wpc

A Day That Changed the World

Exodus 14:21-31

The Reverend Chris Adams

September11, 2011

If you were alive on December 7, 1941 you remember that day.  Chances are you even remember what you were doing when you heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.  It was the day when everything changed.  It was the day when the United States had no choice but to enter the war that up until that time was everywhere else but here.  Do you remember that day?

If you were alive November 22, 1963 you remember that day too.  Again, chances are you even remember what you were doing and who you were with when you heard that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Texas.  Though not as widely understood, I would suggest it was also a day when everything changed.  It was the end of the limitless optimism and confidence in our society that had been created at the end of World War II.  Up to that point, people believed in a different kind of America, an idealistic America maybe.  Do you remember that day?

Finally, if you were alive ten years ago today you remember that day.  It too has been described as a day that changed the world. 

I was at home in Camden SC, taking some time away from the office to finish a kitchen renovation. I was up to my armpits in sawdust and cabinets when the phone rang.

It was the mother of one of Kayley’s friends.  Her voice was shaking as she told me that she was watching television, home alone and just had to call and tell somebody what she had just seen.  As I spoke with her, I made my way to the living room and turned on the television myself.  I didn’t have to search for a channel.  It was on every channel.

I turned the television on just in time to witness the second airplane hit the south tower.  It was 9:03 AM.  I remember the news anchor declaring that it was no longer possible that this was just an accident.  It was something else.

Do you remember that day? Of course you do.  That’s what these days share in common.  Each of them, each tragic in their own way, each involving violence, each of these days are remembered by those that lived through them.

We remember them because they changed things.  We remember them because of the innocent lives lost.  We remember them because of their impact on the innocence in our own lives. There were many of us that cried real tears and sobbed deeply as we came to understand what had happened on that day, September 11th, ten years ago.

Friends, there are many that might claim that it was a day (as my sermon title might suggest) that changed the world.  I have even considered the other days, Pearl Harbor, and the assassination of President Kennedy as days that changed the world. It could be argued of course that they did.

In fact, they would be added to a list of days, a list of days from previous generations, and previous periods in history, that might share the same status.  What about the day the Civil War started or the stock market crashed in the early 20th century?  How about the day Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door at Wittenberg chapel? The day Columbus discovered America? What about July 4th, 1776? How about the day the Magna Charta was signed in Britain or William Shakespeare was born?

We don’t remember those days because we weren’t around.  But all of these days would clearly be days we might suggest changed the world. There are lots of these kinds of lists. A quick search on Google reveals hundreds of lists of moments that changed the world.

But what is the day?  What could we say was the event in the history of the world that changed the world?  If you took all those lists and boiled them down to one day, what would that day be?

Some would argue right away, the birth of Jesus Christ.  I can’t... no I won’t argue with that.  Perhaps that is the day that changed theworld.  I’ll go along with that.  That’s truth.

But I want to argue this morning for just a few minutes avery close second.  I want to suggest that another day in the history of the world was almost as important, in fact the birth of Jesus Christ really doesn’t even happen unless there is this day.

It’s the day our scripture lesson points us to.  It’s that day!  The day when Moses stands upon a rock and parts the Red Sea and God delivers the Israelites from Pharaoh.

You see up until that day, God was known perhaps to only a handful of people.  God was a strange, unknown to most, kind of God heard only in the stories of legend.  People like Noah, Abraham, and Jacob were in touch with God, but not more than that.

In fact, there is evidence in scripture that during the time the Israelites are living in slavery under the power of the Egyptians, people virtually forgot about God.  It’s hard toimagine God is present when so much of your life is so hard.  People just forgot God.

But then my friends, God shows up... big time!  The joy of being delivered is in danger of being run down literally by hoofs and chariot wheels.  The army of violence and power is bearing down on the Israelites there in the desert. This could be one of those days of tragedy and loss, people must have imagined.

But then God comes ripping into history and declares that power and violence don’t stand a chance against the God of creation.  The Israelites are delivered and would from that day on be known as God’s people. God would stand with them and deliver them from oppression.

Most scholars believe that this is the day when faith in God is born.  This is the day when a people, a nation, come to believe that God is alive and that God is the deliverer.  Moses would go back and write down the stories of the ancestors and remember the presence of God from their past, but this is the moment in history when God’s presence is understood.

