complete, and eternal is God’s name that God calls Moses to take off his shoes and not come too close to the burning bush, from which God spoke.  Not only is his name pure, complete, and eternal but so too is the presence of God whose name most perfectly defines him.  Our God who says, “I AM” is holy in presence so in the presence of Moses and in the burning bush that did not get burnt, Moses is called to the most holy full stop in Almighty God.

God and his name are so holy that the Israelites feared saying his name for fear of desecrating it.  Matthew’s Gospel being a catechism for Jewish believers of Jesus Christ differs from the other Gospel in that “the kingdom of God” is referred to as “the kingdom of Heaven”, so as not to offend Jewish ears.

Jesus offended Jewish leaders when he came not denying himself as the Son of God.   John’s Gospel account gives testimony to Jesus as the “I AM”.

He says, “I am the bread of life, that came down from heaven.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)  “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12, 9:5)  “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7, 9)  “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14) “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) “I am the way the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)  “I am the vine.” (John 15:1, 5)

John also records Jesus’s direct reference to God and himself as the “I AM”, making the Jews want to stone him for blasphemy. 

Jesus says to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”    (John 8:56–57 ESV)

Jesus is our I AM!  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  (Hebrews 13:8 ESV) He is eternally present with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  Three persons in the one I AM full stop!   This is our God, your God!  The I AM, who is, who was, and who will be. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8 ESV)

God is the I AM of your being, your soul!  Because he is your full stop you can deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him, the I AM!  You will lose your being carrying your cross, but you have received a new being, you are receiving a new being, and you will receive a new being, a new existence in the I AM, Full stop!

In an age of misinformed, uninformed, and ill-informed information, inside and outside the church, do not just hear and believe what someone says, what I say, or any pastor says!  Open your bible, and confirm what is said, is what the I AM says! 

Pray, the Holy Spirit leads you in submission to what is written in its pages, so you do not mishear the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Pray, so the word of God is not corrupted into a piece of ill-informed knowledge of good and evil within.  

Let the full stop of the I AM, be not a passing comma in your life!  Rather stop, be still and know that I AM is your God!  Let the full conjunction of your being be infused with the I AM.  Give thanks and call on his name!  Make known the deeds of the Great I AM; sing to him and praise his name!

God “is”, so you “are”!  Call on his name, and he “will”!  Into every situation you enter, the I AM is there waiting for you to call on his name!  Amen.