I have a devotional book that follows the Revised Common Lectionary cycle – the same cycle that Pastor Tim and I have been following in our preaching since the beginning of Advent. This devotional book takes one of the week’s texts each day and offers a reflection, and opportunity to respond (usually a question of some sort that might prompt a journal entry or maybe just give you something to think about during the day), and a prayer.
Today’s text is Exodus 19:2-8a.
2 They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
And today’s reflection consisted of three questions that “confront us” from this text, one of which was this: “If we wax eloquent about the ways we are carried by the wings of God, do we acknowledge that those wings carry us not only to vistas of splendor but also to points of great need?”
Over and over again I am amazed at how the Holy Spirit works in and through the lectionary texts. Almost always, it seems that there in something in them that is so fitting for the times you would think that it had been selected specifically for that day in time.
In this passage from Exodus, the Lord reminds the Israelites that they might “wax eloquent about the ways [they have been] carried by the wings of God.” The wings of God have carried them out of Egypt, out of bondage, and into freedom. The wings of God have been their protectors through their wandering.
But, God tells them, that is not the end. This is not a one-sided relationship. Israel is to be for God “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” There are some requirements that come along with their ‘choseness,’ not in exchange for God’s protection and provision, but in thanksgiving for it.
To this the Israelites respond, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Their response to being carried on eagle’s wings is a commitment to God’s larger purpose in the world – a commitment to respond to God’s care and protection by getting their hands dirty and carrying out God’s mission in the world. Their response is an open-ended commitment to ‘be about’ (to borrow some phrasing from my sermon on Sunday) whatever God is about from that day on.
The question that today’s devotion asks is whether or not we continue to make that same commitment, as people of God who easily lift up the ways that God has been faithful to us. Do we, in equal measure, pay attention when the wings of God carry us to uncomfortable situations where we have the opportunity to turn and run or respond to God’s loving care by committing to being a part of God’s larger purpose in the world?
Friends, the wings of God have carried us to a “point of great need” in our country. Will we turn and run? Will we shrink back and hide until the dust settles? Or will we commit ourselves, as people of God, to getting our hands dirty, to speaking out, to risking our comfort to carry out God’s mission in the world?
Prayer:
I am both comforted and challenged by your wings, O God. Amen.
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