This
is where it begins. THIS is where and this is when God becomes
the God of the people of Israel. The people were suffering under the under
Egyptian oppression. In their suffering they called out to the God of their
ancestors. God heard their cry. God would not stand by and while they continued
to suffer at the hands of their oppressors. God decided to do something and
that a something was to send Moses to them and to Pharaoh to bring about their
salvation.
Moses
went to Pharaoh over and over again telling him that God was requiring that he,
“Let [God’s] people go.” Over the course of these interactions, Pharaoh learned
(the hard way) who this God of the Hebrew people is and exactly how powerful. Meanwhile
the children of Abraham were watching and they too were learning. Any doubts
they may have had about IAM, the God of their ancestors, any question they
might have had about God’s ability to rescue them, to save them, or to free
them from the oppression of Egyptian slavery have surely been assuaged, as they
have observed the plague signs which God has sent to Pharaoh to convince him to
“Let my people go.”
Up
until this point the people of Israel have been the audience to this spectator
sport, in which the great and mighty Pharaoh was up against IAM the God of
their ancestors. The game itself was a series of plagues. They have seen the
Nile turn to blood, they have seen the land infested with frogs, gnats, and
flies. They have witnessed the death of livestock and the infestation of boils which
followed. The land was then scourged
with hail and locusts and finally they witnessed the darkness which consumed
everything.
They
saw it all, they were witnesses to God’s power and God’s protection throughout
all these occurrences. All the while Pharaoh was refusing to learn the lesson about
the scope, and strength of God’s power, the Israelite people were observing and
taking notes about who this IAM, the God of their ancestors, this God who
claims to have the power to rescue them from the great and might hand of the
Egyptian Empire, from her gods and from her Pharaoh. They have watched, they
have seen and they have observed. They can see God’s power.
Thus
far they have stood on the sidelines, choosing to cheer or not to cheer for
this God who says to be working on their behalf. But now they can be spectators
no longer. God asks them to act, to do, to be prepared, to participate. They
must choose to participate, to do and to be the people of God.
This
is the beginning. God has not yet said, “You will be my people and I will be
your God.” There is no covenant. There
are no commandments, no ordinances, not stipulations, no mutual agreement. But
this is where it all begins. “THIS month”, God says, “shall mark the
beginning.” This is where it all starts.
Up
until now they have gotten to see God at work, God’s power, God’s might; and
how God asks for them to step up to be active participants in their salvation. Gods
asks them to do several things. First they are to acquire an unblemished lamb,
one for each household, or if there is too much for one household join with
those around them. Then they are to slaughter the animals and put the blood on their
door posts marking their dwellings. They were to then roast it over a fire, eating
as much of it as possible. If there was anything they cannot eat, they are to burn
it. While they eat they are to gird their loins, have their sandals on their feet
and their staff in their hand. They are to eat hurriedly. They are to be ready
to leave, to flee, at a moment’s notice, ready to travel as soon as God makes
the way.
Basically
they are asked to all get what they need to have a great feast, mark their
houses with blood and eat quickly in a manner which anticipates an imminent
departure, as if they expect to leave at any moment and make sure they don’t
leave any of the feast behind to rot, they are to destroy it.
This
is the beginning. This is the start of the relationship which is chronicled
throughout the rest of scriptures. This is when these people become more than
just the descendants of Joseph or the children of their forefather Abraham. This
is when they stop being observers of the actions and works of God and begin to
participate in the salvation which God is preparing for them. This is when they
become the People of God. This is the moment when a handful of Hebrew slaves
really and truly become more than the descendants of the great patriarch, more
than just God-fearers, this is when they become the People of God, the Children
of God.
This
moment of transformation is to be observed, it is to be remembered. They do
this by marking time differently from here on out. The very way they mark the
days, the months, the way they think about time itself is from this moment
forward is to revolve around the moment they went from being the Hebrew slaves
of Pharaoh and became The People of God.
This
is the beginning. They changed their calendar. They changed their dates.
Everything for the Israelites revolves around THIS moment, THIS date, this
place in their history. From this moment everything is different. Who they are
is different and they know this and will always remember this because they will,
for forever more, mark time based on this moment when they came into
relationship with God. (this is one of the many reasons why we choose, here at
this church, to pay more attention to a calendar which revolves around holy
days and dates which mark who we are as Christians more than the calendar of
the world around us – to mark time by things that matter to us as Christians
and not so much by what matters to the world around us)
This
is the beginning. Not only has the way they have marked time, hanged, but once
they changed their calendar, once they changed their sense of time, they also
changed their outlook. When they became the people of God they became a PEOPLE.
They were no longer individuals who obeyed God or did not, they were not just
households, or families who choose to follow and believe in the God of their
ancestors, but they became a People, a gathered community.
From
this point forward God does not only ask for individuals to do something as God
had before. Before God spoke to Abraham, God wrestled with Jacob, God watched
over Joseph, or worked through Moses, but now God asks for all the people, all
the people to do something, well to do several things, but to together do the
things which from this time on will be associated with Passover.
