WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:06.100
I suppose that everyone who reads the Bible regularly eventually comes

2
00:00:06.100 --> 00:00:11.100
upon a text that lingers on the palate of the mind like a tune that

3
00:00:11.100 --> 00:00:13.000
will just not go away.

4
00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:20.600
Our text for today is such a passage for me. For years

5
00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:21.000
now

6
00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.700
I have found this text haunting the quiet hours of my reflection.

7
00:00:27.700 --> 00:00:30.000
I don't know why it should do

8
00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.000
so. Perhaps it's the graphic image of the blood of the sacrifice being

9
00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.500
thrown on the people at the conclusion of the Covenant ceremony.

10
00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:45.900
Perhaps it's the very words that Moses uses creaking and groaning

11
00:00:45.900 --> 00:00:51.300
under the burden of the struggle to describe that beatific vision of

12
00:00:51.300 --> 00:00:54.300
God standing on the pavement of lapis

13
00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:54.400
lazuli.

14
00:00:56.900 --> 00:01:04.900
Perhaps it is that manifestation of the overwhelming power of God a

15
00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:10.400
devouring fire turning with smoke and rumbling with thunder at the

16
00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:11.200
peak of the mountain.

17
00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:18.400
Perhaps it's the sight of poor Hur

18
00:01:19.800 --> 00:01:25.400
left standing in his blood-stained robe at the foot of the mountain as

19
00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:31.200
Moses and Joshua begin their climb to meet face-to-face with Glory.

20
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.000
I have a lot of sympathy for Hur.

21
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.100
He's only mentioned in two scenes in the entire Bible in Exodus 17.

22
00:01:42.100 --> 00:01:43.600
He and Aaron hold up

23
00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:49.600
the sagging arms of Moses how Joshua leads the army of Israel to

24
00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:51.100
defeat the Amalekites.

25
00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:59.200
Here in Exodus 24, he's left at the foot of the mountain when Moses

26
00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:01.800
and Joshua go up to meet with God.

27
00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:05.700
And that's all we know about him.

28
00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:11.600
But maybe we can conclude that

29
00:02:11.600 --> 00:02:16.600
e was a pretty reliable guy after all Moses does leave him in charge

30
00:02:16.600 --> 00:02:20.700
when he sets off up the mountain and charges him with the

31
00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:26.600
responsibility for sorting out any problems that might arise while

32
00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:27.800
Moses is away.

33
00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:31.500
bsv translated

34
00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:37.500
this way that poor and Aaron are to take care of quote.

35
00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:39.500
Whoever has a dispute.

36
00:02:40.600 --> 00:02:42.900
But I like the Hebrew better.

37
00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:45.800
Whoever has issues.

38
00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.200
Let them go to them.

39
00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:55.100
I think that's why I sympathize with her left standing at the foot of

40
00:02:55.100 --> 00:02:58.900
the mountain that blood-spattered road to take care of people with

41
00:02:58.900 --> 00:02:59.100
issues.

42
00:03:02.100 --> 00:03:05.400
I've got a lot of experience of people with issues.

43
00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.300
I'm not talking about you.

44
00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:13.700
Maybe

45
00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:20.200
But back in the days of my youth when I used to witness for Jesus on

46
00:03:20.200 --> 00:03:29.100
street corners, I was cursed at vomited upon propositioned by whores

47
00:03:29.100 --> 00:03:32.100
and threatened by an angry guy with a knife.

48
00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:35.100
Not all on the same night.

49
00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:42.400
More recently traveling in the Middle East I once had a Palestinian

50
00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:48.000
woman throw a bedpan of urine on me from a second-floor window as I

51
00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.000
walk down the narrow Backstreet of the old city of Waco.

52
00:03:54.900 --> 00:04:01.100
And taking a walk when Pleasant Sabbath day in Jerusalem a crowd of

53
00:04:01.100 --> 00:04:05.000
ultra-orthodox Jewish boys pelted me with rocks.

54
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:08.400
Those Israeli boys had issues.

