Brief synopsis of the readings: Moses, the primary person of the book of Exodus, began his public life in this reading. While he shepherded the flock of his father-in-law, an angel comes to him and lighted a bush. But Moses noticed that while the bush burned, the fire did not consume it. Puzzled, he approached the bush. God then commanded him to remove his shoes as he approached “holy ground.” Overwhelmed, Moses covered his face out of fear but God gave him an incredible job: he is to liberate slaves held in Egypt. Moses then asked God for his name, knowing that in a world that worships many gods, he will be asked for his name. God then tells him: “I Am Who I Am.” God then reminded Moses that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Luke’s Gospel we find some who approached Jesus with a story about some Galileans who were sacrificed by Pilate and their blood was mixed with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus grew angry and told them that those who were sacrificed were no greater sinners than any other Galileans. Further he tells them that unless they repent all will perish as they did. Jesus then told a parable about a fig tree. This tree produced no fruit and the owner demanded that it be cut down. The man in charge of the vineyard begged the owner to allow him one more year to care for the tree and provide nutrition. After that, if the fig tree continues to provide no fruit, the owner can cut it down.

Last week I spoke about the iconic place Moses holds in our history and also in our imagination. Many of us well remember the movie The Ten Commandments, where Charleton Heston played Moses. Both God and Moses were played as larger than life, and while God is certainly larger than life, I’m not certain Moses is.

We know the backstory of Moses: he was born at a time when Pharaoh, fearing being overrun by the descendants of Joseph, demanded that all newborn boys be killed. But Moses avoided this fate (much as Jesus would after his birth) and through a series of events is raised in Pharaoh’s court. As an adult he fled Egypt for Midian where he married and tended the flocks of his father in law Jethro.

And then one day God crashed back into his life through the now famous burning bush. God commanded Moses to leave his simple life and enter into a new life, a life like no other. God commanded Moses to return to Egypt and liberate his people from slavery to freedom. The idea of only one god was still fairly new and took some getting used to. We may puzzle over Moses’ question of asking God’s name but there was some practicality to it. The Egyptians worshipped many gods and they all had names. Moses needed an answer to the question: “What is this god’s name?” But God doesn’t say “I am God” but instead “I Am Who I Am.”

This is a bit of an aside but we normally translate this as “God” or “Lord” and in some Jewish circles they don’t write these words. “God” is often written as “G-d.” This may strike some of us as strange, but does make some sense. My biological father’s name is Donald, but I have never called him Don or Donald. He is dad. In the same way, many Jews feel that calling God by name is disrespectful. Moses may have been called God by name, but he would never address God by that same name.

Hearing Bible stories as children I think many of us looked on Moses’ role with some envy: he was kind of a super hero to us and it would have been cool to have been Moses. But now I’m not certain. He certainly lived a storied life: born into slavery, barely escaping death, being raised in the royal court, and escaping. But at the beginning of this reading we see him living a life of comfort if not excitement. I can only imagine the fear of hearing God’s call: leave the life you know and return to the placed of slavery. Once there confront Pharaoh and liberate the slaves where you will wander in the wilderness. Oh, and by the way, you will not live to see the Promised Land.

If this sounds like a hard life, it is. This critical chapter in our salvation history could have gone much easier. God could have softened Pharaoh’s heart to free the slaves, God could have empowered the slaves to overtake the Egyptians and reverse the balance of power. God could have transported the slaves to the Promised Land without having to escape slavery or created a plague that killed off the Egyptians.

But that wasn’t the path God chose. Why not? We don’t know, but I have a theory. From the beginning God has chosen to involve and empower us in the salvation history that is our destiny. God chose us not only to be the recipient of the Kingdom but also participants. Genesis tells us that we were created in God’s image and I believe that’s more important than we think. Being created in God’s image is not simply a physical thing (even though I’m an old guy with a white beard): We are created in God’s image in that we have the capacity to love, to choose life, to work for the benefit of all. In short God made us in his image so that we would not be simple beneficiaries to our salvation, but also partners.

Please understand that this is not a salvo into the “salvation through works vs. salvation through faith.” We all know that no salvation happens without God’s intervention. Instead I hold that God gives us the tools to cooperate in our own salvation.

I also believe this carries us to today’s Gospel. Luke’s Gospel describes two events we see nowhere else in Scripture, and nowhere else in any other source: The Roman Pontius Pilate killed Galileans and desecrated their blood with the blood of pagan sacrifices, and the eighteen who died when the tower of Siloam fell. Many find this reading troubling because Jesus then warns them that they are no better than those who were killed. It can be read as a warning to “shape up or else.”

Or, it’s more subtle than that. Jesus’ words can also remind us that when bad things happen to other people, it’s not an implicit way of saying we are blessed because it didn’t happen to us. No matter who we are and no matter what happens to us (good or bad) we are all called to participate in the building of the same Kingdom.

Lent calls us to repentance and perhaps we overthink it. Repentance calls us to remind ourselves on a daily basis that our lives work best when we stay on the path that God calls us to.

Just as God worked the liberation of the Israelits through Moses, God works our salvation through Jesus. God could have declared the “end of time” and saved us all but God didn’t. We could have been created in Heaven and ignored the whole “earthly thing.” But we read too much into this if we interpret this reading (as many of us were taught) that God places us here and watches us to decide if we are “worthy” of salvation.

Instead, Jesus told those gathered that they could not be completely safe from disaster or massacre (no matter how good we are). But that by continuing repentance, by participating in God’s salvation plan, we can become the fig tree that bears fruit.