Sermon 9/13/20: Sing the Song of Freedom (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
Pr. Michelle Sevig
Lectionary 24a
September 13, 2020
Sing the Song of Freedom
The Easter Vigil is my favorite service of the church year! That should be no surprise to most of you who have experienced an Easter Vigil at Holy Trinity. If you’ve never experienced an Easter Vigil, the evening before Easter morning, then there are a few things to explain. We begin outside, then the assembly follows a pillar of fire (the paschal candle) into a darkened sanctuary. By candlelight we sing a prayer of thanks to God. And then comes the best part, as if sitting by a campfire with long-time friends, we tell ancient stories from scripture. Seven of them. That’s right, SEVEN stories from scripture that tell of God’s saving work throughout history.
At Holy Trinity we take some liberty in how we tell those stories. We don’t simply read them, we play with them. Telling the old stories in new and creative, sometimes even in humorous ways. We often read “only five,” but the one story that MUST always be proclaimed that night is today’s miraculous story from Exodus.
The Exodus or Crossing the Red Sea is a central story for Jews, Muslims and Christians that shows God’s power to liberate people and lead them to freedom. After the 10th and final plague in Egypt, when the angel of death passes over the homes of the Hebrew slaves, they are finally freed from Pharaoh’s grip. Moses and his people leave Egypt and head toward the promised land.
But soon after they leave, Pharaoh changes his mind and calls for an army of soldiers with horses and chariots to pursue them. The former slaves don’t get too far before they encounter the sea in front of them and Pharaoh's army coming close behind. These newly freed people of God find themselves trapped by dangerous waters in front and dangerous chariots behind. The way out is hidden; unclear. What will they do? Going back or going forward both seem like the way of death. Yet this story is about an exodus, a way out, which is exactly what exodus means.
We’ve all been there, in places where it seems like there's no way out.
· A job loss; where is the way out?
· A failed marriage; where is the way out?
· Cancer, illness, stroke, hemorrhage; where is the way out?
· A pandemic; Where is the way out?
· A broken system that for hundreds of years has prioritized one race over others; where is the way out?
In the verses just prior to our reading today, Moses tells the people,
“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and witness the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.”
“Witness the deliverance which the Lord will accomplish for you today;” in other words, just watch...God will provide a way out.
And God does. The land is dried up and they can walk safely toward the Promised Land. And Pharaoh's army is finally, once and for all, defeated.
The Exodus story is miraculous; and violent. It is victorious, but also deadly. It is the final act of liberation for the Israelites. But why is this story central to our story as Christians?
At the Vigil we don’t just read this story of liberation, we sing it. We clap and rejoice as if we’re Miriam and all of Israel rejoicing in the mighty act God has accomplished. A cantor sings the verses of scripture, then she invites us all to tell the story with her and sing about God’s triumph in a celebratory song.
“Sing a song of freedom.
God has won the victory.
Horse and chariot are cast into the sea!”
Israel’s exodus from slavery to freedom is not just a story to be remembered like a history lesson, another war story told by the victors. As the story is told around Jewish shabbat tables or at the Easter Vigil for Christians, The Exodus is happening now. We are being led by God’s pillar of fire to freedom and new life.
The word exodus also means “passage” and the Israelites passed from an old way of life to a new way of life as they crossed the sea on dry land. As Christians, we celebrate our exodus, or passage, from death to life in the sacrament of baptism. In Christian baptism, we claim that we go into the baptismal waters to die like Christ; die to our old selves, die to our oppressive agendas, and like the Egyptians we die in those waters. But we come out of the water into a new life. A life that mirrors Christ’s own. New life, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, would have us cling to the will of God, so that all people would flourish and have life in abundance, here and now.
Our exodus into new life is more than a photo op that helps us remember the day we gathered at the font around a dripping wet baby (though I really love holding those babies and desperately long for the day I get to do baptisms again). But our exodus from old to new, from death to life, is lived on and on each day as we continue to follow God’s call for the liberation of all people.
Passing through the Red Sea to freedom and passing through the waters of baptism to new life, promise a way out in the midst of crippling bondage. A way out when it seemed like there was none.
This Red Sea exodus story is about a people, a nation of slaves, liberated from oppression. And even though some say to keep politics out of religion, we can’t because politics has always been a part of life, even the Israelites a long time ago. This is a political story. Political because those in charge used the poor and disadvantaged for gain; political because when those at the bottom are used at the disposal of those at the top it shows how sinful our political systems are. One writer said that the African American community has connected with this exodus story so closely because, “God is on the side of the stateless, the homeless, the unarmed, the powerless, the marginalized, the oppressed.”
We who have been set free sing a song of freedom because God has won the victory for all. But as we sing our songs, can we hear the cries of God who weeps over the death of the oppressor? An old rabbinical tale speculates about what was happening in heaven as the miracle occurred--angels were rejoicing with shouts of joy, but God said, “No. Why are you singing when my creatures are drowning in the sea?”
In this Jewish interpretation of the exodus we see a God who frees the oppressed and weeps over the death of the oppressor.
We have all been set free to sing a song of freedom because God has won the victory for all. We worship a God--at the festive Easter Vigil, or in these ordinary, yet extraordinary times from our home--whose heart beats for the suffering and marginalized, but also extends to the influential and the privileged. By God’s grace alone, we are free to live a new life in Christ, reborn every day in God’s love and mercy for the world.
