God on our Side
Published Monday, September 12, 2011
Exodus 14:19-31
September 11, 2011
“God on our Side”
I’ve spent too much time listening to stories about 9/11 this week, remembering the day ten years ago when our world changed completely. I have flashes of memory from that day—I remember hearing the events unfold on the radio as I drove, and looking at the faces of people in their cars, who were crying like I was; I remember holding Willem and worrying about what would happen next; I remember trying to call friends in Manhattan and getting no response; I remember finally getting the call from my friend in New York—and listening to her stories of the day, as she watched paper fall from the sky like ticker tape.
You are probably thinking about your own day—your own experience of 9/11. There are so many stories in this room about that day. Some of you who were teachers needed to calm your children down, even while you were worried and anxious. Some of you were students in middle school, high school or college. There are plenty of children here today who weren’t even born yet. Some of you were flying when other planes flew into buildings. A few of you were in New York and DC that day.
One of the questions we as Americans have asked in the ten years since September 11, 2001, is “Where was God in all this?” Perhaps you cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?” Perhaps you wondered to God, “how could you allow this—how could you allow 3,000 people die in such a terrible tragedy? Being Christian, or Mennonite or enlightened or educated—none of these factors can prevent these inevitable questions. On that terrifying day, we were all united in our questions, our concerns, our fears, our anger and our sadness.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you were asking some similar questions these last few weeks with apocalyptic weather we’ve experienced—an earthquake two weeks ago, followed by a hurricane which caused some flooding, followed by more rain, which has caused massive, destructive flooding in both Pennsylvania and New York. Where is God in all this flooding, especially when the rains are needed in Texas and Oklahoma.
Our text from the Hebrew scriptures today was always a favorite of mine growing up. God rescued God’s people—God parted the water for the Israelites, and they walked through the sea, with the water piled up on their left and their right. Those that were previously enslaved by the Egyptian people were now able to walk on dry land. God saved thousands of enslaved people and made them free.
It’s an incredible story. God made a way for God’s people when there was no way.
But when you get older, you read the story again, and begin to realize that this miraculous Sunday school story has a sinister side. While the enslaved are made free by God’s power and protection there are thousands of Egyptians that God has thrown into a panic, gotten their wheels stuck in Red Sea mud, and allowed to die. The scriptures read: “The waters covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.”
I remember speaking to the Palestinian representative from Christian Peacemaker Teams earlier this year when we hosted them here at church. He said that it is very hard to be a Palestinian Christian because the scriptures say such terrible things about his people. Even these scriptures—though they are thousands of years old—they leave a residue of suspicion and distrust for his people. It’s hard for his people to read the very texts that inspire and guide them.
The Christians of Egypt experience this same dilemma. This story makes it clear that God takes sides—specifically God takes the side of the people of Israel and NOT the side of the Egyptians. It is a challenge for the people of Egypt to read this story and not feel like the God of Israel is against them.
When I read this story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, especially as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approached, I started to feel a little less like the favored Israelites, and a little more like the drowning Egyptians. Particularly as I read this text this week while the water rose around us. At our house, and at many of your homes, it poured in through our chimneys, windows and walls, and leaked into our basement. The shop vacs and sump pumps were not enough to slow down the rising waters in our homes, or in the nearby rivers.
We Christians—American Christians—have always seen ourselves as the chosen ones. Our civil religion declares it to be so, as does much of the Christian theology out there. God is on our side. We are God’s chosen people. We are the ones that are carrying out the work of God. In President Obama’s inaugural speech, he referred to the “God given promise” that we are equal, free, and deserve a chance to pursue a measure of happiness. He invoked God’s blessing on this nation, invoked God’s grace on us.
We hear all kinds of things in our cultural language about God’s promises to this nation. God will take care of us, protect us, defend us. And yet…and yet, where was God on September 11th? Why was God not protecting us on that day? Was God on our side on the day that a handful of men flew planes into the Twin Towers, into the Pentagon, and nearly succeeded in sending another plane into the Capital building?
This is a question is one I ask of this Exodus story—God seems to be on the side of the Israelites—but what about the Egyptians? Doesn’t God care about them? Doesn’t God care about us?
Rabbi’s throughout time have struggled with this very question as they read this text. There is an Jewish old midrash—an old text study—that struggles with this same question. What about the Egyptian people that were killed that day. One Rabbi tells a story about the angels as they watched this event unfold. The angels saw the Hebrew people leaving Egypt and they danced and rejoiced. They saw the people come to the Red Sea, and they murmured and wondered what would happen next. They saw Moses part the Red Sea and they cheered. They rejoiced when every last Israelite made it to the other side. And when the waters came together again, and all those thousands of Egyptians were killed, the angels also celebrated with songs of joy. But, God stopped that celebration. God stomped God’s foot and said, “Angels, you are celebrating, but my people are drowning in the sea!”
This is a comforting account of God’s grief. And it’s a reminder of what we must remember about this story—this is a story of the work of God, but it is written by humans. It is written by people that need—that want—God to be on their side. But, God is bigger than that. And God does not take sides.
So if God does not take sides, where is God in all this? Where was God on September 11th? I have asked that question a lot in the last ten years. Especially when I have seen my New York friends suffer from the effects of the trauma. Where was God on this day of tremendous pain, fear, and unbelievable tragedy?
The best answer I’ve heard came from an interview Teri Gross did of a firefighter who was trapped in one of the towers, and survived. He said something like this, “You know it always makes me so mad when I hear people say that God must have been with you that day. Because it implies that God was not with my brothers who died. God was with my firefighting brothers who refused their captains orders to get out of the building—he refused to get out of the tower because there were people up on the 74th floor that had burns that needed his attention, and he was going to be with them until the end. God was with my brother on the 74th floor, as his took his last breath, and God was with me too.”
God was with the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea. God was with the Egyptians as the sea closed around them. God was with every terrified New Yorker on September 11th, every police officer and firefighter—whether they lived or died.
God was with those who lost their homes and property this week, and God was with those of us with leaky roofs and musty basements.
And—dare I say it—God was with those men that flew those planes into buildings ten years ago today.
There’s so much we do not know about God. We don’t understand why these tragedies happen. We question where God is in all this. We wonder if God cares about us. We wish God would be on our side. But God cannot be contained.
The only thing we know—I mean really, really know—is that God is here. God is with us. And God loves us.
As we remember the events from ten years ago. As we replay that awful day in our memories, we can see God’s presence among us. Even in the tragedy and fear. God was there.
As we remember the last few weeks of apocalyptic weather, we don’t understand it. We don’t know why we had 20 or more inches of rain in the last several weeks, and why Texas is burning for lack of water. But, we do know that God’s presence is with us.
And as we recall the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, we certainly don’t understand what seems like God’s favoritism at the expense of others. But, we know that God was there, grieving for the Egyptian people that were lost. God cares about each and every one of us.
Maybe that’s not enough information about God. But it’s what we have. And it is our hope on this day, September 11, 2011.
AMEN.
|