On the Way to Wonder

It is difficult to spend a week reflecting on the epic moments in history like the Moses story in the Bible without singing the song, “Go Down Moses.”  This very famous African American spiritual speaks directly to oppression and freedom and God’s goal of liberation.  Many slave owners prohibited singing this song for they understood the Moses story to be speaking against slavery of all kinds.

         “Go down, Moses,” was first heard being sung by “contrabands,” the name given to slaves caught running away and being held at Fort Monroe.  Rev. Lewis Lockwood heard the song and translated it onto sheet music.  It was then published in 1862. The Nile valley was considered lower than Jerusalem so when Moses was told by God to go to Egypt, he had to go down to Egypt.  Many slaves in the underground railroad had to cross rivers and going down the Mississippi was going down into slave country.  From this came the saying, to be “sold down the river.”

         Core to the Christian story is the call to liberation from slavery and specifically liberation from slavery to sin.  Our epic hero, God, is making a nation where people can be free and live their potential.  He will make it happen.  Below are two famous versions of the song for your enjoyment.

Paul Robeson:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtLcELU1brA Louis Armstrong:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf6jBP4YXwo

Exodus 13:17-14:31.  The reader might think that the culmination of the tenth plague would settle all issues for Moses.  Our epic hero, God, has shown himself more powerful than all the gods of Egypt and the people have finally started the journey to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Sounds like a good start but the plot thickens.  This fledgling “nation” reaches their first challenge, the Red Sea.  It really doesn’t matter how deep the water was as some like to quibble.  There is a block on the road to happiness.  The wedding is over and it is not uncommon for there to be a major fight that first week of honeymoon as reality sets in.  The operation is over and cancer removed by physical therapy begins and it hurts.

          As the people reach the Red Sea, Pharaoh again reverses his decision and sends his army after the Israelites.  There is an army bearing down on the people from one side and a “sea” to cross on the other.  Sweaty palms.  What will Moses do as this is a new type of challenge to his leadership and in-front of the “nation” God has entrusted him to lead?  Leadership decisions need to be made and the people are close to mutiny.  Families go through this often.  Sunday morning and the kids aren’t so happy about going to church.  Or perhaps it is a decision to move for a parent’s job but the kids are not so convinced leaving their friends and the familiar is the way to go.  It is at these crisis moments that leaders have to reach within themselves and grow.  Dictatorial mandates may calm the storm momentarily but it is probably fomenting under the surface. 

         All the formation that God has been investing in Moses now shows as Moses declares, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Ex. 14:13.14)”  Moses reaches within himself and realizes that the God who did the miracles of the plagues, probably has another miracle up his sleeve.  We call that faith.  Based on our past experience with God, we trust that what is to unfold is within his ability to handle.  It is one thing to know about the Bible but it is another thing to put the principles into action – to refuse to cheat, to turn the other cheek, to forgive, to leave a job that requires unethical actions from you.  Stepping out in faith, defines Moses as the leader.  Standing in faith is a defining moment.

         So where is the challenge facing you today?  We might call it our “growing edge.”  If we have no challenges then perhaps we need to rethink our priorities.  I note Moses does not look to his abilities but he is encouraging people to look at how God is going to solve the problem.  The answer is not what he might plan as we would never have imagined parting of the sea!  Often the answer comes in unexpected ways but we know God is watching and is able.  He is there with us in our challenge today and he has a better way forward than we can imagine.  Are we looking to him?

Exodus 12:1-42.  Jews all over the world celebrate Passover every year and Christians celebrate communion frequently.  Both of these deeply symbolic rituals are grounded in the celebration at the end of the tenth plague.  Moses has continually confronted Pharaoh of Egypt with God’s message, “Let my people go!”  Pharaoh agrees and then relents nine times.  Each time God is revealed more powerful than Pharaoh or his magicians or his officials.  To prepare for the night of the tenth plague the Israelites are given extensive instructions about choosing, caring for, slaughtering, and eating a goat whose blood is to be smeared on their doorposts.  The angel of death will pass over any home marked with the blood of the lamb.  Hence this ceremony is called Passover. After the tenth plague, Pharaoh grants the Israelites their freedom.   It marks the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  This story is foundational to the identity of the Israelites and is remembered and retold throughout the Bible.  What is the big deal?

