The beginning of something.
Not just any old thing, not just something interesting, but something that spells the demise and destruction of something that we thought would never end and the beginning of something new and unknown.
Moses.
The hammer that came down upon the Egyptians, smiting, again and again, until their wills and their hearts were broken.
Moses, the bringer of the wrath of God is also the bringer of God’s deliverance.
If our hearts don’t grow still in awe and fear at the mention of Moses name, then we don’t know Moses very well, or what God wrought through him.
We begin today with the beginning of the story of Moses. For ten Sundays we will be hearing the story of the man who carried the ten words from God, the ten commandments.
The one who stood barefoot before the burning bush, the one who stood before Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go!”, the one who brought the plagues of Egypt, the angel of death and the Passover, the leader of the exodus out of the land of slavery into a land of promise, parting the red sea, drowning Pharaoh’s army, the one who saw God and was radiant, who wrote the torah, who carried the law, who wandered through the dessert, who dies before he reaches the land of promise.
We begin that story today, the story of destruction, desperation, salvation and hope. The story of God bringing about something new, and living and vital.
We begin with the Pharaoh who was bound by fear and death, a tyrant, power gone bad.
We begin with the genocide of the Hebrews by the powerful who prey upon the weak.
And we begin with irony, and subversion, God’s underground working right under Pharaoh’s nose.
The river that drowned all the male children of the Hebrews is where Moses is hidden, and is “drawn out”, and Moses is raised right in Pharaoh’s household.
Moses’ own mother and sister care for him until he is weaned.
There is so much going on here.
The futile attempts of those who grasp at power to control those around them.
The down fall of the mighty not from feared exterior forces but from within because of their own abuse of power.
The arrival of hope and salvation when least expected.
There is the lesson on how slavery and bondage sneak up on us, until one day we wake up to realize that we are being controlled by someone or something and there seems to be no escape.
There is the mystery of God working to bring about hope and freedom and life in the midst violence, death and injustice.
There is so much going on here.
And it all begins today with a child hidden in the reeds, Moses in the bulrushes.
We begin a new year of ministry today here at Grace as we get ready for the beginning of Sunday school, choir, youth group, the BBQ and all the many ways we share life together as God’s people.
Rally day is sort of a Moses moment.
We rally deliberately around all the various ways we are organized, our various committees and classes and fellowships, sign up sheets and posters, and lots of food.
It is a Moses moment because it is a deliberate way to organize to proclaim the Gospel and be the Gospel to the world, a lively Church is a Church that brings light to darkness, food to the hungry, hope to the forgotten, fellowship to the lonely, and that all takes organizing.
We Rally today in Jesus name, that the exodus that began with Moses continues, as we leave the land of bondage to go to the land of promise, where old Pharaoh no longer preys upon the weak and helpless.
Being a people of the Gospel means being organized, taking part, signing up, showing up, and lifting up one another. It takes commitment to one another because we share in the Baptismal commitment to God.
The ways of God are all mixed up with all that it means to be human, it is all very physical. The exodus was a physical exercise. The Incarnation of God in our Lord Jesus Christ is a bodily action. He was physically risen from the dead.
In the same way the life of faith, the life of Worship, the life of being in the Spirit, of being Spiritual means to be part of organized religion, it means being part of other peoples lives, of committees, and sharing meals, and studying and praying and worshiping together.
That is what we rally for today, being spiritual is a physical act that we commit with other people, and that means signs up sheets and posters, and eating and dreaming together.
Wars are fought and won not just by soldiers and strategists, but mostly by the quarter masters, those who keep things organized, who make sure the supplies all get to where they need to be in time to be of use.
The life of faith can only succeed with a certain amount of shared organizing. Organized religion might be too optimistic a term for the semi chaos of community life, perhaps disorganized religion would be more accurate.
Imagine if Moses at the burning bush told God that he was spiritual but he wasn’t religious, that he didn’t believe in organized religion? The exodus wouldn’t have happened because it was supposedly not spiritual enough.
Being spiritual is a physical act, it is a team sport. Visit with one another, visit the ministry tables, sign up on some sign up sheets.
Today is a Moses moment. Don’t let it pass by.