Preparing
with Joy for the Paschal Feast
I
The Charge to Moses
and Joshua
II
The Story of
Creation
III
The Future Glory of
Zion
IV
The Conversion of
Nineveh
V
The Flood
VI
A New Heart and a
New Spirit
VII
Salvation Offered
Freely to All
Part VIII of XV
Sunday 11 March 2018
Fourth Sunday in
Lent
Israel’s Deliverance
at the Red Sea
Exodus 14:10-31;
15:20-21
As Pharaoh drew near,
the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there
were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of
Egypt? Is this not the very thing we
told you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve
the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." But Moses said to the people, "Do not be
afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom
you see today you shall never see again. The Lord
will fight for you, and you have only to keep still." Then the Lord
said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out
your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea
on dry ground. Then I will harden the
hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain
glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot
drivers. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord, when I have
gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot
drivers." The angel of God who was
going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of
cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army
of Israel. And so the cloud was there
with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all
night. Then Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east
wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry
ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea
after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud
looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they
turned with difficulty. The Egyptians
said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the Lord
said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may
come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots
and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into
the sea; not one of them remained. But
the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall
for them on their right and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel
that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took
a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines
and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse
and rider he has thrown into the sea."
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The rose vestments remind us today that
our Lenten journey is roughly half-way complete. And today, as we enter this second portion of
this Lent and anticipate the coming Easter feast, the Easter Vigil reading that
I want to focus upon on this Sunday of Joy is Israel’s Deliverance at the Red
Sea.
This deliverance came to the people at a
time when they were escaping their bondage as slaves in Egypt. Israel had entered first into Egypt at the
invitation of Pharaoh who commanded Joseph, second in command in Egypt, to
bring his father and his brothers and their family to settle in Egypt in order
that they would survive the famine that raged throughout the region. But with time, Pharaoh and Joseph, and the brothers
and father of Joseph, all died. After
their death the memory of these men was forgotten. Without that memory, Pharaoh and the Egyptians
came to despise the children of Israel and forced them into slavery. Under the leadership of Moses and his brother
Aaron, the time of deliverance came at last.
God softened the heart of Pharaoh so that the ruler of Egypt gave the
people their freedom and sent them away.
The Easter Vigil reading before us today
finds the people at the verge of leaving Egypt, and suddenly Pharaoh regrets
his decision. Pharaoh and his army chase
after the people in the hopes of forcing them into submission once more. And when the people panic, seeing that the
Egyptians are on one side of them and the sea on the other, that they are
trapped, Moses promises the people that God will deliver them. God does indeed provide deliverance. The people cross the sea on dry ground. And when the Egyptians seek to follow, the
ground that was dry for Israel is muddy, and does not allow the Egyptians to
pass and draw near to Israel. After
Israel had fully crossed over, the waters returned, and the deliverance of
Israel was complete.
It’s a powerful reading that is before
us. Remember, however, that the point of
such powerful readings is not that we would simply delight in the salvation and
deliverance provided by God for someone else.
These readings ultimately serve as reminders for us of the power and the
ability of God to act on our behalf and for those needs that are in our own
life. Therefore, in these final days of
Lent, we do well, friends, to ask of ourselves, “What is our Red Sea?” Where in our lives right now do we need God
to act on our behalf and bring us deliverance?
What is it that we are facing these days that feels utterly hopeless and
that might just make us afraid, even as the Israelites were afraid when they
saw that they were in a trap between the sea and their enemies? The story of the deliverance of Israel at the
waters of the sea is the means of grace through which our God says to each of
us in our own unique place of need: “I am with you, and I will deliver you!”
How fitting this message is for a Sunday
marked by joy. What else is there that
can fill us with joy than the knowledge that God is our help and salvation who
provides deliverance and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And hopefully we remember that joy both in
those moments in which are not in need of deliverance and in those moments when
the next thing threatens to overwhelm us.
I find it rather ironic to be talking
about the deliverance of the Red Sea on this Sunday when the Old Testament
reading for the day finds the people grumbling in the wilderness. Clearly, they have not remembered the
deliverance of God. This is one of those
moments where I am thankful that I am not God.
In today’s reading, the people grumble over this food called manna. It was this very food that God provided for
them at an earlier time when they complained about a lack of food. This food was provided for them daily. By this point they had also complained about
a lack of meat to eat. God had responded
by providing them meat daily at evening even as the manna was provided daily in
the morning. These same folks complain
about a lack of drinkable water in the wilderness. Moses struck the rock with his staff at the
command of God, and water flowed from a rock for the people to eat. And in all these moments, the people forgot
the hardship of slavery in Egypt and long for the “good old days” of Egypt,
forgetting the burdens and hardships of slavery. And despite all this, God continues to show
mercy and provide for every need of the people.
I’m not sure I could be so willing to
continue to give and give as God does for these people. I find myself getting frustrated at these
folks who seem to never learn to trust in God and rejoice in the presence and
deliverance of God, confident that no matter what they face, God is always bigger
than the problem. And then I remember
that as long as I have these responses, there is still work to be done in me to
prepare myself to enter the Kingdom and keep the eternal Easter.
I say that because how quickly we can be
exactly like the Israelites who panic beside the Red Sea and who grumble in the
wilderness. Time and time again, God has
shown us that all that is needful for us has been provided to us by God, who
has brought us in our lifetimes through some very difficult moments. For as long as we are alive in this world,
longing to be found worthy to enter the Kingdom of God through the grace of
Christ, we will face difficult moments once more. What shall we do when those moments come to
us? Will we panic and grumble? Will we trust in God? God has shown us again and again that God is
faithful even when we are faithless.
Therefore, in these Lenten days, may we, with the help of the Holy
Spirit and the love of Jesus, grow in such a way that our first inclination
will always be to praise God and to rejoice in God both in easy times and in
difficult times, knowing that with the help of God, we can do all things
through Christ who strengthens us.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The Rev’d Timothy
Alleman
Rector
The Church of the
Holy Cross
IX
The Valley
of Dry Bones
X
The
Gathering of God’s People
XI
In Praise
of Wisdom
XII
The Gifts
of Wisdom
XIII
The Three
Youths in the Fiery Furnace
XIV
The First
Passover
XV
Abraham’s Sacrifice
of Isaac
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