         Oppression of God’s creation and idolatry that denies God’s authority will not be tolerated forever.  The Pharaoh thought he was god and the people worshipped idols.  Control over life and death was the final word, settling where real power lies, who is the real God.  Pharaoh finally submits and allows the people to go worship the real God.  Secondly God has now created a ritual that reminds us who we are and what God wants from us.  Christians believe the blood of the doorpost foreshadowed the blood of Jesus on the cross.  We believe we may live under the penalty of death but death cannot cause us to perish.  Communion is the ritual we celebrate that remembers Jesus, the lamb of God, being sacrificed for our sins so we will live eternally.  Our epic hero, God, has a plan to create a nation to bless all nations and here at Passover those people are beginning to emerge.  They still have a long journey ahead to be molded but so do we.

         We would like to think we do not have idols today but there are many things that are so very important to us – health, wealth, and prestige.  We will sacrifice to secure a future for ourselves and our children.  Perhaps we need to ponder for a moment if there is anything we are holding on to too tightly.  I think we call it, “Put first things first.”  Do we need to get our priorities right?  Secondly, rituals are things we do to enact our beliefs.  Do you have rituals you do regularly that teach your family and remind them who they are and what God expects of them.  Communion is one of them but family prayer is another.  Bedtime prayers and songs settle us down and put us in a good frame of mind as we go to sleep.  Some people have special “sacred” places where they go to sort out their thinking and pray and journal.  Idolatry needs to be nipped in the bud and rituals need to be nourished.  Blessings as you journey.

Exodus 6:28-11:10 has been made into multiple movies telling of the encounters between Pharaoh and Moses, the kingdom of this world versus the kingdom of God.  “Let my people go,” takes ten plagues.  If God is God then why not just zap Pharaoh with plague ten, the death of the first-born, and let Moses lead the people to the Promised Land?  It seems that is not the way an epic hero works with fragile humans and with stubborn enemies.  Think, in a good movie there is usually a rescue plan that needs to be planned, executed and occupies a good part of the movie.  Pharaoh was stubborn and thought he was god.  Moses was new to leadership and needed to be formed.  The people did not know the “I AM.”  When we say “I do” at the altar or before the adoption judge, that is only a declaration of relationship but it is not the stuff that makes up relationship as we live into the reality.

         As the plagues unfold, God defeats the gods of Egypt and ultimately shows himself as a real God and not Pharaoh.  The Egyptians and the Hebrews witness and are immersed in the unfolding drama.  The God who created the heavens and the earth that daily testify to his presence now takes on new dimensions.  Moses speaks for him predicting the plagues and punishment of rejection of him.  God is not just far away in the heavens but is involved in “good government” of his creation.  God’s desire is liberation of his people to live in a “promised land” where they can freely worship under his guidelines that will be revealed. But God does not just zap us and make it happen.  Growth is a process.

         Why?  God is revealing his character and God is forming people.  So how does that apply to my life today?  Relationships cannot be forced or dictated.  The song goes “if I had never had trials, I’d never know what God can do.”  It doesn’t make the troubles we go through fun or easy nor does it mean we have done something wrong.  The Hebrews were not being punished for sins but were participants in an unfolding epic story that will be told for generations to come.  I am challenged to ponder my story that will pass down to others.  Perhaps the challenge today is to know the “I AM” better and to look for his hand working in our world.  Perhaps the challenge is to reflect on how my story is forming.  In either case, we are in the hands of a God who is working with the world around us and the powers that oppress us and he is working to form us into our best selves.  Whew.  Thank you.

Exodus 3:1-4:17.  The unexpected.  Stories of people bargaining with God are not uncommon.  If God will save my child in this illness, the person will promise all sorts of things.  Desperate people in hopeless situations needing help from God frequent healing services.  People flocked to Jesus, but what about Moses.  Moses was caring for his sheep, not particularly in need.  He is older, a herdsman out in the desert and a refugee from Egypt where he killed a man.  He is not a likely person to choose for a task nor does he have many bargaining chips.  God seems to pick people the world passes by to do important tasks.

         Moses notices a bush that appears to be burning but is not consumed and goes to investigate.  God notices that Moses notices.  God approaches Moses.  The pursuing exchange between creator and human is interesting.  God identifies himself as the God of Moses’ ancestors but also importantly the God who sees the suffering of his people with a plan to deliver them. In fact, the God who does not wait afar for his creation to deserve him but the God who is willing to come near and get his hands dirty.  But Moses identifies himself as a person with a past.  Two very different characters in this story.

