When I began my study for this week’s sermon, I wanted to take a look at the epic movie The Ten Commandments. I have to confess that I’ve never watched this old classic before, and I wondered how the studios of Hollywood would depict the scene of the parting of the Red Sea. Since the public library’s version was out, I had to settle for a clip on YouTube. It starts with the Israelites and Moses trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea. Then after the pillar of fire separated the two camps, Charlton Heston, as Moses said in his deep, resonant voice “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Then, as if moved by an invisible zipper, the sea separated gradually and left the ground dry. And so the people passed through.
When Israel had nearly made it, the pillar of fire left the Egyptians and they started chasing after their enemies through the dry seabed. As the last Hebrew family reached the other side, one person turned and shrieked at the sight of the army in pursuit. Moses turned around and said, “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us; Behold his mighty hands!” And the zipper was pulled up again and the sea came together, covering the horses, chariots and Egyptian soldiers.
The YouTube clip stops there, but Exodus itself gives me a pretty good picture of the next scene. Imagine the camera sweeping the shoreline as you hear these words again. “The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained…Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” And the Israelites sing in the next chapter, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”
A glorious triumph. In some ways this story is so very familiar to us. Bad guy chases good guy into a tight spot, but in the end the good guy prevails. Just think of Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Popeye and Bluto, Indiana Jones and the Nazi’s, Superman and Lex Luthor, Batman and the Joker, 007 and the KGB. As long as we can identify with the good guy, we are entertained by the story line and laugh or cheer when the enemy gets what is coming to him.
But this morning I’m inviting you to take another look at this Bible story. Look at that scene at the end. A whole army of dead bodies, washed up on the shore. It raises a whole lot of questions for me and I’d like you to ponder them with me for a while.
First think about the power of the waters of scripture. A flood destroyed the whole earth except for those floating in Noah’s ark. The Red sea kills a whole army. No wonder Jesus’ disciples panicked when they were caught at sea during a storm. In other ancient religions the sea is a god who represents chaos, death and destruction. Such power is presented to us daily this time of year as we keep track of hurricanes Ike and Hannah and remember the devastating results of Katrina and the Christmas Tsunami of 2006. Does our loving God really use the sea as a weapon of destruction? And how can we tell when God is punishing people, from times when innocent victims are just swept away, or worse when victims are created by human systems of social injustice. Remember the Israelites had just escaped from Pharaoh’s policy of drowning every boy child in the Nile.
In Exodus God tames the sea long enough for the Israelites to escape, but then lets it come crashing down on the whole Egyptian army. Though we are clearly supposed to cheer at salvation for the Israelites and ruin and destruction for the Egyptians, I think about how the families of the soldiers must have mourned when they heard the news that their boys wouldn’t be coming home. I hear the news that America is much more reluctant to help the citizens of Cuba (still our enemy) from Hurricane Ike, than we are to help citizens of Haiti. And clearly we are giving far more attention and resources to the much wealthier people of Texas than we give to any of our neighbors. Do stories like the Red Sea help to contribute to this injustice? Somehow, the glorious triumph is tarnished, I have trouble singing to the Lord when I think of all the dead riders and horses along the sea.
As I continued to ponder, I remembered the work of Walter Wink called Engaging the Powers and I began to re-read it. It’s a dense scholarly book of over 300 pages with tiny print and many foot notes. His argument is complicated but he addresses my questions and agrees that there is something wrong when a scene of death and destruction is called a glorious victory for God. For Christians who believe that the One who created the universe loves it and sent Jesus to save it, the idea that the same God is responsible for the dead Egyptian soldiers on the seashore is problematic.
Walter Wink proposes that the perspective that good guys beating bad guys with violence is normal, is actually part of an evil domination system, often referred to in scripture as the “world.” This worldly view of life includes fictional stories like Tom and Jerry, Batman and the Penguin as well as the histories most commonly recorded were cowboys kill the savage Indians, the Union army beats the Confederate Army, and the Nazi’s were defeated by the Allied forces.
