From the Pastor |
Exodus 14:19-31
It’s that time of year again… a time when many of our people are telling their stories again. Where we were. What we did. How we felt. When the terrorists struck 19 years ago, most of us found ourselves glued to the TV those first couple of days… We fell asleep to the news reports… We’d wake up and watch the scenes over and over again. The death toll was the only thing that changed. I was just 100 miles from New York City, and, like most of the country, I was filled with grief, shock and fear. Fear is a reality that we all must deal with in some way. There are many cases where fears are irrational and can even be dangerous… It was Franklin Roosevelt who said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself… After all fear can cause people to act in ways they normally wouldn’t… fear can cause great harm. However, there are times when fear can be very rational. Jews in Nazi Germany had legitimate reason to fear for their lives. People living in war-torn areas around the world have valid reasons to fear. On 9/11, we, as a nation, experienced a real and rational fear as we watched in horror as the events unfolded. Amid these memories that flood back every year, we have our reading from Exodus… Today’s reading is the story of Israel’s final deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh and the start of their journey into covenant relationship with God. After the tenth and final plague… the death of the first born of every Egyptian household… the Egyptians were terrified of what might happen next. They want the Israelites out of their land… So the Israelites pack up and marched right on out. But God has one last miracle to perform. So, the Lord tells Moses “Order the Israelites to turn back and camp… along the shore… Then Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness!’ …and he will chase after you. I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!” [Exodus 14:1-4] So Moses does this… and the Israelites set up camp. Then Pharaoh does indeed change his mind. He mounts up and brings his army with their chariots and horses after them. When the People of Israel saw Pharaoh’s army coming… they were terrified. They didn’t know what was going on… or where they were going. They couldn’t even be sure there would be a tomorrow. All they knew is that they did not stand a chance against Pharaoh and his army. They could not outrun them… they could not fight them. They were doomed. All they could do was what Moses told them to do: “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today… The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” [Exodus 14:10-14] And that is exactly what happened. We are told: “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them... coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.” [Exodus 14:19-20] You see… They were not alone. God’s angel cut off the Egyptians’ advance… providing a buffer that kept the Israelites safe. Then comes the famous cinematic moment: the parting of the sea. The People of Israel were able to cross safely, but the Egyptians’ chariots (the very thing that gave them their overwhelming military advantage) got stuck in the mud and as they turn to flee in fear… they are swept up in the waters and drowned. So we are told that “when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” [Exodus 14:31] Now we need to understand that they did not simply exchange one fear for another… This fear… the biblical fear of God… is not a fear as we know it… it is to be awe-struck… to have overwhelming sense of wonder at what God has done. It is to have respect and an acknowledgement for God’s power and authority. You see… the crossing of the Sea of Reeds transitions the people from a state of fear to one of awe, from doubt to faith… from cries of despair to shouts of joy. God heard their cries of injustice and delivered them to freedom and they are now able to sing and dance with joy. They have been liberated for a new life and new purpose. God made a way when there seemed to be no way. This is the lesson we need today. This story describes a great miracle, made legendary by Hollywood, but as with most miracle stories, there is a tendency to want to explain it. To prove it scientifically… one way or another. But, honestly… the focus of this story is not the miraculous parting of the sea… the point is that the deliverance of Israel… the salvation of the people, consumed by fear, was made possible by God. Only by trusting God… was their survival and their freedom possible. The good news that is to be proclaimed here is that God is with us when the path is smooth and easy going… but God is also with us when we face insurmountable barriers and cannot find a way through. God is with us when we experience joy… and God is with us when we are overcome by fear. And that’s the key to conquering fear! Recognizing that God is with us. So, today, as we still have the solemn anniversary of 9/11 on our hearts and minds… let us be humbly reminded that when darkness comes and fear takes hold… it is God who lights up the night. God is with us. And God sees us through to the other side, moving anything in our path out of the way. When you think of 9/11… when you remember… as I am sure you do… where you were… what you were feeling… take a moment to remember this as well: When grief, shock and fear gripped our nation… what happened? A great majority in our nation turned to God… there was a great resurgence of faith. People sought God in churches and communities… Fears