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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Yeon Shin
|