3.3.24, "Grace & Gratitude" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Exodus 20.1-17; John 2.13-22

Methods to prevent a railroad accident …

A stalled train would send a crew member back a mile or two to place a torpedo on the track - an explosive devise, if an approaching train passed over it, the explosion was loud enough to warn the

engineer to stop right now.

Another device, the common flare or a fusee, with a steel spike … planted beside the track …

Both of these tools have been replaced by radio communication … though the flare, or fusee is still used.

For sidings, the Derailer … a cast iron device fitted to the track … if a loose rail car or two should approach the main line, the derailer derails the cars before they can hit the mainline.

Now that you know such things, no doubt, your life is enriched.

But seriously, the information came from an article entitled, “Railroading Is a Violent Business” … everything is big, heavy, and dangerous … and sometimes, things need to be stopped!

Stopped in their tracks to prevent a disaster … 

Who doesn’t need to be stopped, now and then? … whoa, settle down, take a deep breath, consider who you are!

The Ten Commandments are precisely that - stop; go no further …  

How do the Commandments begin?

It’s a trick question … 

The Commandments begin with a statement, a declaration of freedom:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery … Pharaoh didn’t do it, Moses didn’t do it, no one did it but me, says God … and that’s our guarantee, a guarantee of quality, purpose, and goodness. Whatever is at foot in the days ahead, remember, says God, I have you given life, and I will see you through.

Then, the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.

The Commandments are a torpedo on the track, a burning fusee, a derailer … stop, go no further …

In the wilderness that day, before a mountain shrouded in cloud and smoke, the people receive the Ten Commandments … 

Behind this moment of freedom, a huge story … Let my people go … from movie makers like Cecil B. DeMille, with Charlton Heston playing Moses … to the pressing realities of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … this is a story for the ages: Let my people go.

Pharaoh refuses to grant freedom, a series of plagues come upon the land … 

At every plague, Pharaoh digs in his heels … 

Not until the last plague, the most terrible of them all … the Angel of Death pays a late night visit to take away the first born of every family, the first born of all the livestock …  

The only escape: the blood of a lamb daubed on doorposts and lintels … upon seeing the blood of a lamb, the Angel of Death will pass over that home.

Passover …

To this very day, all around the world, Jews celebrate Passover! 

Pharaoh calls Moses in the middle of the night and tells him to get out with his people - take anything you want, just get outta here, leave me alone; leave my people alone, and if you can, bring me a blessing.

The people leave Egypt … on their way, before the Sea, a dust cloud behind them … Pharaoh is hot on their heels, to take them back - Pharaoh doesn’t give up … he’s a powerful man, with untold wealth, and he’s going to take back the people. 

You know the story … the waters of the sea are parted … Moses and the people walk through the waters on dry land … on the other side, they watch as Pharaoh’s army plunges into the gap, in hot pursuit, but the parted waters collapse, Pharaoh’s army is lost - every bit of it swept away in the waters of the Sea. 

Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last … 

God says to the People, My mighty arm has set you free … and I invite you to celebrate your freedom, keep your freedom, share your freedom, every day of your life:

1. You shall have no other gods before[ me.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

The Commandments are not impossible … they hold us accountable to the soul of life - 

the vertical dimension, our relationship to the universe, to the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the final reality of all that is, and all that shall ever be … the moral arc of the universe … the ground of our being … the soul’s ultimate concern, the soul’s hunger for meaning and purpose.

the horizontal dimension, our relationship to the here and now, our neighbor, our parents, our spouses, homes and family, our communities and the day-to-day stuff of life … fairness and honesty, kindness and decency … justice and liberty … 

The Commandments lack detail … we work them out like a piece of clay, to fit our time, our place, our circumstances.

We observe, judge, weigh up, decide and act … we examine our motives, the prospects, the value and purpose of our action  … some things are very clear … other things murky … 

There’s wiggle room in The Commandments … because God respects our intelligence, and expects some failure.

Maybe we’d like a little more information to feel safe - 

An aside here: this is the temptation to autocracy, when people are tempted to go with a dictator, political or spiritual, when people cry out for “law and order,” safety and security … a would-be dictator says, “I’ll fix everything! I have all the answers!” …

Michelle Obama said it well: “The unknown is where possibility glitters.”

