Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’” – Exodus 16:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 4, 2012): Exodus 16

I am convinced that the most important job that God has placed in front of us is that we are to love. In the great commandment, Jesus gave us a two prong approach for our love - we are to love God and love each other. And maybe there is nothing else. Whatever we do, we do it out of a need to share and to show our love. If there is a second job, it is deeply related to the first – we are to encourage each other. This journey that we are on is long and there are many twists and turns, and many obstacles that simply get in our way. Our job, our mission, if we choose to accept it, is just to help each other get to the destination.

But if that is the job that God has laid in front of us, too often it is a job that remains ignored. Our culture has taught us to grumble and complain. One of the easiest ways of lifting our own sagging self image is to tear someone else down. By lowering them, we feel that we are elevated. So we take the easy road. We spread rumors, betray confidences, we tell people things that they really do not need to know just so that we can lift ourselves, prove to them how much it is that we know, and in the process we pull them down. God has given us one job, but we have ignored it as we follow what we think is an easier path. We even convince ourselves that our negative behavior somehow honors God. But the truth is that if our behavior is not grounded in love, it is not honoring to God.

But maybe the biggest form of self deception is when we convince ourselves that God is not aware of our behavior. That somehow he does not know. We complain about the way that things are, we tear down rather than build up, and somehow we expect God to be deaf to all that we say.

God had called Moses and given him a task. He had heard the prayers (and complaints) of the people. And he had set out to do something about it. He had showed his hand and his power at the crossing of the Red Sea. Miracles he held like lightning bolts – and yet the people were not satisfied. Still, they set themselves to grumble and complain.

So Moses sends a message. I wonder if maybe the words that came out of Moses mouth - the “come together because God has heard you grumbling” - sent a chill through the people. I wonder if the words send a chill through us, because what was true for Israel is no less true for us. God still hears our grumbling. It is the one piece of evidence that proves that we have ignored our mission and that we have forgotten how to love.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 17


The VantagePoint Community Church Message - The Price of Following - The Visible Community is now available on the VantagePoint Website - http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Price_of_Following___The_Visible_Community.htm

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. – Exodus 15:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 3, 2012): Exodus 15

In the church that I grew up in, she sat every Sunday about the middle of the church on the left hand side. I think she must have really enjoyed singing, because she really could belt out the songs. And she hit all of the right notes, but at the same time there was definitely something missing. My grandfather would have told me that she could sing, but there was no music in the song.

Every Sunday I watch a lot of people like that lady. The only difference is that most of them are not singing. They just stand. Some of them might have been told at some point in their lives that they could not sing or that maybe even though they can hit the right notes, that there is no music in their voice. And so they stand and watch – and to me it is one of the saddest things to have to watch.

The song has been part of the church from the earliest times. It pre-dates even the giving of the law. It seems to be a natural response to the things that God is doing in our midst – and maybe the operative word is ‘is.’ Moses writes a song and it is about the things that he has just experienced. The horse and rider thrown into the sea just happened in the incident at the Red Sea. And so he writes a song about the things that he has watched God do. The song becomes his response to God.

The song seems to have been a part of the church from the beginning, but it is not the music. The reason why watching people stand and be silent is sad for me is because I know that they are squelching the response that they have for what God is doing. Our singing, at its best, is always from the emotional overflow of our hearts and not about the musical overflow of our talents. It is simply our response to God for what he has done.

We have no way of Knowing whether or not Moses could sing. With all of the information we have about him that one comment was left off of the list. What we do know is that he did sing. He sang about what God was doing in Israel – he sang from the overflow of his emotions about the way that God had moved in his life. And it is this emotion that is preserved for us in the Psalms and songs of the Bible.

Sunday is here again. This morning, whether you think you can sing or not, just do it. Sing with all of your heart in response to what God is doing. Come let us Worship!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 16

But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. – Exodus 14:29

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 2, 2012): Exodus 14

We remember significant events. It has been said that our culture’s personality is defined by a relatively few questions about our history – the ‘where were you’ questions. Where were you when Pearl Harbor was bombed, or when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Where were you when the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded or when the Berlin Wall was torn down? Where were you on 9/11 (or as Alan Jackson sings – where were you when the world stopped turning?) These have become the questions of our culture – and depending on which ones you remember, the definer of our personalities. For me, I only remember the last three (I have a vague memory of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but I was very young.) But that little fact speaks volumes about how I interact with the world and with my culture. It is in these questions that my cultural personality is revealed.

