It is not easy talking about the Exodus on the tenth anniversary of September 11.
The irony that an act of war and trauma is what this passage is about.
God is the Divine Warrior. This is a place where we can feel a little squeamish.
But it is true that the Scriptures present the picture of the universe as a war zone with the present Satanic empire being invaded by the rival kingdom of Jesus.
While a lot of the mainline churches have removed “onward Christian soldiers” preaching of struggle with the powers of darkness are left to the really “out there” folks.
It shouldn’t be like that.
If we shy away from talking about a devil, we are left talking about declaring war against mere concepts like evil or sin.
Where there are no demons we demonize.
And without a clear vision of the concrete forces we as the church are supposed to be aligned against, we find it very difficult to differentiate between enemy combatants and their hostages.
When we see that we are warring against principalities and powers / not the people who are aligned against us, we realize we can live at peace with outsiders-those with different understandings of truth.
God is concerned about these same powers in the Exodus passage.
Only the Devil is interested in enslaving another. And that is what the Egyptians were doing.
And the Lord was purposefully escalating the tension through-out this time.
YHWH was the one picking the fight.
Look at 15:3 The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name.
The Egyptians recognized it as they entered the Sea-v. 25 “Let us flee for the Lord is fighting for them against us.”
War in the ancient world was viewed as a sacred undertaking in which the HONOR of the deity was at stake.
The Lord of Hosts.
The warfare view is easy to overlook because of our cultural context (or think of OT)
Even the NT-kingdom of God is a warfare context, Jesus and exorcisms and miracles, storming the gates of hell and the “Christus Victor” view of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
If we desire to be biblical, most of us will need to do some research and become more comfortable with a significant revelation of God’s character: warring against the enemies of all things good and peace.
The Gospel at Ground Zero
The horrors of 9/11 were not unlike those of Good Friday.
Many good thoughts are from Russell Moore dean of school of theology for the Southern Baptist.
This weekend we cannot escape the images. And somehow we try to balance the horror with denial.
Without the blood and bones and explosions, September 11 becomes just an abstraction where we can deny the reality of the grim forces of evil and an Evil One.
Fascinating psychologists who says the dark fairy tales need to be told b/c children have nightmares.
Even children know at a primal level that there is something wild out there. And the stories help them make sense of the chaotic world and their often chaotic selves.
(teachable moment- when I wanted to be angry at son-but I had to teach him about sin in his heart-it is not just other people who are capable of being mean)
We are reminded of what scares us, of what could happen to us too.
And so it is with the Gospel.
Peter-consistently wanting to ignore the trauma
Jesus brings restoration to him-but also presses the trauma further. What Peter fears most-
The shame and torture of crucifixion is precisely what will happen.
Peter will have the kingdom he so longs for, but his immediate future is skull-shaped.
Even as we gather at the table
Even as we admit that we are sinners and deserve condemnation.
Censoring the gospel’s painful realities does not lead to tranquility.
Day of Judgment is coming even as we keep the fear submerged.
In the word of the Cross, God tells us he knows our traumas, our insurgencies our secrets-
AND that He has ALREADY executed them at Golgotha.
We need not fear hell-not b/c there isn’t one-but b/c we are found in Christ. We are free.
