Shirley Redekop
We are continuing on the series Journey to Freedom; Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Two weeks ago, Moses encounters God through a burning bush, sending him to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelite slaves from oppression to freedom in the Promised Land that God prepared for them. When I was asked to bring the sermon today, I, like Moses, felt inadequate and resisted. “who am I to do this? What if they won’t listen to me?” But, Moses had a much bigger responsibility ahead of him, and he was already 80 yrs old. And God answered, “I will be with you”. I am who I am. Let’s pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations, thoughts, and reflections that are upon all of your hearts and minds, be acceptable to you, oh Lord our God.
There is so much history and adventure in the story of Moses confronting Pharaoh and how finally after many plagues and horrors, Pharaoh said, ‘get them out of here’. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, and after Moses led them out, they spent another 40 years wandering in the desert with the guiding presence of God in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. So get comfortable, there’s a lot of time I have to cover before they get to the Promised Land. After Pharaoh relented and let The Israelites go, he changed his mind, saying, ‘what was I thinking letting all my slaves leave’? So his Army pursued the Israelites, and found where they were camping. And the people cried out to Moses, ‘did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? It’s better to be a slave’. In my New Living Translation Bible, God says to Moses “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving. Pick up you staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground”. And that’s what happened. After all the people were on the other side, Moses raised his arm again and the waters rushed back just as Pharaohs army were in the middle of the sea. And the people were filled with awe, and put their faith in the Lord and his servant Moses. There was much rejoicing, singing and dancing. spoiler alert: for the time being. Within the next month, the Israelites were thirsty and hungry in the desert and complaining and turning against Moses, and his brother Aaron. They again wanted to turn back to Egypt, where now slavery seemed better to them, at least they had food. So God provided water through another miracle and every morning there was manna, food they gathered for that day. Two months after fleeing Pharaoh’s wrath, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp at the base of Mount Sinai. This is the same mountain where Moses met God through the Burning Bush, holy ground. The Holy Mountain of God. It’s here in this place that the Israelites have a new encounter with God proclaiming a new covenant and promise to the people; the Ten Commandments, as we call them. Here God is preparing, and testing them to be ready to enter their new home. Moses goes up the mountain to again meet with God. He thinks he’s done his job. He’s led God’s chosen people to freedom. But no, Now God commissions Moses to be a messenger between God and the people. God calls out to Moses, “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I have carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, IF you will obey me and keep my covenant you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me……you will be my holy nation” What a beautiful metaphor: I read that a mother eagle takes the eaglets on her wing, swoops downwards suddenly to force them into solo flight, then stays close to swoop under them again whenever they grow too weary to continue on their own. But will the people who already were complaining in the wilderness accept this condition? This is the covenant God first established with Israel’s ancestors: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses returned from the mountain, telling them what God said. The people immediately responded, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded”.
Another spoiler alert. God then speaks to the people; thunder roared and lightening flashed and the mountain was covered in smoke and when the trumpet sounded, God descended in the form of fire, and spoke to Moses in front of them, so they could hear God, and would see Moses God’s spokesman. God then set boundaries and requirements for the people, which later were written on tablets of stone. These were the commandments, or rules for the Covenanted community, preparing them to live peacefully in the land they are about to enter and occupy. They, their children and grandchildren are to fear and obey the Lord God as long as they live.
(Read 10 Commandments list from Children’s story) The Israelites knew only the rules and demands of the Pharaohs and their government for over 400 years. The Pharaohs saw themselves as god. They were forced to obey, and had no choice. They grew up in the Egyptian culture. They were familiar with seeing Egyptians pray to their stone idols and gods. It’s what they knew. With this new freedom of choice, the Israelites needed to have set boundaries and teachings to know how to live as free people in a new land, with new neighbours. The first half of these Commandments are about who God is and how to relate to the one true, living God. The second half are about relationships and how to relate to others. How do we take to laws, boundaries and rules? Rules can be seen as rigid and forced, legalistic, and followed in fear. “Thou Shall Not…… or, seen as rules to be challenged or resisted. As children (and honestly, as adults) we don’t always understand or want to follow rules. We challenge or push the limits as they say. (Our son Caleb’s story in kindergarten; he was pushing the bulldozer hard in the sandbox, and the teacher asked, “what are you doing”? He said, “I’m pushing my limits” ) Wonder where he heard that from? I have to admit, in school I was more than once sitting in the halls, or threatened punishment for pushing the limits. Okay even as an adult; there’s a saying “I pulled a Shirley” on the roadway. If we’re motivated by fear, afraid of punishment from a person in control, our commitment to a rule creates anxiety and shame. If we challenge or resist laws, such as speeding on the roads, disrespecting our neighbours, taking what isn’t ours creates dangerous practices and divisiveness. If we become legalistic and rigid in a law, we risk becoming judgmental of others.