         God counters that he will accompany Moses to do the proposed plan to deliver God’s people from oppression.  Moses points out he has no credibility anymore and essentially asks, “Who are you?”  God reveals his name as “I AM.”  This name will become the name by which God is identified in this epic story.  God gives Moses signs to prove himself but Moses still waffles in doubt because Moses is still looking at his own ability and not looking at the God who is speaking.  This God can speak! Can be in a bush that looks like it is burning but isn’t! and knows the state affairs of the world and its injustices!  This is a God with a plan to bring justice and freedom to the oppressed and downtrodden, those laboring under our epic villain.  Moses can only see his own limitations.

         How many times are we so focused on our “can’ts” that we do not even see the irony of whining to the God of “cans.”  Our past, our limitations, our ignorance convince us we are nobodies and we become grasshoppers in our own eyes.  Perhaps there is a challenge you have been avoiding because it felt overwhelming.  Sometimes writing on one side of a paper the reasons it would be hard and then writing on the other side the qualities of God that might help you, helps. God meets us in our doubts and questions and reveals his true identity.  It is when our fear becomes denial of God’s power and a smoke screen for rebellion that I suspect we try God’s patience.  Blessings as you tackle the challenges God places before you.  Remember the promise that he goes with you.

Remember to pray for those who are on the battle front facing injustice.  Blessings.

Exodus 1 and 2 gives us the skeletons in Moses’ closet, the “before story,” the “before-God-touched-me” story.  The Pharaoh of Egypt developed a plan to “deal with” the family of Joseph that had greatly multiplied over 400 years and who were becoming a threat in Egypt.  Pharaoh decided to kill newborn male babies but Moses was hidden in a basket in the bulrushes of the Nile and retrieved by Pharaoh’s daughter who “adopted” him.  Moses, that means “drawn out,” would be the one to draw the family of Joseph out of Egypt to be formed into a nation in the desert – but not yet. 

         One day, Moses as a grown up, sees an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew. Moses defends the Hebrew, killing the Egyptian and has blood on his hands and must run for his life.  Bulrushes and blood.  He runs into the desert where he becomes a shepherd, marries and has two sons.  40 years later, probably in his 60s+, he sees a bush that looks like it is burning but is not consumed. God speaks and gives him a task for which he feels totally inadequate.  He argues with God, hummm.

         Bulrushes, blood and bushes.  It is there at the bush, he talks with God who sends him back to Egypt with the famous cry, “Let my people go!”  Our epic hero, God, chose a man with a past, an old man, a man who thought he was not qualified, to lead a group of people who knew nothing about God, into a desert and to a “Promised Land.”  What are the odds that this scheme will defeat our epic villain, Satan?

         Is there a story behind your name?  Many people carry family names.  Others are named after famous people or famous places.  Many children in Kenya were named “Kennedy.”  Our stories of origin often deeply affect the trajectory of our lives even as Moses’ childhood story impacted his.  That a farmer’s son becomes a farmer is not a surprise or that a musician has a talented daughter is logical. How did your family origins affect you? Our stories of major mistakes often deeply impact the trajectory of our lives even as Moses’ murder of the Egyptian affected his.  Can you names any benefits from some of your blunders.  Ultimately when we may kneel at a “burning bush” and bow in relationship with God, our life changes direction.  Like Moses we may feel inadequate.  But note that God came to Moses because God had a plan to bless.  God believed in Moses even when Moses hardly knew God, much less believed in him.  Family origins, blunders, and encounters direct our lives.  Prayer keeps us in touch with God so that we do not get ahead of him.  “It helps us stay in touch with God’s timing and God’s ways. (P.48, Essential 100)”  Spend a few minutes thanking God for your family of origin that has shaped you, your blunders that have directed you, and God’s intervention to use your inadequacies to bless another!

On Pentecost people heard the sound of a violent wind that brought change but it was not Mary Poppins!  It signaled the Holy Spirit, the breath of God bringing new life.  There was a second sign present, though.  “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit… (Acts 2:3)” Mary Poppins did not come with fire but with an umbrella.  And there is a significant story in the Old Testament about Moses.  Moses having fled Egypt after killing a man, rebuilt life in the desert – married, had two sons and become a shepherd.  One day he saw a burning bush that does not burn up and the voice of God spoke.  Fire that does not burn and destroy but brings God who speaks into our world.  Moses was sent to Egypt to “let my people go!”  On Pentecost the followers go into the world and tell people of freedom from sin and separation from God.

         Fire gives forth heat and light.  I think of children sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows and singing.  I think of candles lit at Christmas time and our family gathered for worship in the living room.  In Kenya we were often without electricity and needed lanterns to see in the evenings.  Many people have seasonal depression from not getting enough sunlight in the winter.  Heat and light are important for our survival physically and spiritually.

