Sunday's scripture used was Exodus 3:1-5.
Penny's sermon, "Moses, The Reluctant Leader," was preached at the Congregational Church of San Mateo on October 18, 2015. An audio version of the sermon is available on the church website here.
Here is my response:
As I listened to Penny’s sermon, “Moses, the Reluctant Leader,” I thought about her metaphor of the mirage-- a distortion. “The Road to Character,” in many ways, is a response to the distorted individualism that seems to dominate many aspects of our culture. Bonnie’s children’s moment also spoke to this reality. As the “selfie” dominates many of our social media feeds, we see that sometimes self-acceptance and self-love can tip over a line into a kind of self-involvement that may be unhealthy. I scrolled through my own Instagram feed to compare the number of images that were of me with the number of images that were “worldies”-- pictures of other people or the world around me. I found it a healthy exercise. I had to ask myself if I was using my voice to celebrate myself (which is sometimes earned and deserved, certainly), or to celebrate others or share thoughts, joys, and/or concerns that weren’t so centered around ME. Was my Instagram feed beginning and ending with self(ies)?
This kind of self-examination and honest look at how we move in the world is what David Brooks calls us back to again and again throughout his book. I think that Penny’s use of Moses to illustrate this offers a very interesting counterpoint. As I move back to the metaphor of mirage and how our sense of reality might be distorted, I have to unpack it some. Our senses of reality can sometimes, admittedly, be distorted in ways that perhaps celebrate ourselves more than is healthy or deserved. Is my Instagram account full of pictures of my face, or does it display my world in a way that is more balanced? What does it say about my priorities, how I spend my time, or what my values are? When I think about how to divide my time, are all of the ways I spend it essentially self-serving? Is my sense of reality distorted in a way that allows me to think of myself as more value-centered than I am? These are such hard questions to ask myself, but I think they are very important.
On the other side of that coin, as I think about Moses and his reluctance, I also have to ask: is my sense of reality distorted in a way that DEvalues myself? Am I reluctant to post a selfie, because I never feel worthy? Am I reluctant to post or say things about “hard” topics like political issues, critiques of consumerism, racism (or any other issue of justice) because I feel unequal to the task or unqualified? Do I shy away from participation in activism, like a letter-writing campaign, canvassing, or protests? Am I reluctant to speak up when someone uses an ugly word or bring up “serious” topics because I don’t feel powerful enough to take them on?
As is evidenced by the number of question marks above, Penny’s sermon was challenging and asked me to try to be objective and honest about my ways of being in the world. When I think about my values, I have to ask myself if I am bravely living them into the world or keeping them swirling around in my head, where they cannot create change. I have to ask myself what my actions, words, and Facebook feed say about my values.
I am reminded of words of two great figures in history, who call us to value ourselves without distortion and plant ourselves deeply in the world so that we can respond to its needs:
“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” -- John F. Kennedy. We can insert “God” or “the world” or “the people of God” for country, too.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” -- Marianne Williamson
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” -- Marianne Williamson
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