Text: Exodus 2:23-25, 3:1-22

²³After a long time the king of Egypt died.  The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out.  Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.  ²⁴God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  ²⁵God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  ³Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”  ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”  And he said, “Here I am.”  ⁵Then he said, “Come no closer!  Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  ⁶He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.  Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.  ¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”  ¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  ¹²He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

¹³But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you’, and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  ¹⁴God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”  He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”  ¹⁵God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name for ever,
and this my title for all generations.

¹⁶Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.  ¹⁷I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’  ¹⁸They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’  ¹⁹I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.  ²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.  ²¹I will bring this people into such favour with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed; ²²each woman shall ask her neighbour and any woman living in the neighbour’s house for jewellery of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians.’”

It began with a cry: a single cry.  No one knows exactly what prompted it – the lash of a whip, a cruel punishment for failure to complete an impossible production assignment.  Or perhaps it was simply a reaction to being held captive for far too long, held against one’s will, trapped beneath the underpinnings of empire.  After all, a person, or perhaps even a people, can only take so much suffering before reaching their collective breaking point and saying enough!  Nevertheless, salvation began with a cry that came from the lips of those at the very bottom of the social order, and yet that cry rose all the way up to the top, and beyond, to reach the ears of God.  Scripture tells us that the salvation of Israel was set in motion when the people of Israel, the slaves of the Egyptians, the dominant empire, found their voice and cried out.  Then as now, their cry may not have carried with it a consistent message, nor a clear message, or even any message at all, but that is not the purpose of a cry.

In the ancient near eastern world, when a ruler dies, the entire infrastructure becomes unglued – the economic order, the social order, the political order, the whole system of power upon which empire depends.  And with it, comes an opportunity to reconfigure those patterns of power.  When a ruler dies, the people can find their voice.  A collective voice of rage, resentment, insistence, which was always there before, but stifled, can be heard again.  Regimes of power keep the voices of the people silent, but let there be a transition of power, or a show of weakness, and the voice of the people will emerge with energy and with force.

In times of power shifts and transitions, the rule of God becomes ever more visible.  Whenever an earthly ruler or empire is nullified, either by death, destruction, or scandal, this cancellation serves to validate the power of God, the True Ruler. Recall the words of Isaiah, in which the prophet Isaiah is called into being at the very same time that the king dies (Isaiah 6).  The text is telling us that when the false king died, the prophet could see the Real King.  In times of social discontinuity, the reign of God becomes ever more visible, and ever more active in our world.

To see another example, turn to our text this morning, to Exodus, chapter 2, and note how even the language itself changes in tone.  The people had been referred to as “the Hebrews,” the name the Egyptians had given them, the language used by the empire.  But now, in verse 23, they are renamed “Israelites,” meaning they have abandoned their former identity as slaves to empire, and have accepted their new role as people of God.  Once the people of Israel dared to see themselves in a new light, as the people of God, beloved by God, they were able to find their own collective voice, as they dared to speak out against the oppression of the empire.

What does it mean to cry out?  To cry out against injustice and  oppression?  Empires, whether they be Egyptian, Roman, or American, prefer silent slaves, quiet followers,  who will create no social embarrassment, be no administrative inconvenience, garner no  attention, and accept the status quo.  When the oppressed are silent, they allow their oppressors, and they allow the empire, the right to define reality – to determine what is right, what is acceptable, what is tolerable, what is real, and what is not.  But if just one single person cries out, and allows his or her pain to become public, the empire’s definitions of reality, and slavery, are broken.  The values and policies imposed by empire, whether they be social, political, military, or corporate,  can be shattered, if and when a people, powerless though they may seem, reclaim their identity, and make their voices heard once again.  Whenever someone takes a risk to voice his own pain, and is willing to engage in the public process to do so, then she becomes an active agent in bringing about her own salvation.  It all begins with a single cry.  A cry dependent upon a God who will act.

And what do we know of this God who acts in human history?  Is God especially attentive to the cries of the oppressed?  Does God have a preferential option for the poor?  The Bible tells us resoundingly, “Yes.”  When Jesus began his ministry, he quoted from the prophet Isaiah, that his mission was to preach good news to the poor, to release the prisoners, and to set free the oppressed (Luke 4:18-19).  But this is not unique to Jesus.  In the book of Exodus, 2:24-25, God heard the collective cry of the oppressed Egyptian slaves, and God remembered the covenant with their ancestors and their history together.  Then God looked at the enslaved people, saw their suffering, and chose to identify with them.