That’s why I say this is perhaps the day that changed the world forever.  This is the day when God shows up and identifies with those in need of being delivered.  This is the day when God demonstrates that there is no power capable of overwhelming God. The greatest superpower of the age, the Egyptians and Pharaoh, literally wreck themselves trying to fight against God.

Sometimes people see this story as harsh and even a little dangerous to preach on a day like today. They imagine that people might identify too much with a story that tells of bodies being washed up on the shore of the Red Sea.  They might think that God chooses sides in political struggle and wonder why God didn’t choose our side.  People have asked that question.  Why didn’t God choose our side and protect innocent lives?

Friends, I do believe God chooses a side, but it’s God’s side.  It’s not ours and it’s not theirs.  Salvation belongs to the Lord.  We opened today with the reminder from Paul that if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so if we live or if we die, we belong to the Lord.  That’s God’s side.  God stands with the innocence and goodness of creation.  Since God is the creator of all things, everything belongs to God. That’s God’s side, everything!

You see, we get pretty bold in ourselves when we begin to suggest that the events of our world, our choosing of sides and our events in history change the world.  As a preacher and a teacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, grounded in the story of God with God’s people, I want to remind us today that only God truly changes the world.  Only God!

That’s not to say that the things that happen to us aren’t important.  They are.  It’s not to say that we don’t mourn at tragedy on a day like today, or on any other day of tragedy, especially when violence against the innocent shakes us to our core.  That’s important stuff to remember.

But we also ought to remember on a day like today, that God is still in charge even on days like that, and days like this.  Because God shows up, especially on days like that, and declares that power and violence do not win.  God wins! Even on days like that, God wins!

How do we know?  We remember!  We remember all the things that demonstrate that God was still present even as people wrecked the creation that belongs to God.  Even as bodies washed up on the banks of the Red Sea, people remembered that God was present.  Even as we lost so many innocent lives, we remember that God was present.

God was present in the fire fighters and the police officers that rushed toward a burning building when everybody else was rushing away.

God was present as the buildings fell and people picked one another up in the ash and the smoke and helped one another to safety.  We have all heard those stories and seen those pictures again this week.

And I believe God was even present in those that were lost.  Especially in those that were lost.  We remember that God was with them too.

A group of coworkers and friends were making their way down the steps of one of the towers desperately trying to get to safety.  They encountered a person sitting at one level, and because she was obese, she could not continue even down the stairs but had to rest.  They didn’t know that person but one of the men of their group, a man they all loved very much, insisted that someone had to stay with that woman.  They just couldn’t leave her behind.  So he sat down with her and waited for help to arrive, while the others continued.

They never saw him again. His final act of kindness and compassion towards another person in need cost him his life.  What his friends loved about him took him from them. 

Friends, people that are not of our faith don’t understand things like that.  They recoil at the unfairness of such a thing.  “How could you believe in a God like that?” they ask, a God that would allow something so tragic, so unfair.  But you see, we remember...

We remember that God has always stood against power and violence.  God is the deliverer and chooses the side of the innocent and the weak. We remember the day that changed the world, that day thousands of years ago when God showed up and declared what God is all about.  God’s side is the innocent, the goodness of creation, and the meek and the humble.

So perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us when God shows up in the heart of a man that won’t leave someone behind, even if it means his own death.  Isn’t that what God is all about?  Isn’t that the God we believe in?  A God that would come to earth, live and even die on a cross, without forsaking any of us; isn’t that the God we remember?

Today is a day to remember. But let’s be sure we know what to remember.  We are Americans, we are citizens of our nation that lived through tragic events ten years ago, and we remember that devasating loss. 

But let’s also remember that we are also citizens of another nation.  As citizens of that nation, the Kingdom of God, we remember who we belong to and what God is about.  Even on days of tragedy and loss, God is present. God shows up and delivers. God, the God of the whole world and the whole of creation, is present in everything and all things.   So we hold onto those little moments of God’s presence, those God moments that can even bring us joy in the midst of tragedy.

We remember.  Let’s remember together what God has done for us and for the whole of creation.  Let’s remember!

Amen.