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Exodus, Mana & Change. How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb? Change the light bulb? Don’t be ridiculous, my grandmother gave us that light bulb! Change. As individuals, as a society and especially as a faith community we are always facing the prospect of change. At present we here at HT are right in the throes of a very significant process of change. However, no matter who we are, we all seem to have a love/ hate relationship with change. On the one hand we acknowledge that change is part of life, that it is necessary and in fact good for us while on the other hand we are fearful of it, find it threatening and something in us wants to resist it. There appears to be a rough pattern to all the changes we experience in our lives. There is an ending, an in-between period and a new beginning. We see this pattern in nature for example in the late summer planting of daffodil bulbs which lie dormant in the winter earth and then emerge with new buds in the spring. In the case of butterflies we observe the demise of the caterpillar as it weaves itself into a cocoon and from it emerges new life in the butterfly. So we see a pattern in transformation of let go, let be and let grow. The Biblical text is full of stories about changes that follow this pattern, Jesus leaves his old life in Nazareth behind, goes into the desert and re-emerges to take up his new public ministry. Similarly we watch in agony as he dies to his old life on the cross, goes into the tomb and emerges resurrected to new life at Easter. Let go, let be , let grow. The Exodus story is the archetypal story about transformation: Let go, let be and let grow. The people of God leave Egypt after Moses’ pleas to ‘let my people go’, they go into the wilderness and then after an interim period of 40 years, begin a new life in Canaan, the Promised Land. We can learn much about managing change in our own lives from this story. Firstly it is important to remember that Egypt was once a place of salvation for the Israelites. They had come there during terrible famine through the efforts of Joseph and there they had found food and prosperity. However, over the years it had become a stuck place, a place of enslavement, a place of death. It became clear that they needed to move on and so God called Moses to mediate that need. God was calling his people to a new place, a new life, a new identity and a new relationship with him and to find all of those things they had to leave Egypt. So every hello begins with a goodbye and every beginning starts with an ending. Last week we saw them farewell Egypt as they crossed the Red Sea and moved into the desert. The desert or wilderness seems to be a very important place for them to be. Important enough to remain there for 40 years! Here they grieve for the life they have left behind. Here they find out what God wants them to do. They are given God’s law and his direction. Here they wait like a long winter, hibernating, reflecting, disengaging from their ties with Egypt, dis-identifying with their status as slaves and re-orientating themselves as the chosen people. It is fitting that this happens in the desert, for this is not a pretty process. We see the people of Israel in the Sinai Desert/ also known as the desert of Sin, at their worst, their most winey and windgey as they try to get their heads around the enormity of the changes that are happening to them as a people. “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!” We see them clinging to the old attachments, and struggling to submit to the new possibilities their journey offers them. What fascinates me is how patient God is with them in the desert. Moses loses patience but God seems to have endless patience with them. Is it because he understands that this ugly place is a necessary part of the process of change, of regeneration, of being born to new life? So it is with us when we leave the old behind we wrestle with our grief and struggle to find ourselves in the new place before we can move on. It is important that we do this in order to fully embrace the new place, the new growth and the new possibilities that are on offer for us. Our contemporary society does not help us much with this process. Everything in our day seems to start instantly with a key or a switch. One minute something is off and the next it is on. There is no intermission. Talk about my own frustration with my computer taking so long to boot up. So it is that when relationships break up, or people leave their jobs or one experiences a traumatic event, there is often an expectation that one should instantly launch into a new relationship, a new job, a new adventure without taking the time to reflect on what has gone before, to integrate and disengage from what has gone before. At worst we forget about the need for a transition time, at best we undervalue its importance. One of the difficulties of being in transition in the modern world is that we have lost our appreciation for this gap, this pause, this place of inactivity in a world that values and promotes busyness in all its forms. But we do so at our peril for it is here where we will find the time for a new sense of self to gestate. We must neither rescue ourselves nor try to rescue others from this process for it is here that we will gain new perspectives and find new resources both spiritual and emotional for the new place we are going to in our thinking and our lives. The question remains though: How do we journey through this untidy wilderness place of transition, of limbo, of trying to understand? It would seem that during the time the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God frequently encouraged them to trust him to provide for their daily needs. He encouraged them to live one day at a time trusting him for all they would need to get through that day. The daily supply of manna and quail was representative of this. He sent them nourishment but only enough for one day at a time. “At twilight you will eat meat and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” God’s leading and presence was unfailingly with his people during this wilderness experience and that is true for us also. As we grapple with ourselves during our limbo periods between what was and what will be, between the old and familiar and the new and unfamiliar, God calls us to trust in his provision and steadfast presence to guide us like a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. He promises to guide us through this often painful journey of uncertainty, of letting go and of figuring out the directions to the new place. Because of his promise we can take steps of faith confident that there is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, that God will use friends, mentors and circumstances, just as he used Moses and Aaron and the challenges of the desert to lead us to a new and fuller experience of what it means to be alive in Him. I wonder what changes some of you may be experiencing in your lives. Some of these changes may be of your own choosing and some are being imposed upon you I am sure. You may be relocating, changing jobs, ending relationships, making lifestyle changes. Who knows? The Exodus story reminds us of the importance of the gap between the old life and the new life. You will know what might be the stuck place in your life at this time. The Egypt in your life, the place of enslavement, or stagnation, or pain from which you need to move. Perhaps God is calling you to leave and go to somewhere new? Who will be the Moses in your life who will support you in your journey? Know that God will provide for you and support you through the place of transition. As you say goodbye to the old and prepare for the new, take your time over it and trust in His leading and care. And when it is time to cross the Jordan, go boldly into the promised land, the new place knowing that he is with you there also. Let go, let be and let grow. |