And the biggest problem with the domination system is that the violence is perpetual. Think again of Tom and Jerry, or Indiana Jones. The “indestructible good guy is unalterably opposed to an irreformable and equally indestructible bad guy. Nothing can kill the good guy, though for the first three-quarters of [any story] he suffers grievously, appearing hopelessly trapped, until somehow the hero breaks free, vanquishes the villain, and restores order until the next [time]. Nothing finally destroys the bad guy or prevents his reapparance, whether he is soundly trounced, jailed, drowned, or shot into outer space.” Another feature Wink brings to our attention is that in this drama of redemptive violence there is no real change or growth, no discipleship. “No premium is put on reasoning, persuasion, negotiation, or diplomacy.” “Repentance and confession are…alien” Wink quotes the final episode of the old spy thriller “Get Smart” when “the villain [is] tricked by a loaded cigarette and blown off a cliff to his death on the rocks below. Agent 99 watches in horror, then comments, ‘You know, Max, sometimes I think we’re no better than they are, the way we murder and kill and destroy people.’ To which Smart retorts, ‘Why, 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that’s good in the world.”
While Wink’s argument is carefully documented, and I find it persuasive, I admit that Wink moves into contested ground by claiming that God’s order, which is domination free, stands opposed to the domination system we all know so well. From this perspective Christ’s reign of the universe is domination free, non-violent, self-sacrificing so powerful that it sealed a new covenant in which God requires no more human sacrifice to accomplish the work of salvation.
There is not time in one sermon to fully deal with these complex ideas, so I plan to come back to this theme again as we move through Exodus over the next few weeks. But one idea I offer for you to ponder, according to Wink’s line of thought, is that we must read the stories of the Old Testament differently than we read the stories of the New. The blueprints for Christ’s domination-free order can be found most clearly in the Gospels and among the early followers of Christ. When the world runs according to the way God ordered it through Christ then power is used to give, support and nurture life, to seek win-win situations. Equality and partnership are lifted up, exploitation and greed are replaced with sharing and sufficiency. The image of a jealous, wrathful, punishing God is replaced by Christ who is both loving and judging, compassionate and severe, merciful and demanding. Thus the good news of the New Testament directly challenges the idea that Exodus 14 depicts a glorious victory.
While many stories of the Old Testament seem to promote a domination system where God chooses the side of Israel, we can also see many places in the Old Testament where God’s domination free order shines through. Look at creation where the entire universe came into being, not through battle, or struggle or death as other ancient cultures believed, but through God’s strong and peaceful word. “Let there be light! And it was so.” We remembered five strong non-violent women when we first started reading Exodus a few weeks ago. Shiphra and Puah, Moses’ mother, sister Miriam and the Pharaoh’s own daughter committed acts of civil disobedience in order to preserve live. Even the story of crossing of the red sea makes clear that the Israelites were not saved by their own might. They did not fight the Egyptian army in any way, but trusted fully in God who protected them.
The church names the issue I’m asking us to consider here Salvation or Redemption. It is the question of how God saves God’s people and it also has become a question of which people God will save. Some people read the Bible and see evidence that God chooses to save some, but not others. God saves the Israelites, by killing the Egyptians soldiers. God saves those who have faith, but condemns others to outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many Christians, like John Calvin have read the Bible and been convinced that God decided at the beginning of time who would be saved, and who would be damned. This is called pre-destination.
But other Christians, including Methodists, read the scriptures and see in it the love of God and the hope of salvation for all the world. They see how Christ passed through this violent world in a non-violent way, embracing especially those whom the world had condemned. They hold fast to the promise that all who come to faith, all who learn God’s way of love can be saved, and that God’s compassionate heart is yearning to save all of creation. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” In this view the glorious victory of God is shown in the image of all of creation gathered in peace around the throne of Christ singing our praises, “Holy, holy, holy!” and worshipping our loving God with joy and abiding love.
I’m sure by now you can see my own bias. I am a pacifist, and I am deeply concerned about these matters. But I don’t expect everyone to stand where I do. I only hope that my reflections will lead you to reflect some more on your understanding of Jesus Christ and his work of salvation, and that you will share your perspective with me. Let us pray…
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