The United Church of Christ Statement of Faith includes a paragraph about the church which says in part, "You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others..." That call comes to each of us. It is we who are called into the church - not that life might be easy, and we might be treated like kings and queens, but "to accept the cost and joy of discipleship" and to be God's servants. That's not an easy task. There are other seemingly more fun or comfortable things that we like to do, and so there are times when we all resist God's call.

Moses is someone I can identify with. Moses of course was the great leader who stood up to the Egyptian Pharaoh, demanding that the Israelites be allowed to go out into the wilderness. He led those Israelite people to freedom and to the edge of the promised land. It was a long and difficult journey, but through it all Moses' faith was an inspiration to the people.

Yet, that's not why I find him easy to identify with. What draws me to Moses is that he was not always that dynamic leader with boundless faith. In our text from Exodus 3 we find God calling Moses, and Moses resisting God's call.

Moses was out taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law when God appeared to him in the middle of a burning bush. Even before God called out to him, Moses knew that something special, something important was happening, for the bush was burning, but it was not consumed by the fire. As he approached to see this amazing sight, God called to Him from that bush.

Now Moses knew that this was God talking to him. He understood that God wanted him to go to the king of Egypt and lead the people of Israel to freedom. But Moses also knew that this was a difficult, perhaps even impossible task, and so his response is to say, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

That's the same dilemma that we often confront in our lives. If all that we have is our own power, our own strength, our own abilities, then what we can do is limited indeed. Amazing things though will happen when it is God's strength and power and might that are flowing through us, so that we are not relying upon ourselves, but upon God.

That is exactly how God responded to Moses, saying "I will be with you". But Moses is not as impressed by that as we might think he should be. Instead of being reassured, he asks for more (how familiar that sounds, for don't we often do the same?) In Moses' case, he asked for God's name as proof that he has indeed come from God.

Now to us that sound like rather a strange request. Why is Moses asking for God's name? But you see, the people back then believed that God's name held special power. They often used the name "God" or "Lord" when talking about God, but it was the name "Yahweh", God's personal name that was so powerful and holy it was never to be spoken aloud. This name was believed to have special power, and the name itself was not widely known. So it is that someone who knows God's name and who is willing to break the taboo and speak that name aloud without fear, would be believed as someone who indeed was coming from God.

Moses is still reluctant, and so he asks, "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me... What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?" Then the Lord gives Moses several incredible signs. When he throws down his walking stick it turns into a snake, and when he picks it up by the tail, it turns back into a stick. When he puts his hand inside his robe it comes out diseased, and when he puts it back in a second time, it comes out healthy. If he takes some water from the Nile River and pours it on the ground, it turns into blood.

When I read this, I end up thinking, what else could Moses want? God has answered every question, has given him signs of incredible power and authority. He knows what God expects of him, why doesn't he just go and do it?

But then I realize that Moses is like we often are. He knows that God is calling him to do something, but he's reluctant. It seems too difficult and inconvenient. You know it would be much easier to just stay at his father-in-laws tending sheep. You don't get into much trouble that way. What God expects is difficult and hard and means incredible changes in his life. We often shy away from those challenges and look for an easier, more comfortable way, so why shouldn't Moses do the same?

So Moses continues offering objections, now complaining that he has never been a good speaker, and therefore someone else would be better to go to Pharaoh. God has obviously just picked the wrong person, and needs to find someone else.

By now God is starting to lose patience. God's commands to Moses get more forceful, as God commands Moses to just go! God will tell him what to say. And then after a final objection, God gets angry with Moses, telling him he will send his brother Aaron to be his mouthpiece, and making clear that Moses had better go do it, that there is no way out. God has called Moses, and he must respond!

There is a cost to discipleship. It's not always easy to be God's servant, for just as God has given us a great deal, so God expects a great deal from us. We like to overlook that. When it comes to receiving gifts, we're great. We love to get them. We say, God give me more! We're into the joy of following God. It's fun and exciting, but it's that cost part that we balk at. We want everything to be easy and fun and comfortable. But God often expects us to change, to face up to challenges, and to strive to be more faithful. God doesn't look for the easy way for us, in fact much of the time it seems like God intentionally picks the hardest path, and then says to us, "this is the one I want you to follow".

Years ago, Reader's Digest had a piece about how back when Franklin Roosevelt was president, one day the telephone rang in the office of the church where President Roosevelt was a member, and an eager voice said, "Tell me, do you expect the President to be in church this Sunday?" "That," the pastor explained patiently, "I cannot promise. But we expect God to be there, and we fancy that will be incentive enough for a reasonably large attendance."

Now that was a rather snappy reply to the question, but it underscores a serious message. If we just bear the name Christian as someone who is looking to receive, to be there for the good times and the glamour of things like seeing the President, we're there for the wrong reason.

It is God who calls us into the church. There is cost as well as joy that goes along with this discipleship. For God has important things in mind for us, and important things are often not easy to accomplish. Often we're reluctant and feel inadequate, but then so did Moses, and look at the amazing things he was able to accomplish, as he really did lead the Israelite people out of slavery to freedom.

If we look only to ourselves, we see how limited and inadequate we are for the task. But when we know that God walks with us, when we trust in God's presence and love, when we turn to God for strength, then amazing things can happen. For by ourselves we can do little, but when God works through us, nothing is impossible.

That is why we have been called into the church - not for who or what we are, but for what we can become. We have been called into the church because God wants to work through us, taking the gifts and abilities that we have been given, and multiplying them as we use them in God's service. That's not an easy path to follow, because it leads us to great challenges and seemingly impossible tasks, but when God is working through us the impossible becomes possible. Like Moses we learn that nothing is impossible to God.

Amen.