Theologians often find themselves questioning some of the significant moments of the Bible. And one of the moments that is questioned is the crossing of the Red Sea. Often it is mentioned that while our Bibles say the Red Sea when it is actually the Sea of Reeds which is a much smaller Body of Water. And the thought seems to be that somehow that makes the miracle more plausible – it was less of a miracle that was needed. But that really is not true. It would be like crossing Lake Ontario instead of Lake Superior on dry land – it is a smaller body of water, but it takes an equal miracle to accomplish the feat.

The reality is that God knew that Israel needed a moment. Nothing was by accident. The crossing of the Red Sea was going to become the “where were you” question for the next generation of Israelites – no matter how large the body of water might have been. This would become the moment for that generation, and the generations beyond as the story would be told around campfires.

This was a shaping moment. It spoke to a people that God could be trusted even in the worst of situations – and that is a message that we still need to hear and still need to share. The truth is that there are still Red Seas that need to be parted and a people of faith are still needed to walk through on dry land. We still need to know that God can be trusted, both in the best of times and in the worst of times.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 15

Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. – Exodus 13:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 1, 2012): Exodus 13

Rituals change from season to season. In my family, on Christmas Eve finally all of the presents are placed under the tree and the stockings are filled and placed by the fireplace. It is not a ritual that is repeated at any other time of the year. In fact, it is the only time of year that a tree stands inside of the house. Looking back at pictures from the past it is easy to find the ones that were taken around Christmas –the green decorated tree in the background is the only clue that you need.

Easter has different traditions of its own. Again, during my growing up years it was about chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, and anything else made out of chocolate. A Chocolate bunny in a picture probably means that the photo was taken during Easter. While chocolate might have been an all year commodity, in that form it was only available at Easter.

Sometimes we complain about the secularization of our religious holidays. But the truth might be actually something very different. Our traditions just set the day apart from the ordinary times of the year. Santa Clause and Christmas Trees or the Easter Bunny with all of his chocolate are really nothing more than markers that we place on the day to remind us of that the day itself is something special.

There really is absolutely no religious significance about making bread without yeast. We can infuse it with meaning, but it does not come with meaning attached. One of the meanings we have attached to the idea of yeast is that it takes on the role of sin in the Passover celebrations. The act of lighting a lamp and checking the corners of the house to make sure that all the yeast has been thrown out is an image of our sweeping the sin out of our lives. But yeast is not sin, it is just an illustration that is attached to a meaning. The unleavened bread of Passover is only holy because we have given it a particular meaning. The actual God action of Passover is God stepping into history to save Israel from annihilation in Egypt. Unleavened bread just became the symbol of what God had done.

Markers are important, but it is equally important to recognize that we are the ones that give meaning to the symbols. Any symbol can be good just as any symbol can be bad – and the meaning that any symbol has is essentially up to us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 14

This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. – Exodus 12:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 31, 2012): Exodus 12

I have to admit that I am a fast food eater – both in the food that I like to eat and in regard to the time it takes me to eat it. I have never really learned to appreciate fine cuisine – or the patience that I have to invest as I wait for it.  I have been trained well by my culture, I eat too fast, and during the day often at my desk. And it is not that I think that the way that I eat is healthy, but I also do not have the desire to change. And often when I eat at my desk, I do not even fully unpack my meal so that it can be cleaned away quickly if someone walks into my office.

Passover is maybe the advent of fast food. Even though the whole thing was planned, once the eating of the Passover meal started, the process had also begun. It was like a McDonalds stop at a drive through window at the very beginning of a road trip – it needed to be eaten fast and eaten ready to move. The trip was about to begin and the car was already packed.

That first Passover meal was eaten with a sense of expectancy, God was about to move. I think it was a sense that was lost in the celebrations that followed it. The Passover seemed to be more about the ritual then about the expectation of what God was going to do – when the people actually remembered to celebrate the Passover at all.

