Crossing Over

April 1, 2007
Westminster Unitatian Church
Rev. Barbara Fast


I love Passover. It is one of my favorite holidays.  Celebrated at home with family at a Seder.  A Seder is the meal you eat at Passover.  It is a festival meal.  We will enjoy one tomorrow night. Sign up in Fellowship hall. It is a great evening for all ages. My son used to say it is the meal you never get to eat.  

What about that Moses!  He has his own doubts.
First he was in the closet about his identity. He was an Israelite- but he grew up believeing he was Egyptian ... enjoying his Lattes on the veranda attended to by Hebrew slaves

Then ñ He was a reluctant Prophet. I trust reluctant prophets.  Moses avoiding his "calling". He was chosen but he protested  ... doubting his talents, skills & will.
He argued with the burning bush - he was not good enough.

This Dialogue - considerably edited and adapted to modern usage went as follows:
God to Moses: Tell your people to get ready to go.
M to G     Why should they believe me?
G to M    Here is a staff that turns into a snake. Theyíll believe you.
G to M        Go and Tell Pharaoh to let your people go
M to G        I won't know what to say
G to M        Doní't worry- I will put the words in your mouth
M to G        I am not great at public speaking.Iíd really rather not ...
G to M     Oy - already- take your brother Aaron with you ... he can do the talking!     

I got to thinking.  Isnít there some MOSES in each of us?
Then- what about Pharaoh? Isnít there a little bit of Pharaoh in you too?
Moses /Pharaoh: Think of them as Metaphors: aspects of being human.

Moses tells pharaoh to let his people go ... Pharaohs says no.
Pharoahís no brings 9 plagues to his people.  Still Pharoah says no.

We human beings sure do make ourselves suffer before we let go and let ourselves cross over into new life, a new start, freedom from what plagues us.  

Poor Pharaoh after the first plague- he says Ok ñ go ... then the old pride rises up, and he changes his mind.
He is warned. Still Pharaoh says no. And none plagues come to him ...  locusts, darkness, blood, frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils, hail ...  

Denial is not just a river in Egypt ...
What enslaves you?
What is plaguing you?

When will Pharaoh reach his bottom?
You know AA talks about hitting bottom.  Someone once told me- A young woman- in recovery- she was glad she had a high bottom so she didnít die ... before getting sober ... She realized that after she attended a friendís funeral.

Poor Pharaoh faces the  FINAL PLAGUE The death of the first born.  
The angel of death passes over the homes of Hebrews ... who have marked their doors with the blood of a lamb.

But Egyptians lost their first born.
The story says: A cry went up in the land of Egypt ...

Pharaoh in his self perpetuated blindness ...  sacrifices his most precious creation- his child, Egyptís children ...  for his appetite for power, pride?
He loses his son ...  His most precious new life ... But still he has not hit bottom ...

He cannot take responsibility, admit his mistakes, ask forgiveness, and embrace a new way of life ...  

It is easier to be mad than sad. That Pharaoh, so long ago and far away, in the mythical truth story of Exodus. He knows how to rage and blame, to crusade. He takes his grief and turns it into rage: He is committed to his old life..his old world vision..his old way of being in power in this new world.

Thus he sends forth the most powerful army on earth ... all the remaining sons ... to their deaths. How many losses does it take before enough blood has been shed ... and rage is spent?

As for Moses and the Hebrews   Pharaohís sending his Army was not such a bad thing ...

Without Pharaoh's Army chasing them the Hebrews might have stood at the shore, fearing that descent along seabed, the awesome passage to the other side, which is the hardships of freedom.

How many might have turned back, even halfway across - But for the army charging from behind ... and then the sea closing in behind them?  

There are those times in our lives when it is not so bad that we are chased ...  Driven out from our old ways. There are times we only move on when the unknown becomes less painful to enter than the known is to endure.

Still, it is hard to persist, past ambiguity and the unknown, doubt turns to fear. Except perhaps when we have no choice. Thus we are unhappy when we choose and we are unhappy if we are not given the choice ...  

Then once on the other side, though, once you realize that you made it across that sea and you look out and all you have the eyes to see is a new life that is all desert, well it could make anyone in their right mind want to turn around and go back to Egypt ... have a latte.

So- It is a good thing the Sea Closes behind them.
Having doors close gives us direction.
Oh- that is the way we have to go now.

Then comes the Desert.
Yes- There is grief and loss.
We wander. We weary. We worry,
We give up on new life, lose faith.
The responsibilities of freedom  ... of conscience ... Facing years in a desert without a roadmap ñ you wake up every day empty and frightened ... Life is precarious.

William Sloan Coffin, who died a year ago,  said when he was an old man:
"Everybody knows that I have only one life to lead ... and life is pretty precarious ... people sense insecurity, and try to secure themselves against insecurity, by power, By money. .. The false search for security is what does everybody in ...   Life  alive ... is very unsettling ...  It requires that we find our way and keep the faith. Even if we feel lost ...  in a new place ... It is an illusion to think that we can become new and stay the same.    ... That sacrifice wonít be required of us. And we cannot know ahead of time if it will be worth it ...  We may not know even in our lifetimes ...  but we know we cannot really turn back to our old way of being in this world.î

Our lives are unsettling too. We cannot turn back either.
Life requires that we find our way and keep the faith.  Faith includes our doubts. Otherwise it would not be faith, but certainty.

Moses goes up to the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.
I wonder what if  Aaron and Moses had had cell phones. Can you hear me now?   
Would the story be any different. Probably not. The Golden calf was not so much a false God, but a false start.

It is in the desert where we grieve the losses and forget comfortable enslavements that get in the way of new life of freedom.
It is in the desert places where old life, spiritually unhealthy life, goes to die.
It is in the desert where transformation takes place ... if you will let it.

New life is what they are being called into. New life takes time. It takes practice. Takes persistence.
To persist requires practice ... one day at a time practice ...
For the Israelites ... Spiritual freedom requires spiritual practice ...
THE HEBREWS HAD such a Spiritual practice ... Manna ...
Magical ñ miraculous nourishment that fell from heaven.
This is what made it a spiritual practice: one rule:
You can only eat what you can eat this day ...
You cannot hoard it. It rots.  It smells. It gets wormy.
It is a cosmic one day at a time ritual.
Practice- spiritual practice ...  Like Buddhist begging bowl ... 40 years- lifetime ... longest lifetime ...

So- why 40 years of wandering?   No one who knew how to be a slave would cross over that second body of water, the river, not even Moses- who had known how to be enslaved.

Otherwise we risk passing our enslavements ñour behaviors and prejudices- down to our children.  We human beings keep passing down our prejudices ... rather than get past them ñ in this world.  

We UU's have a calling.  This holy season, we have obligations to live into our legacy of precious religious freedom. To be faithful to our conscience.   To forge our future life together.  Let us not be such reluctant prophets so that we hide the light that has chosen us.

I awoke this morning and wondered what is the point of this Passover sermon. And I found myself turning to where I always turn. We die. So we must love.

And I remembered the words of Rabbi Hillel. So I will end with them.

Rabbi Hillel wrote:  Love each other ... all the rest is commentary.

Copyright Barbara Fast 2007
May be used with attribution.


Print This Page   Email This Page