Peace Lutheran Church

Pastor Steve Loy

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

August 28, 2005

Text:  Exodus 3:1-15

I suspect many Americans missed the significance of the events of the last week in the Gaza Strip.  Never before have Israelis removed other Israelis from land that Jews believe to be theirs by divine command.  Using Genesis 17 Jews trace their right to the land back to God’s promise to Abraham, “I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding...”  In every piece of the Old Testament, from the promise to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 17 all the way through the prophets, the biblical story is intimately connected with the land.

Modern day Israel comprises 10,000 square miles roughly the size of the state of Maryland.  The country has been in a state of political unrest for most of its recorded history.  The promise to Abraham seems well and good from a covenantal perspective.  After all God can promise whatever God wants.  Who wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of God’s giving.  Inherent in the promise is one problem.  The Canaanites already live there.  God gives the land to Abraham and his descendents but there are people living there who will have to be killed or displaced in order for the Israelites to possess the land.  The covenant with Abraham dates back to roughly 2000 BCE, that means that the 10,000 square mile strip of rocky, desert landscape has been in a state of conflict for 4,000 years; all of recorded history.

Two ancient theological principals hang in the balance.  Principal number one, my god is stronger than your God.  When the Israelites entered Canaan the battle they fought was a holy war.  They believed that Yahweh was a god of war who fought for them.  In every battle, the power and supremacy of their god was at stake.  If they lost a battle it was because god had failed them. 

The second ancient principal that was critical in the conquest of Canaan, is that my tribe is stronger than your tribe.  Like the American Indians, the tribes of the ancient Middle East made a sport out of war.  Every day on the battle field they were testing one god’s supremacy over another god and one tribe’s supremacy over another tribe.  The land of Canaan became the stage for tribal history and the place where Israel would test the military power of their god. 

In today’s reading from Exodus, Moses is called by God to lead Israel out of Egypt.  The first test begins when Moses goes to Pharaoh.  This isn’t just a verbal debate between Pharaoh and Moses.  Moses serves as an ancient Jimmy Hoffa style leader.  He represents the Israelite unionized slave labor organization.  But he is more than that.  Moses walks into Pharaoh’s palace as God’s representative.  He warns Pharaoh that God is about to engage him in battle unless he allows the slaves to leave.  When Moses calls down the ten plagues on Egypt he depends not on his own power, but on God’s power over Pharaoh.  The ten plagues are but prelude to the beating that God is about to give to Pharaoh at the Red Sea.  It is a battle between Egypt’s God and Israel’s God.

When we listen with theological ears we can hear behind every news report from the Middle East the same conversation as that between Moses and Pharaoh; give me what I want, or in the name of God, I will bring down more ruin than you can imagine.  God is on my side and will vindicate me and my people.  The holy war and the tribalism continue.

And I wish we Americans were exempt from such behavior in our country, but I am afraid we aren’t.  On the 700 Club this week we heard Pat Robertson call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez the president of Venezuela.  But I suspect we don’t have to go even that far from home, that residing in each of our hearts and minds is a very similar attitude.  At some level every one of us believes that if God would just listen to us and bring to a timely death a few of the right people the world would be a better place.  Because right here in our hearts and minds lies the same belief that my understanding of God is better than your understanding of God and that my tribe, and my way of doing things, is better than your tribe and your way of doing things.  Theological supremacy and tribalism always lead to homicidal attitudes even if the only thing we want to assassinate is the character of another person.  

There is no doubt that the Old Testament is dominated by holy war and tribalism.  There is, however, another strand of thought.  The other strand is a quiet voice, a minor theme that is always present in the biblical witness.  In the call of Moses we read, “Then the Lord said, ‘I have seen the misery of my people… I have heard their cry… and I know their sufferings, and I have come to deliver them.”  When we are the weak, the forgotten, and the unimportant we are assured that God knows our suffering and hears our cry.  In God’s politics the powerful are not the only ones who receive God’s attention.  Pharaoh is not favored, the slaves are favored.  The least and the last are loved and embraced.  The story of the Exodus serves as a word of warning for people in power.  God sides with the slaves.

In order to hear the still small voice of scripture Israel will need to reread the book of Exodus from the perspective of the Palestinians.  Because Israel sits in the place of power, because they hold the place of privilege, they will need to hear the word of God to the Palestinians, “I have seen the misery of my people… I have heard their cry… and I know their sufferings, and I have come to deliver them.”  Whenever we are in a position of power and privilege we have to read the story of the Exodus recognizing that we are opposite God who sides with the oppressed and powerless.  God is working to bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis.  God is softening hearts of leaders in order to work for peace.

In the New Testament Jesus is the epitome of powerlessness.  Rejected and despised by political and religious leaders, denied, betrayed and forsaken by his friends, Jesus is the primary outcast.  The transformation of Good Friday into Easter is God’s  vindication of powerlessness.  The resurrection, God’s triumph over the forces of darkness, and God’s claim on the forgotten.  The church, as the community of the resurrection, forms a unique alliance of people.  We are the church when we work against tribalism and holy war.  We are God’s church as we become a universal community, spanning nationalities, languages and cultures.  We are the church when we reflect the full diversity of God’s creation embracing all tribes and people.  God says to us, like God said to Moses, I have seen the misery of my people, I have heard their cry, I know their sufferings… and I send you to Pharaoh to soften hearts. 

This reading from Exodus often brings up questions about encountering God.  Why doesn’t God come to us in a burning bush?  Why doesn’t God speak to me in the same way that God spoke to Moses?  And I have to wonder if that is what we would want.  As romantic as it might sound, having met God Moses was never the same.  His life was no longer his own.  He went from a quiet sheepherder to a political lobbyist.  He advocated for freedom for slaves.  Is that what we want?  To see a burning bush just for the fun of the burning bush is nothing more than a carnival side show.  But the bush that Moses saw changed his life forever.  He became an advocate for powerless people and led them out of bondage.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  God said, “I will be with you; and this shall be a sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”  The sign for Moses is his life of worship.  God is with you, you have all you need to speak to Pharaoh, and when you are free from bondage the sign of your freedom is that you will worship God.  In worship God softens our hearts and transforms our lives.