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Promise
We’ve had a lot of babies born in our community over the past year. Babies bring joy and delight. They bring smiles to our faces. They represent a new promise, the promise of something good.
Each of our lives were brought into this world with this promise. That’s how precious I think each life is. We were all brought into this world with the promise of something good that would come from our existence.
But as we go through life, this promise sometimes seems to fade. We get hurt, we experience aches in our hearts, we suffer setbacks and disappointments. That promise becomes more distant, and we often feel alone going about in this world with this weight on our shoulders.
But God does not forget this promise. I believe that God has carried each and every one of us to where we are today. We have each gone through our own experiences, but through it all, God has delivered us from the many dangers, toils and snares we have faced.
We know this, and we declare this when we gather each week. But still, sometimes we feel lost in this life and this world. We don’t know where we’re going, or exactly how it is we’re supposed to live. There are many voices telling us what to do or where to go, but we don’t have firm grounding.
This was the story of Israel leading up to today’s passage. The passage itself is the famous 10 commandments. We’ve seen them before. Reading them on their own makes it seem like they’re just a bunch of rules. But these commandments cannot be properly understood without understanding the story surrounding it. And the story behind it is that of Israel and God’s promise.
God’s Promise
Last week, we reflected on the promise that God made to Abraham. This was the promise that God made:
“I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7)
In Genesis, God’s promise manifested in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: four generations. Each life was so different and each took a different shape, but God’s promise was alive in each of those lives.
But by the time we get to the book of Exodus, many generations had passed. Jacob’s descendants had settled in Egypt and become numerous. The book begins with an ominous note:
“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” (Exodus 1:8)
A prolific people became slaves in Egypt. Instead of promise, there was suffering. The promise that once seemed so alive, now seemed to have disappeared with the passing of generations.
But God did not forget his promise. God came to Moses in a burning bush, and with his mighty hand, rescued and delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. With wonderful signs and awesome signs of power, God brought the Israelites from bondage to freedom.
The Israelites were free, but they were lost. They didn’t know where to go, or how to live as free people. Instead, they ended up wandering in the desert.
Their circumstances had changed, but they had not. They still had the mindset of slaves. They were full of fear. When things became difficult, they wanted to go back to familiar circumstances:
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)
They did not know who they were, or whose they were. They had no compass, no anchor to give them direction. Without that anchor, they sought security in what was familiar and gave them food, even if that meant going back into bondage.
The Memory of Relationships
Parents raise their children to prepare them for life in this world. When they’re young, keeping them safe is our main concern. As they grow older, we try to guide them and shape their values and what is important to them. We set limits and rules based on what we think is important. Our hope is that they will live in accordance with what is important to us. But ultimately, we know that they must choose for themselves how they will live and who they will become. We cannot force them to live as we want. Children will make their own choices. But if there is love and a modeling of values, the relationship children have with parents becomes an anchor or compass. They know whose they are and who they are. The relationship is what anchors us and makes us feel more secure in an insecure world. That’s why when we lose our parents or loved ones, we feel like we lose an anchor. But the memory of our relationship replaces the flesh and blood relationship. When our relationship has been strong and rooted in love, we want to honour what is important to our parents and live as best as we can in accordance with those values.
Cementing the Relationship
Israel did not yet have this relationship with God. God had indeed done mighty deeds to rescue them from slavery. But it was still a one-way relationship. The story of liberation from Egypt is a powerful story that has provided inspiration for many suffering people in the world. But for the people of Israel, what was even more important was what took place at Mount Sinai. Because at Mount Sinai, they met God. At Mt Sinai, the people cemented their relationship with God. At Mount Sinai, a ragtag group of fugitives became the people of God.
The ten commandments begins with these first words from God:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)
God was their personal God who initiated this relationship by coming to Israel’s rescue.
The whole story of the Bible in a nutshell is about God who always pursues a relationship with humankind. A God who loves us, delivers us, and pursues us to make us his own.
God’s summoning of the people to Mount Sinai was to say this: you are my people. And as my people, this is how I want you to live. This is what God said when he told Moses to gather people at Mount Sinai: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6)
God laid claim on his people and set them apart for a specific purpose. God delivered Israel to make them his people and to invite them to help fulfill God’s promise for the world. God’s promise to Abraham was to ultimately bless the world. They were to be partners in fulfilling God’s promise by living according to God’s ways. The commandments articulated this. To love God. To love their neighbour. And to practice these things intentionally as a community by setting aside a day each week: to take a break from the competition, striving and clashing of wills one partakes in throughout the week, and rest in God’s goodness.
The foundation of the 10 commandments is a deep relationship with God. A one-way promise became a two-way covenant as the people responded to God’s love. At Mt. Sinai, they discovered who they were and whose they were. This identity was to be their anchor and compass once they entered the Promised Land.
You are God’s Beloved
You are God’s people. If you are going through turbulent challenges, wait on God. God will bear you on eagles wings and deliver you from trouble. If you are going through worries and anxieties, remember God who has delivered you in the past, and surely will again. Our God pursues you and makes his claim over you. You are God’s beloved.
The Israelites met God at Sinai in the wilderness. They met God between bondage and the Promised Land. This experience did not happen in the Promised Land.
I believe that if they had gone straight from bondage into the Promised Land, they would have been lost to history. Not knowing who they were or whose they were, they would have melted into the local populations and disappeared.
But in the wilderness they met God, and were forever changed.
Living in the Wilderness
We have been in the wilderness for a while now. Next Sunday will be the one year mark of cancelling in-person worship services, when all of life as we knew it ended. For one year, we have gone through ups and downs, trying to figure things out and make our way.
We see hope on the horizon, as new vaccines get approved and supply increases. I do hope for a speedy return to life, so that we can meet with one another. But I pray that we can enter this promised land as God’s people, as those anchored in knowing who we are and whose we are.
Lent
We are in the middle of Lent. It is the period we reflect on God’s love shown to us through Jesus Christ. Once again, God initiated his pursuit of us through the life and death of Christ. This pursuit of us is manifested at the cross. At the cross, God carried our weight and darkness, and showed us his sacrificial love, a love that is willing to die for us. The cross is our Mt. Sinai, where we meet God. Instead of “I am the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt”, the cross is where God says: “I am the Lord your God who loved you and died for you.”
This is what St. Paul came to know when he made his confession:
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19-20)
At the Cross
At the cross, God’s one-way love for us becomes a two-way covenant when we respond to that love by being crucified with Christ. Our new life in Christ takes on the shape of the cross: Self-giving, loving, vulnerable, humble and willing to sacrifice and serve others. This is the cross-shaped, cruciform life we enter into.
At the cross, we are marked as God’s own. It is where we know fully who we are and whose we are. When we are claimed by Christ, we are set apart for the way of Christ in this world.
When life resumes once again, our world will be in need of healing. There will be scars to mend and injustices to attend to. Jesus came to heal and lift up the weak and vulnerable. So too will we be called to be Christ’s healing presence among those who suffer in our midst.
God’s People
You are God’s people. We are God’s people.
In this time of wilderness, let us come to the cross. Let us meet the God who died for us and find healing for our wounds. At the cross – our Mt. Sinai – Jesus gives us a new commandment:
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
We are God’s people. We are Christ’s disciples. Let us love one another.