Note that the hearing triggers the remembering.  When we voice our concerns and our suffering, God remembers God’s promises to us, and God is faithful to keep those promises.  In Exodus, God connected the Israelite slaves to the people of the promise: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the  carriers of that promise.  The cries of these slaves triggered old memories in God, of God’s history with their ancestors.  God had made promises in Genesis that were yet to be kept.  Promises that would require powerful, dramatic, divine intervention.  God knew the suffering of these oppressed slaves, and chose to experience their suffering along with them, as if it were God’s own.  And because God knew their suffering by experiencing it, God had to act.

God is motivated to act by the cry of the people.  It is grief voiced aloud that causes God to act in a situation of terrible hurt.  God’s intervention challenges our theology by challenging our understanding of salvation and of how God works.  In Exodus, God acts to save us only if we ask for it.  And we know that the first priority of any marginalized group or community of people is to find its voice when it has no voice.  When the wind is gone from our sails, when our  collective identity has been shattered and kicked to the curb, that is when we must find our voice and cry out publicly in protest.  For God is the responder, not the initiator of salvation.

The Exodus story also challenges our notions of decorum and propriety.  Here, there is no sense of keeping a respectful distance from God, there is no waiting for God in silence or trustful awe.  Instead, the Exodus story begins with a raging cry of self-assertion that terrifies the empire, mobilizes earthly justice, spiritual holiness, and God, all on its behalf.  Remember of the story of Bartimaeus, in Mark 10:46?  Bartimaeus was a blind beggar who refused to be silenced, and who refused to accept his second class status, the unjust status quo.  And after voicing his protest to Jesus, despite growing attempts to silence him by the crowd, Jesus restores his sight, but only after Bartimaeus makes his request known to Jesus.

Texts like Exodus and Mark shatter that alluring theology of salvation which leaves too much up to God and not enough to us.  These texts fight against an etiquette that prefers silent, peaceful waiting upon God, coupled with a deadly acceptance of unjust power structures, to create a docile silence that harms and kills.  The Biblical texts would challenge how we view and understand the noisy cries of those who disrupt our peaceful existence and shatter our false notions of reality.  They call upon us to listen to the voices of those who cry out of their hurt and express their pain and their insistent hope for change in an unjust social, economic, and political order.  For when the silence is broken, the false reality, definitions, and values of empire will come crashing down, and true reality and true identity will emerge.  The real God, the only true power in this universe, will become visible again, and active in human history.  The Exodus begins when promise turns into action.

But taking action can be uncomfortable.  It’s easy for us to be lulled into a false sense of security, waiting for God to appear, waiting for God to make things right, waiting for God to resolve situations of human injustice and oppression, while we just sit idly by and wait.  But the Bible tells us, “Not so.”  God’s call to Moses is the signal that we too must participate in God’s saving activity in the world.  God’s calling of Moses is the human requirement to take an active role in the salvation of all people enslaved and oppressed by unjust economic, political, and social structures.  God’s saving promise of liberation from oppression turns now into a righteous demand for God’s people.  God’s grand intention has now become Moses’ responsibility, Moses’ obligation, and Moses’ vocation.  Yes, God will be with Moses, and yes, God will tell Moses what to do, but Moses will still have to go forth and do it and at great risk to himself.  For Moses, not God, will be the one to stand before the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh to confront him.  Moses, not God, will bring the Israelite people out of Egyptian bondage and imperial power.  God is requiring Moses to act in God’s place to save the people occupying the bottom rung of the social, political, and economic order.  Thus the Exodus has suddenly transformed itself into an enterprise both equal parts human and divine.

This is the joining of God with human history.  And it all depends on Moses, and his willingness to make himself vulnerable, to take a risk, and to join with God in this dangerous divine/human undertaking.  Moses’ initial response is understandable – he doubts his own ability: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt,” he says in 5:11.  But by resisting God’s call, Moses is also resisting God’s demand for justice on earth, even to the point of angering God by doubting God’s ability to pull off this plan of saving action.  It’s understandable from Moses’ point of view, for Moses’ chance of success is not good, and his chance of survival is even worse.  To confront head-on the most powerful empire in the world in an act of civil disobedience, to challenge the status-quo of civilization, is to put his own identity at risk, and to put his own life on the line.  But Moses’ reasons for resistance all point to his past, and to his past reality as a member of Pharaoh’s court, as a fellow participant in empire, as a murderer hiding in exile, and as an inarticulate, slow-witted spokesperson.

