Pentecost 18A NL2
October 1, 2023
Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN
Exodus 1.8-2.10; 3.1-15
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. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Exodus 2.23-24)
I was eating lunch with other interim pastors when the young woman approached our table. “Pastor Olson, do you remember me?” As I panicked a bit she revealed her name, Carwyn. Had she given me a few seconds more I would have indeed remembered her because I not only taught her in Confirmation but her older sister and brother as well. Not to mention I officiated at her sister’s wedding and the baptism of her sister’s first child. Besides, Carwyn hadn’t changed all that much. After inquiring about her and her family, she had to finish lunch and get back to her work. As I sat down, a colleague said, “Don’t you just hate that?” Actually no, because I was grateful she remembered me.
In the midst of their suffering, the Israelites in Egypt wondered if God had forgotten them. Much has happened since our text from last week when Jacob wrestled with God at the Jabbok River, getting a blessing and new name in the process. He reconciled with his brother, Esau, finally returned home, and had a twelfth son, Benjamin.
But it’s the 11th son, Joseph, who the rest of Genesis focuses on. Out of jealousy, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery down in Egypt where he ultimately rises to power as Pharaoh's right-hand man. Through dream interpretation, he helps prepare Egypt for seven years of famine. The famine results in his whole family moving to Egypt where they are welcomed and given a home. That is, until a king arises that doesn’t remember Joseph and becomes afraid of the Israelites and their ever-growing numbers.
God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We don’t know how long the Israelites were groaning before “God remembered,” but we do know it was at least as long as it took Moses to be born, grow up, and spend years in exile in the desert. It seems as if God has forgotten God’s promises to the Israelites, but the Hebrew indicates that it may be more that God’s attention wandered. To the groaning Israelites, there is not much distinction. Regardless, the situation now has God’s full attention because Moses is ready for God to act through him. And this time, unlike last week, God is prepared to disclose who God is: “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
In that statement, God not only discloses something of God’s self, God tells them they aren’t forgotten. God isn’t some Johnny-come-lately who happens to show up and claim to be their God at the last moment. God not only always has been, always is, and always will be, this is the same God who has always been with their ancestors, beginning with the promise made to Abraham, repeated to Isaac and Jacob. All evidence to the contrary, God has been paying attention, working to re-member them.
Though none of us has had to endure generations of slavery like the Israelites, there are times in the midst of our suffering when we wonder if God has abandoned us or even if God exists. In a book published after her death, Mother Teresa of Calcutta admitted to enduring a “dark night of the soul” for years, even decades. And with conversations with some of you, you wonder how much more trauma Our Savior’s can endure. The good news is that those promises made the Israelites continue to be ours through Jesus Christ.
The Exodus, God’s deliverance of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land will become a seminal and defining event. It will also become a prominent theme at Jesus’ Last Supper as Jesus becomes the Passover lamb who is sacrificed and whose blood sets us free from bondage to sin, death, and the devil. But through it all is the remembering, as Jesus admonishes us in the Lord’s Supper to “Do this in remembrance of me.” It’s important to know that this is a special kind of remembering, where Jesus is not merely brought to mind but rather is made present in a very real and tangible way, his very body and blood taken into our very selves.
In this meal we’ll be receiving soon, we’ll not only remember God’s saving acts that assure us that God has not forgotten, but we’ll also be re-membered, that is, put back together and made whole. “Do you remember me, God?” “Oh, my child,” God says, “more than you can possibly know. How can I ever forget someone who I claimed in baptism, marked with the cross of my Son? But so that you can remember that I remember, here is a piece of me to hold onto. For I am the God of your ancestors who will be with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Thanks be to God. Amen.
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