And the Lord has power and can do whatever the Lord wants to do. Which is why this text is so

Transcription

1 When God Wants Change A version of this sermon manuscript was preached by the Rev. Erin Counihan during worship at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, MO on Sunday, Sept. 10, Text: Exodus 12:1-14 And the Lord has power and can do whatever the Lord wants to do. Which is why this text is so hard for us, right? Because the Lord didn t HAVE to do it this way. The Lord chose to do it this way. Our text today focuses on the beginning of the Passover ritual. A series of very specific instructions are outlined to explain how the people of God are to be together, eat together, follow God s instructions, and be saved. Today, we get the dinner plan, but also, God continues. After that first night, when they meticulously prepare and eat and burn the lamb, and mark the door, and after God kills all the first borns in the houses with unmarked doors, a day they are charged to always and always remember and celebrate, they are to spend a week eating unleavened bread. They are to hold a solemn assembly and do no work, and then seven days later do that again, and on that day, God will bring them out of the land of Egypt. They will be delivered, freed, liberated, released, and saved. God didn t have to do it this way. But this is the way God chooses to free them. 1

2 The Lord, this God who didn t have to, picked Moses out of Midian. A guy who didn t like to speak, a guy who didn t speak well, a guy who had run away, a guy who the people, the leaders really didn t know. A guy with a dark past, who had done something terribly bad. This is the guy God chooses to free the people. To challenge the Pharaoh. To speak God s truth to power. And God knows that Pharaoh won t hear it. Even from this guy. So God has this long drawn out plan to convince the Pharaoh to let the people go. Plagues upon plagues. All before we get to this point of God needing or choosing or choosing to need to create the necessity of the Passover. So why didn t the Lord just free them? Why didn t the Lord just crush Pharaoh and let them walk away? Why does God take the time to try and convince Pharaoh, persuade him, compel him to change his Pharaoh mind and grant the people their freedom? Why doesn t God just take it? Demand it? Make it so? Because this meal, this festival, this marking of the doors, this process, and the tragedy that accompanies this story, none of it had to happen. God could have chosen a different way. And it was when I almost lost myself down that spiral, that I realized something. This God, our Lord, absolutely wants to free these oppressed people. God wants the torture to stop, God wants the hard slave labor to end, God wants to protect and save God s people. AND, God wants to change their oppressors hearts and minds. Because maybe saving just these people isn t enough. 2

3 But saving the oppressors, the powerful, the tyrants, the abusers is crucial too. And so just making them free, won t change the system. Pharaoh will just grab new slaves. Pharaoh will just abuse new peoples. God is saving God s people. But God wants these other people to change their ways. That s why all the plagues. That s what all the destruction and violence and threats and damage. God is speaking to Pharaoh in Pharaoh s own language. And God, the Lord gives Pharaoh every chance. To be persuaded. To be convinced. To be changed. To be saved. Believe me, God says, I can turn water to blood, staffs to snakes, dust to gnats, days to darkness I ve got frogs and flies and they will overwhelm you and you will be convinced. You will understand my power and my will and you will be convinced and change your heart. But Pharaoh is stubborn. Pharaoh is used to being right. Pharaoh is not accustomed to being challenged like this. And Pharaoh will not let his heart be softened. I am stubborn and I like being right, so I can identify with Pharaoh here. Have you ever been in Pharaoh s shoes? Where you were convinced, and then, someone showed you some other evidence and you found yourself maybe trying to explain it away- well, if a whole mess of frogs died, probably gnats and flies would swarm anyway. Well, but statistical data can be manipulated based on how the questions were asked, and who did the peer review on this, and, on and on. Have you ever been mid-fight, mid-debate, mid-conversation and realized you were wrong? Have you had to admit it, or worse, have you ever been so far into your own point, 3

4 your own argument, that you just committed to your now-clearly-wrong stance? Refusing to back off, to relent, choosing instead to go down in flames with your dead argument? I ve been there. It s why I can relate to Pharaoh a little here. Not much, though, because I really, really don t like gnats and that one might have gotten to me. As a culture, we ve spent the better part of the last thirty and more years debating whether or not climate change is real. Actually debating if climate change and global warming are real. And this weekend, three hurricanes in the Atlantic, wildfires all over the west, a terrible earthquake in Mexico, mudslides in Sierra Leone, record temperatures all over the globe.what more is it going to take to convince us? For generations, our siblings of color have been telling us how police officers, teachers, government officials and programs, treat them differently and put them in danger. We had statics and stories, and now we have video after video after video, and funeral after funeral after funeral, and now the KKK marching in the streets, not even bothering to wear their hoods what more is it going to take to convince us? For decades our LGBTQ siblings have told us they don t feel safe in church. That even in so called affirming churches comments are made, theological implications are suggested, and statements are murky, and questioning teenagers make life altering and life ending decisions while we debate. What more is it going to take to convince us? We are just going about our lives and relationships and work and families, and God calls us to go to church. Where we meet some strangers who become like family, we discuss the great 4

5 questions of our lives and times, we study and learn and pray together. We eat. We are so well fed. We sing and laugh and pray some more. We help one another raise our children and care for our elders. We share and we serve and we grow as community. We put on little skits. We serve on committees and set up tables, and we grow in faith and hope and grace. We are told every week that we are forgiven and we are loved. But some of us still go home and hurt and wonder. What more is it going to take to convince us? God wants to save God s people. God wants to protect God s people. God wants them to be free to worship God in the wilderness. And God wants Pharaoh to be convinced. God wants the oppressor to realize his wrong ways, his bad treatment, his terrible system, and God wants that oppressor to be the one to let the people go. God wants Pharaoh to be changed. It s more complicated than that, certainly. But it is also just that simple. Are we willing to be convinced? Are we willing to be changed? Are we willing to be saved? 5