A week ago, we elected a new Government; but writing this over the weekend before the election I am at a disadvantage. I have a shrewd idea of the outcome but not its detail. Of one thing I am sure, however confident our new leadership may appear to us, there will be things they must face in the coming weeks and months for which they were unprepared, are ill-equipped and of which they have inadequate experience.
Today’s bible reading is Exodus 3:7-15 which describes God noticing the distress of his people (in Egypt), determining to do something about it and then sending Moses to Pharaoh to obtain their release. That is our position today. We thought things were at a low ebb, we needed a change, and we have new leadership. We are not close to the miserable state of the people of Israel in Egypt, but the analogy is worth a moment for the sake of what comes next.
After being called by God, Moses considered himself inadequate to the task for he lacked the authority necessary to face a leader on his home turf. How was he to prove his credentials to his own people. In that case God gave him the immortal line: v14: ‘God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you”’.’
Some of you may believe that our leaders are sent by God, charged as they are to form a government, notionally, by an anointed king. Others will be more circumspect, cynical even.
The Houses of Parliament are dominated by the (newly refurbished) clock with its famous bell, Big Ben. Irrespective of what goes on in the offices and the House of Commons below, Big Ben will still strike at the same interval as before; time is measured and unlike our changing moods and views is unaffected by changing fortunes. Our new Government has Authority for a season, but it will change again long before time changes or ceases.
A Prayer
After a week in office, may our new leaders remember why they are there and what they are mandated to do. Give them the humility to know that they do not have all the answers and to remember that as the wheels of history turn, today’s leaders, and people, as those of yesterday, are all your cogs, moving time on in your same, unchanging and measured rhythm.
We thank you, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob that we can call on you God from generation to generation. Amen and Amen.