Sermon for September 30

The reading 

Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, "What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?" 6 So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him; 7 he took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

10 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, "Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." 13 But Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still."

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. 22 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24 At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25 He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." 26 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left

The message

Last week, we heard the story of Joseph, where a series of bad events including his being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and a false accusation of assault that lands him in jail, all work together to save the people of Israel from famine.  As a result of these unfortunate events, Joseph comes to great power in Egypt. In this position, he can settle his family as welcomed and honored guests in the prime lands of Egypt.

Of course, today we hear of Joseph’s descendants and their escape from slavery in Egypt, so obviously something happened between last week and this week. In the first few verses in the book of Exodus, we learn  Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.   Soon after, the Israelites are enslaved. (If any of this sounds familiar, that’s because we hear it all time, all over the world about immigrants today).  The people of Israel are slaves for almost 400 years. During this time, they remember the promises God made to Abraham, God’s word is in the background of their suffering.   

Moses, who is one of the key figures in the Book of Exodus, starts off life miraculously. He is rescued by some midwifes who refuse to enforce Egypt’s decree that all Israelite children are to be killed.  He ends up in the care of the Pharaoh’s own sister and raised in the pharaoh’s house.  In Exodus 3, we hear one of the most famous encounters with God in the bible, Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”  When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

From here, God tells Moses I have heard the cry of my people in slavery and will set them free, and you will do this work, you will confront the Pharaoh and his great empire.  Moses, in awe and shock, replies like we honestly might, umm, I can’t, I don’t want to, pick someone else, I stutter and won’t be listened to.  God talks him, well demands him into going and agrees to send Moses’ brother Aaron with him.  Moses and his brother confront Pharoah a dozen times, each one with the same demand the Lord says let my people go”. They follow up each rejection with a plague that wrecks havoc on Egypt (stuff like locusts, flaming hail, frogs, turning the water into blood). The last plague is the death of the first born of Egypt, where the first born of their animals through the first born son of the Pharaoh are killed (this is the event that the Jewish people mark at Passover, when this death passes them over, only affecting the Egyptians).  This breaks the will of Pharoah, at least for a few days and the people of Israel are set free.  They leave Egypt, with a good amount of looting on the way out.  Their trip to freedom is intense, a roller coaster of ups and downs and last minute rescues.

Today, our reading tells the central part of the story. The people of Israel are caught, trapped between the sea and the Egyptian army. There is no way to cross and no way for the people to fight the Egyptian army. Moses tells them to stay still and wait for God to rescue them. It is not in our reading but this advice angers God. The Lord tells Moses, don’t just stand there like a bunch of fools, trust me, know my power, walk through the water. The sea is parted, the people walk across dry land, they escape death, the water that was their doom, that made them angry with God and Moses and cry out why come to the wilderness to die, to lose everything, becomes their way to freedom.  

No clever manuvers, brilliant plans or quick swimming would save them.  They were in a place where only God could help them.  Despite 400 years of slavery, despite being trapped between an undefeatable army and an uncrossable sea, despite having no food or water in the wilderness, despite having no law or leader, God’s promises to Abraham would be kept, they would move on to the promised land, they would become a blessing for all people.  Not one person in that crowd of escaped slaves could look at what happened and say “I did that”, not one leader in the group could claim “remember when I pushed the water away”. This was God’s work. 

Today there are different things that make us cry to the Lord in great fear, to think we are better off where we were instead of someplace new, to understandably choose the suffering we know instead of the unknown, to protest "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness”.   I want to spend some time looking at other ways we are trapped with no place to run, other waters that God must part so we can walk through safely on dry land.

The people of God walked on dry ground through the sea of sin and death, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. God does that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

But the people of God walked on dry ground through the sea of poverty, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. God does that through commands, challenges to what we value most and generosity

But the people of God walked on dry ground through the sea of fear, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. God does that through promises that are always good, no matter what

'But the people of God walked on dry ground through the sea of racism, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. God does that through declaring there is room for everyone in the kingdom of God.

But the people of God walked on dry ground through the sea of violence, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. God does that through exposing the weakness of violence and the power of peace.

Like the people of Israel could not cross the sea alone, we cannot take these walks alone. These are big things, each of those walks is a leap of faith, taking us from where we are, comfortable to something else and better.