Born into Christ

The congregation I serve has a tradition of rotating breakfast and devotions among three Lutheran congregations on the first three days of Holy Week. This has been going on for years. The folks all know each other. It's like being invited to a large family reunion. 

As the new guy I was invited to deliver the message this morning.

I began with the Gospel of John.

The appointed Gospel for the Tuesday of Holy Week is John 12:20-36 (according to the Revised Common Lectionary). 
 
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
²⁷Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." ³⁰Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. ³⁴The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" ³⁵Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light."
After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

I continued by reading a poem by Red Steagall, a cowboy poem and the voice of my childhood. I read the poem Born to This Land, a poem close to my heart and one that I can barely get through without choking up with tears. 

It's a poem about roots and identity - the story of a family history and a legacy tied to land passed down from generation to generation. As the poet recounts, "five generations have called this ranch home, and I promise, it won't end with me..." This poem hits close to home because it could have been written about my family - German immigrants from the 1840s, farming the same land since the late 1870s. This poem is written in my bones.

Born to the Land

I've kicked up the hidden mesquite roots and rocks
From the place where I spread out my bed.
I'm layin' here under a sky full of stars
With my hands folded up 'neath my head.

Tonight there's a terrible pain in my heart
Like a knife, it cuts jagged and deep.
This evening the windmiller brought me the word
That my granddaddy died in his sleep.

I saddled my gray horse and rode to a hill
Where when I was a youngster of nine,
My granddaddy said to me, "Son this is ours,
All of it, yours, your daddy's and mine.

Son, my daddy settled here after the war      
That new tank's where his house used to be.
He wanted to cowboy and live in the west
Came to Texas from east Tennessee.

The longhorns were wild as the deer in them breaks.
With a long rope he caught him a few.
With the money he made from trailin' em north,
Son, he proved up this homestead for you.

The railroad got closer, they built the first fence
Where the river runs through the east side.
When I was a button we built these corrals
Then that winter my granddaddy died.

My father took over and bought up more range
With good purebreds he improved our stock.
It seemed that the windmills grew out of the ground
Then the land got as hard as a rock.

Then during the dust bowl we barely hung on,
The north wind tried to blow us away.
It seemed that the Lord took a likin' to us
He kept turnin' up ways we could stay.

My daddy grew older and gave me more rein,
We'd paid for most all of the land.
By the time he went on I was running more cows
And your daddy was my right hand man."

His eyes got real cloudy, took off in a trot,
And I watched as he rode out of sight.
Tho I was a child, I knew I was special
And I'm feelin' that same way tonight

Not many years later my daddy was killed
On a ship in the South China Sea.
For twenty odd years now we've made this ranch work
Just two cowboys, my granddad and me.

And now that he's gone, things are certain to change
And I reckon that's how it should be.
But five generations have called this ranch home
And I promise it won't end with me.

'Cause I've got a little one home in a crib
When he's old enough he'll understand,
From the top of that hill I'll show him his ranch
Cause like me, he was Born To This Land.

In Christ we have a story with a similar trajectory. We who have been baptized into Christ have been born into God's kingdom. Christ, the self-proclaimed grain of wheat, was planted on our behalf, and he bore the fruit of new life for the world. When he was lifted up, all people were drawn to him. In that moment all people were born anew in Christ.

This is our story. For generation upon generation we have been telling this story of God's love poured out for the world. We are born into this story. 

Holy Week provides time for reflection upon where we have come from as God's children and a chance to celebrate what God has done for us. It is also a chance to tell the story anew for those who have never heard. 

Wherever you find yourself this week, I hope you take time to remember the story. Join Jesus at the table on Maundy Thursday. Sit at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. Ponder the mystery of the empty tomb at the Easter Vigil Saturday evening or early Sunday morning. 

Share the story of God's love. Through Jesus, we are born into God's kingdom. 

Peace, 
Travis 

Isaiah 35 - Living Waters in the Parched Places

This is the manuscript from the fifth and final movement of my congregations 2014 Lenten theme - God's A-gonna Trouble the Waters. We are exploring images of where God is at work in the waters of the Old Testament.

The first week we read the creation story of Genesis 1 - Creating Waters.

The second week we read the Noah story of Genesis 7 and 8 - Flood Waters.

The third week we read the Exodus story - Redeeming waters.
My sermon manuscript can be read here.

The fourth week we read Psalm 23 - Still Waters. 

This week we explored Isaiah 35 Living Waters. 

