Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost Sermon
By The Rev. Emmanuel Akyeampong
Minister for Worship and Foundation, the Memorial Church, and the Ellen Gurney Professor of
History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
(The following is a transcript of the service audio, Oct. 18, 2026)
I thank the choir for their beautiful music. Please pray with me. We thank you, God, for this opportunity to hear your word. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, oh Lord, our God and our redeemer. Amen. Our scripture readings today are two texts that I have pondered over for years. Our Exodus reading comes after the incident of the golden calf. Was the absence of Moses for 40 days on Mount Sinai that long that the Israelites would forget the awesome acts of God on their behalf in Egypt and in the wilderness. In Exodus 24, we read of this remarkable event when Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel were invited to a meal in God's presence. The chapter tells us that they saw the God of Israel and sat under his feet, which were like a paved work of sapphire stone. They saw God, and they ate and drank in his presence. And God did not lay his hands on them.
It was after this awe-inspiring experience that the Lord calls Moses to come up to the top of the mountain to receive the tablets of stone with the law and commandments. Then the Israelites messed up. Exodus 33 opens with the Lord instructing Moses to take the Israelites and depart from Sinai to the promised land and that he will send his angel before them. But the Lord himself will not go with them. Lest, with the Israelites’ record of disobedience, the Lord consumes them on the way in his wrath. A good bridge between our reading from Exodus and that from Acts is Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well recorded in John 4.
In their conversation, the Samaritan woman complains about Jewish exclusivity, how the Jews insist that God can only be worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem and not on this mountain in Samaria. Jesus informs the woman that the hour is coming, and now is when God would not be worshiped either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. But the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. This opening up of the gospel in salvation beyond the Jews in Jerusalem receives confirmation in our second reading from Acts. Cornelius, a Gentile, a Roman citizen and a member of the army that occupies the land of Israel receives a vision in which an angel instructs him to send for Simon Peter at Joppa, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.
Luke notes in this description of Cornelius that Cornelius feared God, gave support to the poor and prayed to God. His arms given in prayers had come to the attention of God to prepare Peter's mind for this encounter with Gentiles. The Lord also showed Peter a vision with all kinds of animals which Peter identified as clean and unclean animals. Peter declined the Lord's request that he kill and eat. As a circumspect Jew, nothing unclean had touched his lips. When messengers came from Cornelius to invite Peter to Caesarea, the Lord tells Peter to go with them. Peter now understands the vision with the animals. It is about people.
At the center of our two readings is God's presence or grace. In our Exodus reading, Moses is keen to remind God that the Israelites are God's chosen people. He, Moses, is God's appointed leader. The Israelites cannot become the people whom you, that is Moses, have brought out of the land of Egypt. Moses reminds God, consider too, that this nation is your people. If he, Moses, is to lead the Israelites to the promised land, he cannot do that without God's presence. Moses is not satisfied with God's statement that opens Exodus 33, "And I will send my angel before you." That's the angel represent God's presence.
The back and forth between Moses and the Lord climaxes in Moses' request, "If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us?" The Lord responds, "I'll do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name." In the reading from Acts, the Lord expands the boundaries of the elect to include the Gentiles in the conversion experience of Cornelius. Peter also underwent his own conversion experience with a vision he received at Joppa that opened his mind. When he arrives in the household of Cornelius, and Cornelius informs Peter of his vision with the angel, Peter declares, "In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him."
Exodus 33 informs us that Moses will set a tent of meeting outside the Israelite camp, and the Lord would meet Moses there in a pillar of cloud. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. Considering the level of intimacy that already existed between Moses and the Lord, why did Moses feel the need for the Lord to show him his glory? The chapters in Exodus before the incident of the golden calf detailed the instructions the Lord had given Moses for the construction of the tabernacle. In Exodus 29 verses 44 to 46, the Lord informs Moses, "So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them."
The theologian, Terence Fretheim, knows that the command to build the tabernacle is in effect God's decision to move his dwelling from Sinai to a portable sanctuary that constantly moves among the people. In today's reading, Moses wanted to know from the Lord if this promise had been withdrawn because of Israel's disobedience. God, in his graciousness, moves toward the fulfillment of the other promises. The Israelites will still inherit the promised land, but the Lord himself would not accompany them. He will send his angel with them. Moses was not satisfied with an angel being sent with the people. He wanted God's tabernacling presence. How otherwise would the Israelites be distinct from other people?
