Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Matthew 22: 34-46
It has been said that Moses welded the Hebrew tribes into a nation, and led them from superstition to religion, by giving them a God.  That is partly true, but it is nearer the truth to say that out of his own deep religious conviction Moses improved the Jews' idea of God by telling them of the Great God that he had encountered in the Burning Bush.
           
To understand Judaism, one must understand Moses and know just what he did for the Jews.  He delivered them from more than Egyptian bondage.  With only the aid of his brother, Aaron, who was often more hindrance than help, he inspired an unorganized gang of slaves to desire freedom, talked their owner-employer into letting them go into the desert to worship, organized their escape and led them for 40 years during which he turned this horde of fleeing refugees into a well-disciplined and armed nation with a legal code, sanitary laws, social system, economic system, and a religion which has lasted 3,000 years. 
           
This great teacher, prophet, and organizer was the real founder of Judaism and probably the greatest of all Jews mentioned in Hebrew Scripture.  Certainly he has influenced the human race more than any other--through his far-seeing laws clustering around the famous Ten Commandments.
           
Our text from Deuteronomy describes the end of Moses' life.  It tells of the death and burial of Moses.  Moses was a great reformer.  Reformation Sunday is an appropriate time to learn from him.
           
You may recall some of the dimensions of Moses' early life.  Before Moses was born a Pharaoh came to the Egyptian throne who had not known Joseph, the Hebrew connection in the Egyptian political system.  This new Pharaoh saw the Hebrews as worthless objects; slaves whom he expected to produce work at increasing rates.  What they produced at a displeasing rate to the Pharaoh were children.  To control the Hebrew population explosion, the Pharaoh ordered that all Hebrew male babies be killed at birth.     
           

It was into this context that Moses was born.  His mother hid him as long as she dared, about three months, and then she abandoned him. She abandoned him with a purpose.  Many who abandon their children today do so with a purpose.  They cannot provide for them and by abandoning them there is hope people will find them, have compassion, and see that provision is made for them.  It was that kind of hope that Moses' mother had when she sent him down the Nile River in a basket.  And his sister was given the task of keeping a close eye on the basket to see what happened.  The baby Moses was abandoned along the Nile River near where Pharaoh's daughter bathed--a strategic approach.
           
The Egyptian princess found the infant.  While still startled at what she had found, Moses’ sister yelled to her asking, "Do you want me to get one of the Hebrew slaves to nurse the baby for you?"  Great idea thought the princess.  If her dad found out and there were any problems, she could always argue that she took a mother away from one of the Hebrew babies, certainly depriving it of some of its nourishment, maybe even resulting in the death of another slave baby.  Moses' sister got her mother, brought her to nurse and care for the princess' newly found baby, who happened to be the nurse's own son. 
           
It was in the home of the Pharaoh that Moses' grew up.  All indicators suggest that Moses had every privilege available in the Egyptian culture.  He was reared as the Pharaoh's grandson.  He received the best Egyptian education.  He lived in the protective cocoon of the Pharaoh's palace.  Through the care and nurture of his Hebrew nanny  Moses learned about another culture that existed within the Egyptian culture.  While Moses experienced a free frolicking, protected childhood, he also was taught well about his family and ancestors.  Every person's innocence about life dies at some point.  Depending upon the circumstances, the death of innocence occurs earlier for some and quite late for others.   
           
Moses' innocence ended the day he went for a walk in the old neighborhood where his blood relatives lived.  There on the other side of the tracks in the little Hebrew shanty town, he saw what terrible conditions in which his relatives were living.  He saw how badly they were treated.  And if that weren't enough, he saw an Egyptian kill a Hebrew.  Nobody did anything.  Actually, everybody looked the other way as if nothing had happened.  What happened to an old Jewish slave was of concern to nobody.  Should someone show concern that person would be next on the Egyptian's hit list.  Moses could not stand watching such injustice without doing something.  He looked around, didn't see anybody and killed the Egyptian.  Now things were equal, two dead men, one a Jew, one an Egyptian.  Moses felt good he had evened the score and no one had seen him.
           
