Welcome
Thanks for joining us for worship. There are a few things coming up with our church, We’ve begun our Kids Zone meetings on Tuesdays at 3:45 and our youth meetings on Wednesdays. Next Sunday is an important congregational meeting at 7 p.m. You can come to the church parking lot or attend by zoom.
We are continuing our series “Things are different now.” Today’s scripture begins with the Hebrew people being slaves in Egypt and Moses saying to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” After the plagues, we arrive at the night of Passover.
Call to worship
In every age, God has spoken. Today, we seek to hear God’s call to us. In music, in spoken word, in the work of the spirit that speaks to our hearts. Come, Lord Jesus, fill this time and space with your love.
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
If you have concerns you would like shared with our prayer ministry, please reach out to us through Facebook or email.
For our prayer today, I invite you to to form your hands in a circle over your head.
Join me in prayer:
God who passes over, as we make our bed and as we cook our dinner, may our hearts and homes be marked in a way that is clear we are listening to You. May our loins be girded, our sandals on, and our staff in hand, ready to follow Your lead. In this time of crisis, where each day breaks news that breaks our hearts, may we let our hearts be broken open to our neighbors. In this time of danger and seeming scarcity, may we like the Israelites, share with our neighbors out of the abundance of what we have received, trusting in the generative work of the Great Deliverer and Provider.
Now church, bring that circle down to your belly button.
God who passes under like a submarine, sometimes too deep to show up on our radar, we ask for you to rise to the surface. Make yourself known. May the signal of “I AM” ring so faithfully that our hearts begin to beat to its rhythm in a prayer that is beyond words. Give us courage and steadiness as step into the great unknown before us, trusting in the Great Unknown beneath us that encircles us even as we are on the move.
Now church, put your hands over your heart in a posture of devotion.
And Holy One, we pray the prayer together that Jesus, our brother and redeemer gave us to hold onto:
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Children’s Message
Scripture
In the short space of seven days, we have moved from Moses hearing God speak through the burning bush on the edge of the wilderness; we have moved past the plagues; and landed at the Passover meal. Note that this 12th chapter of Exodus gives specific instructions on when to do this, who is included, how to prepare, and even what to wear. Pay attention, … this is a life and death matter.
Exodus 12:1-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.
If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
This is the word of God, for all the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Sermon
This, then, is the beginning of fast food: Don’t cut up the lamb, do it all at twilight, and eat it immediately. Eat with your coat on, wearing your hat, with the staff in one hand. In the fine print it says, “make sure everyone gets some French fries, and don’t skimp on the special sauce.” There’s an urgency about this meal from the selection of the lamb, to making sure your neighbor is sitting with you.
This is one of the pivotal moments in our history. It is monumental in its impact on our lives, even today. I know you hear me say things like that often. That something is my favorite verse, or this is important stuff, … but I really do mean it. Even the author means it.
“You shall count this month as the first month.” This is a new start; A reset in their story. This is a fixed point of origin, a radical reorienting of time. I think of the ancestors, the grandparents of the faith, from this point on, … beginning their stories with a far off gaze, and these words, … “When we left Egypt.”
Say that to yourself, “When we left Egypt.” Obviously, not everyone has physically visited the pyramids. But we all have those Egypt moments, when we were stuck, felt abandoned, discouraged, and even depressed. Can you think of a time that was true for you? Maybe you are there right now and the only thing you can hope for is a Passover moment when you can say, … “When we left Egypt…”
When we left Egypt …
It was the beginning of our journey with God. Sure, we knew stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, how God worked through our ancestors, but when WE left Egypt, That was when God became real to us.
Much of ministry is trying to make the Bible come alive for people. I remember during faith development class, taking red paint, … washable red paint, and letting the children take turns painting the door posts with “the blood of the lamb.” It was so profound. We left it there for several weeks. Every time they passed through that doorway, they remembered the act and the symbolism of that act. When we talked about Jesus, as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; whose blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins, they had an immediate connection. If you were here today, maybe I would have done that for you.
