Finding Our Way in these Exodus Days

 

Any day you don’t have to bury a body in the sand, is a good day.  If you happen to miss the sermon last Sunday, that line might surprise or shock you.  I encourage you to listen to the reflections I offered on Exodus 2 last week. 

 

Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

 

Moses becomes Moses because of three sheros ~ Jochebed (his mom); Miriam (his older sister); and Pharaoh’s own daughter who defies her dad and decides to go her own way by adopting Moses.  Moses grows up running around the Pharaoh’s palace.  I picture Pharaoh pounding on the bathroom door when Moses took too long of a shower or wondering why the grocery bill was so high when Moses was in his teenage years.  Eventually Moses grows up.  One day he is out walking when he comes across an Egyptian guard beating and battering a Hebrew.

 

Remember, Moses was a Hebrew by birth.  These are his people, his tribe, this is his DNA, and so he feels a surge of anger in his soul.  He ends up killing the guard and then wondering, “What have I done?”  So he buries the body in the sand.

 

Any day you don’t have to bury a body in the sand, is a good day.  See suddenly yesterday wasn’t so bad after all.  Moses thinks he got away with it.  But the next day when he sees two Hebrews arguing, tries to intervene, they say, “What you gonna kill us like you did the guard?”  Insert Moses’ heart racing and mind spinning ~ what have I done??

 

Moses’ secret is out in the open.  The gossip grapevine is active and sharing all kinds of stories about this would-be justice seeker.  So, Moses runs.  He leaves skid marks in the sand as he gets out of Egypt just as Pharaoh is putting up “Wanted Man” posters on all the pyramids.

 

I relate to Moses ~ often my attempts at trying to do justice fall flat.  I say the wrong thing or someone points out how my efforts fell short.  Or I wonder if I am really making a difference.

 

I relate to Moses ~ tempted to run away from my problems to find a fresh start.

 

I relate to Moses ~ unsure what to do in a world that seems to be uncontrollable.

 

And I remember that it takes a lifetime.  Moses goes away for years before he comes back singing, “Let my people go”.  Moses only comes back when his hair is grey, and he needs a staff to stand upright.  Remember Moses might have been 80 years old when he made the journey “home” to Egypt.  The point may not be that I cross some great finish line and arrive in faithfulness.  Just like I will never finish all of the internet or Netflix, I might never see justice flow down like a mighty river.  Nor do I stop collaborating and cooperating with God’s creativity today.

 

May this invitation find you today, this one day in the span of your lifetime, filling you with inspiration to do justice, show loving kindness and walk humbly with God.  Let it be, O God for me I pray.  Amen.