that can paralyze us were eased and we spent a lot of time, energy and money taking care of one another. We came together as a nation because so many of us recognized that God was with us. The evidence was clearly visible. Since then… we, as a nation, have once again put God on the ‘back burner’… We have again turned from God and the state of affairs in America shows the repercussions of that. Let’s face it… We are in a dark place. We are a nation that has allowed fear to flourish and paralyze us. It is hard to imagine how we can heal… how we can once again find deliverance from the turmoil that currently enslaves us. The Good News for people of faith can be found in this Exodus story… The way through can be found in faith… in trusting God. The people of Israel who had been caught up in the wave of defiance that had them marching boldly out of Egypt… put their trust in God when fear replaced that defiance. This part of the story was no Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death!” moment. This was a moment of great paralyzing, rational fear. Their only hope was to trust in God. In these days of filled with fear, anger and hatred… whether rational or not… OUR only hope is to trust in God. There comes a time… and I believe that time is now… when we find ourselves standing between the “devil and the deep blue sea.” A time when we have to realize that all we are powerless… when fighting the ‘enemy’ on our own is impossible… a time when we simply cannot see the way through to the other side. It is the time to either give up or to put our trust in God. We NEED to turn back to the Lord… to put our trust in God because only then will we find a path opens before us… it is then we can see a light in the darkness and find a way out of what seems to be an impossible situation… moving into that new day that God alone can provide. We need to recognize that we are not alone… God is with us. When there seems to be no way… God provides a way. When there seems to be no hope, God is our hope. And God continues to be our hope, the hope that has us moving forward, even when giving up seems like the logical thing to do. We need to be a people who transition from fear to awe, from doubt to faith, from cries of despair to shouts of joy. To realize that it is the LORD who turns fear into joy, who delivers us from those places darkness and slavery and exile and brings us through into the light of a new dawn.
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Exodus 12: 1-14
Have you ever wondered why there are so many people who have a problem with the church today? Why so many people have left and not returned? Why so many of our young people have lost interest in the church? I know I have. Now, there are many reasons people give for why they are no longer involved with what they refer to as “organized religion.” I don’t have the time… Sunday is my only day to relax… It’s boring… out of touch… full of condemnation and hypocrisy… the excuses and reasons go on and on. I think that the truth is… the church (at least in America) has basically become a bureaucratic organization that has lost sight of what the church was meant to be: a community. We have too often gotten caught up in the individualism that drives our society. It seems like the Christian faith… at least a large part of it, has been privatized… focusing on serving the needs of individuals and small groups. There is so much focus put on our “personal” salvation and what the church does for US! We treat the Christian faith as a private, individual matter, and unfortunately, we have lost a lot of the interconnectedness of life that is clearly expressed in the Christian faith. What does this have to do with our reading from Exodus? Well… Establishing a New Community is one of the reasons God calls Moses to service. Let’s look at the story: God has heard the cries of the Israelite people… the descendants of Abraham. So he calls Moses and tells him to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” So, after much arguing… that is exactly what Moses does. But Pharaoh refuses… time and time again. So 9 plagues have come upon Egypt… each one worse than the last. Each one demonstrating the awesome power of God… Yet Pharaoh still refuses to release the Israelites. Therefore, Moses announces that there will be one final plague. “About midnight [God] will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh… to the firstborn son of the female slave… and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.” (Exodus 11:4b-6) However, between this announcement and the event itself… we have today’s reading… a brief pause in the action where God gives specific instructions to the People of Israel. The people are to very carefully prepare a special meal. They are to choose a lamb or goat that is perfect… that has no defect. On a specific day they are to roast it and eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They are to eat quickly… Everyone is to wear their shoes… have their walking sticks in hand, and everyone at the table was to have shoes on… to be ready… prepared to leave at any moment. There is a great sense of urgency, and yet… this Passover meal clearly demonstrates a sense of community. After all… this isn’t an every-man-for-himself kind of situation… This is an act that focusses on community… There is a sense of unity, of family. EVERY household is to participate… And if one family is too small, or too poor, they are to gather with others; to be joined together. Even during this