Gordon E. Ellis
August 21, 2005
IN DESPAIR LIE THE SEEDS OF NEW HOPE
We were sitting on a concrete soccer field (because they don’t have GRASS) in the barrio of Guasmo, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was what they loving refer to as “MEAT NIGHT” or the BAR-B-Q. In other words, we North Americans had bought a FEAST of MEAT, all different KINDS of meat, that these Ecuadorian POOR and we North Americans would barbecue and SHARE. And I’ll tell you: we had more MEAT there that night than these POOR folks from Ecuador see in an entire YEAR. And it was GREAT! EVERY family had brought out the chairs and the table from their homes. And they brought whatever GRILLS they had (OURS was a cut-off 55-gallon drum with a grill across the top). And they SET-UP all this furniture on that concrete SOCCER field & rummaged to find table cloths and enough plates and silverware. MUSIC was blaring! KIDS were running everywhere! People were DANCING and SINGING and LAUGHING! It was the PARTY of parties! And I THOUGHT to myself: THIS is just PERFECT! THIS is like the Kingdom of HEAVEN here on earth: with all colors and ages of people, Ecuadorians and U.S. citizens, the POOR and the RICH, and everyone PARTYING together, with PLENTY to EAT and DRINK! THIS is just BEAUTIFUL! And I was just SOAKING it all up! I wanted to SHOUT: FREEZE FRAME! Let’s FREEZE this MOMENT, with ALL its INTENSITY and all its LOVE and all its JOY, because THIS is the way the whole WORLD ought to live EVERY day! THIS is what the Hebrews call “SHALOM!” But of course, I KNEW that REALITY would SOON set in. Our PARTY would soon END. The RICH would fly HOME to all their luxuries and their little rows of houses and their finely-trimmed LAWNS, while the poor REMAIN in their SQUALOR, where SEWAGE ran in STREAMS on the side of the street. And I realized that WHAT I would recall most VIVIDLY of that BEAUTIFUL moment would NOT be the scene itself, but the AGONY of NOT being able to POSSESS it and LIVE in it!
You see: the words, And they lived HAPPILY ever after, are the words of FAIRY tales! And while we may believe in FAIRY tales as CHILDREN, there comes a POINT in ALL of our lives when we learn that THAT is NOT the way of the world. EVERY enchanted evening becomes a morning AFTER. And EVERY baby has to grow up. SOON you realize that that beautiful little BABY in your arms is not YOURS to possess, for even though THIS moment is about BONDING and building a relationship, inevitably it will be about LETTING GO and LOSING. Yes, ALL the things that MATTER in life are BITTERSWEET: love, beauty, ALL of it. And whether WE like it or NOT, that’s JUST the way life IS!
Well, the first few verses of EXODUS show us that the people whose STORY we READ about in Exodus LIVED in the SAME world that you and I know: a world where GLORY is FLEETING, a world where LOVE is intertwined with LOSS, but a world where, in final analysis, HOPE is triumphant – with the SEEDS of hope sown and nurtured in the most IMPROBABLE ways.
FIRST, in our Scripture Lesson, there is DISASTER. ONE verse, just a FEW words, accomplishes a 180-degree turn around in the story. It says: Now a NEW Pharaoh arose over Egypt, who did not KNOW Joseph. A NEW Pharaoh arose, who did not KNOW about the DREAMS. A NEW Pharaoh arose, who did not KNOW that it was JOSEPH whose inspired VISION and great administrative SKILL had gotten Egypt through those TERRIBLE years of FAMINE. A NEW Pharaoh arose, who did not UNDERSTAND that the people of Israel were all KINFOLK of this wonderful DREAMER, named Joseph. A NEW Pharaoh arose, a Pharaoh who regarded the Israelites as a THREAT! And when we feel THREATENED, what do we DO? Well, USUALLY we go after those who are DIFFERENT! We call them FOREIGNERS – or maybe ALIENS -- and we resolve to deal HARSHLY with them UNTIL our FEAR goes away. And in the case of ancient Egypt, their FEAR turned into OPPRESSION, until ULTIMATELY, they were killing MALE BABIES born among the Hebrews.
