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It’s hard to know exactly how to dive into this passage, and to share the things that I have taken from it, so allow me to start with a question…
Has one place or experience ever reminded you of another?
For weeks now, as I have watched the news, talked with friends and colleagues, and just generally paid attention to the world around me, and I have been reminded of the story of Moses and Pharaoh. The connections and similarities between today and that moment in scripture seem to pop up everywhere for me lately. The two primary figures, Moses, the man demanding justice from an unjust system, and Pharaoh, the elite powerful, privileged man, seeking to preserve the society, and traditions that have made his life so easy, seem to almost directly correlate to us today, to the masses of poor, oppressed, and mistreated people and their allys, seeking justice, and equality, or even just respect, from the wealthy elite, whose comparably easy lives have been built on the divide between them. Race, age, gender, sexuality, class, education, geography, religion, we separate along any lines we can find, often with one group profiting while the other group suffers… look at our history, our nation is built on this very pattern.
Over the next two weeks I want to learn what we can from Moses and Pharaoh, because we are them now! Both of them. This week I want to focus on Pharaoh his hardened heart!
I know Cindy described this a few weeks ago, but this current moment of protest, and the demand for equality, it is so important, and I recognize that it needs to happen… and there are so many other issues bubbling, from the corona virus, to the future of the church, to the future of our planet, its making me tired, I know I’m not alone in feeling tired, because my social media feeds have gone from overflowing with news and commentary on the issue of racial justice, to a trickle, and no that’s not the central point of this sermon, but being tired the way that I am, that’s making me nervous. When I say tired the way that I am, I’m tired in a very specific kind of way. Maybe some of you can relate… I was on the wrestling team in 8th and 9th grade, and it was all around a tough sport. Practices were long, and the coach pushed hard, you came in, you got in line, and you moved nonstop until practice ended, but honestly those two hours of perpetual motion were easy compared to the actual meets. Right now, I am tired like I was after leaving the mat at a meet. For lots of sports, basketball, soccer, even football, you push hard, and you get tired, but unlike wrestling, in football you can stop for a second, heck its even part of the game, in soccer, you can pause, or wait, even a breath, and the same goes for basketball, and don’t get me started on baseball, but when you are actually wrestling, you can’t stop, not just because you wouldn’t make progress if you stopped, but if you stop in a wrestling match, you will lose ground, because there is no ball between you and the opponent, there is no puck, no racket, no net, there is just bodies, and your very bodies are the object of the game. Our bodies are the object of this moment, black bodies, brown bodies, indigenous bodies, rich bodies, poor bodies, Queer bodies, Trans bodies, even white bodies, until all bodies have equal freedoms, safety, and opportunity, then the match continues, and we cannot stop! And we are not there, too many bodies do not have what so many of us do, so we have a long way to go! If we stop, we won’t simply pause, but what progress we have made could be lost. And I am tired, and that makes me nervous. Because when you’re tired like this, it’s so easy to harden your heart!
In this morning’s passage, we read how Pharaoh hardened his heart when Moses and Aaron relented and called off the frogs. He did what so many of us do when given the chance, he looked out for number one, he stopped thinking of others, though I wouldn’t say he ever really was thinking of others, and he thought only about what ensured the easiest future for himself, he rescinded those concessions that he had made, allowing the Jews to make sacrifices to their God, and things returned to the way they were before. This pattern is another way that this story reminds me of our current moment. How many laws and motions, and statements have been made by people in power after periods of social unrest and demands for equality and justice have become more than the government can tolerate, and how quickly have things swung back to old ways when the pressure of public action was removed. Maybe most famously in recent history was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it promised to outlaw discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or nation of origin, it promised equal access to public places, jobs, and the vote, yet in the years since discrimination on the basis of all those factors and more has continued.
I wonder if you can name any injustices carried out or permitted by the government that promised to outlaw those discriminations, overtly, or covertly just within the last 4 years?
This is why I am tired, this is why I am afraid if the pressure for change is removed, or stopped, will I harden my heart and think only of myself, whether that means actively walking back any progresses we have made, or inactively doing so by failing to speak up?
This isn’t the only reason I am afraid of a hardened heart though, there is at least one more way that I am afraid I might harden my heart, and I am more afraid of this one. For me part of this recent call for justice and equality has been, and needs to be a rational, non-anxious voice, one that firmly, unbendingly pursues that justice that our nation and our world so desperately need, without forgetting that both sides are human. I am so tired that I am afraid I will harden my heart and stop listening to those I don’t agree with. That I will plow forward in my pursuit of justice, and trample anyone who cannot keep up or change to my point of view. If this pursuit fails to recognize the humanity of both sides, then people will be alienated, walls will be erected, and progress will stop, or worse, it will be undone.
I had the opportunity several years ago to help a small church go through its ONA process. The process was slow, and there were a number of different perspectives and opinions, fears and offenses, and honestly, I was unsure how to accept those that opposed becoming an ONA congregation, and I was tired then too. The process kind of stalled for me, because I was unable to see how to navigate the conversation with the people reluctant to become open and affirming. I Just Wanted Them to Change! In that moment my heart was hardened against them, and I was beginning to doubt my ability to be an asset to the church’s ONA process, and maybe even my fitness for ministry. It was during this time that we invited a local minister to sit with our ONA taskforce, and she opened my mind and really softened my heart. She explained that fear and confusion are part of human life, and that to really understand and communicate with someone, you have to first accept that they have a lifetime of experiences behind all of their stances, and maybe there is a painful memory, or a faulty understanding at work behind their perspective, maybe instead of judgement they need love… She didn’t say it verbatim, but she reminded me that Jesus tasked us to meet people where they are. In the end the church became ONA, and some members were lost to the decision, but no one left feeling attacked, ignored, or forgotten, they all knew they were loved.
The reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, that the hard hearted person never truly loves, they engage in a crass utilitarianism that values other people mainly according to their usefulness, they lack the capacity for genuine compassion, are unmoved by the pains and afflictions of others, and never see people as people, rather as mere objects or as impersonal cogs in an ever turning wheel. Instead of hard hearted, King urged people to be tough minded, ever thinking, learning, reevaluating, and questioning, and to be tenderhearted, kind, gentle, and loving.
Christ sends us out to love the world as he loved it, no matter how long the struggle drags on, no matter how tired we get, we cannot allow our hearts to harden! No matter where you go, know that Christ Walks at your side, and this community stands with you. When we are too tired to stand, we will hold each other up, but we mustn’t stop moving forward, we mustn’t stop working for justice and for peace.
Amen