We often don't choose our gifts...

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai

Beloved of God,

This Sunday, we will be having our regular monthly congregational meeting at noon following the Sunday School hour. If you are a member of the church, please plan to be present. 

Next Wednesday, at 6:30 a.m., I will be leading a brief Ash Wednesday service in the great room to mark the beginning of Lent. If it would do you good to have a moment for recommitment and repentance, please consider coming.

Our Scripture reading for the week comes from Exodus 34:29-35, and has much to say about Moses’ shining face after encountering God directly early in the same chapter. It strikes me that Moses seems to be unaware that his face is shining. Aaron and the other leaders of the people know it, but Moses doesn’t catch on. When they run from him because his face shines, he has to call them back to himself. 
Moses did not choose to have his face shine as a sign of having been with God. He seems unaffected by the fact that it does. But because others respond to it, he takes up the practice of using a veil. He allows his face to shine forth both when he speaks with God, and when he speaks to the people for God.  It strikes me that God chose to make Moses’ face shine, but that Moses had to decide what to do about it. Moses had to choose how to shine.
    In a church, our gifts and talents are not for ourselves; they are for the good of us all. It would have been wrong of Moses to withhold a sign of God’s presence and authority from the people at all times. Likewise, it would have been wrong of him to abuse that sign or profane it by always allowing his face to shine forth. He used this sign, even a sign carried on his own face, for the good of God’s people. 
    We often don’t choose our gifts. We may not even notice them before others do. But once we notice them, we are on the hook to use them well. How do your gifts serve those around you? Where are you in danger of withholding them? Where are you in danger of overusing them? How might God lead you to strike a balance in using what you are given?

Please join me this week in praying for:

• Peace and justice in Eastern Europe.
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
• International leaders faced with difficult decisions.
• Christians all over the world as we begin preparing our hearts and minds for Easter.
• Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities and even in our homes.
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others still working to keep us all well.
• In thanksgiving for the many among us celebrating birthdays this week.
• Creativity, wisdom, and energy for our worship ministry.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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