Our safety is found, not with a heavy-handed politician or religious leader, but in the very heart of God … our safety is found within our own determination to live well, love much, be brave and kind, put up with our mistakes, of which there’ll be plenty, and be tolerant of one another.

When God gives The Commandments, God says to us, I trust you …  

When we take up The Commandments, we say to God, I trust you …  

God deals with us like we deal with our very best friend … a compliment when something is well done … and when it isn’t, counsel and correction, patience and kindness.

I trust you, says God … and we reply with heart and mind, We trust you, O God … We trust you with all that we are, and all that we hope to be.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery … have no other gods before me.

Hallelujah and Amen!

April 14, 2013, "Pharaoh Teaches Abram"

Genesis 12.10-20; Mark 8.14-21

Who was the first President of the United States?

Ya’ got that right … George Washington … a great he was ... the right one at the right time for the moment of decision … who knows what might have happened had the mantle of leadership fallen on shoulders other than Washington’s … but this we know - the mantle fell on his shoulders, and he wore the mantle well … winning the gratitude of his nation and deserving of our admiration.

George Washington died in 1799, and one year later, a book was published, entitled, The Life of Washington, written by Mason Locke Weems, an Anglican priest, who took pride in having lived in Dumfries, Virginia, nearby to a church where George Washington had worshipped in pre-Revolutionary days … Mr. Weems capitalized on this slight connection and claimed knowledge that was more fiction than fact … oh well ...

In this little book about Washington, Weems creates a story that now everyone now knows to be fanciful … about the young George Washington … anyone wanna guess what that story might be?

Right! … the Cherry Tree Incident … as Mr. Weems wrote it, young George experimented with a hatchet, and chopped down his daddy’s favorite cherry tree.

When confronted by his father, young George confessed, I cannot tell a lie, father; I did it.

It would be good, I suppose, if life played out this way … 

But life doesn’t play out like this … life’s vitalities are strange and oftentimes dark … befuddling and frightening … a mystery to us … why we behave as we do, sometimes … children sometimes chop down a tree, and when confronted, may flat out a lie about it - It wasn’t me; it was my sister.

Paul the Apostle said it well, when he wrote to the Romans … I know what I should do, but I don’t always do it. In fact, I often do just the opposite. What’s wrong with me?

The Bible never stops with just the good stuff … it tells the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly.

From Genesis 3 on, we know that it’s going to be a bumpy ride:

Adam and Eve pluck the fruit ...

Cain kills Able … Lamech boasts of his blood-vengeance … Noah gets drunk … his son Ham laughs at him, and Noah curses him … 

As the Genesis 12 story unfolds, after God’s call to Sarai and Abram, to be the mother and father of a new nation, with blessings for the world, we’re told in stark terms: There was a famine in the land.

Abram and Sarai set out to find food; they’re refugees now, hunger gnawing away at them … and so they end up in Egypt, of all places … Egypt!

When the story tellers of Judah crafted the Genesis material, they would have laughed at this point, an ironic laugh, to be sure … Egypt, of all places - what a strange sense of humor has God.

Genesis was written 1500 years after Abram and Sarai made their journey to Egypt … a land that would finally become  the land of slavery and the house of bondage … four hundred years of slavery for the sons and daughters of Sarai and Abram.

And when Jesus is born, and Herod gets his back up, Mary and Joseph hit the road, refugees fleeing a bad political situation, and where do they go? The land of Egypt.

To fulfill, says Matthew, what the LORD had spoken: I have called my son out of Egypt.

Egypt, of all places!

Strangers in a strange land … and they’re scared.

Refugees are always scared, aren’t they?

Abram says to Sarai: You’re a fine looking woman …

Abram was already an old man - 75 years old he was … and Sarah was quite likely a bit younger … 

Tell Pharaoh you’re my sister, if he wants you … that way he’ll spare my life.

Pharaoh falls for Sarai and takes her … things go well for awhile … Abram prospers … then things go south … plagues strike the house of Pharaoh … maybe Sarai dropped a few hints … Pharaoh adds it all up … calls Abram and says to him, Why did you lie to me?

Here’s Sarai … take her … and get the heck outta here … take what I’ve given to you; you don’t need to give me anything back, but leave us, please … be gone with you!

In this little story, so many truths … 

The dreadful onset of famine ...

The power of fear …

The readiness to lie …

The woman as a pawn … 

And strangely enough … Pharaoh the teacher!

