“Show me the money!” Perhaps this should have been the start to last week’s Stewardship sermon. Do you know the line? It helped make Cuba Gooding, Jr. famous in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. Desperate to keep his one remaining client, the once-cocky sports agent lead character, played by Tom Cruise, calls the player who is unhappy with his existing contract, Gooding’s character, Wide Receiver Rod Tidwell. It’s a comical give and take, as Gooding paces around his home with swagger, trying to get his agent in the same groove. By the end of the phone call, there is dancing and shouting from both player and agent in a scene that propelled Gooding to Oscar success.

“Show me the money!” is about more than just financial negotiations. It is a cry for authenticity and connection, even in the midst of mistrust or broken relationships. It is a beginning point for relationship and commitment between these two characters that touches on a theme carried throughout the film.

Our reading from Exodus this morning shows similar movement, as Moses meets God in a tent of meeting outside the camp of the Israelites. God’s people have been in the wilderness for some time, have received the Ten Commandments[i] and numerous other instructions about life together in community. They have gotten the building plans for the structure of the Tabernacle they are to build and the proper making of offerings, as well as all the furnishings. They have created the Ark of the Covenant, where the commandments will rest. And again, God has called Moses up the mountain for more instructions. But this most recent trip reveals impatience and frustration among the people of Israel, who respond under Aaron’s instructions by melting their gold into an idol for worship. You may have caught the reading of this story in worship last week. When this happens, not only does God get mad, but Moses is also furious, breaking the stone tablets he has been given, and Aaron declares that the people are “bent on evil[ii].”

Imagine for a moment a child has done something way out of line, or just something quite ridiculous. Have you ever heard one parent say to the other, “look what your son did!” That’s the premise of some of this conversation. Moses is confronted with the realities of what his people have done, but in partnership with God offers the reminder that these people are also God’s people[iii], and as such, he looks to God as if to say, “so now what are you going to do about it?” He says, “show me your ways.” The subtext here is the same as in that conversation between Jerry Maguire and his athlete client – are you going to be with me or not? It’s a risky question for Moses to ask of God, too. As Dennis Olson wonders:

How can the powerful holiness and glory of the God of all creation live with and in the midst of a sinful people without the surging power of that divine holiness destroying the people (Exodus 33:3)?[iv]

The disparity between what God has intended and how the people have responded is tremendous, and now the entire covenant between them has been called into question. But in the midst of struggle and broken promises, we God and Moses speaking as they always have, friend to friend[v]. In this conversation, Moses begins by trying to figure out what kind of relationship God intends to have with the Israelites after all.

This week, if you are connected to social media, you likely saw numerous posts that included the phrase or hashtag “me, too.” In response to revelations and accusations about inexcusable and despicable actions by Harvey Weinstein, actress Alyssa Milano invited those who had experienced sexual harassment or assault to name it with a post, hoping that it might raise awareness about the magnitude of the problem in our world. In a very different way, it was a call to show, and sometimes tell, about a problem in our society that is too often unnamed or brushed aside. What many don’t know is that the phrase actually began more than ten years ago as activist Tamara Burke reflected on a heartbreaking story she heard from a young girl at the camp where she worked. This experience motivated her to help young women of color who had survived sexual abuse, assault, and exploitation. Burke continues that work today as she serves as director of the Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity. It has been a number of years since she began introducing the phrase “me, too” as a way to express solidarity and compassion to those victims, and this week it became more viral given recent events. Between noon last Sunday and Tuesday afternoon,

the #MeToo hashtag has been used 825,000 times [according to Twitter]. . .
[Facebook] said that in less than 24 hours, 4.7 million people around the world have engaged in the “Me too” conversation, with more than 12 million posts, comments and reactions. According to Facebook, more than 45% of people in the United States are friends with someone who’s posted a message with the words ‘Me too.[vi]‘

“Me, too” carries a lot of implications. It is one expression of the calling out of a sin that exists in our world and give space for those who have been long silenced to be heard. It gives reassurance that those who have experienced brokenness in its most gruesome form are not in fact alone.  And it reminds us of the importance of showing up and telling truths. Underlying all of this is a fundamental question of how we are going to be in relationship with one another in the midst of the brokenness of our world.