When we left Egypt …
We learned to trust in God. No compass, no google maps. From the moment of that meal, our lives were in God’s hands. Our whole existence was based on how much we would follow God’s commandments, God’s guidance, God’s provenance.
When we left Egypt…
We didn’t look back. Sandals on our feet. Remember how different this is from removing your sandals because this is holy ground. We are leaving in a hurry. You won’t have time to stop and put them on. Walking-stick in hand … and here’s the part every mother hates. … scarf it down like you are late to the party. “Alan, chew your food 100 times before you swallow.” “Alan, slow down, you weren’t raised in a barn.” “Alan, you can’t go back outside to play until you’ve finished everything on your plate.” I hear my mother almost every time I eat.
When we left Egypt …
We left the bad experiences. We were ready to get out of there; ready to put Cairo and Memphis in our rear view mirrors; Like so much dust to shake from our sandals. When we left Egypt, we left everything. The past had passed.
But, when we left Egypt …
We left our homes, our furniture, our clothes. We left the familiar. We left the security and stability of a life we had built with our bare hands. Maybe that’s the wisdom of eating in a hurry with just the clothes on our backs. We couldn’t linger any longer with what we cherished. Leaving Egypt just got a whole lot harder for some of us.
But when we left Egypt …
It was a new day. We were ready for whatever God had in store for us. Free from the literal shackles and free from the emotional ones. Each morning was a new adventure in trusting God and learning to see God’s purpose in our lives. Once we left the clutter of Egypt, some things became much more clear.
When we left Egypt …
Maybe that phrase isn’t comfortable to you. Maybe your phrase is “When I became a Christian …”
The meaning is the same. Christ called the disciples to leave their nets; their livelihood; their families. Christ called them to leave what was familiar; what was comfortable. In essence, Jesus calls us to count all our possessions as nothing compared to the love of God. Everything we own, everything we are, all our relationships are reordered as we come into God’s presence, or as we allow God’s spirit to enter us. We count Jesus as Lord of our whole lives. All our being is wrapped up in who God is calling us to be and do.
Leaving behind the things that weigh us down., … that’s the way Paul wrote to the Philippians: “Forgetting what lies behind, I press on toward the goal that is Christ Jesus, (Philippians 3:13-14).
Crossing a threshold that is rooted in the love of God. Filling that void of what we left, with the presence of Christ. Learning to trust this new relationship. Leaning into the wind of God’s spirit. It’s a new start, it’s the reorienting of our personal calendars. I used to be a little jealous of the people who could point to the exact day and time they became a Christian. It’s like they have a spiritual birthday. And that wasn’t my experience. But today, today can be that day for you. It can be a recognition that God loves you with a love that has no boundaries.
When we left Egypt, … we started living, really living, in the new realm of God’s possibilities.
Communion
Sharing our Resources
Gini and I led a funeral yesterday, and one of the recurring themes was how much the church meant to the family. Baptisms, grandson and granddad on the same day. Weddings, … more than one for one person, … and now several funerals. Faith in God was rooted in that place for that family. They connected to God especially there.
I know that is true for many of you in this congregation. And through your gifts you make those experiences possible for the next generation as well.
There are several ways for you to give to this ministry. They are listed in the comments. And just to remind you. We continue to do ministry during the pandemic. We are grateful for all your contributions.
Benediction
It’s hard to do an altar call by social media. But if you’d like to join us as a member of this church, put something in the comments, or email the church and we will be in touch with you. We’d love to be your faith family and walk this new road out of Egypt with you.
Imagine you have a backpack on, over one shoulder or maybe both. Maybe you have a favorite walking stick or cane to steady your gait. And we pray: Lord, we are ready to follow your lead. As you guide us into unknown places, help us lean into the wind of your spirit, and trust you more fully every day.