 Isaiah 35:1-10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly,
    and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
    “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
    He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
    He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 A highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
    but it shall be for God’s people;
    no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain joy and gladness,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

    Today we return to Isaiah, where we began the season of Lent five weeks ago. We marked the beginning of Lent that day with an ashen reminder of our own mortality. We told the truth about ourselves - we are creatures with numbered days. We are dust, or should I say, we are dirt, and to dirt we shall return.
    Wrapped up in all the talk of dirt and death, we heard a word that evening from Isaiah about the power of water. We returned to the waters or perhaps God led us to the waters that day, as God always leads us to the renewing waters where we are made new creations by God. We heard a word about becoming watered gardens, and having springs break forth in the parched places of our lives. That is the power of God, to make waters break forth in parched places. As we have put it throughout this season of Lent - God’s A-Gonna trouble the waters.
    God has indeed troubled the waters.  Over the past several weeks we have heard stories about how God troubles the waters. We began with creation, with God’s spirit moving over the primordial waters of chaos, creating life that God called good. We moved on to the story of Noah and the flood waters, how God saw the world called good unravel into brokenness. The flood waters came crashing, cleansing the earth, the ark delivering Noah and family, God’s hope for the future, to safety.
    Two weeks ago we encountered the waters of the Exodus, God’s redeeming waters for the people of Israel, held for so long in the clutches of slavery. God made a way through the waters, creating a people out of the chaos of slavery, out of the stronghold of death, to new life. Last week Pastor Casey led us to the still waters of the 23rd Psalm. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” Sometimes God leads us to waters of refreshment and renewal.
    Tonight we begin to bring our time of lent to a close. We have come to the edge of Holy Week, with the “Hosanna’s” of Palm Sunday just on the horizon. But before we get there we hear a promise of what’s to come. We get a glimpse of what God has in store for us. We hear the promise of how God will once again trouble the waters on our behalf. This promise is found in Isaiah - a fitting bookend to the story we heard five weeks ago.
    Isaiah 35 sounds like rain on parched land, refreshing and full of hope - “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom…” As the lines unfold the images bring to mind a vision of new life breaking forth in a desolate place.
    God is active and moving and the people are called to respond - “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.” The prophet calls the people to a state of readiness, their waiting is over. The phrase “those who are fearful of heart” has an interesting nuance in the Hebrew understanding. This phrase can also be translated to mean “ones whose hearts are racing.” The prophet calls out to those who hearts are racing - “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.”
    This story from Isaiah was written in the darkness of exile. The racing hearts belonged to those who had known for too long what is was to live in the shadow of death. Held captive in Babylon, the people were torn from land, from family, from the temple, far from everything that gave them a sense of who they were. It was Egypt all over again. And the people longed for God to intervene.
    Out of the darkness of exile, the clouds break and light begins to shine through. There is hope on the horizon. “Tell the ones whose hearts are racing - “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.” God is going to act once again in the midst of the people. A way will be made for their rescue. In the parched place of the exile, God will stir up the waters and make a way for the people to cross over into new life.
    This story mirrors the Exodus. God will once again redeem the people. Life will break forth in the wilderness, the likes of which the world had never scene. Waters will break forth, streams will run in the desert. The haunts of jackals shall become swamps. The burning sands shall become life giving pools.
    And in the midst of this budding oasis there shall be a highway for God’s people. This highway will be a Holy Way - God’s way - and it will be for the redeeming of God’s people. Just as God created a way through the waters of the Exodus, God will create a way in the wilderness. God will once again trouble the waters on the people’s behalf.
    God will redeem the people. For the audience of this story, for the meta-narrative of scripture, this redeeming has economic and political implications. To redeem a person literally means to buy them out of slavery. The person redeemed is set free. Their standing in the community has changed. Out of the death of slavery God claims the people as God’s own - creating new life. This is what God has done for us through Christ.
    Our baptism is a political event. God’s redeeming us marks us as a member of God’s kingdom. We are a redeemed people, bought out of the slavery of sin and death.
We are redeemed from the fallen powers of this world, not removed from them, but set free from them to do work among them on behalf of God. We are citizens of God’s kingdom first. This is a far greater mark on our identity than a driver’s license or passport or voter’s registration card. This citizenship defines who we are and how we engage the world. We are God’s redeemed people.
    We are also a people who are familiar with parched places. We just have to walk outside to encounter parchedness. We are in the midst of a drought. For mouths and years we have pleaded for rain - for refreshment and hope. This is real for us, and also a metaphor for our lives. We know the parched places of sin. Of broken relationships. Of Sickness. Of Death. We know the places where our hearts race for hope and healing.
    The reminder today, through these water stories, is that God is at work in the parched places. God moves on our behalf - has already claimed us as God’s own through the cross. God does God’s work in the parched places of our lives. 
    When our own hearts are racing in the parched places of our lives, the reminder of our redeeming by God comes like rain in the drought. This is our promise. Today and always. When our lives become worn out and dry through sin and brokenness, God promises to be there with the waters of healing. In the wilderness of sin and death, God promises to bring new life and make a way upon which we can cross. God claims us as members of God’s kingdom. God troubles the waters on our behalf, over and over meeting us when we are parched and in need.
    So wade in the waters friends. That hymn that we have marked our time with here in Lent. Wade in the waters of God’s creating. Wade in the waters stirred up by God’s promise. Wade in the waters where God claims you. Now and forever.  