They
are asked to gather together and kill lambs or goats, to eat in readiness, to
mark their door posts. At this point God is not just working with Jacob or
Isaac, or Abraham or even Moses, God begins to work with the People. They are
all called on to do something, together in community. This is the moment when
this collection of individuals become a community, a community chosen by God,
led by God, a community of faith. This is when they become God’s PEOPLE.
Their
salvation is not wholly reliant upon each one them trusting the God of their
ancestors who sent Moses to Pharaoh on their behalf. Their salvation is not
merely in the hands of this God who has shown that the power to command all
things is within this God’s control. But their salvation begins when they join
together and take up actions which allow them to participate together, with God
in their salvation. They gather the goats and the lambs. They join together with
their friends and neighbors. They come together and slaughter the animals and
then in unison, in community, partake of the feast these animals provide for
them. So that they, together, can leave in haste as soon as God has prepared
the way for them.
They
must actively join together. They must become the people of God and together as
a community of faith, in relationship with God, they work out their salvation. Passover
occurs when they become the people of God, when they form a community of
individuals joining with God to participate in the salvation God is working out
with them, in them and for them.
God
calls us to join together to be the people of God. God’s desire is for us to
love God and worship God, for God to be our God and for us to be God’s people. God
calls us to work together to participate in our salvation, to be active
participants in the work God is doing in us, through and for us, as God seeks
to bring salvation not only to us, but to the world. We are called not merely
as individuals though, we are called to be a people. Individuals who love, and
worship God, individuals who come together and work together to be the people
of God together, actively participating as a people, as a community to do the
work and the will of God in our neighborhoods, in our city, and in our world.
We are called to be the Church.
We
are not called to be observers; we are not called to be spectators. We are not
called to sit the stadium to watch God at work, in the same way we watch the
Sox beat the in the Yankees in the final game of the season. We are not called
to just sit back and watch the show and evaluate if we like the way the plot is
going, or if the actors are properly playing their parts. To hear if the violinist
got the vibrato in the third movement because we know that it is really tough section.
We are called to act to participate, to get goats, to kill lambs to eat with
our loin girded. Our salvation is not reliant upon us seeing, hearing and
knowing that God is at work, but our salvation is dependent upon us
participating with God in the very work of our own salvation, but not doing so
on our own. This is not wholly about God saving ME (or you, or any one of us individually,
nor am I saying that personal salvation is not important). God calls us to be a
people working together, participating together, and joining together,
following God together.
Not
only is this not a spectator sport but this is a team sport. One in which we
all work together. One in which we cannot go it alone. We are called to work
together to join with one another, to share and to participate together in the
work which God is asking us to do. One, in which, God promises to lead us, all
of us together. One in which, God calls us to be God’s people, to be a
people a community, living and working and participating together in the world
of salvation so that we might bring God’s salvation to the our world.
We
cannot go it alone. We are not called separate from the community of faith.
When we are called to be the people of God we are called to and into a
community of faith, so that we might be the people God is calling us to be
together. This means we are to be there for one another to share with one
another. The people of God are called to share their meat, to share their meals
with one another, in essence to share the work of God with one another. But
also do to be in community with one
another.
When
you participate in a meal together you talk, when you talk you share your joys,
your concerns, your fears. And a people who are about to be released from lifelong
slavery but are also about to begin a journey into the unknown have many joys
and many fears to share with one another. We are to share these together; to
join with one another in celebration, to join with one another in our fears. We
struggle together, we learn together. This is what it means to be a community
of faith, a Church.
God
is leading us, God is taking us on a journey. A journey which is our salvation;
it is a journey which will lead us to a land flowing with milk and honey. This
journey together promises to bring us joy, it promises to bring us happiness. It
promises to be wonderful and exciting and pleasing. But let me tell you something, the Israelites
passed through the desert, through the wilderness through the dry and barren
places. Sometimes they were afraid they would starve. Sometimes they were
afraid they would die of thirst. Sometimes they feared the people of the land
around them. But they were still called to journey together through these dry,
barren, difficult places together. They journeyed together with God and God
provided for them, God lead them and directed them. It was not always easy, it
was not always what they wanted and sometimes they dreamt of a different life,
but the journey was the journey to which God called them.
Journeying
together as a people of faith is not always easy. The life to which God has
called us is not always what we wanted it to be. Sometimes we find ourselves in
dry desert places. Sometimes we find ourselves lacking the things we feel we
need. But we must always remember that we are not called to BE in THESE places
alone. We are called to do this
together, journeying together, being there for one another as we struggle
through the most difficult places in our lives, comforting one another and
supporting each other. But God is there leading us and providing for us, giving
us exactly what we need when we need it. We are all called into this life
together, to journey together, to laugh with one another, to be a support to
one another, we are called to be a people, to be a community, to be the CHURCH,
just as much as we are called to anything else to which God calls us.
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