Living in the Spirit
September 1, 2014
Scripture Reading: Exodus 12:1-14
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. — Exodus 12:11
Feel the energy in the air? Moses came, he confronted Pharaoh, and plagues descended on Egypt with the final plague arriving tonight. Tomorrow will bring freedom. We must be ready. After four hundred years of living in slavery, the Israelites will walk out of Egypt from oppression to the awesome adventure of freedom. The Bible does not say but I wonder if some did not go. If some preferred to remain in the oppression they knew rather than step out in faith to the freedom about which they had not a clue. Well, I guess Moses had a clue. His escape to Midian had given him a taste of what was possible. One man with a vision can make a difference. One man with a vision sent by God can change the world.
While attending a meeting in Atlanta recently, I toured the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. I was amazed at the emotions that washed over me as I walked by display after display recounting history of which I had been a very small part. I remembered standing with my fellow students dressed in the mandatory slacks and dresses, all clean and neat, singing Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World while George Wallace in his run for President campaigned where I lived and ranting, waved his hands at us calling us long-haired hippies out to ruin the world. I flashed back to the sounds of explosions in the night, in the distance following the death of Dr. King. And I remembered Curtis Mayfield’s words in a song popular at the time:
People get ready, there’s a train a-comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.
The oppression we face in the USA today have changed some, mostly marked by greed and thirst for power. Israel’s prophets would have called it idolatry. No matter what we call it, people are hurting as a result of it. Are we going to get on the train?
In 2012, 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States—the largest number in the 54 years the Census has measured poverty www.nclej.org/poverty-in-the-us.php
“The finding that over 400 million children live in extreme poverty and children are more likely to be poor than adults is disturbing, since this can exacerbate child labor and create inter-generational poverty traps,” said Kaushik Basu, World Bank Chief Economist and Sr. Vice President, “Hence, if we want to make a sustainable dent on global poverty, this is where we need to focus our attention.” http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/10/10/report-finds-400-million-children-living-extreme-poverty
Prayer: Enable our justice making, O Lord. Amen
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.