SUNDAY SERMON: Burning, but not consumed

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin

OT: Exodus 3.1-15

NT: Matthew 16.21-28

This past week, we had a couple of cool nights with temperatures dipping down in the 40s. Didn’t it feel great? It was a reminder that fall is just around the corner. Football season is starting, school begins tomorrow, Tractor Supply has all their Halloween decorations on the floor, and pumpkin space lattes are coming to a Starbucks near you. 

Lest we forget one of my favorite parts of fall, though–the campfire. I sit there for hours and watch the flames dance around the air. 

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved it. I would go to deer camp just so I could keep the campfire. Until I caught my great uncle’s jeans on fire one time, and I was asked to head home the next day.  

So I love the story of the burning bush. Moses saw the bush was on fire, but it was not consumed. Just like my uncle’s jeans. On fire, but not consumed by it. Do you ever feel like a campfire? On fire, not yet consumed, but getting awfully hot. It was the story of Moses’ life. 

Quick recap of the story of Exodus 3. Moses sees the bush when he’s on a mountain running from God. Moses, the baby who was put in the river when pharaoh was killing Hebrew boys. Moses, the man who eventually saves the Israelites and leads them on the exodus from Egypt. But at this point in his life, Moses doesn’t know who he is. 

He’s a grown man, but he’s got boy issues. He’s wearing Egyptian clothes but he’s got Hebrew blood. He was raised by Egyptians but born to Hebrews. Egypt is the only home he’s ever known but he’s from Israel. He’s confused. He has an inner struggle that manifests itself on the outside of his life. 

So one day he sees two men fighting. A Hebrew and an Egyptian. The Hebrews are enslaved to the Egyptians. His blood people are enslaved to his adopted people. Right in front of him, they start fighting. It intensifies. He steps in. He wants to end this conflict not only because these men are fighting each other but this outer conflict is exactly what’s going on inside of him. And he wants it to stop. 

He sees the Egyptian beating the Hebrew. He sees the master beating the slave, his adopted family beating his blood family, and he chooses a side. He strikes the Egyptian dead and then feels the weight of what’s happened. He looks around. No one is there. No one saw him, so he buries the Egyptian in the sand. 

The very next day, he sees more conflict. Two Hebrews are fighting each other. What will he do? He tells them to stop. They refuse and ask if he’s going to kill them like he did the Egyptian. That’s when his heart dropped. Time stopped. He couldn’t see straight, much less think straight. Someone saw the fire consume him. He had to leave. Now! 

His inner conflict has become visible on the outside.  He isn’t the man called him to be yet; he is becoming that person. Becoming takes time. 

Not a bad thing. It actually means he’s closer to figuring out who he is and what God wants of him. One of my favorite preachers is TD Jakes, a WV boy who has become a big-time TV preacher, and he says Moses is just like the rest of us. 

“You’re educated before you get the degree. You’re a servant of God before they ordain you. You’re a leader before you get the job. You’re a visionary before you start a company. You’re a husband before you find the right woman. If you’re not that before, you won’t be that after. So you have to go through a period where you have vision to function on that level but don’t have opportunity. That creates frustration. You feel it inside but nothing outside has acknowledged you. Your thoughts are up here but your situation is still down here.” 

That’s where Moses is. He’s coming of age. He is in the process of becoming who God has called him to be. To be fair, he makes some terrible decisions along the way. But don’t most of us? 

I can identify with this. Because you, Clifton and Ronceverte, allowed me to preach from your pulpits when I was in high school, and those sermons were absolutely terrible. I’m so glad you didn’t livestream and record the services back then! But coming of age takes time. 

Back to our story…Moses flees. He goes to a new place away from Hebrews and Egyptians and marries a Midianite woman. They raise a family and start a new life. 

But Moses still is living with this inner conflict. He was a Hebrew born in Egypt to deliver the Hebrews from slavery…and here he is off in Midian starting a new life. It’s not what God had planned for him. 

Let me ask you a question. When you were a child and your momma told you to go clean your room but instead you sat on the couch and ate potato chips, what did your momma do to you? “Stephen Harrison Baldwin, Jr.!” First she calls you by your full name! Then she jerks you off the couch and gets you going where you’re supposed to be. She provides an opportunity for you to focus. That’s exactly what God did to Moses with the burning bush. 

As Moses watched it, with more interest than we watch a campfire, he noticed that while it was on fire, the fire did not consume it. This was a man who was called to be king but lacked focus. He is consumed by everything around him, just responding to what comes at him, just responding to what comes his way, never taking life by the reins and focusing on what he is supposed to do. 

He sees people fight, he joins in. Life gets tough, he runs. He meets someone interesting, they get married. No direction or purpose. 

So God sent Moses the burning bush to capture his attention and force him to focus. He calls him by name, “Moses? Moses!”

Yes, I am here. 

I’m sending you to free my people, your people, Moses. 

What? Who, me? 

Yes, you. 

But what if they don’t like me? What if they don’t listen? What if they don’t want to be freed? 

God grows tired of Moses’ doubts, his confusion, and his coming of age. He says, “I am who I am!” which is another way of saying, “Enough!” God has spoken it, and no matter how hard Moses tries to run from his destiny, he cannot. His inner struggle comes out in a face to face struggle with God, and God ends it. God gives Moses the opportunity he’d needed all along. A chance to free his people in the land where he grew up. 

There’s a fire blazing in the world today. Fighting and insults and violence and bitterness and judgment. Fire. If we lack focus…if we let it become a consuming fire…then it will burn us to ashes. And cause us to miss our calling and fail our God. 

My friends, focus. Watch the flame. Let it burn without consuming you. Let it drive you without breaking you down. Let God move through you, like God moved through Moses. I know we think of Moses as divine, but he was a human being like the rest of us who made some poor decisions before eventually coming around to coming of age.

And still, God used him for good. Do not doubt that God has big plans for you, and God will follow you to the ends of the earth to keep you on track.  Amen.