God responds to Moses by moving Moses into the future, and pointing Moses to a new reality.  Moses said, “Who am I?  I’m nothing.  A nobody.  I have no authority.”  But God countered Moses, saying, “I will be with you” (5.12).  God promises to be present with the oppressed in the midst of their suffering and to be present with those who stand with them in their struggle.  God promises to deliver them all out of the hands of the destructive powers of empire – to bring them out from the land of oppression into a new land of promise: a land filled with blessings and not curses, a land filled with plenty rather than rationed goods.  God will counter Israel’s present circumstances with a new reality.  God’s presence is all that is necessary to create for Israel an alternative reality: an alternative to imperial oppression.

God’s own name, God’s very identity, is a form of the verb “to be” – “I am who I am”; or “I will be what I will be.”  God’s name evokes the power of newness – the power to create, to cause new things to be; the power to make the impossible, possible.  God’s name represents the power of life, the power of being, and the power of newness.

Finally, God responds to Moses by equipping him with a strategic plan.  God gives Moses practical advice, telling him exactly what to do, step by step.

#1.  Recruit and mobilize the elders of the community.  Moses will not have to act alone, because we act in community to respond to God’s call together as a people.  God not only works to develop  a single leader, but God works to shape the hearts and minds of an entire community.  The God of the Genesis ancestors has taken control of the situation of Egyptian oppression.  The God of Genesis, the God of creation, is about to act again, this time in a saving act of re-creation.  God has seen the suffering of a people and experienced it first-hand, and now God is going to do something to reverse it.  God has a plan to transform the situation from one of oppression to one of liberation.  God will cause the members of the community to listen to Moses, to accept him as their new leader, to be persuaded by him, and to follow his lead.  For God knows they will have to take the same risk as Moses.

#2.  Moses and the elders of the community will go together to meet with Pharaoh, and confront him together.  Again, Moses is not alone in the risk, in the struggle.  Not only is God with him, but the entire community is alongside him as well.

#3.  Third is a final act of protest – the Israelites are to request permission to take a 3 day journey into the wilderness to worship God. Note the contrast in the language of the text – this act of protest symbolizes that God is the true King, and not Pharaoh.  And this King, this Ruler, is allied with the working class, the poor, and the oppressed – the bottom rung of Egyptian society.  God is reversing the rule of empire, by turning it over on its head.  This act of worship is a prayer of protest: an action against empire.  Worship is an extraordinary decision to redefine authority and to nullify the religious claims of the empire.  God is in charge now: not Pharaoh.  This simple act is a much greater threat to Pharaoh than just escaping into the wilderness.  Their protest points to an new reality – the realization that the empires of this world are but a poor reversal of the true divine order, where the hungry are filled with abundance, while the wealthy are sent away with nothing; the powerful are brought down, the proud are scattered, yet the lowly are lifted up, and the last are now first (Luke 1:46-55).

God’s world order is a dramatic reversal of our present day reality.  But as God becomes more visible, God’s reality will become more visible as well.  When you see the face of God as Moses did, you can’t help but see the reality of God’s new order.  When you experience God’s presence as the prophets did, you can’t help but be transformed in your manner of thinking, speaking, and acting.  And this transformation of thought and behavior will put you in direct confrontation with the imperial powers that be – the infrastructure that supports the empire, that is only concerned with upholding the current social, economic, military, and political order required to maintain the status quo of empire.

The Bible tells us that power is not willingly or easily surrendered; to do so requires a counter-power.  Only the power of God can confront and overthrow empire once and for all.  But God calls each of us to become liberators, just as God called Moses to free the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt.  Liberation is at the heart of the gospel, as Jesus continually demonstrated.  The Exodus story reminds us there is hope for a world beyond empire, and hope for abundant living here on earth, but it’s a high risk enterprise.  It involves a partnership with God which can be frightening at times but also rewarding beyond measure.  The Exodus story shows us there is more at work in our world than what can be defined by conventional power alone.  There is evidence along the way that history is far more open than we imagine it to be.  Worship requires us to be attentive to these gestures of God’s holiness at work in the world.  Have you seen any lately?  If so, what did you notice?  Cultivate your ability to see, hear, and recognize God’s gestures, for your attentiveness to them will lead to your own liberation from the empires of this world and result in the world’s transformation from human oppression to God’s divine order.  This is what Jesus meant when he said “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”  As you remember God’s gestures, these gestures will evoke faith, a faith which forms the gateway to a new future where we all may have life in abundance.  Through the eyes of faith, God grants us all the ability to see life as it was meant to be lived; and by faith, we are given a new way of viewing what is real and a newfound ability to act on what we know to be true.  Such acts of faith will shatter the status quo, redistribute the wealth of the earth, and bring about true liberty and justice for all.  In God’s Name, amen.