Sermon Summaries

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Dwell #9 -- Storms Approaching

Shortly before 3 p.m. on this rain-ish Tuesday. Lord knows we've needed it!! On the "homefront", the combined parties for my father and aunt, as well as a few other family members last week and this week*, went really well. Although there had only been 4 people confirmed on the FB event, there were 28 people and 1 dog present on Saturday. Among these, my parents, Carissa, and I got a wonderful surprise... My youngest, Jasmine, was there with her boyfriend, Bryan!! 🥰🥰 As it turned out, my aunt Peggy, who was hosting the event, was the only one who knew ahead of time, as Jasmine had messaged her on Friday evening. Things being what they've been this Summer, although Mike was here for a week last month, I've actually seen Jasmine more separate times in the last 3 months than him.

Speaking of My Love, he MIGHT be here again next week, but we'll have to see how things can coordinate with Carissa. Meanwhile, he has another round of MRIs tomorrow. Pray the scans show a clear path farther down than the inner cyst already goes. Also, pray that he can be scheduled for surgery soon. My poor man has been in pain since March. We both need for it to end, with successful results all around.

Yesterday, I had Rob up for lunch and a round of the trivia game called, "Eye Know". It's this game where you line cards up in 3 or 4 rows of 3 or 4 cards. There are 4 categories that are represented on a die, and on the cards, by pink, which is people, orange, which is general knowledge, blue, which is arts and culture, or green, which is nature. The second die indicates which of 3 questions will be asked, true/false, multiple choice, and straight answer. So, for example, if you rolled a pink and a 1, you would have to first, correctly identify the person pictured on the front of the card, then answer a true/false question about them. If you either roll a "wild", or there are no cards matching the color you rolled, you are free to choose whatever card you want and answer the corresponding question to the number die. The rules suggest that the first person with 5 cards, correctly identified and answered, wins. If a card is not correctly identified, play continues to the next player and the card is placed in a discard pile. When Rob and I play, it may end up with either one of us having more than 5. Just depends on how long we play. (I realize that you didn't really need to know all of that, but I just felt like sharing. LOL)

No other updates for now, so let's get to it, shall we??

When I was at Northlands Job Corps Center, back in 1990-92, the first room I was in was on the back corner of a dorm that sat on top of the hill, overlooking a large field. Vergennes, VT is just 2 towns away from Lake Champlain, which is to the west from there. If you were to look on google maps, you would see how big the lake is. It edges into Canada going north, and goes about half way down the western border of Vermont, ending about parallel with Rutland. You can just imagine the lake effect thunderstorms that come across!! And I had a perfect view, especially since my room had adjacent windows on two walls!! I would stay up for hours on a stormy night, just watching the lightning until I eventually fell asleep. I just LOVE the power and light show of a good storm!!

The other thought I had about this Message Intro. was from the Billy Joel album, Storm Front. The title track talks about an impending storm warning being known as "Mood Indigo". Our passage today could be spoken of in the same way.

Turn with me, if you will, to Exodus 12 --

Exodus 12:1-13

New International Version

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ²“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[^a^] for his family, one for each household. ⁴If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. ¹⁰Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹²“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

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As Pastor Matt started speaking from the platform Sunday morning, he began with the thought that, no matter where we are on our Spiritual Journey, from the youngest in age to the oldest, or from the Newest Believer to the one who has been Saved for decades, we all belong in the Family of God. He also mentioned how important it is for us to sit in the storm's impending danger as we study this passage.

He then proceeded with his own, more directly related, "Message Intro". He spoke of having grown up on the western shores of Lake Michigan, in a town called Grand Haven. One of his favorite spots as a teen was a place they call "5 Mile Hill". Not that it's a real hill, but for the fact that you can see for 5 miles across the lake when you're standing there. Because of that, it was easy to see storms approaching at some distance. You could literally see a wall of clouds on the horizon, and know something big was coming!! That being said, he explained that, although Michigan is part of the Mid-Western United States, they don't get much for tornados there. The dunes of sand on the shores are high enough so the air gets pushed up and over the area. He went on to say that, if you get over into Indiana and Illinois, you'll DEFINITELY see tornados!! (I've been through there on a train, just once, out and back. That area of the country is as flat as a piece of paper!!)*

As you can see from our Scripture above, today's message is about Passover. Although Pastor Matt didn't mention it, I have learned that this would have taken place in mid March to mid April.

Pastor Matt started into the main body of his sermon with our thought for the day, which was this -- "Sin, violence, and death devastate; but God's powerful love overcomes."

In outlining these themes, Pastor Matt brought them out in 3 points of reference.

