Monday, March 5, 2018

Just Plunge Right In! (Reflections on the Parting of the Red Sea)


Image result for Images Moses parting the waters
During Lent this year the smart folks who put together my Lutheran worship guide have recommended focusing on the mighty acts of God which would be part of the traditional liturgy of the Great Vigil of Easter. We don't do the Great Vigil in my parish—even though I'm a liturgical junkie. Unfortunately, I'm a lazy liturgical junkie, and the Great Vigil is just too friggin' long a service and too complicated to put together. I much prefer to sleep Saturday night and get up early the next day to do Easter Sunrise. But this means, of course, that we don't get to read the long scripture passages which are so much a part of the Great Vigil. To rectify that, we're doing five of the miraculous passages as part of our Lenten mid-week devotions. This week we're looking at the story of the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14: 10-31 and 15:20-21.

We all know this story of God's mighty act of deliverance. You've probably seen Charlton Heston part the sea every Easter in ABC's annual broadcast of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments—a film that's so breathtakingly bad that it's actually good!

When I look at the scripture today I am impressed by the truth of it. Okay. It sounds pretty wild that God would open a passage in an enormous inlet which is several miles wide at it's narrowest point and would take literally days—if not an entire week—to cross on foot. If you're into historic accuracy, I've heard it suggested (Read Bruce Feiler's Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses) that the Isrealites actually escaped through the Sea of Reeds, a much narrower and shallower body of water on the African side of the Sinai peninsula. I really believe that the story of the Red Sea rescue was based on an historic occurrence, but it's been raised to mythological status through the re-telling.

But that's not the point. What strikes me is how the Bible author tells the story, pointing out the faithlessness of the people. The cry-babies whine when they see Pharaoh's army, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you (Moses) have taken us away to die in the wilderness?..It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” Now ain't that just like us..? Whenever we face a great change, our sinful selves are tempted to go back to the devil we know than risk the devil we don't know.

Alcoholics Anonymous, in spite of its great success, has about a 50% failure rate. That is, at least one out of every two alcoholics who go into the program will drink again. If you consider that some folks see drinking as part of their personality or culture, you can see that they'd feel a part of themselves was missing once they gave it up. The fear having nothing to fill that empty space drives them right back to the booze. Similarly, a psychologist friend of mine once told me that some battered women will leave their abusive husbands or partners and return as much as four or five times before they finally have the courage to sever the toxic relationship for good. Change means loss, and loss means fear. Sometimes we fear the emptiness so much that we resist the blessings because we've grown comfortable with the curse.

The other thing that always strikes me when I think of this story (and I always think of this when I watch Yul Brynner as De Mille's Pharaoh ordering his chariots to advance into the parted waters) is: What a dumb-ass you'd have to be to not see that this was a trap. I mean, didn't God already rain ten plagues on Egypt? Didn't he hinder the advance of the army with a pillar of cloud? Don't they know they're messing with the wrong God, and that this God just don't like ugly?

Of course Pharaoh doesn't get it. Logic and reason don't run the world—passion and ego do. Like Hitler attacking into the endless Russian winter or the U.S.'s involvement in Vietnam or Iraq, it's easy for a desperate ego to ignore all common sense and plunge into disaster. As human beings, we do it all the time. We run headlong into chaos, ignoring the cost to others and the stated will of God. God didn't punish Pharaoh so much as Pharaoh brought the punishment on himself.

Finally, I think of the blessing God sometimes gives us in desperation. Our desperation is God's opportunity. Sometimes we just can't go back, so we have to go forward. All we can do is trust that, even in the swirling chaos, our God is still an awesome God who wants the best for us in spite of our doubts, fears, and mistakes. And maybe next time we'll have a little more trust and a little more peace.

Peace be with you!

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