Scripture: Exodus 2: 11-25
Sermon: Rebel Without a ….Community
Topics: Identity, Community, Moses
Preached: September 23, 2018 am Woodlawn CRC
Mike Abma
EXODUS 2: 11-25
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?’ 14He answered, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’ 15When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. 16The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defence and watered their flock. 18When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’19They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ 20He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ 21Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.’
23 After 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.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION — SCENE ONE
I remember when the animated movie The Prince of Egypt came out in late 1998.
If you remember, that movie is basically a retelling of the story of Exodus.
Back in 1998, I remember seeing a preview of that movie. It pictured Moses as this spoiled Egyptian brat, and I thought to myself, “Hey, I know the Bible. Moses wasn’t Egyptian. He was Israelite.” But then I looked more closely at the Biblical text, and I realized that, no, Moses was in fact raised as an Egyptian.
That is why, when he eventually flees to Midian,
the daughters of Reuel
identify Moses as an Egyptian,
not an Israelite.
That is why, centuries later, when Stephen is preaching his sermon in Acts 7,
he makes the point that Moses was
“instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”
So at the beginning of our text,
when we read that, “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out…”
we need to remember that Moses went out into the world
looking like an Egyptian
and sounding like an Egyptian.
On the outside, Moses was an Egyptian.
But on the inside, Moses identified as an Israelite.
On the outside he looked like one of the oppressors.
But on the inside, Moses sided with the oppressed.
That is why,
when Moses sees an Egyptian
beating an Israelite,
Moses sees that Israelite as one of his own people.
Moses is moved.
Moses is enraged.
Back to that 1998 movie, Prince of Egypt for just a moment.
That movie may have gotten Moses’ Egyptian identity right,
but it gets this scene,
this altercation with the Egyptian task-master,
all wrong.
This movie shows Moses shoving the taskmaster away from the helpless victim.
The taskmaster,
who is high up on some scaffolding,
loses his balance and falls to his death.
The movie makes it look like an accident.
But that is NOT how our Biblical text portrays it.
This was no accident.
We are told that Moses “looks this way and looks that way.”
Then he attacked this Egyptian oppressor.
Seeing that Moses looked like an Egyptian,
the taskmaster was probably taken by surprise,
not knowing exactly what or who hit him.
But Moses knew what he had done.
And he hides the dead body in the sand.
Like many so-called freedom fighters throughout history,
Moses probably thought that he did what he had to do,
given that his people had been oppressed for so long.
THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY
Moses struggled with the question, Who Am I?
He ended up identifying with the oppressed over the oppressors.
According to an op-ed by the New York Times columnist, David Brooks,
that is where a lot of people build their identity these days.[1]
They see the world as divided between
the oppressed and the oppressors
and they almost always identify with the oppressed.
They are the victims of this oppression.
Even if people are rich and powerful,
privileged and part of an elite,
people will still find a way to identify themselves as the oppressed.
And they will spend their lives raging against all those
they see as their oppressors.
They justify whatever harsh thing they say,
or even cruel thing they do
because they, and their kind,
have been oppressed long enough.
Moses raged with this kind of rage.
Moses acted out of the all-too easy perspective
that the world is divided between the oppressed and the oppressors,
between the good guys and the bad guys.
What Moses failed to realize,
and what many of us fail to realize,
is that the line between good and evil
runs smack dab through the middle
of every single heart.
SCENE TWO — REJECTED
Let’s move on to scene Two.
It is the next day,
and Moses again goes out,
probably feeling more Israelite than he has felt in a long time.
Feeling perhaps that he is ready to make a difference in the world
and a difference for his people.
He sees another fight,
this time between two Israelites.
This time he tries to stop a fight rather than begin one.
He challenges the one who is the bully:
“Hey, why are you striking your Hebrew brother like that?”
This is when Moses receives a terrible shock.
This Egyptian on the outside/Israelite on the inside
is told
“Who made you ruler and judge over us?”
BAM. What a sick burn.
Rejected by the very people you thought you belonged to.
But then came a second shocker – a line that drained Moses of all his moral authority:
“Do you mean to kill me as you killed that Egyptian?”
BUSTED.
Suddenly Moses was in No-Man’s Land:
Moses himself had rejected his Egyptian identity.
But now here was someone that should have been his brother,
and he was rejecting Moses’ Israelite identity.
Where did that leave Moses?
Not an Egyptian.
But not an Israelite either.
Moses was in No-Man’s land:
a person on the run
with no people
and no community,
and no idea what he was supposed to do with his life.
Is it any wonder that even after he lands in Midian —
which, ironically, to this day we really know where Midian was –
when Moses is in Midian
he declares that he is simply a “stranger in a strange land.’
That is where we leave Moses for now.
Leading a middle-class life
raising a family,
herding sheep,
both literally and figuratively “out to pasture.”
Oh, Moses had tried to make a difference.
He had tried to fight for justice.
But he had failed miserably.
Now he was done.
OUT TO PASTURE
I sort of think many of us in the church live in Midian.
Perhaps at one time we wanted to do a BIG thing for Christ.
Perhaps at one time we were ready to make a BIG difference in the world.
Perhaps some of us even thought of ourselves as
radicals,
revolutionaries,
ready to stand with the oppressed.
Perhaps we even tell stories of the days
we marched in the streets for civil rights
or protested for peace.
But hey, we’ve been there.
We’ve done that.
We’re out to pasture now.
Whatever buzz there was, has now turned to burnout.
Whatever zeal there was, has now turned to disenchantment.
The problems of the world are just too big.
The poor we will always have with us.
The oppressed we will always have with us.
Injustice we will always have with us.
We perhaps tried to make a difference,
a long time ago in a land far, far away,
but now,
it is time to settle down,
to simply go about our business,
of raising a family
and making a living.
Our story and Moses’ story
could so easily end right there:
Living in Midian,
Living a middle class life,
Living with all the memories of trying to make a difference
and failing.
Of accepting our present identity:
we are out to pasture now just trying to get by.
CONCLUSION
The story does not end here because there is another character.
There is One Other character in this story
who has not been mentioned yet.
Like Moses,
this character
also listens to the cries of the oppressed.
And he listens with compassion.
Like Moses,
this character
also knows he is connected to these hurting people —
He remembers his covenantal ties with them.
Like Moses
this character
also takes notice of their suffering.
But here is the BIG difference.
This character does NOT move away from the suffering.
This character moves toward the suffering.
And that move makes all the difference.
What is our Identity?
What is our Community?
We are people of this God.
We are a community formed by His cross.
That is why
We are people who always steer toward the pain,
We steer toward the injustice,
We steer toward both the oppressed
And the oppressors,
We steer toward both those who are hurt,
And those who have done the hurting,
We steer toward those trapped in this world’s injustice,
and those trapped in perpetuating this world’s injustice,
And we give them ALL —
both the victims and the victimizers —
the message of Jesus:
“My love I give to you.
My freedom I offer to you.”
AMEN
PRAYER
Mighty God,
Who lifts those who are oppressed
Who watches over those who are homeless
Who upholds those who are lonely
Who sets free those who are imprisoned,
Come to us and to our world now
With the love, the amazing love,
Of your Son, our Lord,
We pray.
AMEN
-
David Brooks, “Retreat to Tribalism,” in NYT, Jan. 1, 2018. ↑
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