This happened to Jesus, when the Pharisees were livid when he healed on the Sabbath and when the Disciples were hungry on the Sabbath and picked grains from a field. Jesus showed us how to follow the spirit of the law, rather than the law itself. When we are motivated by respect of the Law, we desire to follow the Law to keep from sinning. This is what God was sharing with the Israelites when he gave them the Ten Commandments. God’s desire was for the Israelites respect the Law. Have freedom because of the Commandments. Unfortunately, the Israelites were still not prepared to go into the promised land. It wasn’t long before they forgot their promise to obey God and the Commandments. They broke the Commandments, built an idol of gold and Moses had to pacify an angry God. But that’s the continuing story; there’s not enough time this morning. How are we following God’s commandments? Do we have idols? Do we misuse the name of God?
Do we keep a Sabbath day of rest? Now more than ever, we live in a frantic world. Recently I was at a seminar called Resilience in a Change-weary World. the presenter shared a great metaphor: Imagine you’re on a roller coaster; strapped in. it starts; click click click going up; How’s your anxiety? Excited in anticipation of the big drop to come. Then all of a sudden you’re going straight down, picking up speed, going in loops, banging around, either exhilarated or terrified, finally it starts to slow down and you let out your breath, glad for the end and ready to exit, only it doesn’t stop, it starts again, click… click… click… up the big hill, down and around, and this keeps happening. You can’t get off. Recently, our world has gone through Covid19, Political Instability, Financial crisis, Housing Crisis, Climate Change, and Wars that are still happening day to day. We have access to news 24-7. Along with world news, we have our personal changes, not all bad, but still stressful. Marriage, Birth, Divorce, Financial issues, Health Crisis, and so on. How do we nurture resilience, for ourselves and for others in these conditions? We need Sabbath Rest. Jump off the rollercoaster for a while. Care for ourselves; fill our cups so we have energy for the other 6 days. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus followed the Commandment of Sabbath rest. He often went up in to the hills to be alone, and to be with God. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, there was no rest for hundreds of years. Now God is saying; it’s my command that you keep a day of rest; dedicating it to the Lord your God. No one in your household should work. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day, God rested. (side note: to God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day.) (2 Peter 3:8) God rested, God ‘chilled’ . God shows he is not Pharaoh; God’s not a workaholic. To the Israelites, rest is now an act of resistance; a saying NO to Egypt; NO to Pharaoh. Weekly Sabbath is saying YES to God, and NO to ‘the slavery’ of do, do ,do, scrolling on our phones, finding things on Pinterest, You Tube, Instagram. binging TV series, 24/7 shopping, etc.. the ‘shoulds and aughts’ that create anxiety and stress. Or our identities are rooted in our accomplishments, which our culture encourages. Lynne Baab, in her book Sabbath Keeping says “one of the greatest source of stress in our world is multi-tasking. Stress related disease can be directly attributed to our drive to get many things done at the same time. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is a day each week free from this compulsion to multitask.” We have to stop telling ourselves multitasking is something to be proud of. A Sabbath break can be a time to take a break from the news. Sabbath is a time to make space, to quiet ourselves, a time to re-set, to ponder, to tune in to the Spirit; a time to talk with God. It’s a time to find delight and joy in your surroundings, whether alone or with friends. Create a rhythm of rest.
Again, Lynne Baab says in her book: “On the sabbath we are invited to clear away the distractions of our lives so we can rest in God and experience his grace in a new way. We may need to create some simple structures to experience true spiritual rest in God’s presence. But if we give ourselves too many things to do, the sabbath becomes a legalistic and burdensome duty. The sabbath is more than doing nothing all day. However, doing nothing of any particular on the sabbath has, over the course of many years, taught me more about God’s grace than anything else in my life. Soe we need to seek a delicate balance in our sabbath observance: lots of rest and a few habits to nurture intimacy with God and others.” It’s not easy. I’m still trying even though I know what a difference it’ll be for my life. Maybe we can be accountable to each other. We need support to be counter-cultural. To start our accountability, I’m going to end this sermon with a minute of Sabbath silence. Try to clear your mind, listen to what’s around you, and within you. Breathe deep and close your eyes