Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

Pentecost +11 or Community Practice ¹¹
August 24, 2014

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

Consider Ferguson, MO in the news today. You can substitute any conflictual situation if you are still uncomfortable facing the realities of endemic racism. Eventually, though, all these breaking relationship based on one criterion or another will be seen as the same issue.

Here The New Revised Standard Version names our malady, "Dread".

Our friends at Merriam-Webster helpfully define Dread as:

1 a :  to fear greatly
   b archaic :  to regard with awe

If we move from the archaic to the present we see a shift away from trust in steadfast love. The King James translation affirms that we are to fear G*D, to regard G*D with awe. Now, without the awe of having mercy visited upon us regardless of our deserving, we turn an abundance of mercy into a lack of it and fear one another, fear greatly.

This is helpful in that it gives us a clearer place to stand to begin the Pentecostal work of sharing wonders openly on the street rather than sharing fear in a locked room. What is the cultural dread that keeps both brutal and silent killing (both physical and spiritual violence) rolling on without ever being surfaced and dealt with? Where we had abundance we now have scarcity. What revisioning needs to go on in your community?