Law & Order: The New Testament - The Healing of the Man Born Blind

The sermon manuscript from the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Based on John 9:1-41 - The Healing of the Man Born Blind. 

The story of the man born blind in John’s Gospel reads like the script from the TV show Law & Order. Produced by Dick Wolf, it ran for 19 years, artistically documenting the struggles and triumphs of the criminal justice system in New York City. It had drama and mystery and intrigue. A great cast of characters we could all relate to. And the main characters always seemed to have some life altering moment. This morning’s story from John could be a lost episode of Law & Order. It’s got all the makings of a good drama. Intense dialogue. Intrigue. Mystery. A cast of characters we can all relate to. Just imagine - Law & Order: The New Testament...

    “In the Jewish temple system, the people are guided in their lives of faith by the Pharisees. In John’s Gospel, the power of the Pharisees is challenged by Jesus, the Son of Humanity. These are there stories.”

    In this episode of Law & Order: The New Testament the plot is driven by Jesus’ healing of a man born blind. The show opens with Jesus and his disciples continuing their journey to Jerusalem. Today they encounter a man who was blind from birth. The drama begins with the disciples and Jesus in a dialogue about the cause of the blindness - who sinned to make this happen? Jesus declares that sin is not the cause. He rubs the man’s eyes with mud made of dirt and saliva. And sends him to the pool.
    The drama continues when the man discovers that he can see, but upon returning  to the village, there is confusion over who he is and what has happened. As as he walks into the village, the whispers begin. “Is that the guy who used to beg on main street?” “ I don’t know - sure looks like him.” The man begins to frantically defend his healing - “It’s me, I promise you.” He fumbles in his wallet for his I.D. card….
    The confused neighbors take him to the experts, the Pharisees. The remainder of the episode involves tense questioning of both the healed man and his parents. There are multiple interviews and commentary from the “experts” - those law abiding Pharisees. The Pharisees’ arguments provide intrigue. Facts are uncovered - the healing took place on the Sabbath, surely this man cannot be of God, can he? The mystery of the healing must be solved - just who is this Jesus. And all the while the man who has been healed gets the run around by the so-called experts. No one celebrates the healing. They all get lost in arguments.
    The episode concludes with Jesus, who has been absent for most of the show. Having over heard the shouting match, Jesus talks to the man he healed, who ironically has never seen Jesus. Its a brief exchange that leaves the man confessing his faith in Jesus. Jesus comments that he has come into the world as a reversal, so that the blind may see and those who can see may become blind. The Pharisees overhead this statement and question Jesus about their blindness - surely we are not blind, are we? Jesus leaves them with the statement that their sin remains, as good as declaring them blind to his activities on behalf of God. The Pharisees miss their life-changing moment. The camera pans out. The show rolls to credits.  Cue the theme music.
    It is a story riddled with drama. Perfect for our high-strung viewing pleasure. And with such great characters, the ratings are sure to be high.
    This story from John almost preaches itself. That’s what good stories do. The theme of light and darkness that starts from the prologue of the Gospel, sets the tone right out of the gate. Jesus has come as the light of the world. He is different from the darkness of the world - the brokenness, the sin, the separation from God. He has come to demonstrate how God engages the world - in self-sacrificing love and healing. Today, we encounter this in two ways from Jesus; his statement and his signs.
    Jesus declares, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” The “I am” statement points us back to Moses and the burning bush. When Moses asks who shall I say send me God tells him to say “I AM WHO I AM.” God is the great “I am” - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living. Jesus takes up the divine name as part of his ministry and uses it to declare exactly who he is and what he has come to do. 
    The second moment comes when the Pharisees ask about a sign - “How can a man who is a sinner preform such signs?” The clue from John is found in the word “signs.” The signs moments are key moments in John’s Gospel. We encounter the signs of Jesus in the turning of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness, Jesus walking on water, or the raising of Lazarus. In the signs, John is telling us something important and true about Jesus - that is what the signs are meant to communicate. The sign in the healing the man born blind points us to Jesus, who renews our ability to be in relationship with God.
