February 24 Worship: "What Jethro Saw Was Not Good"

In between snowstorms, many of us gathered for worship on a bright and sunny morning.  While it was good to be out of the house, it was also clear by the prayer requests that many people felt the need for some time with God, partially to pray for people that we're worried about.  Looking beyond our own needs, though, we also collected a special offering to support Week of Compassion and its global ministry of emergency relief.

In the sermon, I continued our Lenten series following the Hebrews as they journey through the wilderness toward the Promised Land.  This week, we focused on the period leading up to Moses receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai, including the need for Moses to appoint some leaders to help govern the people and adjudicate disputes.  I suggested that the need for organization was one of the reasons why they needed Law, so that these leaders picked by Moses could be instructed in how to judge and on what basis to judge.

More importantly, I suggested that Jesus had done the same thing for us, who choose to be called his disciples.  Just as Torah could not cover every situation, neither could Jesus' teaching.  Instead, he offered principles to guide our lives.  I believe that Jesus taught the most important principle to live by is love, but that a sinful world challenges our ability to love, which means that we must also learn to live with plenty of forgiveness and perseverance through the challenges we sometimes face -- as Jesus told his disciples, sometimes they would need to pick up their cross and follow him.

Odd note: while listening to the sermon, I discovered that I misspoke a couple of times, identifying Moses as God.  I'm not quite sure what that was about. Needless to say, I don't believe that Moses was/is/or will be God.  So I apologize for my slips of the tongue, if they confuse or startle you.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again (the pastor said what?), or if you'd like to share it with other people, you can find an audio copy here.