55
00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:13.800
But I wasn't too worried to be honest ultra-orthodox boys growing up

56
00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:14.500
in Jerusalem.

57
00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:15.700
Don't play baseball.

58
00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:22.400
So they're throwing lacked a certain accuracy.

59
00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:25.600
But I did learn one thing.

60
00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:32.400
Not forbidden to stone passing Gentiles on the Sabbath.

61
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.900
Fortunately, they all missed the Jewish boys.

62
00:04:39.900 --> 00:04:42.700
That is the Palestinian woman had better aim.

63
00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:48.800
But it taught me not to be prejudiced now.

64
00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.500
I know I'm an equal-opportunity Target.

65
00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:55.500
None of that really bothers me though.

66
00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:00.000
Does a Palestinian woman did leave me wearing garments shame with

67
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.100
something a little less appealing than the blood-spattered on hers

68
00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:04.800
robe.

69
00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:07.800
None of that really bothered me.

70
00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:13.500
But what does bother me is sometimes having to deal with people with

71
00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:16.700
issues right here in the church?

72
00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:21.400
Over the course of an Inglorious career.

73
00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:26.900
I have been lied to on a number of occasions by supposed leaders of

74
00:05:26.900 --> 00:05:27.100
the church.

75
00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:33.100
I have been used as a scapegoat to Bear the blame for other people's

76
00:05:33.100 --> 00:05:39.700
incompetence and I've been lied about in public by a high-ranking

77
00:05:39.700 --> 00:05:42.300
elected synodical official.

78
00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:48.500
And once a few years ago when I was working at astronautical

79
00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:49.800
convention here in St.

80
00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:54.100
Louis a pastoral delegate to our convention a man.

81
00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:56.600
I had never met before and who's

82
00:05:56.700 --> 00:05:57.000
Dream.

83
00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:02.600
I did not know then and do not know now came up behind me and tapped

84
00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:06.300
me on the shoulder while I was standing at the urinal.

85
00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:10.900
We're leaving myself during a break between convention sessions.

86
00:06:12.200 --> 00:06:14.900
And when I turn my head to see what he wanted.

87
00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:21.000
He pointed his finger at my face a couple of times and said we know

88
00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:21.900
who you are.

89
00:06:21.900 --> 00:06:24.200
We are going to get you.

90
00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:29.100
What are you doing?

91
00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:36.200
My introduction to the Pastoral Ministry class didn't cover this

92
00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:36.600
situation.

93
00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:45.900
So I just said in the kindest way I could think okay.

94
00:06:47.500 --> 00:06:50.200
But do you mind if I finish peeing first?

95
00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:54.900
left unhappy

96
00:06:57.100 --> 00:06:59.400
That guy had some issues.

97
00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.100
I hope you had a better day.

98
00:07:04.200 --> 00:07:06.400
When you are a follower of Jesus.

99
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.400
Upper world that rejected him and put him to death on the cross.

100
00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:25.400
But it's the behavior of people with issues in the church that can

101
00:07:25.400 --> 00:07:26.800
really hurt you sometimes.

102
00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:32.400
Sometimes I think about 4.

103
00:07:33.400 --> 00:07:38.500
Left standing there in his blood-stained robe and knowing that he was

104
00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:43.600
going to have to deal to stay behind and deal with a bunch of

105
00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:45.400
Israelites and their issue.

106
00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:53.500
And I think that sometimes I feel like what her must have felt like

107
00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:57.800
watching Joshua and Moses climb up the side of the mountain and I

108
00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:04.500
think Leo Lord, why do I have to be the guy left standing here in a

109
00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:09.000
soiled road to deal with people who got issues?

110
00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:16.300
Why can't I just once be the guy who gets to come up on the mountain

111
00:08:16.300 --> 00:08:17.400
and be with you?

112
00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:19.800
look

113
00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.300
I don't want to be Moses.

114
00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.200
I don't even want to be Joshua.