difficult and scary time… they are called to care for one another. Also… this isn’t to be a once and done scenario… it is only the beginning. It is a new beginning for the people who have been slaves for generations. These instructions begin with a notation about time, “The Lord said… “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” It is the start of a New Year that signifies the beginning of a new way of life… a new way of living and being. This chapter of Exodus continues on to describe how the people are to recreate this Passover meal every year from then on. To always remember what God has done and who they are… This is the creation of a whole new identity for the People of God. Passover is about salvation and transformation… Salvation because the blood of the lamb means life… it is the sign for God to pass over the Israelite’s home… sparing them from the threat of the tenth plague. And it is about transformation… transformation from slavery to freedom, from oppression to liberation. And these verses are about establishing a ritual that not only sets them apart, but unites them to one another in a life of worship. It is a call to come together in community to risk a new life… to embrace change… to live as a new community made up of God’s Chosen people… united in worship and ritual, and transformed into a servant people. Think about it… Over and over again, God has Moses tell Pharaoh “Let my people go, so that they may worship me…” so they may serve their God. Throughout the rest of the Torah… they are given the commandments for how to do that… which Jesus summed up for us: Love God and Love your neighbor. To this day, thousands of years later… the celebration of the Passover meal remains a central ritual in Judaism. In many ways, it has also become a central focus of Christianity as well, because it was at a Passover celebration that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. In fact, many of the images and themes of Passover have been incorporated into the Lord's Supper, including: The bread and the wine… Remembrance and bringing the past into the present… Darkness and night… Deliverance from bondage and death… The “lamb” that was sacrificed and its blood that provides protection from death… And just like the Jewish Passover… the Lord’s Supper signifies salvation and transformation. Salvation from our slavery to sin and death… salvation granted by the blood of the “lamb”. As Peter reminds us: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” [1 Peter 1:18-19] And it is also about transformation, for through the blood of Christ… the perfect lamb of God… Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… [creating] a new humanity… [Ephesians 2:14-15] We are called to be a part of this new humanity… to come together in community to enter into a new life… to embrace change. … being made a new creation in Christ… but not only as an individual because we are brought into the family of God… the community of faith. The church is to be a community of believers… followers of Christ who… just like the Israelites… are called to be a servant people… After all… Christ, the head of this community… “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mark 10:45] The same is true for all within the church… we are called to serve… to serve God through our worship and through our love… our love of God and neighbor. The story of the Exodus demonstrates to us that God cares for the enslaved and the oppressed… And Jesus came to show us that… not only is this true… but how we can live our lives to reflect God’s loving care. And if we are to follow Jesus… we must strive to be the ones who care for the weak, the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed. However, we cannot do it on our own… When we are united with Christ our identity is no longer found in ourselves… instead, we are called to join together in community… united in faith… as THE family of God. Every Christian is called to participate… united in a new life of worship and service to God. Our Christian faith is NOT a private affair… it is not meant for individualism… The church is called to unite… to join together in community to worship the Lord our God… and to serve in relationship, solidarity and love that moves beyond the self… beyond all barriers of class, race, and gender. We need to, as a community… as the “one body of Christ in the world today”… embrace the transformation that comes through faith and serve our God through worship, prayer and praise… and serve the world… working together… through our witness, our words and our actions that share God’s love, and grace, and God’s call for justice. I believe that the Christian church as a whole in America needs to move away from the individualism that permeates our society and back to the model of community to which we are called… A community worships together… that shares and cares for one another… that supports and lifts up one another. If the church of Christ Jesus is to once again flourish in our nation… we have to put aside our selfishness and fear… let go of our bureaucracy and our need for control and power… and truly become a community of God’s people… a community of the spirit. Because when we are united as a community, the church as a whole serves and suffers together… but it also celebrates and hopes together because it is when we are together that we can truly experience the new life and joy that comes through Christian fellowship. |
Yeon Shin
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