Eastertide

April 21, 2014

Read Scripture: Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward…. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. Exodus 14:15; 21-22 

The whole world changed yesterday. Did you notice? Actually the drastic change came 2000+ years ago when Jesus Christ was resurrected and a new order of life began. We are a part of that change that is still as new and fresh today as it was then. The history of God is the history of new beginnings. Adam and Eve marked a new beginning, Noah marked a new beginning, Abraham marked a new beginning, and our story today describes the events of the new beginning among the Israelites who just yesterday walked away from oppression and today, along with us, walks into a great unknown. And God said, Tell the Israelites to go forward— 

The day after great happenings is often wrapped in a mix of emotions that range the entire gambit from being absolutely frozen in space to leaping around totally out of control.  How would we have each reacted the day after walking out of Egypt, away from the Pharaoh, had we been one of the Israelites? How would we have felt the day after the resurrection had we been one of Christ’s first followers, eye witnesses to a great mystery? 

Our call to go forward today is no less potent than the call was to those saints in their time and place. Our world is still in need of the wholeness, oneness, and justice of God, and we are the ones charged with living in and through and toward it. 

I have decided to continue these daily devotions for a while continuing the theme of wholeness, oneness, and justice and invite you to join me on the journey.

Prayer: This is a day of new beginnings in our service to you, O God, help us to move forward as you commanded. 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.