115
00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:30.900
I want to do is get away from me just Roy gender issues and be alone

116
00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:32.900
with you Lord.

117
00:08:32.900 --> 00:08:34.600
I'm not greedy.

118
00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:39.200
I don't want 40 days not even 48 hours.

119
00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:41.799
40 minutes might be nice.

120
00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:50.500
But I'd be happy for even 40 seconds of that beatific vision and rest

121
00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:52.100
in God's presence.

122
00:08:53.400 --> 00:08:56.100
Is that really too much to ask?

123
00:08:58.400 --> 00:09:01.900
So I stand down here with r or below.

124
00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:07.000
Watching longingly as others get to go up to the mountain.

125
00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:11.900
and it is as if I he

126
00:09:11.800 --> 00:09:17.400
the still small voice of God answering in my head

127
00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:18.900
Shane

128
00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:23.600
I thought you wanted to serve me.

129
00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:27.300
I do Lord, I do.

130
00:09:29.400 --> 00:09:35.800
Serving me means staying below and dealing with people with issues.

131
00:09:41.300 --> 00:09:44.900
I don't know.

132
00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:47.900
I don't have the strength.

133
00:09:47.900 --> 00:09:50.500
I can't.

134
00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:55.300
That's what the blood-stained robes for.

135
00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:01.100
That blood-stained road.

136
00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:07.700
When the Apostle Paul was about to leave Ephesus to go to Jerusalem.

137
00:10:07.700 --> 00:10:14.300
He told the Christians their pay careful attention to yourselves and

138
00:10:14.300 --> 00:10:19.600
to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to

139
00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:24.500
care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

140
00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:32.200
I guess that's more or less what I think God might have said to her or

141
00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:32.500
to me.

142
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:34.700
or to you

143
00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:38.000
those people with issues

144
00:10:39.500 --> 00:10:47.200
caring for them doesn't get in the way of our service to God caring

145
00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:51.300
for them is our service to God.

146
00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:59.000
Dealing with people with issues can wear you down and leave your

147
00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.300
garments staying with all sorts of grief.

148
00:11:04.100 --> 00:11:09.100
But the strength to deal with it all doesn't have to come from within

149
00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:14.600
you it comes from the grace of God who made you his own by the blood

150
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:20.900
of the Covenant that stain has road that blood that Jesus shed for you

151
00:11:20.900 --> 00:11:21.800
on the cross.

152
00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:31.400
And we care for those people with issues not by the wise inside that

153
00:11:31.400 --> 00:11:34.200
we possess or buy our clever.

154
00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:34.900
Speech.

155
00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:43.000
But by remembering that they are the people of God obtained by his

156
00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:43.300
blood.

157
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:51.100
And by speaking his word to them and comforting them with a message

158
00:11:51.100 --> 00:11:59.100
that way that day and we together are not finally going to be left

159
00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:00.800
standing at the foot of that mountain.

160
00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:07.800
But you have come to Mount Zion into the city of the Living God the

161
00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:12.300
heavenly Jerusalem en to ignore mobile angels in Festival Gathering

162
00:12:12.300 --> 00:12:16.500
under the Assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.

163
00:12:17.400 --> 00:12:22.500
After God the judge of all into the spirits of the righteous made

164
00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:23.000
perfect.

165
00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:27.900
Enter Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.

166
00:12:28.900 --> 00:12:33.300
Which of the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word and the word

167
00:12:33.300 --> 00:12:34.000
available?

168
00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.800
And so we remain here below.

169
00:12:40.900 --> 00:12:41.800
Lindsey's

170
00:12:42.900 --> 00:12:48.100
garments stained with blood that remind us who we are

171
00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:52.700
Who's we are and who we serve?

172
00:12:53.800 --> 00:13:00.800
Until it is our turn to go up on that mountain now closed in New Roads

173
00:13:00.800 --> 00:13:04.100
washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.

174
00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:08.000
And find rest in the presence of God.

175
00:13:09.900 --> 00:13:12.400
In the name of Jesus I'm in.