What? What’s that you say?

Pharaoh the teacher!

More laughter, for sure … that the father of the nation receives moral instruction from, of all people, Pharaoh.

Humiliating … and honest!

Abram is a good man, but not all the time … he loves God, but sometimes self-love is all that he knows … 

We don’t know what would have happened if Abram and Sarai had told the truth …

The story is not intended to promote speculation … the Bible doesn’t deal in what ifs, and what could have happened … as my son always says, “wouldas, couldas and shouldas never get us anywhere.”

So why would Judah tell such a strange story about the Mother and Father of the Nation?

Why not a story like the George Washington Cherry Tree Incident?

The Bible deals with reality … reality is where we live, and reality is where God does God’s work.

God at work in all things … 

God in love with human beings … just as we are!

The message is clear ...

If God can love and call Abram and Sarai, then God can call anyone of us, all of us, just as we are … and though we don’t always get it right, God uses us for great things … great love, great moments … to change the world … and if not the world, at least change our corner of it … or maybe just change our mind, and change our heart.

I saw the movie, “42” yesterday, the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the major leagues, 1947, hired by Branch Ricky, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, “Dem Bums” … with hell to pay - heckling in the games, threats of violence, terrible letters written … Branch Ricky violated the code of baseball - A game only for white men … 

When Jackie asks Branch Ricky, “Why did you do this?” Mr. Ricky replies, “I could no longer ignore it.”

Earlier in the story, Mr. Ricky says of Robinson, “He’s a Methodist,” and then adds, “I’m a Methodist, and God’s a Methodist - we’ll get it worked out.”

Mr. Ricky changed his own world, and then he changed the Dodgers, and then he changed baseball … when Branch Ricky had a chance, he did good.

God calls us to greatness … and Abram and Sarai were great people … doing great things for God … but they were not morally superior.

The call of God doesn’t make us morally superior to anyone else!

To know Christ doesn’t make us any better than someone who worships Allah, someone who’s a Buddhist or a Hindu … and certainly it doesn’t make us any better than an atheist … in the world we all live in, sometimes believers are terrible people, and sometimes atheists do wonderful things.

That’s a hard lesson for believers to understand sometimes … but it’s a vital lesson, which is why the Bible makes it so clear - it’s not about perfection, moral superiority, being better than others … it’s being available, available to God … Here I am, O LORD, here I am …  and humble about it all, willing and ready to see the hand of God all over the place, and in all kinds of occasions, in every moment, and in all kinds of people.

God sees to it that goodness and morality and truth are found everywhere … 

A constant reminder to us all … even Pharaoh can teach us some lessons now and then … 

Maybe there are no enemies in this world after all, if we really think about it … who knows? … we can learn from everything and everyone, can’t we? … maybe that’s why Jesus says Love your enemy … that doesn’t mean have mushy gushy feelings - it means to give respect, pay attention, to - give to the enemy that which we would hope for from anyone else - treat others as we would hope to be treated … and, who knows, even from Pharaoh, we might have a thing or two to learn.

Teachers and learning-moments come in surprising ways … 

Amen and Amen!

Escape - September 14, 2008

Exodus 14:19-31

(See Prayer for the Prayer of the Day)

Good morning … welcome to Covenant on the Corner!

I’m glad to be here, and I know that you are, too.

A Kindergarten teacher was observing the children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.
As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."
The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute.

We’re all drawing God-pictures!

I met a young man the other day who said to me, “I grew up with a harsh God – rules and requirements, and if ya’ didn’t do it right, God would get ya’ in the end.”

“So I’ve chosen another God.”
“The nurturing, loving God … that’s the God I believe in and honor, and it’s made a huge difference in my life.”

We’re all drawing God-pictures!

What’s your God-picture like?

In the bulletin, 4 images:
Square,
Circle,
Straight line,
Curlicue …

If you were going to choose one of the four images for your God-picture, which one? … or is there another image you’d prefer?
give it some thought for a moment … which image seems good to you? As a God-picture.

We’ll do a little work here this morning …

Turn to your neighbor - share the image you’ve chosen … and why?

