Sermon Details

“Death to the Enemy?”



A sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church Exeter, by the Minister, Rev Andrew Sails,

 

Exodus 12:13 “I will pass over you.

 

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt”



We left Moses 2 weeks ago as an infant in a basket on the Nile.

Since then he has grown into a man blessed by God, and used as a great leader to confront

Pharaoh and free his oppressed people from violent and oppressive rule.

In today’s lectionary reading the Children of Israel are about to gain their freedom from the tyrant Pharaoh - and we read of what is to happen to their former oppressors, the Egyptian people.

God says “I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt." (v 12).  He will kill the first-born of every Egyptian family, adults and children, even including the firstborn of Egyptian livestock.

The Israelites are to sacrifice a lamb and daub the blood on their doorposts - they will then be spared - passed over - but all the Egyptian households will be struck. This indeed happens and we read (v30) ‘there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead’

And so the Israelites are able to take gold and silver from their former masters - v36

says “they plundered the Egyptians” before heading for the desert en route for the promised

Land.

Let me ask you to hold onto that story for a moment - keep it in your mind as you listen to a piece from the Washington Post dated a week last Friday (26 August) from Tripoli.

You may like to compare the two stories.

The Washington Post piece begins describing some of the atrocities perpetrated by troops loyal to Col Gaddafi. Then it goes on as follows:

“But Gaddafi loyalists were also targets of apparent extrajudicial killings. Those deaths have cast a dark shadow over Libya’s newfound freedom and call into question whether the rebels will break with Gaddafi’s blood-soaked style of governance or merely mimic it.

“...In the wreckage of a Tripoli fire station and field hospital on Friday, five fighters loyal to Gaddafi lay in agony and blood, apparently left to die by their vanquishers. They had been without food, water or medical attention for two days.  Rebel fighters patrolling the compound knew the men were there, but scarcely seemed to care.

‘We would take them to the hospital, but there are no hospitals,’ said Salah Mansoor, a law school graduate and shopkeeper dressed in a Liverpool soccer shirt. ‘There are no cars to take them,’ he added, as a taxi cruised by.”

Anyone who has read of the atrocities of the Gaddafi regime will be glad that his rule is over

- but what a tragedy if the oppressed who have gained their freedom simply become the new oppressors as they indulge in vengeance and retaliation.

But the story from the paper and the story from the Scripture are so similar. For the enslaved Children of Israel read the downtrodden Libyan rebels. For the dungeons of Pharaoh read the interrogation cells of Gaddafi. The story is repeated.

In both cases we rejoice that the oppressed and downtrodden have been liberated and restored.



But what of the violence of vengeance when (in both cases) we read of the oppressed becoming the oppressors.   Can that ever be justified in God’s name?

As far as the author of the Book of Exodus is concerned - yes it can - the reprisals and violence against their defeated rulers of Egypt are sanctioned - indeed actually carried out - by God himself.

Is that what it really means to “march in the light of God”? The answer is No.

The writer of Exodus got so much right - he knew that God is against evil and that for the victims of evil - however dark things get, however often you are told to make bricks without straw, God’s love and power will always be there to pull you out of Egypt,

out of the pit, out of the fire - our God is faithful and in him all will be well.

That is why the Book of Exodus is such a stirring story which continues to burn in our hearts and encourage us.

But the author of Exodus still had things to learn - especially he needs to learn that God is actually the God of our enemies as well as of our friends.

We are not called to revenge on our adversaries and captors - unless we count repaying them with love - like hot coals on their heads.

The Exodus story has a key place in salvation history - but our faith is ultimately located not in the Exodus but in the Cross.

Christ is of course often seen as a new Moses - especially in Matthew- and for both Moses and Christ the Passover is a key point in their story - a point in time where God’s power and deliverance are experienced and celebrated.

But the difference is this - In the story of Moses, God is still the one who ultimately wields the knife -it is Egyptian blood which is shed.

In the story of Jesus, God is ultimately the one who suffers - for Christ goes to the cross at Passover time in Jerusalem but he goes as a lamb to the slaughter - the Passover Lamb - now it is Christ’s blood which is shed

Here is the ultimate good news of the Gospel - God loves us all with such infinite depth and faithfulness, with such willingness to sacrifice all - that the powers of evil have no weapons to defeat him.

We of course may be tempted to turn on our enemies and when given the upper hand, give them what they deserve - but when we do that we have thrown away the very weapons which Christ has used to save us - the weapons of love and self sacrifice.

Daniel Clendemann commenting on the story of the killing of the Egyptian first born, says this: “Somewhere deep within the human psyche there seems to reside a dark and primitive impulse

toward hatred, exclusion, and deadly violence. Perhaps to justify ourselves, or to calm our deep insecurity, we insist that God not only sanctions our hatreds and our causes, whether



personal or national, but that He himself hates our enemies and at some points in history even exterminates them.