In the Christian Church, Passover corresponds with our Easter Celebration, but maybe the bigger connection is with our Eucharist remembrance. We celebrate it more than just once a year (well, at least I think we should), but every time we gather to eat it, we should do so with the expectation that God is about to move. Maybe once in a while we should prepare for communion early, but when it comes to taking the elements we should do it fast and without much thought, but with great expectation of the action that God is about to undertake on our behalf.

Judaism and Christianity need to be able to stand together in their anticipation of the movement of God. And we need to be able to approach our feast days ready to move at a moments notice.

       

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 13

The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people. – Exodus 11:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 30, 2012): Exodus 11

One concern that I have with the modern Christian movement is how far we are out of step with our culture. Somehow we almost wear it as a badge of honor when the culture persecutes us. It is as if our suffering is what makes us Christians. Jesus did say that we were blessed when we are persecuted because him, but what he did not say is that we have to be persecuted in order to be blessed.

One of the marks of the Christian community in the first century was the positive way that the secular community responded to them. The love that the church had for each other and the community was contagious. The idea that the church could somehow disappear would have been considered nothing short of a disaster. We have come to believe that the church was highly persecuted in the years following the resurrection of Jesus. But historians really do not tell the same tale. There were short periods of empire wide persecution, but outside of that the persecution was fairly localized. Even the persecution of Nero which claimed the lives of both Peter and Paul (and many other Christians) seems to have been limited to the area around Rome. Maybe part of the reason for the lack of a long, empire wide persecution was that it was really hard to persecute a people that had simply learned to love in every situation. When faced with love, hate seems to have a hard time maintaining itself. Sooner or later, the lies fade as love persists.

As the story of the Exodus continues, a surprising fact emerges. The fight that Moses finds himself in the middle of is really a family feud. The conflict seems to be restricted; the combatants were the Royal Family on one side and Moses on the other. And if we go back to the beginning of the story, it was the family that he had grown up (and spent the first forty years of his life) in. The Pharaoh would have been a boy that had grown up with Moses like a brother. But the hostility did not extend beyond the family. To most of the Egyptian people, Moses was highly regarded.

Yes, when we are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, we are blessed. And sometimes that will happen. But it is not a situation that we need to chase down. And if we love, most persecution will ultimately fail. Love still wins.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 12

… that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.” – Exodus 10:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 29, 2012): Exodus 10

Maybe one of the scariest thoughts is the possibility that God really does walk among us. That maybe the act of being expelled from the Garden of Eden did not mean that God stopped walking with us, but just that we stopped sensing God and walking with him. And part of the reason why this is scary is that it leaves us with some things to try to explain.

One of the perennial arguments against the existence of God is the presence of evil in this world. So if God still walks among us, why does God allow evil to exist. But the question is actually based in a world view that says the pinnacle of our existence is here on earth and that suffering takes away from our ability to succeed in this life. And both thought lines are actually wrong, even though, in the midst of the battle, they do not seem to be wrong.

This life is important, and we are supposed to make the most of it, but if we really believe what the Bible says, then death is a promotion. There is something better and forever (and I know that part of the scary things is that it is also wrapped in mystery) that comes after this life. The pinnacle, wrapped in mystery, is what comes next. But that does not mean that we do not try to make this life the best that it can be.

But the second part was also wrong. When you examine people in this life that we would consider successful, all of them have faced some serious hurdles in their journey toward the goals that they had set for themselves. It seems that the path that we can find through suffering is the path to success – and there might not be another (or easier) way. And we have to find that path, if not for us, then for our children.

There is no doubt that Israel had suffered. At times the appropriate response for the people of God might have been to run away (and actually, on several occasions, they did.) But all of the trials were forming them into a very special people – one that in modern times would allow them to exist without a country for over 1800 years, and at the end of that time to survive an effort by a madman to exterminate them.

And the words of God still stuck with them. Remember to tell your children of how you came through these times – and of the actions that I took on your behalf. And you will be special people – forever. And that is a character trait that we all need to try to emulate.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 11