The next day, still drawn to Hebrew ghetto, Moses went back to the shanty town.  Almost immediately he came across two Jews arguing and fighting with each other. The Egyptians were against the Hebrews and vice versa.  But the Jews must not be against each other.  When Moses saw two Jews arguing, he stepped between them to try his hand at conflict management.  And one of them wanted to know if his style of problem solving would be to kill one of them as he had done with the Egyptian the previous day.  Moses' cover was blown.  He thought he had been so discreet, but if this Jew knew, and now having spoken it, the other Jew knew, and Moses wondered how many others knew or would know.  When the Egyptian's body was found or when he was discovered missing, how long would it be before someone told that Moses had committed the murder? Besides, they weren't too sure about Moses any way.  Oh, he knew their customs well, as if he were one of them.  But he sure looked and talked and walked like an Egyptian.  The Jews were skeptical.  Moses’ only hope was to get lost in the sand.  He left the fertile Nile River basin and headed out into the desert toward Midian.
           
The desert is a tremendous place of solitude whether or not solitude is what is wanted.  Moses got solitude and that gave him opportunity and time to reflect on his life and his actions.  What meaning did all of those earlier events have and what was going to be his approach toward life in light of his past.  He wound up at an oasis.  Several women came to the well at the oasis to get water, but the shepherds who were there ran them off.  Moses intervened.  Do you notice the pattern that is evolving?  Moses intervened on behalf of the women.  When the women got home, they told their father about the Egyptian who had saved their lives.  And he wanted to know why they had not brought him home with them.  It was a matter of hospitality.  It was an expression of great appreciation for what Moses had done. 
           
Have you ever invited someone over for dinner who didn't know when to leave?  Sometimes the hanging on and hanging around is the result of being really lonely, needing and enjoying the conversation and companionship.  I don't know how long Moses had been in the desert, but the heat must have affected his manners.  He was invited to Jethro's house for dinner.  Moses moved in.  He arrived at dinner and stayed a lifetime, about forty years.  Now that will make you hesitant to invite anyone to dinner, won't it?           
           
Moses married one of Jethro's daughters and Jethro gave him a job.  Certainly not the last time a man sought to provide for his daughter by giving his son-in-law a job.  Moses became a shepherd.  He learned the lay of the land in the desert.  He discovered where the protection was, where the water was, where the grassy areas were.  He spent a long time doing that. 
           
Part of what happened to Moses in the wilderness is his view of God changed.  There was a time, it seems, when Moses thought God would do the spectacular, be a wonder worker.  Haven't there been those stages in all of our lives when we were convinced that God would do some spectacular, stupendous thing in our behalf?  When it didn't happen, we were disappointed, discouraged, disillusioned.  We even questioned the existence of God.  This must have been a part of the process of what happened for Moses.  Being in the desert, there was not a lot to distract him.  There wasn't much he could spend his time doing that would take his mind off this major conflict.  And so Moses’ vision of God as wonder-worker gave way to a vision of a God who collaborates with people in the day-by-day struggle with common issues. 
           
Far more common for Moses and the rest of us than the extravaganzas of God's activity is the day-to-day struggle, the strength to endure long stretches of time when nothing seems to be happening.  The miracle or wonder-working method is not the only way God works.  Actually it’s a minor amount, if any at all, of the way God's work gets done. 
           
Perhaps it was this insight that enabled Moses to take a look at a burning bush and gain some insight into God and himself as he reflected on that experience.  It was through that experience that Moses really became a collaborator and partner with God in the liberation of his people.  Great fortune came to Moses as an infant and young person.  He could have received that for himself and ignored the needs, struggle, and oppression that his kinfolk were experiencing.  But to Moses' credit, he worked to make the world a better place for everyone.  The only way progress can be made in the area of social justice is when those who are not involved as victims are willing to become involved in behalf of victims.  Moses was that kind of reformer. And it is the kind of reformer we are called to be in the 21st century.
             
The plight of the Hebrew people remained a constant in Moses’ mind.  He was inspired by an experience at a strange bush to do something about the Hebrews’ plight.  Moses returned from the desert to Egypt, and the first place he went was to the Hebrew people.  Why?  Because they and Moses together had to own the liberation they desired and needed as well as the process involved to achieve the freedom.
           
One of the quality television programs shown a few years ago was A Woman Called Moses with Cicely Tyson playing the lead role.  It was a four-hour drama on the life of Harriet Tubman, the black heroine of the Underground Railroad just before the Civil War.  While she was a young slave Harriet Tubman was stoned for helping a fellow slave escape.  Later she managed to buy her own freedom and flee to Philadelphia.
           
