Readings:
- Exodus 14.10-end; 15.20,21
- Acts 5.27-32
- John 20.19-31
Sermon:
I have been thinking a lot lately about stories. Stories are very powerful. They get people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done. Stories have a powerful role in organisations. Companies will frequently repeat the story of their founding as a way to set culture, motivate staff and lure customers.
The Jewish people have a reputation for being storytellers… Most notably the story of the Exodus. It’s no coincidence that the most famous Jewish celebration, passover, centres around a retelling of the story of their people. In so telling this story it becomes central to Jewish identity. Jewish people know who they are, they are the ones who identify with this story.
At the heart of the story of the whole exodus is God’s vision, God’s promise, God’s story. God’s vision for freedom for his people from slavery in Egypt and to give them a land. God always has a better story. The Hebrew people were living out their days in slavery. The story their surroundings told them was “this is the way things have to be, Hebrews are slaves to the Egyptians”.
But then through Moses they are informed there is an alternative story for them a better story, God’s story - which is not a story of bondage but a story of freedom.
So in one of our readings for today we hear the part of the story as the Hebrew people escape Egypt. However, they reach an unfortunate natural barrier - the Red Sea. Pharaoh is approaching them and they are hemmed in. In this moment some of the Hebrew people begin to forget that God has a better story for them. They say “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?… Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert” (Ex 14.11-12). They began to believe the old story…
Life would be better for us as slaves…
One figure amongst the Hebrews seems to hold on to God’s better story…
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (EX 14.13-14)
Wow, look at the faith of Moses, Egyptian Army pushing in on side, Water on the other. In the middle everyone he’s ever know being absolutely terrified, parroting the old story. He knows God has a better story than a story of slavery.
This Eastertide we recall that on one side we have sin which so easily entangles and we have death on the other… in the middle there’s all of us terrified, ashamed, broken tempted to believe there is no hope. The good news is we have a figure even greater than Moses… who leads us through death into life. In Jesus we have passed through the waters of death into new life….
This is God’s better story, the best story.
Questions:
- What are the “old stories” that you are tempted to believe?
- Do you trust Jesus to bring you from death to life