Sin -- In the book of Exodus, slavery is the picture of sin. This is what happens when we reject God's life, love, and law. Those who choose to do so will do it in one of two ways. They will either smile, and say, "No thank you.", or they will raise a fist and reject Him in a show of power. Either way, these people are likely to explain to any who ask, that they feel God's rules are as arbitrary as those we might have made in childhood in order to keep our "edge of advantage" over others. Here, Pastor Matt used the example of a Club House, and who was or wasn't allowed entrance. Since he was wearing a blue plaid dress shirt and jeans, he made up a rule that, "Only those wearing jeans and plaid can come in.". Or maybe it was one of those, "No girls allowed" clubs. You get the idea... 😆😆
Violence -- In explaining God's actions regarding the Plagues, Pastor Matt told us that it wasn't so much about God actually CAUSING the trouble and chaos that resulted; but it was simply about the fact the He removed His hand from controlling it all. (We see evidence every day of how violent humans can get without God. Can you just imagine the devastation of Nature if He left it to it's own power around the world!!??)*
Death -- The final Plague of Egypt was Death of the Firstborn. This meant that EVERY SINGLE FAMILY would lose one person. From the lowest Egyptian servant to the Pharaoh's own household, there would be death.
At some point in our lives, we all become acutely aware of our mortality. As the "foolhardy" teen who climbs to the highest point in town to watch a storm roll in off the lake, we don't think twice. But as we get older, and see more people passing away, especially in our own families, it catches up to us that we're not going to live forever.* At this point, Pastor Matt mentioned that this week's podcast will dive deeper into our struggle with God's ways in moments like this.

The truth, as we've said before, is that we all participate in these destructive patterns at various times. This violence, whether it be verbal or physical, emotional or spiritual, brings the inevitable result of de-creation and death.*

In reading through our passage above, Pastor Matt emphasized verses 1-2. God is telling them to mark this moment as the determining factor of all that went before and all that would come after it. This is when the Jewish Calendar was officially started. (Likewise, for us today, we look back on the Birth of Christ as our dividing moment in History.)

By instituting the Passover, God was inviting the Israelites to orient their entire lives to Himself. As Pastor Matt phrased it, "This was their ctrl/alt/del moment.".

Next, God instructed them to take a one year old male lamb, in perfect condition, to be sacrificed and eaten as part of the Passover Meal.*His blood was then to be put on the door frames of Israelite homes. This is one of the points that may feel arbitrary and cruel to those who don't understand the cultural context here. To appease them (and us, especially the kids), Pastor Matt shared the fact that this was not about death, but about life. In the Ancient Hebrew tradition, blood was a symbol of life, as it is something we cannot live without. Therefore, in this way, God wasn't just "randomly" having them kill the cute little critters. Rather, He was inviting the Israelites into a place of New Life in Him. He was drawing them into His Plan. (We can see a parallel here in Jesus' Sacrifice and our own New Life of Salvation)

As we read through other details of the menu here, we find that the bitter herbs served as a symbol of the bitterness of slavery. The flat bread, and instructions of having their cloaks on and tucked was a sign that they needed to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. No time for the yeast to raise the dough, no time to linger over a good meal. The Death Angel could come through at any time, and they needed to prepare!!* This was, again, a special moment of New Life.

In verse 12, we find God confirming His authority in saying, "I am the Lord", or depending on translation, it may read, "I am Yahweh.". No matter how you phrase it, He is in control over ALL. In this instance, He was in charge of all who were affected by sin, and had the right to decide their consequences.

Finally, in verse 13, we find God's invitation and protection. The truth is that, while the violence of sin and death come in a storm of destruction, God can Save. Later, we discover that even some of the Egyptians ended up joining the Israelites before they left!!

In closing, Pastor Matt turned our attention to the Gospel of John, chapter one, verse 29. Here, John the Baptist is in the river, baptizing followers. He notices his cousin, Jesus, approaching, and calls out saying, "Look, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the World!!".

As mentioned above, the Passover Story directs our attention forward to Jesus, as do the Temple Sacrifices, seen later on, in the desert. Our denial of God doesn't diminish the destruction of sin, violence, and death. God overcomes it all. We participate in ways of dehumanizing others, holding on to unforgiveness, and lashing out in anger against those who offend us. Let's just pause a minute, as Pastor Matt had us do on Sunday morning, and think about any of the ways we might have behaved poorly in the past week. During this time, we read Psalm 51 out loud, as a group. For now, I'll just encourage you to read it as you think about your own weaknesses in recent days.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

One birthday in the mix is my cousin Holly, whose birthday is actually today!!
Back in October of 2016, I went out to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit my now ex-boyfriend, Jeremy. I joked on FB that the Midwest must have taken lessons from paper and pancakes on how to be flat!! 🤣🤣
As always, parentheticals are mine.
For me, the recent death of my younger cousin Jeff still stings.
The bit about various forms of violence is all mine.
While it is typically said that the Last Supper was a Passover meal, a careful reading of the full context shows that they were "getting READY" for the Passover. Therefore, whatever they had that evening was NOT an official Seder, although some of the items may have been the same.
The speed of the Passover meal is yet another parallel to Christianity. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is emphasizing the importance of being ready for His Return, because we don't know when it may come.