How QUICKLY fortunes CHANGE, don’t they? ALL it TAKES is a few WORDS. Maybe you’ve BEEN there. ALL it TAKES is: I want a DIVORCE! ALL it TAKES is: The company has decided to MAKE a CHANGE. ALL it TAKES is: Mom and dad, I’m PREGNANT! ALL it TAKES is: This is the police calling. We have your CHILD down here at the station. ALL it TAKES is: This is the HOSPITAL calling. There’s been an ACCIDENT. ALL it TAKES is: Your tests are back and I’m afraid I have some BAD news for you. And WHEN we HEAR words like these, we want to reply: HOW can this HAPPEN? After ALL these years and ALL that we’ve SHARED, HOW can you want a DIVORCE? OR: Don’t they REALIZE all that I’ve DONE for this company? HOW can they lay me off? OR: Didn’t we TALK to our kids about SEX? HOW can she be PREGNANT? OR: How could MY child be guilty of doing something like THAT? OR: WHY did this happen to ME: I’ve always taken such good CARE of myself? SURELY, there MUST be some MISTAKE? Yes, ALL it TAKES is a FEW words to CHANGE our fortunes and turn our LIVES upside down. ALL it TAKES is a PHARAOH, who did NOT know JOSEPH, and then, WHOLE majestic sweep of the book of Genesis, with its NICE, tidy ending, UNRAVELS before us. ALL it TAKES is a FEW words and our lives are totally UPENDED! Have you BEEN there? I’m SURE you have! We ALL have! And it’s SUCH a SCARY place to BE….
However, the One you want to WATCH in this story is NOT Pharaoh -- and it’s not MOSES either -- and it’s NOT the people of Israel. No, the One you want to WATCH in this story is GOD. You see: EVEN amidst the RUBBLE and the CHAOS, EVEN amidst the CONFUSION and the AGONY, the hand of God is ALREADY at work! There is a BABY in a BASKET, floating helplessly among the REEDS at the edge of the river. WHAT could be more IMPROBABLE than THIS: a seemingly HARMLESS Hebrew child, who will be RAISED in the household of PHARAOH, a little STOWAWAY on the SHIP of state? And ONLY when he is GROWN will he discover that the loving woman who NURSED him was his own MOTHER. ONLY when he has absorbed ALL there is to KNOW about being an Egyptian PRINCE will he discover that GOD has raised him UP to be an entirely DIFFERENT kind of leader. And only in TIME will people come to REALIZE that the hand of GOD was already at WORK, EVEN in that tiny BABY floating among the reeds.
And THROUGH Moses, the people of Israel will REDISCOVER the GOD who made a COVENANT with their forefathers, ABRAHAM, Isaac and JACOB. And MOSES will LEAD them from the EXHILARATION of their first taste of FREEDOM, through the PAIN and DESPAIR of being LOST in the wilderness of the desert, to the FULFILLMENT of becoming a PEOPLE of the COVENANT. And Moses will be their LAWGIVER! He will EMERGE as the most COMMANDING figure in the entire Hebrew Scripture. And with luck, he MAY even grow up to become CHARLTON Heston! Yes, in this little BABY, floating among the reeds, the hand of GOD is ALREADY at work. In the MIDST of DESPAIR lie the SEEDS of new HOPE!
And of ALL the WAYS that these precious STORIES in Scripture INFLUENCE our lives, more than anything ELSE, it is the HOPE in them that SUMMONS, and SHAPES, and ultimately DEFINES WHO we ARE as GOD’S people. WE are a people of HOPE! THAT’S why we worship on the FIRST day of the WEEK: because it’s the DAY of RESURRECTION! You see: at the very CORE of our LIFE together as Christians is our TESTIMONY to a GOD who takes DEAD ENDS and somehow FASHIONS them into NEW BEGINNINGS, and a God who takes CRUCIFIXIONS of EVERY kind, and somehow WEAVES them into NEW LIFE, into RESURRECTIONS! And therefore, EVEN when our lives feel UPENDED, turned UPSIDE DOWN, we need to remember that THAT is NOT a GOD-FORSAKEN place! Even when we feel as if we’ve been sent BACK to the BEGINNING of the BOARD, to SQUARE ONE -- when we’ve been so CLOSE to fulfillment or happiness -- we HAVE to remember that, even THERE, we are not ALONE! Even THERE, we are NOT separated from GOD. God is RIGHT there WITH us, FASHIONING a NEW beginning out of NOTHING. A BABY in a BASKET, floating among the reeds: WHO would have THOUGHT it? But then again, WHO would have thought of a BABY in a MANGER -- or a MAN dying HELPLESSLY on a CROSS? But even there, GOD was AT work!
Friends, EVEN at the WORST of times, EVEN when LIFE has FLIP-FLOPPED on us, the hand of GOD is at WORK. In the midst of our agony and despair LIE the SEEDS of new HOPE, for OUR God is a GOD of hope! OUR God is a God of NEW beginnings! OUR God is a GOD we can TRUST with our very LIVES! THAT is the SAVING truth of our faith! And THAT’S what will CARRY us through even the WORST of times! Thanks be to God that in the midst of DESPAIR lie the SEEDS of new HOPE. AMEN.