         Psalm 119:105 says that God’s “word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  John 14:26 agrees, “ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”  Can you think today of what light, insight, you might need or want from God?  Or perhaps you need warmth, love.  On Pentecost, God showed that he can reach into our lives to bring fire: warmth, light, and teaching.  I love this song that was so popular with my kids.  May it bless you today.  “Shine, Jesus, Shine”

We are pondering Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Christ.  First she saw that the stone was moved, something was different that caught her attention.  Life was not as expected.  Then an angel tells her that Jesus is risen.  But she does not comprehend what that means.  Will life return to normal like with Lazarus?  Will Jesus be all disfigured by his flogging and crucifixion?  Where is he?  She runs and tells the disciples that the body is missing but they do not believe her.  She returns with Peter and John who see for themselves the body is missing but no one understands.  Peter and John leave but Mary lingers and hears a voice behind her and turning, sees Jesus and hears her name, “Mary.”  He is alive and is real and not a vision.  He tells her not to hold on to him but to “Go and tell my brothers and sisters.”

         The resurrection is about life, my life, but it is also about community.  Here we have the first indication that the crucifixion that paid “for my sins”, that ended the separation between God and his creation, that showed that death does not have the final say, that affirms to us that Jesus will ”walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death,” is also going to result in the building of the kingdom of people who want to follow Jesus.  “Go and tell” are her marching orders and ours.  Yes we rejoice.  Yes we look forward to heaven and the afterlife, reunion with those who have gone before.  And yes, now our prayers are personal and not always formal nor necessarily presented through a representative like a priest.  And yes, we no longer need to take animal sacrifices to the temple. But something more is about to be formed.

         So many things happen in the encounter with the risen Christ.  We see life in a new way.  We hear our name spoken by God.  We begin to touch eternity.  Perhaps the flowers even smell sweeter than before.  A God encounter is a three dimensional experience that touches all our senses so we know it is real.  We know in the core of our being that the resurrection is real.  But it is not just about me.  It is also about you.  The good news must be shared.  It cannot be contained.  Mary was charged with returning to the disciples who would not necessarily believe her this time but her first task was to share the love she had just received.  Easter season is dedicated to sharing the good news found in the stories of the risen Christ.  Who might you share with today?  Who needs to hear the good news that they are loved, just as they are in the midst of their confusion and doubts?  I did. 

Mark now starts to bring closure to the Passion story.  The Centurion confesses, “Surely he was the son of God.”  The crowds seem to be gone except for the women who bravely stand a far grieving.  Joseph of Arimathea, though, the member of the Sanhedrin who visited Jesus by night to ask about being born again, moves into the place of family and does the audacious deed of going to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus so it can be buried by sunset (Mark 15:42-42). 

         Rome did not allow the burial of people convicted of high treason!  Would Plate have sympathy?  Joseph might be considered a friend, perhaps close friend, of Jesus by the Sanhedrin and so loose prestige.  Would those friends still accept him?  A plea for the body after the crowd had demanded crucifixion, a awkward moment for Pilate, might be dangerous.  Would this backfire and endanger him?  So many inhibiting doubts! We are seeing people not only deeply affected by a tragic scene but people changed in the core of their being and beginning to act in new ways.  Joseph steps forward and asks for the body.  The women refuse to run in fear.  The centurion professes belief.  Lives are changing.  The cross, the death of Christ, changes lives.

         It reminds me of the blind man who was healed and when cross-examined by the doubting priests who knew a man born blind is cursed,  the man confessed, “All I know is that once I was blind and now I can see.”  Perhaps there are two miracles at Calvary.  Christ dies for my sins and we will see him walk through death and be alive so that as we believe in him, we need not fear death either.  But secondly, as I grow in faith, I become a changed, a better person, not because of a shift in belief systems but because a new reality has claimed my life.  We call it a world-view shift.  Galileo experienced the falling apple and gravity was discovered.  Columbus did not fall off the edge of the world and we now know the world is round-ish.  Jesus dies but already the story is going on to something bigger.

         It is so easy to get in a rut in our thinking and Lent challenges us.  Nameless people step forward and become part of an epic experience.  Lives are renewed and refocused.  A new self, our “better self” as we now say, begins to emerge.  The pandemic cannot stop eternal life.  The party we don’t like is in power but that does not stop God from working.  “Others” move into our neighborhoods and challenge us to grow.  In the midst of the crucifixion, God is working.  In the midst of our struggles, God is working still, even when we don’t understand.  I do not know who your Pilate is or what favor you may need to ask today, but I do know that once I was blind and now I see – because of the crucifixion.