The Exodus is the controlling story of the both the Old and New Testaments. By this I mean that it is the most referred to, the most appealed to, the most copied and remembered story in the scriptures. If we don't know the story of the Exodus we miss the foundtional understanding in the New Testament about slavery to sin and deliverance. We miss the depth and breadth of the work of God. At the beginning of the Exodus story is what Campbell describes as "The Refusal of the Call".
While standing on holy ground before God and receiving the Call to free his people, Moses quite unashamedly tells God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoah, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Exodus 3:11. This begins a series of refusals to God's Call. We know that eventually God trumps Moses' objections. Sometimes, though, people will refuse the call their whole lives, much to their detriment. God does not force us to receive the Call and follow, but God will be persuasive and persistent.
In these next few blogs on the refusal, I think it is helpful to us to consider the claim that God is making on us and to consider how we have held God off.
There are countless examples in the Bible of God's Call and our refusal to accept. Sometimes it is simply an objection like Isaiah's "Woe is me..." recognizing that we are not worthy of such a journey. Sometimes we run away like Jonah who was called East, went West and got on a boat to go further away from the presence of God. Most of us are somewhere in-between. We don't merely object to God's Call and we don't run away. Most of us stand still. Not listening to God and not moving toward him.
To recognize that we often refuse God's Call makes us more honest people. It doesn't make us bad. Often it makes us more like the people of the Bible than we know. The great heroes of the faith were ordinary people asked by God to an extraordinary journey. That's all we are, ordinary people God is Calling on an extraordinary journey.
Why do we refuse the Call? I asked our class on this to recount the kinds of excuses they have given for not accepting an invitation to something. There were so many answers, some sad, some quite funny. But excuses they were. My favorite refusal to the Call comes from The Hobbit with Bilbo and Gandalf.
"But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone," said Gandalf.
"I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them," said our Mr. Baggins..."Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
One of the reasons, early on, for refusing God's Call is that we simply can't be bothered. We don't want what we perceive to be "our life" upset. We aren't convinced the Call is important, or it is threatening to our comfort or ?
What ways do we refuse God's Call in our lives? It's worth thinking of our standard excuses and learn to recognize that we have a rather automatic SOP of refusal. What are they for you?
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