Sermons from The Church of the Covenant

Transcription

1 September 20, 2015 Core Stories Sermons from The Church of the Covenant Core Stories of the Bible #2: The Exodus The Reverend Amy Starr Redwine The Church of the Covenant Presbyterian Church (USA) Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio CovenantWeb.org

2 Exodus 11:1 8, 12:29 32 The Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you away. Tell the people that every man is to ask his neighbor and every woman is to ask her neighbor for objects of silver and gold. The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, Moses himself was a man of great importance in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh s officials, and in the sight of the people. Moses said, Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out through Egypt. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been nor will ever be again. But not a dog shall growl at any of the Israelites not at people, not at animals so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. Then all these officials of yours shall come down to me, and bow low to me, saying, Leave us, you and all the people who follow you. After that I will leave. And in hot anger he left Pharaoh. At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord, as you said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too!

3 Core Story #2: The Exodus Exodus 11:1 8, 12:29 32 Today we continue our core stories series with the story of the exodus. For many, this is the most significant story in the entire Hebrew Bible. It s a story of power abused and people enslaved, a story of hidden identities, a story of murder and exile, a story of redemption and liberation. And then there are the plagues. Who doesn t thrill to imagine how terrible these must have been. And if you ve forgotten, let me refresh your memory: water turned to blood, an infestation of frogs frogs! can you imagine? Gnats as ubiquitous as dust, swarming flies, dead livestock, an outbreak of boils on humans and animals alike; hail so big and destructive that it destroys every tree and plant, then locusts who eat everything that the hail didn t destroy, and finally three days of complete darkness so thick and oppressive you could feel it. And then, just when we think it can t get any more dramatic, the Israelites finally come to the edge of the Red Sea with the Egyptians behind them in hot pursuit, and God divides the sea in two. They cross on dry land, reaching the other side just in time to see the sea walls come back together and wash away Pharaoh s army. What a story! Except maybe you noticed that I skipped over something. Maybe you re wondering about the text I read earlier. Yes, the Exodus is a powerful, exciting, moving story, but what do we do with all those firstborn Egyptians from the wealthiest, most powerful human to the lowliest animal struck dead by God s own hand? This is a story about how far our God will go to set us free. But it is also a story that reminds us that God calls each of us to do everything we can to ensure that all of God s people are free. And when we don t, when we act in ways that deliberately and persistently oppress other people, as Pharaoh discovered, there can be terrible consequences. Not long after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, an investigative reporter from the New York Times named Nikole Hannah wanted to find out more about the school system Michael Brown had gone through. What she

4 discovered was the Normandy School District, a relatively small district that has the distinction of being the single worst school district in the state of Missouri. What Hannah learned in her reporting was that Normandy was so bad, that in January of 2013, it lost its accreditation from the state. This didn t mean the Normandy schools had to close; they remained open. But it did mean that the students of this district were now allowed to transfer for free into a different school in a nearby district. Normandy would have to provide transportation to one of these schools. In part to discourage students from transferring, they chose a school that was thirty miles away. Nevertheless, one thousand students chose the transfer option. But as you can imagine, this created a huge uproar for the new district, called Frances Howell. The Normandy kids were mostly black and poor and the Frances Howell kids were mostly white and middle class, and their parents had moved to that district in many cases for the schools. So they weren t too happy to have these new students coming in. In the recordings of the town meeting at Francis Howell that was held to give people an opportunity to talk about the transfer, you can hear some of the parents speak. These are not bad people. They are scared parents. They are terrified about what will happen to their children if these other children, whom they label as different and dangerous and unwanted, are allowed to attend their school. 1 In a recent Facebook post, Glennon Melton writes, "The two most repeated phrases in the Bible are FEAR NOT. REMEMBER The Gospel says: Do not be afraid. Re-member. She goes on: Re-member is the opposite of dis-member. When we shut our doors to our own family: when we are afraid of each other - we are dismembered. The kingdom of God comes when we treat each other like KIN. Like family. When we RE-MEMBER. 2 In this story, we remember that when Pharaoh saw the strength of the Hebrew people and how numerous they were, he did not notice what they had in common with the Egyptians. He did not consider how this strong and capable people could be integrated meaningfully into Egyptian society. Instead, Pharaoh saw only difference and threat. He was afraid. And his fear led to oppression See

