Learning to Live With God

Our summer worship series this year is called “Learning to Live with God!”  Just like last summer, we will be following a series of alternate lectionary readings – this time they are centered on the life of Moses. As we follow Moses’ life, from his birth to his death, we will explore this topic; “What does it really mean to live with God?” The basic events in Moses life might seem familiar to us (from having seen the movie The Ten Commandments or the cartoon The Prince of Egypt) but often we do not realize how much Moses’ story contains so many elements that are similar to our story.

As Moses grows up he has to face many questions;

  1. Who am I?
  2. Who are my family?
  3. Where do I belong?
  4. What is my purpose?
  5. How am I supposed to forgive my family?
  6. How can I accomplish anything of significance in life – especially when I have nothing to offer the world?
  7. Why do I need to be the one to tell others about God?
  8. How am I supposed to forgive my family yet again?
  9. I have had enough with God’s people – can’t I just ignore or abandon them and live my own life?

These are just dome of the questions that Moses wrestled with. They are also very common questions that we struggle with as well.

A constant theme in Moses life is that (despite his own desires) God is with him. Moses must learn day in and day out what does it mean to actually live with God? How does it impact his relationships? Career and family choices? The location where he lives? What kind of friends he will have? How he spends his money? Where he gets his food? How he treats his neighbors? How he treats the foreigners who lives in the same region has him? All of these things and so much more are going to be impacted by God’s daily presence in his life.

But it doesn’t even end there. As Moses learns that God is really present in his life –he also discovers that he is part of the community of God’s family (just like we are). Moses will also need to learn what it means to live with God in the community of others. He will discover that life is not just about Moses and God, but instead life is about God and God’s people (which happens to included Moses). So many of the lessons are learned in relationship to this community and the truths that they teach us can only be learned while we are in and experiencing the community of God’s people.

Starting on June 4th we will go on this exciting journey each Sunday during our worship service as we follow the life of Moses in our scripture readings and sermon series. By following a continuous story we will once again hear and experience the story of God’s love and redemption as it plays out in one wonderful story throughout the summer. Each worship service will touch on another moment in Moses’ life. If you miss a service, no need to panic, you can always catch up online on our YouTube channel. Since the Old Testament reading will be different form the ones printed in the Celebrate insert – and in order not to confuse anyone – the Celebrate insert each Sunday will not be included in your worship folder but will be located in the memorial lounge for people to pick up as they leave the sanctuary each week. I look forward to accompanying you on this wonderful journey this summer. See you in worship!

 

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