Reflections on "Aaron: Brothers Unite" Exodus 32: 1-6

As we walked through the Dayton airport around 12:15 am early Sunday morning, my fellow commissioner (and retired pastor), looked at me and laughed as he said, "I feel sorry for you having to preach this morning!"  I laughed as well, and then we agreed that we actually felt sorry for the congregation that was going to have to hear the sermon.  I reminded him that I had asked him several times through the week to give me some sermon material, but he had not done so.

The sermon uses a narrative text, which means it's a pretty good story that can tell itself to some extent.  The danger of not spending enough time with a text is that it is easy (well, sort of easy) to make generalizations or points about the text that are not very nuanced, some of which I regret having said later.  

The soccer illustration was probably a reach as to how I made it fit with the sermon.  The conclusion was also very undeveloped.  But, there is always next week!

“Aaron:Brothers Unite” June 26, 2016; FPC, Troy Exodus 32: 1-6; Exodus 4: 27-31

(Exodus 32:1-6) When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD." They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. (NRSV)

Introduction: I was refereeing a soccer game a few years ago with two brothers. They were from a family of referees. The father was a really good referee with whom I worked many games before he gave up riffing a few years ago.

In our pre-game conversation, there were no clues for what was about to happen. One of them was the center ref, the other an assistant ref running one sideline while I did the other sideline. Early in the game, the brother in the middle overruled his brother on the sideline with the flag. That began a battle of wills between two brothers, including shouting at each other, in the midst of a soccer game

As you might imagine, the divided leadership from the referees led to coaches and players getting angry with the referees and increasing the intensity and anxiety of their play.

We read about brothers in the biblical text this morning. Aaron, the minor character we meet (remember I am preaching on minor characters in the Bible) is the brother of Moses (in fact, the brother of Miriam, whom we met a few weeks ago).

We we think about brothers in the Old Testament, they do not have a very good track record for getting along with each other.

First set of brothers we encounter are Cain and Abel – they have different skills (something will see in Aaron and Moses) and do different things – Cain tills the ground and Abel takes care of sheep; eventually Cain gets jealous of Abel and kills him.

Or remember Jacob and Esau? – Jacob, the younger brother, disguises himself and sneaks in to steal his brother's birthright from their father who is sick in bed.

Then, of course, we have Joseph and his brothers. Whether you blame Joseph for his superiority complex or the brothers for their jealousy, the brothers do not get along. IN fact, the enmity between brothers almost costs Joseph his life and does lead to his being sold into slavery.

New Testament brothers seem to do better.

At least, James and John or Peter and Andrew, brothers who were disciples, seem to be able to get along.

Of course, the brothers in the story of the prodigal son do not seem to get along.

But back to Moses and Aaron. Moses, who will become perhaps the greatest leader of Israel and Aaron, who will become the head o the priestly order.

Move 1: We might not have imagined such greatness in the beginning.

a. Moses encountering God in the burning bush.

1. Afraid to accept the mantle of leadership.

2. Using his lack of speaking ability as an excuse.

3. Aaron has not made the scene yet, but he is brought in by God to be Moses' voice and to do signs on Moses' behalf.

4. In the scene we read, we see how it works. God tells Moses the words; Moses tells Aaron, and then Aaron acts as a mouthpiece and shares the word with the Israelites.
5. Likewise, God tells Moses what sign to perform, Moses tells Aaron, and Aaron performs the sign.

6. the brothers united in their work.

b. Not5ice how well it works when their focus is on what God wants them to say or what God wants them to do.

1. It is not Moses trying to get his brother to say something or do something just because.

2.  You know, the older sibling trying to coax the younger one into doing his chores or doing something that just because he wants him to do it.

3. If you grew up in the 1970s, you remember the Mikey commercial for Life cereal. You can actually YouTube it to see it for those of you who are too young to have seen it on TV (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mikey).

The older brothers do not want to eat the bowl of Life cereal in front of them because it's healthy and good for them.


They decide to try and coax Mikey, the youngest brother who hates everything to eat it. He does, of course, and amazingly likes it.


But we recognize ourselves in those brothers who are trying to get Mikey to do what they do not want to do as some sort of joke.


3. it is Aaron and Moses working together, using their complementary gifts to do what God need to be done. His brothers Gifts that complement each other.

2. At this point, the story of Aaron and Moses is one of two brothers working together at God's command.

Move 2: Then we move to the wilderness.

a. Aaron and Moses do not do as well in the wilderness.

1. In truth, no one does that well in the wilderness.

2. Forty years of wandering and struggling to be faithful.

3. The people get angry with Moses and God;

4. Moses gets angry with the Israelites and God.

5. god gets any with everyone.

6. the wilderness is where the cracks in relationships appear; where the stress creates problems.

7. Maybe its the fear; maybe its the weariness; maybe in Aaron's case he has become jealous of his brother Moses and his leadership role and his special relationship with God.

b. We do not why exactly, but when Moses goes up on the mountaintop Aaron leads a rebellion against God and against his brother's leadership.

              1. the Israelites are ready to turn away from God.

2. again, maybe fear was driving them; with Moses gone maybe their fear was exacerbated.

              3.Maybe Aaron sees a chance for himself to take some of the power from Moses in Moses in absence.

100. whatever the reasons, the Israelites, under Aaron's leadership, decide to make idols out of gold.

1. Certain irony that while Moses is up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, which will include a command to “have no other gods before me,” the Israelites under Aaron's leadership are crafting idols out of their gold.

2. As we see Aaron at work, we recognize that it is not his place to lead the people in this direction – after all, that should be Moses' role.

3. and more importantly, these actions are leading the people away from God, not leading them in serving or following God.

4. the brothers are no longer working well together.

Move 3: Lessons from Aaron and Moses.

a. We are called brothers and sisters in Christ.

1.  How we work together shapes how well we serve and follow God.

2.  When we see how our complementary gifts join together, instead of competing with our gifts, we can serve God better in the world.


b. We can work together best when we start by listening to God.

1. Listening to our fears, our jealousies, our own desires keeps us from doing God's work.

2. beginning our work by turning to God for guidance allows us to keep the focus where it needs to be – God's saving grace.

Conclusion: In a few moments, we baptize Thompson, the younger brother to Trenton.

They are bound together by birth. Their parents will try to teach them how to get along. They will probably have some good days and some bad days in that regard.

We are not bound together by birth, but by our relationship with Christ. We serve God best when we work together by turning to listen for what God desires for us to and use our complementary gifts to do God's work in the world.