5 What Pharaoh did not count on was that, as Walter Brueggeman once put it, the ears of God are a magnet for the cries of those who are suffering and abused. What Pharaoh did not understand is how profoundly God longs to re-member God s creation and God s children, to see God s children living in harmony with one another. In talking about the history of Israel and its relation to his country of South Africa, Desmond Tutu once reflected, "This God did not just talk He acted. He showed himself to be a doing God. Tutu continues, Perhaps we might add another point about God God takes sides. God is not a neutral God. God took the side of the slaves, the oppressed, the victims. God is still the same today, God sides with the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the victims of injustice. 3 In this story, God indeed takes sides, there is no question. God calls Moses to return to Egypt and lead his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. God s call of Moses is once again a call into a desperate situation. The future of God s people is once again threatened. In this story, the threat is not barrenness, as it was with Abraham and Sarah, but the desperation of slavery. But when God takes the side of Israel, hope re-enters the story. Moses goes to Pharaoh and demands that he let God s people go. But Pharaoh refuses to listen. Pharaoh s heart turns hard as stone and he will not allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt. Even in the face of the horrific consequences of the first nine plagues, Pharaoh still refuses to set the Hebrews free. And so, the story brings the most terrible consequence we can imagine: the tenth plague, the death of every firstborn, animal and human. God wants us all to be free and God demands that we not get in the way of another s freedom. When we oppress other people by focusing on their differences, by excluding according to these differences, by thinking we know best who is in and who is out we stand against God and there are consequences to that resistance. But when we do what we can to join with those who are different, to re-member, we join in God s work of liberation. In reflecting on the exodus, Walter Brueggemann writes, It is clear that most of our old patterns of life together are not working. This is indeed a time when the church may gather its faith together in order to think and pray and act differently. We are people who believe that God's old promises for wellbeing and justice still 3 Mary Ramsey, in a sermon entailed Second Choices, preached at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC, February 2014.

6 persist in the world. We are people who believe that God's resolve for liberation in the world and of the world is a resolve of urgency that still pertains to the abused. And we are the ones who know that the promissory, liberating work of God depends upon folk who do God's work in the world. 4 Nedra Martin is the mother of a student from the Normandy school district who made the decision to transfer to Frances Howell. She had been there at that town hall meeting and heard what the Frances Howell parents said about the Normandy kids. Nevertheless, her daughter, Mah ria, was so desperate for a better education than what she was getting, that she had begged her mother to let her get up at the crack of dawn and ride the bus across town to attend this new school. The first day, Nedra followed her daughter s bus across town, terrified for what might happen to Mah ria when she arrived at her new school. She was not prepared for what she saw. The Frances Howell cheerleading squad flanked the main doors to the school, cheering and welcoming the Normandy kids in. And once the kids got inside, the warm welcome continued. It turns out that the teachers and other administrators were so appalled at the rhetoric of the town hall meeting that they wanted to do everything they could to make the Normandy students know they were welcomed. 5 God calls us to do the work of justice. God calls us to the work of liberation. God calls us to recognize that small acts of love and kindness and acceptance can be as dramatic as the plagues in Egypt when they reveal the liberating power of God, who longs for all God s children to live together in freedom. As Jean Vanier once said, We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable. We are a sign that there is hope because we believe that the God loves us and sends the Spirit to transform our hearts so that we can live everyday life as brothers and sisters." 6 Mahatma Gandhi spent much of his adult life working for peace and tolerance among different religious and ethnic groups. He was instrumental in India gaining independence from Great Britain in But India s independence was complicated by the deep mistrust and discord between the country s Muslims and Hindus. As soon as independence was official, the rioting began, killing half a million people Jean Vanier

7 As he had done before during seasons of violence in India, Gandhi began to fast, and declared that he would fast until the fighting stopped or until he died. In the movie Gandhi, a group of rioters visit Gandhi s bedside and lay down their weapons before him, promising that they will no longer fight. After this group steps back, another man comes forward with a crazed look on his face. For a moment it looks like he is going to hurt Gandhi, but instead the man throws a piece of bread at him. Eat! Eat! he cries, visibly anguished. I am already going to hell. I do not need your death on my soul also! Gandhi looks at the man with compassion and says quietly, God decides who goes to hell. The man begins to cry. I killed a baby, he says. I smashed his head against a wall. Why? Gandhi asks. Because the Muslims killed my son. My son, a boy just this big, they killed him. After a moment of silence, Gandhi speaks again. I know a way out of hell. You go and find a boy, a boy just this big, a boy who has lost both his parents, and you raise him as your own. But one more thing: this boy must be a Muslim, and you must raise him as a Muslim. When we give into our fears and limit the freedoms of those we deem different or other, there are consequences. But the Exodus reminds us that we worship a God of liberation, a God whose ears are a magnet for the cries of the oppressed. And whether we identify as those who are oppressed or as the oppressors, God calls us to be a part of the solution, to join in God s work of love, forgiveness, and justice, to show the pharaohs of our time that there is indeed another way. Amen.