Moses Review and Rewind

 

I used to believe if I prepared hard enough and long enough, I would be ready when I needed to be.  But now I think the closest any of us really get to being ready is feeling NOT ready and then doing it anyway.  Anonymous

 

This quote summarizes Moses’ life.  Recall and remember, Moses is born during a time when Pharaoh had a fear-based policy of killing all boys, but Moses’ mom was fierce and faithful.  She hid him away.  Then, in an act of loving letting go, she made a basket boat, and set Moses sailing down the river.  The Pharaoh’s own daughter found Moses.  Miriam, Moses’ sister, got the Pharaoh’s daughter to agree to have Moses’ mom nurse him…and the frosting on the cake was the Pharoah would pay Moses’ mom to do this job she would have done for free.  Oh, the delicious subversiveness of it all ~ notice that this didn’t instantly or immediately change the world.  It wasn’t like the Pharaoh suddenly woke up and thought, “Golly gee, I didn’t realize how much pain I was causing others.”  There is no Grinch-like moment of the Pharoah’s heart growing three sizes, there is no being visited by three ghosts like Scrooge…yes I know I am using Christmas metaphors because I’ve been swayed by all the decorations in the store!  Remember the quote from yesterday that the road of freedom is long, difficult, and confusing.

 

Moses grows up in the posh palace of the Pharoah.  He lives that identity/meaning of his name in Egyptian, “Son of/born to…,” because Moses in Egyptian is an incomplete sentence that leaves you hanging – reminding us of the ways we can feel incomplete when we are not living life as our true/created in God’s image self.  One day Moses sees an Egyptian guard beating and battering a Hebrew brother to Moses.  Moses ends up killing that guard (recall from a few weeks ago, that any day you don’t have to bury a body in the sand is a good day because that will make this week go a lot better when that is your mantra).  Moses runs away, leaves skid marks in the sand getting out of Dodge and settles into a life as a shepherd.  Until the unnamable, but unmistakable, presence of God calls to Moses from a bush to go back to Egypt to be a conduit of God’s liberating love.  Moses says, “Come again?!?”  But God persists and insists.  Moses goes back singing, “Let my people go.”  But Pharaoh, ten times, says, “Nope…not gonna do it.”  Ever wonder about that first awkward encounter with Moses and the Pharaoh given their history?  I guess there must have been a statute of limitations or Pharaoh’s eyesight had grown dim or he didn’t recognize Moses to have him arrested for that crime of killing the guard.

 

Eventually, Pharaoh relents…Moses and the people of God leave singing, “We are dancing in the light of God…we are dancing in the light of God.”  Only to be stopped by the Red Sea.  This might have been clue #1 to the Israelite people that Moses really didn’t have a great sense of direction.  There the people are ~ the Red Sea before them and the Egyptian army breathing down their neck because Pharaoh changed his mind and wants his free labor source back.  And the people do what people still do today ~ grumble and mumble and blame/shame Moses.  “Thanks a lot Mr. God-Sent-Me to free you!  This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” 

 

And you’ve seen the movie, The Ten Commandments, God parts the seas (which did you know Hollywood used Jell-O to do that?  True story…Google it).  Today, I want us to be honest that the Israelite’s story is our story.  I grumble, mumble, and blame others for feeling between a rock and hard place.  I still stand before Red Seas and feel the breath of my enemies on the back of my neck and think, “Gulp, um, God, a little help here.”  I ruminate and catastrophize and romanticize how much better things were in the “good ole days”.  Notice how the Israelites want to go back to Egypt, where they were forced to make 2000 bricks.  Oh, that story can be my story too when I want to rewind time to some past that never existed.

 

Sit with the quote above that the script we are given in the world is to, “Try hard.  Do more.  Hustle.  And if you fail…that’s on you.  If you stumble, pick yourself up.”  God’s script reminds us that God is at work calling us to open to God’s liberating love.  God’s script is to offer presence when we step toward the foaming surging seas of life.  God’s script is not try harder; but rather take that step forward knowing that if you slip or stumble or fall, God is still there.  May this remembering of the Exodus story illuminate your story this week.  Amen.