As we ponder this question in the midst of our communities of faith, we might look to the conversation Moses has with God in Exodus 33 to guide us. In this moment, as with the stories that precede it in the Exodus narrative, God’s character is revealed. Just one chapter before, Moses has persuaded God to not destroy the Israelites, and it’s not the first time they have screwed things up. But over and over again, God continues the pattern God began with the parting of the Red Sea; God delivers the people from the bonds of slavery and captivity of sin and brings them into freedom and the arms of mercy. We learn again that:

When justice and compassion clash within the heart of Yahweh, compassion prevails[vii].

Moses is the mediator through which this happens, as he represents the people of Israel to God, and also then represents God to the people of Israel as he returns to reveal the fruits of these conversations. The first gleaning of this conversation is the assurance of God’s enduring presence, promised in verse 14 with the word in Hebrew, Emmanuel. This is a promise of dwelling and desire to be in deep and abiding relationship with God’s people, even in the midst of trials.

At the end of our text, Moses gets a glimpse of this God while tucked into the cleft of a rock. This small taste of God propels Moses, and the people of Israel, into a renewed relationship with God again, which will lead to worship and a renewed proclamation of God’s graciousness and steadfast love. This is a pattern that repeats throughout the stories of Scripture. We even hear echoes of it in Paul’s greeting to the Thessalonians, where it is evident that the showing and telling about God’s grace and love has gone viral in that community, so much so that word has gotten back to Paul, Silas, and Timothy. God’s presence is meant to inspire a response from us. It is meant to call us into relationship and a way of being with each other that demonstrates the kind of covenant community God has envisioned from the very beginning, and never stops at trying to bring into reality. It is meant to make us load up our mystery bags and bring into our circles of family and friends and neighbors and even strangers, and share what we know to be true with a joyful show and tell of God’s presence in our own lives.

There has been a great response on the whole, I think to #MeToo. In the comments I have seen and read, and stories I have been privileged and trusted to hear this week, I think there have also been signs of God’s presence, that same presence promised to us in Exodus. I have heard it in the expressions of solidarity among women. I have seen it in the responses of men who have acknowledged the times they have “let things slide,” or even been responsible for statements or actions themselves, with earnest promises to do better as individuals and as a community. This “show and tell” as it were via hashtag and slogan has become more than just something trending on social media. It has become a call to be the community we are supposed to be, complete with an acknowledgment of the ways we have failed.

In bringing things to the light, and having tough conversations, we are better able to forge ahead as children of God together, and if we are faithful about it, we are doing it in the presence of God, which indeed can and will bring some relief and rest from those terrors that too many live with. This is important for the issue of sexual harassment and assault. It is also important for numerous other issues in our society and world that tear away at the very fabric of our communities and cause real pain and harm. Things like “Me, Too” are reminders that everyone has stories to tell, and calls us to pay better attention and do a better job of caring for each other through attentive, supportive listening and reciprocal action. They urge us to respond – by listening, by saying #IBelieveYou, by promising to step up when we observe it happening.  Being together in community can also look like other signs of support. Did you know that this morning, the entire congregation of Macland Presbyterian church here in our Presbytery is having a “pink-out?” with everyone wearing pink in support of their preschool director and others who are fighting breast cancer? This is a sign of our awareness of God’s presence. It’s about showing up for one another, and telling each other the hope we have come to know.

At our best, the church’s response to the world can be what is laid out in Exodus – a proclamation that we belong to God and that God never abandons us. The promise of Immanuel is that God says, “me, too,” because God’s nature is to be with us in the midst of the mess. And over and over again lead us from brokenness to restoration. This is the nature of God’s show and tell. May we load up our mystery bags with this good news, and prepare to proclaim it. Amen.

~Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford
October 22, 2017

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[i] See Exodus 20:1-17
[ii] Exodus 33:22.
[iii] See Exodus 33:13
[iv] Dennis Olson, “Commentary on Exodus 33:12-23,” The Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3445, accessed 10/18/2017.
[v] Exodus 33:11a, New Revised Standard Version
[vi] http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/us/me-too-tarana-burke-origin-trnd/index.html
[vii] Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year A. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995).