    Jesus is the sign. Jesus is the light of the world - literally. Jesus is the way for us to encounter God. The lesson for us to take away is not so much about physical sight. It’s about how we encounter and engage Jesus, and thus, about how we renew our relationship with God. The result of the man born blind’s healing is that he confesses his faith in Jesus. That’s it. Jesus’ act of healing brings about a confession of faith and a life that is now engaged in a relationship with God. While this is not the end-all-be-all of Jesus’ ministry, its a starting point for the community that follows him. We are drawn into a relationship of trusting and knowing that Jesus is the light and salvation of the world.    
    The problem with the Pharisees is that they think they know it all. They were not open to God’s continuing revelation in their midst. They were not open to what Jesus could teach them about being in a relationship with God and with the world. The Pharisees spent all their time trying to prove that they are right. They do everything by the book, that is to say the law. They live out their call to keep the law, but they do it with such a judicial hammer that they completely cut out the light of Christ that has come into the world.
    One of the rules they follow is the Sabbath. The Pharisees guarded the Sabbath with an iron fist – so much that they could not see God at work when Jesus was giving new life to the man born blind. According to the Pharisees, the man could not possibly have been healed outside of their system of healing. But it was not so much the healing. It was the method. Jesus, a sinner according to their rules, was wrong.
    What makes Pharisees is us here in the season of Lent is our quest to play God. And we come by this naturally. It’s a part of our broken world and the fallenness of sin. From an early age we learn to build walls and boundaries. Churches and denominations assume the power to decide who is in and who is out of the kingdom of God. And sometimes we get caught up in this movement. We attempt to mark the boundaries of God’s kingdom. We decide who is in and who is our based on rules that are not of God’s decree. And we fall into the trap of the Pharisees. We struggle to see God at work. We struggle to encounter the light of Christ.
    Jesus does not get caught up in the game of the Pharisees - he simply heals. He does not kneel down to the man born blind and ask if he wants to be healed - “Do you want to be healed…ok…fill out these forms…sign on the dotted line…get them notarized at the court house…see you tomorrow.” This is not how Jesus works. Jesus encounters those in need and reaches out to meet those needs. And we are called to deal with it.
    In a time of requirements and forms and red-tape, Jesus simply heals and demonstrates God’s saving love for the world. Its no deeper than that. Jesus heals because that’s what God does. God heals. That’s grace. And we are called to follow. We are called and empowered to live out the depths of God’s grace. That’s the heart of baptism.
    Baptism is not our event - it’s God’s promise for now and forever more. We are invited to participate, to wade into the waters of new life. The waters of God’s promise. As we draw near the cross, we are reminded of our need for God’s grace, and for what God has already done for us, and for the world, on the cross.

The Exodus - Redeeming Waters

This is the manuscript from the third movement of my congregations 2014 Lenten theme - God's A-gonna Trouble the Waters. We are exploring images of where God is at work in the waters of the Old Testament. 

The first week we read the creation story of Genesis 1 - Creating Waters.

The second week we read the Noah story of Genesis 7 and 8 - Flood Waters. 

This week's story comes from Exodus. 

Exodus 14:10-31 

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. 11 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? 12 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.” 13 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. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. 16 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. 17 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. 18 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.”

19 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. 20 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.

21 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. 22 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24 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. 25 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.”

26 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.” 27 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. 28 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. 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 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.