Nevertheless, she returned to the South to rescue her parents and to set up her own underground railroad.  More than three hundred fugitive slaves used her route to find freedom.  After the Civil War, Harriet Tubman spent the rest of her life in the East working for the disadvantaged and the Women's Suffrage Movement.
           
Why would a woman like Harriet Tubman struggle so much to become free, and then jeopardize her freedom by helping other slaves escape?  Why would such a woman leave her security in the North and risk her life for an underground railroad in the South? She saw the need for reformation and she was determined to do her part by working for the freedom of others.  We are called to do our part in working for the freedom of others in the 21st century.
           
The struggle Moses had to get Pharaoh to set the people free was a long and difficult one.  First, it is very difficult to get an oppressor to see how oppressive he is being.  Once that is accomplished, it is difficult to get the oppressor to stop the oppressive behavior because he sees it as beneficial to him. 
           
Once the liberation is granted, the struggle in many ways has just begun.  Indeed, the heavy hand of oppression has been lifted, but the oppressed now must deal with the responsibilities of freedom.  The Hebrews were unprepared for that, and so are we, whatever it is that has squelched our freedom.  You may have locked yourself into a stringent, strident routine that kept you moving from one event or activity to another.  When that routine was drastically changed for some reason, you didn't know what to do with all the time on your hands.  We often are unprepared for the responsibility that freedom brings. 
           
Nevertheless, the only way that a responsible handling of anything is learned is through actual participation.  Would you tell a child that you will give him a book after he learns to read?  How ridiculous!  Do we tell a child that he can't get in the water until he learns to swim?  How absurd!  But we've often taken this approach to freedom by saying, "Once you've shown you can be responsible, we'll give you freedom."  Sure there'll be mistakes and failures and suffering, but until we swim in freedom we cannot develop the strokes of responsibility. 
           
Of course, the Hebrew people made some serious mistakes in the midst of their new experience of freedom.  While Moses was on Mt. Sinai hammering out the Ten Commandments with God, the people decided they needed a more visible god.  They made a golden calf to worship.  When Moses saw it, he erupted in anger, threw down the tablets and broke them.  Someone has said that Moses is the only person who broke all Ten Commandments at the same time.  The day following this event, Moses told the people he would go up the mountain again and plead their case to God.  Moses was not willing to give up on these freedom wanderers.  He even offered himself to God saying he would rather have God blot him out than to give up on these people and their struggle for freedom (Ex. 32:32)
           
There is a legend that pictures God speaking to Moses and explaining to him why he cannot let him put foot on the Promised Land.  "If you had only lost faith in yourself, that I could understand, that would have been no serious obstacle.  Even if you had lost faith in me that I could have overlooked.  But you, Moses, lost faith in your fellow human beings, and that must forever keep you from setting foot upon the Promised Land."
           
The human dimension of Moses' leadership is always there.  He loses hope and advises God the mission is impossible.  He turns into a foxy negotiator when God gives up (Ex. 32:11-13).  He loses patience.  His father-in-law has to intervene with some advice on organization (Ex. 18:13-27).   
           
Yet, Moses "the deliverer" comes through.  The development is slow, a difficult process.  His own people, whom he is struggling to deliver from slavery at considerable risk, turn on him:". . . you have made us stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects . . ." (Ex. 5:21).  But, over time, Moses learned what was essential to religious leadership--he came to trust God without reservation.
           
It was a 40-year delivery, but Moses did it.  Moses was a reluctant reformer.  His commitment to social justice was a slow process.  The journey was rough and rocky for Moses.  At times he was frustrated and disappointed with his fellow Israelites.  At other times he was frustrated and disappointed with God and God was frustrated and disappointed with Moses.  Yet, Moses remained in relationship with God and the legacy of that relationship is that Moses delivered as a reformer, guiding the Israelites from slavery to freedom.  It is no small legacy that Moses delivered.  It is no small legacy what Moses delivered.  May we seek to deliver people from oppression in our day.  It may be the oppression of poverty or abuse.  May we find ways to step between the oppressed and the oppressor and deliver people to freedom.  May Moses’ story model for us how we are to be reformers working for change and social justice in our age as Moses did in his as Harriet Tubman did in hers.  On this Reformation Sunday, may we learn from those reformers who have gone before us and seek to be reformers in our day.