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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Our text for this morning is drawn from the Old Testament and Gospel lessons. You may be seated. What is God’s nature? What is his character? What is God like? Can we know? What are you and I like? What’s our nature? What’s our character?
We begin our meditations this morning in the book of Exodus, our Old Testament lesson. Here we see God reminding his people of his nature, reminding them of his character. He says to Moses, God’s nature is to save, to redeem, to have mercy on his people. Just as he does for the people of Israel, freeing them from the bondage of the Egyptians, so he frees us from the bondage of sin. That is God’s nature. He is ever true to his promises. He is ever looking after the best interests of his people.
God goes on: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” He’s making this people a kingdom, a kingdom of priests, a nation set apart for his purposes, set apart for his ultimate plan of salvation. This again shows God’s character in using people to bring about his plan, to do his work. All that is required on Israel’s part is to obey him. Then everything will go well.
The people respond, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” It’s really a good answer in response to God’s reminder of how he has blessed them, in response to God’s promises of fidelity. The people respond with joy. Amen. And they promise God. They promise their fidelity to him. They promise to trust him alone. They promise their obedience.
You see, this law that God is giving them, it’s like the owner’s manual for how human beings are supposed to function. As you know, when you follow the owner’s manual, the machine tends to work properly. Life is very complicated. And so that we would know what we are to do to navigate the complexities of life, God gives his law. Were Israel to follow it, were we to follow it, all would be well.
Sadly, we know the track record of the Israelites. They would not obey God’s law. They would not trust in God alone. They would build a golden calf whom they would worship instead of God. They would not obey God’s voice, and there would be trouble from within and from without. Sadly, we know our own track record too. How we do not obey God’s law. How we do not trust in him alone. How we do not listen to the voice of our shepherd. Our character, our nature is to do whatever we want. We are faithless in our commitments to God.
We are right to make promises, to make vows to amend our life, promises to go in the right direction. And yet, and yet, and yet, while we are faithless, God is faithful. While we were still weak, while we were yet sinners, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, for you and I. Despite their faithlessness, Israel was still the treasured possession of God. Their calling to be a kingdom of priests didn’t change despite their behavior. Through them yet would the promise of the Messiah be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
That is God’s nature. That is God’s character: to be faithful to his promises even when we are not. In our gospel lesson, God arrives in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and he comes to this people. He comes to Israel, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, and he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
They are misled. They are tossed about by every wind of doctrine, whether that be from the Pharisees or the Sadducees or the Zealots, from whomever. They wandered about. He sees the people a lot like people that we see today: those who follow every new trend, those who grab onto every self-help formula, those who follow every new philosophy or idea. People not unlike ourselves, frankly.
And when Jesus sees this harvest, he sees all these people that he yearns to be united with him in his kingdom. He tells his disciples to pray. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” You see, God is revealing his nature again. His nature to have compassion. His nature to desire that his people not wander around like sheep without a shepherd, but that they follow him, the true shepherd.
And as he tells his disciples, so he tells us to pray for workers to be sent to gather people for Christ. Then do you notice what Jesus does? The prayer that he just told his disciples to pray, the prayer to send workers into the harvest, he fulfills it himself before they even have a chance to pray it. He called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction. These twelve Jesus sent out instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'”
The very people that he rescued from Egypt. That he led through the wilderness. That he brought to the promised land. The very people that had promised him their obedience. The very people who had failed miserably. It is for them that Jesus comes, and he trains and he sends these apostles to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. He sends them to restore these wandering sheep to himself.
God’s nature… He said his faithfulness knows no boundaries; it knows no limits. So intent is he on claiming us back for himself to be his holy people. So intent is he that he would even come into the world as human flesh to preach and to proclaim and to die, to die our death. So intent is he on claiming us that he would destroy our greatest enemy, death. By rising to life again, he would return to the right hand of the Father to reign, would send us His Holy Spirit to enlighten us and create faith, and would use other sinful people, just like these apostles, other sinful people like your parents and your grandparents and your pastors and your teachers to bring you here to the waters of baptism.
That is the nature of God: to equip His church to carry out His work, to bring people to himself. In verse 17 of Exodus chapter 19, shortly after our Old Testament reading, after the people make their pledge to God, the text says this: “Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God.” Think about that. He brings them out to meet God. That’s the same work that Jesus calls his apostles to in our gospel lesson. It’s the same work that God calls pastors and teachers and church workers to today: to bring people to meet God.
One commentator writes about this text. He says this: “The ultimate and supreme object of man is to be united with God, but we forget this. The things of this world are the countless powers and agencies are constantly at work to hide God from us and to make us feel and act as if there were no God. The essence of the faith is to realize the presence of God. Therefore, we should hail as our highest benefactor the man who does for us as Moses did for Israel.”
And so do we. So are we led here to meet God. We meet him here as his word is proclaimed, as the forgiveness of sins is declared over us. We meet him in his body and blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. We meet him within this community of faith here at St. Paul, believers he has gathered into this place. We meet with God as we are brought together as the body of Christ.
That is God’s nature: to bring us to himself so that we would commune with him and with one another. Our nature is to make promises that we won’t or can’t keep. God’s nature is to continually seek us out despite that. God’s nature is to bring us here, to bring us to himself, to lead us to repentance, to save us through the cross of Christ. Thanks be to God that he has brought us into the harvest.
In Jesus’ name, amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard and keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