The Exodus - Redeeming Waters

    God’s a-gonna trouble the waters. True story. God has indeed trouble the waters. That’s what God has been doing for a long time. Long before you and I got here God was troubling the waters. Now when I say troubling, I mean stirring things up with creative power. God troubles the waters on our behalf. Not as we expect or always ask for, but as God intends for the sake of the life of the world. 
    The priest, or shall I say poet, writing in the shadow of exile in Babylon, in the darkness of oppression, in the moment of wondering where God was at work in the world, penned the creation epic we know as Genesis 1. God troubles the waters in Genesis, Pastor Casey led us through that story two weeks ago. God’s spirit, the creating Rauch, hovered over the deep and organized the primordial waters of chaos into a dynamic world that God the creator called “good.” We come from that word “good.” We who are created by God bear the image of the creating, nurturing God we encounter in Genesis. But that’s not the whole story.
    Last week we heard the story of Noah and the flood. The story where God troubled the waters of the world to counter the conflict and violence into which the world had spiraled. But God did not loose hope. There was Noah and his family and the animals, spared by God, lifted above the waters that rushed from the deeps and from the sky. The ark sheltered God’s hope for the future through the flood and the rainbow in the sky would serve as a reminder for both God and humanity of God’s commitment to the life of the world.
    We continue with our Lenten theme this week with another story about how God troubles the waters. This time we find ourselves in Egypt, in exile, in a period of time when the people of God wondered where God was at work in the world. For 430 years the people had been crying out for God to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. And God heard their cries.
    Enter Moses and the burning bush, and the divine call to go back to Egypt to serve as the catalyst for the Exodus. Reluctantly Moses goes. After quarrels and plagues and Passover and the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the people of God are told to leave Egypt. They hurriedly move out into the unknown future that God has set in motion. 
    But cataclysmic change is always difficult. When the road got rough in the desert outside of Egypt, when the people were caught between water and the angry army of Pharaoh who had changed his mind, there was grumbling and fear. “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?!” Slavery in Egypt seemed better that death in the wilderness. Moses, why have you led us to our deaths? Was God in this to begin with? Where is God now?
    God was indeed moving, and it is in the waters that God will act on behalf of the people. Moses is told to raise his staff and split the sea, but this is just a prop for God’s Spirit. The same Spirit that moved over the waters at the beginning of time, the same Spirit that calmed the waters of the flood, the creating Ruach of God moves in this moment. God’s creating Ruach moves, the waters are driven back, and a way of deliverance is made for the people. God makes a way from the death of slavery to the new life of God’s future.
    The story of the Exodus from Egypt is the defining story for the people of Israel. It’s a creation story, narrating the creation of God’s people out of the chaos of slavery in a foreign land. It’s a story of how God creates life out of death. It was the moment of moments for the people of Israel. They would tell it to the kids and their grand-kids. They would remember it every year at Passover. They would weave the Exodus story into the fabric of their history. Over and over again in the giving of the law, God would remind the people of their rescue. “I am the LORD, your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” The psalmist would craft poetry to remember this day.
    When Israel was a great nation, the story of the exodus told of the beginning of their rise to power and how God had established them as God’s chosen people. When they were in exile once again in Babylon, it was a story of hope, serving to remind the people of what God had done for their ancestors, kindling hope of what God would do for them in the future. Isaiah takes up a pen and writes, “Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over?” Isaiah 51:10 serves as a reminder to the people of what God had done for them, redeeming them out of the death of slavery.     
    In the Exodus we again encounter a God who creates out of chaos. The people of Israel had been living in a state of chaos - oppressed, not allowed to live out their identity as God’s people. God chose to act on their behalf. God chose to give them life. It is once again in the waters that we see God move, creating a people out of the death of slavery and bringing them to new life. God’s spirit, the creating Ruach, moves over the waters and makes a way for the people to cross over from slavery into freedom. The word deliverance in verse 13 points to the saving act of God through the waters of the Reed Sea. It’s a word that points to what God has done for us on the cross. It points us to our redemption in Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed because God has already troubled the waters. 
    The journey to the cross and resurrection of Easter is a journey to the saving waters of baptism where God meets us and claims us as God’s own. God does indeed trouble the waters. God moves into the deep places of our lives, the places where sin has a strangle hold, the places where we are no longer ourselves because of our bondage to sin, and God sets us free. God’s creating Rauch moves into lives, troubling the waters, bringing us to new life in Christ.
    God has indeed troubled the waters. In baptism God moves us from death in sin to new life in the kingdom of God’s creating. This has been done once and for all on our behalf. And God continues to meet us in the chaos of our lives.
    In the chaos of sickness or debt or depression or loneliness or divorce or depression - God sends folks to remind us of God’s love and faithfulness. Sending a Moses to remind us of God’s creative power, to remind us that God has already made a way for us through the chaos.
    Or perhaps we are called to be that Moses for somebody else - drawn into the moments of chaos to be God’s presence for others - to help remind each other of the way God has made for us to new life. A full life in God’s creative love. 
    God creates a way from death to life for us through the resurrection of Jesus. God makes a way through the cross for us to fully live into ourselves by the love of God poured out through the world through Jesus Christ. God troubles the waters with an everlasting promise on our behalf. The exodus story is our story - for we are a people of God’s creating.