Over the past couple of days in Old
Testament we have been reading through the Exodus story. Our class has a
Facebook page in which we get to process some of the craziness that comes up in
the Old Testament, and over the weekend we were embroiled in a rich discussion
about how God could “harden Pharaoh’s heart” and then punish him based on that.
I was very much in the thick of this discussion and was frustrated by God’s
seemingly arbitrary punishment, then had the realization this morning that we
were all missing the fuller beauty and thrust of this story. The point of the
Exodus narrative is that the God we serve is a God that liberates people from slavery and oppression.
My thought today is this is one of the many problems we run into when we as modern, Westerners read a story written by a people group in exile and oppression. Those of us reading as privileged Americans are not the Israelites; we are the Egyptians. We are the oppressors (this may sound harsh, but if we buy chocolate halloween candy, etc it is a reality, see bottom). We can’t really relate to the Israelite telling of the story so we latch on to a peripheral theological point, while missing the fullness of the story. While I think the peripheral theological points are important, they are not the story.
When Jesus came to Nazareth and read from the scroll
of Isaiah ““The
Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind
will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and
that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” This is the story. Our God is a
God of liberation, and his plan for
liberation comes through us. (We haven’t gotten to that part of the story
yet, but I know its coming.) That is the theme I keep stumbling upon in my five
whopping weeks of seminary.
So
how do we do that? How do we become part of this liberation theme? Well there’s
about a million different ways. Oppression is all around us. People are
oppressed by political systems, educational systems, religious systems,
familial struggle, socio-economic hardship, and on and on. Our job is to speak
out. Let us go on ahead and do that and try not to get too hung up on the
smaller points of disagreement. Oh, one way we can do that, as it is October
(Halloween) PLEASE DO NOT BUY THAT CHEAP CHOCOLATE HALLOWEEN CANDY!!!!! Child slaves made it. Sorry to ruin
your Halloween. I am posting a link below where you can buy non-slave made
candy. It is more expensive, but it wasn’t, ya know, made by child slaves. Ok,
I’m done. Don’t buy it. For real though.
Child
slaves made it?!?! What?!?!
Where to buy your Candy instead -
No comments:
Post a Comment