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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship

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of his holy spirit be with us all. Amen.

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Dear friends in Christ.

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We have gathered this morning to commemorate Saint Moses,

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lawgiver and prophet.

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And how exactly do we do that?

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How do we call to mind and remember together the life and work of a

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man like Moses?

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Wrestling with that question last night led me to several rather

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awkward realizations.

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First of all I have on more than one occasion been confused with

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Doctor Adams and I thought perhaps that my being here today was a

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result of just one more instance of that confusion. Who after all is

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going to ask me to help him remember Moses?

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Fortunately, I discovered that our beloved synod has hosted

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biographies of all the saints and heroes of the faith commemorated

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within our calendar.

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If you're having trouble remembering exactly who Methodius was or Mead

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or Polycarp or in my case Moses?

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A single paragraph can set you on the right track.

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And this is what I found.

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September four Moses.

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Moses was born in Egypt several Generations after Joseph brought his

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father Jacob and his brothers there to escape a famine in the land of

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Canaan.

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The descendants of Jacob had been enslaved by the Egyptians and were

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ordered to kill all their male children.

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When Moses was born his mother put him in a basket and set it afloat

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in the Nile River.

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He was found by Pharaoh's daughter and raised by her as his own son as

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her own son.

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At age 40 Moses killed an Egyptian Taskmaster and fled to the land of

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Midian where he worked as a Shepherd for 40 years.

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Then the Lord called him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh.

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Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.

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Eventually pharoah gave in and after for the Israelites celebrated the

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first Passover Moses lead them out.

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At the Red Sea the Egyptian Army was destroyed and the Israelites

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passed to safety on dry land.

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At Mount Sinai they were given the law and erected The Tabernacle but

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because of Disobedience they had to wander in the wilderness for 40

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years.

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Moses himself was not allowed to enter the promised land although God

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allowed him to view it.

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In the New Testament Moses is referred to as lawgiver and prophet, the

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first five books of the Bible are attributed to him.

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Now you were thinking that the awkward realization I had was that I

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didn't remember a whole lot about Moses, but that's not it.

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My awkward realization was that I don't think this is really how Moses

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would want to be remembered.

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I found myself wishing that I could ask him.

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I found myself wondering what he would say if he could come back to us

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the way the rich man in the parable wanted poor Lazarus to go back to

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his brothers.

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If Moses could come back from that glorious gathering of the Saints

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triumphant just for a moment.

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Is that what he would want to talk about?

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My second awkward realization came as I read

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once again, Martin Franzmann's commentary on Romans 13 1 through 10.

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And if you want a real sermon on Romans 13, all you have to do is pick

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up his commentary and read pages 230 through 236.

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And no my second awkward realization was not that this was not

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turning out to be a real sermon on Romans 13.

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It was as Fransmann notes

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that in the section of Romans that extends from chapter 12 verse 1

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through chapter 13 verse 14,

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Christ is only mentioned twice.

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And neither of those references were in the portion we heard read this

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morning.

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For our commemoration

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we heard one of the most complete summaries of the second table of the

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law in the New Testament.

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And the first commandment itself which stands at the head of all the

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Commandments and joins them all together like the hoop that runs

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through a wreath.

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Authority,

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the sword,

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Commandments and commands the law.

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That's what we've heard about.

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Is that Moses?

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Would he be pleased, would he be satisfied with such a celebration or would

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he politely tell us that we remember the cake stand

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but forgot the birthday cake.

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The thing is

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Moses did come back.

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The final act of Moses that were told of was not his Blessing of an

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Israel poised cross over into the promised land not his lonely funeral

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procession to the top of Pisgah.

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Not his wistful sight of the land that he could not enter.

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The last time we see Moses in the Bible, he has come back and he is in

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glory and all he wants to talk about is The Exodus.

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But not the one that he led.

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The one that Jesus was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.

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All Moses wants to talk about

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is Jesus.

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And then we are told of one of the rarest I think moments in scripture

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for God himself actually quotes Moses when he tells us to listen to

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his son.

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For ages before that day Moses himself had said one day

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God will raise up for you a prophet like me.

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Listen to him.

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Listen to him.

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Hear him, remember him now that would be a commemoration of Moses that

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even Moses could be proud of.

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Friends Franzmann mentions the absence of the name of Christ here not to

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lament the absence of Christ in the section of Romans.

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Rather to make the point that Christ is always meant in Paul even when

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he is not named.

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Put on the Lord Jesus Christ is the thought that serves both as the

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climax of this whole section and as its unifying theme.

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And that brings me to my third and final awkward realization, at least

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for today.

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If there is a word we like to hear even less than obey.

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I think it's probably, submit.

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To our way of thinking submission is something like obedience plus

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oppression or slavery plus humiliation.

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I can hardly read through a single submission passage from start to

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finish without a voice inside my head interrupting with its list of

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butts and all those and it doesn't of course includes.

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I can hardly talk through a single submission passage from start to

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finish before the hands go up and the what-ifs got vocalized even

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before they're called on.

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When we hear Romans 13:1 let every soul be subject to the governing

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authorities.

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How often is in our first reaction?

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But we must obey God rather than men.

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Why isn't our first thought?

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The Authority you have over me is a gift to you from my Father for my

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sake

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You would have no authority if my Father had not given it to you.

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When we hear Romans 13:8, owe nothing at all to nobody at all except to

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love one another.

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How often isn't our first reaction, I guess love really does come

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under law not Gospel.

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One more thing we have to do

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and I'll never pay the last Farthing of that debt.

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Why isn't it,

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this is how people will know that we are really learning from Christ

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himself.

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We have love for each other.

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Or here is my chance to love as Christ loves me.

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or

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clothes make the man and I have put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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If Romans 13 1 through 10 is Christless.

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It's our fault not Paul's.

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And it is more than fitting that Moses should be the one to point us

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back to Christ with his thunderous listen to him echoing from sunrise

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to sundown on this his special day.

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The last mention made of Moses in the Bible is a particularly

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beautiful one and I can think of no better way to close this

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remembrance of Moses lawgiver and prophet to be sure but first and

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forever Moses the Evangelist of Jesus Christ.

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I can think of no better way to close this remembrance by then by

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directing our attention to that passage.

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This is our Hymn of the day.

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This is our Hymn of the Eternal day.

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From the revelation of Jesus Christ to John the 15th chapter.

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And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire.

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And also those who had conquered the Beast and his image and the

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number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God

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in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and

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the song of the lamb saying great and amazing are your deeds O Lord

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God the almighty. Just and true

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are your ways O King of the Nations who will not fear O Lord and

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glorify your name? For you alone are holy all nations will come and

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worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed.

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The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.