Moses's intercession for the people takes the form of three different pleas, which the Lord graciously agrees to. The Lord eventually commits to accompany the Israelites to the promised land. He will be a constant presence with the people. To be sure they were back in favor with the Lord, Moses then asked the Lord to show him his glory. In effect, as Fretheim observes, this is a request for a sign that God himself will truly dwell among them without judgment. God grants Moses' request in part, for humans cannot see the face of God and live. Importantly for me, God redirects Moses' request. Instead of speaking about glory, God speaks of goodness. God shifts the question from what God looks like to God's character.
If seeing God is to be truly revelatory, seeing God must be accompanied by knowing God. God tells Moses, "I'll make my goodness pass before you, and I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion." The Lord's grace and compassion is demonstrated in the story of Cornelius. When the Holy Spirit descended on the household of Cornelius, and they began to speak in tongues, just like the Pentecost experience of the Jews in Jerusalem, the believers who accompanied Peter were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
These days I struggle to feel God's presence here in the United States and around the world. At the beginning of this semester, a former graduate student of mine reached out and asked if we could schedule a Zoom meeting. She's exploring how to combine an academic career with ministry and figured I would have some advice since I am navigating the same path. It became clear during a Zoom conversation that there was something perhaps more pressing. She told me how her mother had passed away from cancer despite her fervent prayers for her mother, and that she was angry with God for unanswered prayer.
I recalled an incident in 2015 during my clinical pastoral educational or CPE at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester, which I have shared with this congregation before. My wards included ICU where the patients were often sedated. I interacted more with the relatives, and their anguish informed my fervent prayers for healing. To walk through the ward and see empty beds where patients lay the previous day was difficult for me. In hindsight, I knew that if the Lord answered all my prayers in the affirmative, there would have been pandemonium in Worcester. My supervisor at the hospital noticed my struggles, perhaps from reading my daily reports. He took me aside one day and assured me that God's grace is always present on the wards. My task is to discern what the grace of God is doing and to align myself with it. Easier said than done. But one incident brought this truth home to me in an unforgettable way.
A recovering addict in his 30s had moved back home from rehab and went to clean a neighbor's attic. This was July, and the heat was overpowering. The young man suffered a cardiac arrest, fell from the attic stairs, and struck his head. He was brought to St. Vincent's and lay in a coma in ICU. The mother was a devout Christian who carried around her warm Bible that had clearly seen much use. On July 18th, a day I'll never forget, the mother asked me to take the son's hands and join her in prayer for healing for the son, referencing the power of agreement in prayer from Matthew 18. I looked at the son who was already turning purple, shared my thoughts on how God's healing is not always physical, grasped the young man's hands, and we prayed. As I left the ward, I told the Lord, "I have pledged your name. You better show up." I returned the next day and learned that the young man had passed away. My steps were heavy as I walked towards ICU. Part of our training at the hospital as chaplains involved encouraging organ donation.
The medical staff had asked me if I would speak to the family about organ donation. How could I, when the mother was trusting the Lord for a miracle? As I walked onto the ward, I was not sure what to expect, a mournful waiting room, recriminations about having been disappointed by God. Instead, I walked into a celebratory atmosphere when the son passed away. I entered the ward, and then the mother waved to me with a piece of paper in her hand, "Pastor, come and see." When the son passed away, the hospital released the information that he had signed up as an organ donor in 2013 and would be donating his liver. His mother told me proudly, "He is an angel of life." Earlier this month, a 17-year-old high school student, a senior and co-captain of the football team at Marble Head High School, Owen Coyne, died from a sudden brain hemorrhage.
From what I heard on the news, this was an extraordinary life cut prematurely short. His mother then made a comment that caught my full attention. Her son happened to be an organ donor, and his organs had gone to five different people. The mother took great comfort that her son had given the gift of life. This was deja vu, and I pondered God's mysterious ways. Maybe like me, you struggle to see and feel God's presence these days. God reminded Moses that it is not about seeing him, it is about his character, his goodness and his graciousness. Theologian William Willimon reminds us that faith, when it comes down to it, is our often breathless attempt to keep up with the redemptive activity of God, to keep asking ourselves, what is God doing? Where on earth is God going now? Amen.
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