Exodus 12:1-14

Pentecost +17 – Year A

Exodus 12:1-14

Have you marked a first month for the rest of your life? Not only do we remember the first month the Israelite community, we are now in Ramadan begun again. These are lunar holidays, not solar. Their perpetualness is enhanced by the peripatetic nature of a maddening moon going its own way, marching contrary to the regularity of evenings and mornings. The moveable nature of these months makes intentionality all the more important. We have to plan more for them. They interrupt all our other plans.

What are you to do when a whole nation and its power is against you? Clarify the needed change and affirm your basis of authority. Say, "No." Say, "Let people go." Say, "Past, Present, and Future Life is calling."

Let us continue to be about the business of loosing (never again slavery) and binding (ritual to remember loosing).

To best be about this business of setting people free, attention to the realities of beginnings is important. A danger of ritualizing beginnings is that the on-the-ground pain is covered in a patina of glory. The whole Exodus story goes back to a Pharaoh who forgot. We need rituals that help us remember the whole story and not just a dramatic moment.

In election times there are a lot of attempts to define the starting place from whence we can arrive at a solution being offered. Pay attention to political theatre to see if you agree with their assessment of the issues. Who best gets the "set people free" bumper-sticker? Note that it usually has something to do with the reigning economic paradigm. Pharaoh wanted to continue being on the top of his wealth gap over others, even if that meant their enslavement to the economy of his day. My current assessment is that John McCain best fits the Pharaoh model and Barack Obama better sees the disaster coming and how best to deal with it. This is not a pronouncement, but an attempt to remember our history and actually apply it to the issues of the day. How do you see your situation in light of your history?