[Pause … … … … …]

Like the little girl in school, we’re all drawing God-pictures …

The Bible is a virtual museum of God-pictures …
From Genesis to Revelation … God-pictures …
Straight lines, curliques, boxes and circles … every color in the rainbow and then some …
Genesis, Deuteronomy … Leviticus … Job and Psalms … Ezekiel’s wheels and Isaiah’s “peaceable kingdom.”
Matthew and Mark … Paul and Peter … Hebrews and the Book of Revelation …

I have my favorite God-pictures … I bet you do, too.

I like the picture of God out for an afternoon stroll in the Garden of Eden …
God telling Moses how to get water from a rock …
God visiting us in Bethlehem … a little cradle boy who one day carries a cross …
And I like the God-picture in Revelation – when God puts it all back together again!

The Bible is like a visit to LACMA… different galleries, different periods of time; different artists … different styles; different techniques …

Some pictures are hard to look at: the brutal destruction of Canaanite towns …
But right next to it hanging on the same wall, Jesus and the woman at the well.
Some pictures I understand; some elude me.

This morning, we’re in one of the galleries … the Exodus Gallery …

I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

The Exodus Gallery …
One room of many …

Let’s back up a bit and review …
Last week, a question:
What should God do with us?

What should God do with you?
With me?

God learned the hard way – violence doesn’t work.
The flood failed.
The world was no better off, not one bit safer, after the flood.
All of that shock and awe didn’t work!

So what’s God to do?

God decides to work with the world as it is …
To work with us, not against us … work in partnership, accepting our limitations; the way we do things … sometimes doing things very well, and sometimes capable of hideous behavior.
But God works with us as we are.
In the hopes that we can all build a better world together.

So what’s God to do?

God creates a people in the midst of the nations … a people with sensitivity … guided by the Ten Commandments … not better than anyone else; not bigger and tougher … just different …

Starting with Abraham and Sarah, God creates a family.
And the family grows … strives and struggles to figure it out.

Famine drives them down to Egypt, and there they stay … to become slaves of Pharaoh, for 400 hundred years …

What’s God to do?

God raises up a leader … Moses by name … a Hebrew baby rescued from the reeds and raised in Pharaoh’s palace … in a moment of rage, Moses kills an Egyptian overlord and then runs for his life to the desert of Midian, where he becomes a successful shepherd …marries and settles down.

What’s God to do?

A burning bush on the hillside … Moses steps over, and before he knows it, God says, Take off you shoe Moses. Kick back and relax. We’re going to be here for a while.

Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt … lead my people to freedom.

So Moses, albeit reluctantly, takes up the mantle of leadership and returns to Egypt … but no smooth sailing for Moses.

Because Pharaoh doesn’t like what Moses suggests.

Pharaoh has a dream … a sense of the world and how it ought to be … Pharaoh sees himself as divine, and Egypt is a divine power … the world belongs to Egypt … Egypt, love it or leave it!

What’s God’ to do?

Plagues come and plagues go … finally the trump card: the death of the first-born – Pharaoh relents and lets the people go.

But buyer’s remorse sets in … Pharaoh calls up the army and off they go to bring these runaway slaves back to Egypt.

And when Pharaoh’s army arrives, the Hebrew people have their back to the sea.

Trapped!

Ever feel trapped?

Trapped in a crummy job.
Trapped in a destructive relationship.
Trapped in self-defeating behavior?
Trapped in an unpredicted turn of events?
Trapped in someone’s gossip?
Trapped in childhood memories?
A father who drank too much and raged and rambled …
A family member a little too friendly with you …
You were too tall for a girl, and too fat for a boy … and you’ll never forget the withering remarks and scalding jokes …

Trapped!

Ugly feeling.

We’ve all been there.
It’s a part of life …

So what do you do when you’re trapped?
Let’s look at the story again.

The situation appeared hopeless:
Pharaoh threatening …
The sea ahead too deep to cross.
No way through.
No way out.
Yet at the last moment, salvation.

Why did God wait?
Right down to the wire.
The last tick of the clock.
No more timeouts.

I don’t have an answer for that.
Maybe an answer isn’t needed.
What we have is a promise.

I am with you always!

I will never leave you or forsake you.

I am at work in all things for good.

The Exodus story is a story of hope and encouragement.

The seas part and the people are safe.

And you’re safe, too.
There is always a way through …
Over.
Under or around …
There’s always a way …

Sometimes God waits to the last moment to make it clear …
Patience is everything …

When you find yourself trapped, remember the Exodus story.

God is a God of escape!

You will be safe!

Amen and Amen!