Excuses!  Excuses!  Excuses!  We've all heard them before, and we've all made our fair share of them.  But whatever reason we have for making excuses, the ironic thing about them is that excuses do not excuse failure.  Furthermore, excuses do nothing but distract us from the task at hand. 


In our Old Testament text, God tells Moses, "I've seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their cry, I'm going to deliver them, and I'm going to send you to do be the inststrument of their deliverance."  Almost as soon as God finishes speaking, Moses responds with an excuse:  "Who am I?"  It seems that Moses is already hedging his bets, he knew quite well what kind of person Pharaoh was.  After all, he was on the run from Pharaoh: he had killed an Egyptian in defense of an Israelite, and Pharaoh was out to get him.  At the same time Moses also knew who he was in relation to Pharaoh, he was after all Pharaoh's adopted son.  Despite this Moses makes an excuse.


But what follows is even more unexpected, God responds to Moses's excuse with a promise, "I will be with you, and when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship Me on this mountain."  With God there will be no distraction from the mission that He has in mind.


And still, Moses responds with another excuse.  He asks for God's name.  The significance of this may be lost on us.  Moses was confronting the Egyptions who believed that if you used the name of a god you could control that god and call down blessings and curses on yourself and your neighbors.

But God does not give Moses the answer he was looking for.  God responds, "I am who I am," or "I will be who I will be."  God says to him as if to say, "I am above being controlled by you.  Not only will you see the power of my wrath in ten mighty acts, but through them you will see the power of my mercy and my love.

And God did show his mercy.  He came through on His promise and delivered His people from the bondage of slavery.  Moses was left without excuse, God accomplished His mission and delivered all of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians.

God has called each one of you as well.  Not to deliver the people of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but nonetheless, we have been called by God, each of us, in a unique way.  Theologians use the word "vocation" to talk about this calling.  As you heard last week, first and foremost, God has called each and every one of you to be a child of God, a saint.  In this calling, God has done everything.  In your baptism, God has declared you to be a saint.  As saints of God we have been called to live as Christians, hearing the Word of God, regularly receiving the forgiveness of sins in absolution and the Lord's Supper.

In a secondary way, each and every one of us has a vocation, a calling, in our various states in life.  Also, each of us have unique callings, unique vocations, in life.  Some have called to be parents and spouses, others have been called to be children.  Some of been called to be students, factory workers waitresses, mechanics, doctors, or teachers... in all of these we have been called to serve our neighbor in the ways that God has placed before us.

As we go out into the world in our various vocations, we live out our lives as Christians proclaiming the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9.  Often times we encounter those who are outside of the Church, again Peter reminds us that this too is part of our calling, that we should always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15).

God has called each and every one of us in these ways so that His kingdom may come to us and to those who are outside of the church through us.  Yet despite this we make excuses for our failures in life.

Children, do you try coming up with excuses for not listening to your parents and obeying them?  You make excuses for not finishing homework, for not doing your chores, or for not being home in time for curfew.

Parents, you have been entrusted with a difficult task, to raise your children in the faith and not to provoke them to anger (Eph. 6).  This task has especially been entrusted to you fathers, who are to be the spiritual head of the household.  How many times have we used the excuse of our busy lives or our jobs when we fail to do family devotions?  How often have we thought that since we have Sunday School and Confirmation classes, we do not have to take the time to teach our children the Christian faith?  However if you look at the small catechism, Luther entrusts this task to the head of the family, who should teach this in a simple manner.  Notice how he says nothing of Sunday school or Confirmation classes.  Yes we have those things to support your task in raising your children, but they do not excuse your failure when you cease to be the primary teacher of the faith to your children.

Spouses, do you remember your wedding vows?  Vows to be faithful unto death, husbands to sacrificially serve and love your wives as Christ did the Church; and wives to submit to your husbands as you do to Christ's love.  Yet again, we see couples use a host of excuses when it comes to these vows.  Shocking as it is, we are shamed that the divorce rate amongst those who claim to be Christian is the same as those who do not make such a claim.

But the most dangerous excuses we make are the ones that cut us off from the forgiveness of God.  I remember the excuses I made in college, even though I had a church on campus only 100 yards away from my dorm room, sleeping in on Sunday was often just to tempting.  I tell you this, especially to those who will in the next few years be heading off to college, that I know from experience that these excuses do not undo the I did to myself, when I cut myself off from hearing God's Word and receiving the Lord's Supper.

Many of us have come up with other excuses for cutting ourselves off from church.  Excuses like, "the church just wants our money," or "church just isn't relevant to my life."  And these excuses are nothing more than that, they don't justify our absence and they are dangerous.  They fool us into thinking that we can justify ourselves.

And as terrible and dangerous as these excuses are, it is just as terrible when we fail to share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ with our neighbor.  Excuses like, "well I just don't know enough," or "it isn't politically correct," or "I am not a good speaker."  Our excuses do not excuse.  They do not justify.

However, Jesus does not ask for your excuses.  In fact He eliminates them.  He, of all the people in the world had the right to make excuses.  Yet he did not.  He went to the cross, died for your sins, your failures.  He died for you.  His blood was poured out so that you may be delivered from the bondage of sin.  And this he did without excuse.

Instead of making excuses, he prayed for you and me that night that He was betrayed.  He prayed that we would be one with Him, and that through Him we might see the glory of God.

Jesus doesn't call you to make excuses.  When he calls you by name, as he does in baptism, he calls you to a life of repentance and forgiveness.  Not a life of trying to explain your shortcomings or failures.  Jesus has already paid the price. He proclaims to you, just as He did to Moses and His disciples:  "I will be with you always, to the end of the age."

He gives you His Word and His Supper, so that there is no doubt that He truly is with you, that you are forgiven.

So what does this life without excuses look like?  It is a life where you go about the work that God has placed before you in your various vocations.  And you do so, no longer under the burden of the law, always trying to make excuses.  It is a life that is able to say, I have sinned, but I do not need to make an excuse for my failure, Jesus Christ has died for me.  It is a life where parents lovingly raise their children, and children honor and obey their parents who are looking out for them.  It is a life of spouses loving and respecting, serving and submitting to one another as Christ and the Church.  It is a life where we come to each other not making excuses, but asking for forgiveness.  A life lived without excuses, forgiven in Jesus Christ

And to Him alone, be all the glory.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding be with your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.