This Sunday we start the series on "Exodus From Empire" at University Temple (1415 43rd Street NE) The story opens with these words: “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” At the start of Exodus, the Hebrews are not yet slaves. They are foreigners who have prospered, and having prospered they have made their home in this new “promised land” where there is no famine, only potential and possibility. Like our own national myth the immigrants have come to Egypt seeking security and safety from the storms of life. Although they have come from “there”, they are now “here” and this is their homeland. But Pharaoh fears them. Pharaoh sees them as a threat that must be controlled and squashed if necessary. The Hebrews are the descendants of Joseph who found great favor and awesome wealth in this new land of Egypt. Joseph, you might remember, was the great dream interpreter who became an earlier Pharaoh’s right hand man saving the nation from the consequences of a global famine. He was also the guy in charge who enslaved the poor to Pharaoh through the economic policies of wealth distribution resulting in Pharaoh’s seizure of the livestock, land and labor of the people. But since Joseph saved them from hunger, this policy was overlooked in historical memory. Because he saved them from hunger he was thought of as a hero. But Joseph was long dead and a new Pharaoh rises who doesn’t have the memory of Joseph’s loyalty. Politically it might be like those who have lost their memory of what our economy used to look like before FDR’s reforms. The memory of an unregulated commerce that knew no checks and balances, that could abuse labor and pollute the land, control legislation and use the military for the purposes of the market. It might be like those who have lost their memory that we were conceived as a Republic not an empire, a democracy, not a plutocracy, a country without a standing army not a militarized full spectrum dominant force over all the earth, and throughout the skies, and increasingly inside our homes and our minds and our privacy. A king arose who knew not Joseph is a warning sign that political, public change is on the way. But Exodus is not scripture because it only contains political memory. It is scripture because it is also a parable, a story about spiritual memory; a story that is about both the exterior political world and the story of the spiritual inner world. A king arose who knew not Joseph sets the stage for a transformative spiritual journey that promises us liberation from the Pharaoh who is inside us. Exodus is also a story about what happens when the inner Pharaoh forgets where we come from, and who we really are. Spiritually speaking we are re-presenters of God in human form. Through us God becomes all in all … that is, the loving benevolence and creativity of God is everywhere present and is present within each one of us. But we sometimes forget that. We sometimes become afraid and set out to sabotage and destroy the image and memory of who we really are.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 18:40:30 +0000
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