But when God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be confident that you have created Him in your own petty & paltry image.”

Next Sunday is the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 -ten years in which not a few Christians have tried

to turn a human tragedy into a new crusade of Christians against Muslims. We should not seek to enrol our God in our tribal vendettas in this way.

● I hope you will be able to join the peace march from the Mosque next Sunday evening

- as those of all faiths and none make common cause in affirming the need for peace.

● And I hope you can come here on this Tuesday evening to hear those from both sides of the Middle East Conflict present “Combatants for Peace”

Our Gospel reading today really says it all - quite simply “Love your enemies” - don’t just love your buddies - whilst putting the knife in the Egyptian children.

The passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount - here Jesus (the new Moses) makes it crystal clear that we must move beyond the good but still limited demands of the Jewish law and take on something much more revolutionary - the way of the cross,

the way of the sacrificial lamb,the way of love for all God’s children, even those who hurt &

enslave and yes, crucify us - for it is the power of love which overcomes the power of evil. So let me leave you today with two quotes -

● from the German Pastor Martin Niemoeller, who protested fearlessly against the policies of Hitler’s 3rd Reich.  He was eventually arrested, then imprisoned at Sachsenhausen

and Dachau from 1937 to 1945. Neimoller once said: "It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not even the enemy of His enemies."

● and then from Mahatma Ghandi, who said (in words which remain as true for modern Tripoli as they were for ancient Egypt and for Colonial India):  “It may be that rivers of blood will have to flow before we are free, but it must be our blood, not the blood of others.  Suffering is a much stronger force than the law of the jungle; for suffering can transform our opponents too.”

So let us rejoice that in Christ the cosmic battle against the forces of evil is won - and in his name we shall prevail against the very gates of hell and be brought safe home cross Jordan.

And then let us take up our cross, and all the armoury of loving self sacrifice, and so may we march to victory in the love and the light of God!

Order of Service

4 Sept 2011  10.30 a.m. 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Sunday of the new Methodist Year



Service of Holy Communion led by Rev Andrew Sails

Welcome and Notices

Opening Song led by Young People

(congregation remains seated to sing - words on the screen):

"Siyahamba - We are marching in the light of God" Prayer

(Young People leave)

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14 (p.68) Matthew 5:43-48 (p.970)

Hymn HAP 8 “How shall I sing”   (Tune Coe Fen)

Sermon:  “Death to the enemy?”

Hymn “Lord for the years” (see screen)

Prayers and Lord’s Prayer

The Peace

[Young Church and Korean Congregation enter]

Hymn “We Meet as Friends at Table” (see screen)

(The collection will be taken during the singing of this hymn) Holy Communion [The congregation remains standing.] Minister:   Lift up your Hearts.

All: We lift them to the Lord.

Minister:   Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

All: It is right to give him thanks and praise.

Minister: All glory be given to you, O Father, who created us as one human race, one family upon earth. Father we give you thanks for all your love for us throughout history, and especially for the gift of your Son, living our life, walking alongside us in our pain and sorrow, freeing us from the bondage of sin and death and bringing us into the glorious freedom of the children of God. So with all our sisters and brothers in this world, and in the world to come, we join with the angelic choir as we sing:

All: 거룩 거룩 거룩하신 주 전능하신 하나님

(sing) 거룩 거룩 거룩하신 주 전능하신 하나님

어제도 계셨고 오늘도 계시며   이제 곧 오실 거룩하신 주

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord; holy is the Lord God almighty! Holy, holy, holy is the Lord; holy is the Lord God almighty!

Who was, and is, and is to come! Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!

Minister: On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, he gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying “Take, eat, this is my body.  Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup; he gave thanks and gave it to them saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the new Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Hear us, O Christ, and breathe your Spirit upon us and upon this bread and wine.   May they become for us your body, vibrant with your life, healing, renewing and making us whole.   And as the bread and wine which

we now eat and drink are changed into us, may we be changed again into you, bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh, loving and caring in the world.

Look, the Body of Christ is broken for the life of the world.

Congregation sits to sing:

Bread is blessed and broken wine is blessed and poured: take this and remember

Christ the Lord.

Know yourself forgiven, find yourself restored, meet a friend for ever -

Christ the Lord.

Distribution of Bread and Wine.

All are invited to receive bread and wine.   Please come forward when the steward indicates.   Should you wish to receive a blessing only, simply come forward to the rail, but do not hold out your hand for bread & wine.

All: We thank you Lord, that you have fed us in this sacrament, united us with Christ, and given us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet prepared for all people.  Amen.

Hymn HAP 300 “Father of everlasting grace”  (Tune Stamford)

Blessing