EXODUS: IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH
August 13, 2023 - October 8, 2023
The formative story of the Hebrew Bible is the liberation of Israel’s (Jacob’s) descendants from enslavement, and the re-engagement of God with their suffering. Guided by the Revised Common Lectionary’s “second readings,” we’ll engage the God of their – and our – liberation by reading Exodus together.
We’ll explore a Passover tradition of our Jewish siblings called “Dayenu.” It’s a song with 15 stanzas, one for each piece of God’s liberative work in the exodus. Dayenu is Hebrew for the subjunctive “It would have been enough,” meaning that one gift from God would have been sufficient cause for gratitude, but God’s habit is to add blessing on top of blessing. (See “Dayenu” on Wikipedia for a full explanation.)
Using the Dayenu formula, we’ll ask several storytellers to craft their own “It would have been enough” narrative, and offer those in place of the responsive reading each week. Dayenu is a powerful framework to make God the Protagonist of our own experiences, centering God’s actions in the narration of our lives.
The Red Sea Rescue/Catastrophe. We’ll start with the event that is the hinge of the narrative: the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. On one side of the sea, the Israelites are fugitive-slaves; on the other side, they are liberated, and learning how to live in freedom.
Pharaoh Should’ve Feared the Women. He was afraid of the baby boys who would one day be men, because he only knew to fear violence. The six women of the story (midwives, mother, sister, princess, maid) exercise a subversive power and set the stage for God’s redemption.
A Name, a Plan, a Partnership. God announces GodSelf in the burning bush, and announces an ambitious plan to liberate Israel with Moses as God’s agent. Moses argues. God negotiates. “This is Who I Am,” God says, in word and in (promised) action. And who God is – is in partnership with Moses. Dr. Barber has said, “God will not do what we can do; that is not what God is for.”
Loins Girded, Shoes On. The first “Pass-Over” meal calls for the people’s readiness. When God is about to do something, what does it mean for us to be ready, alert, dressed, and available?
Singing Our Lives. A service of song and Dayenu stories to mark our arrival at the point in the Exodus story where the Israelites stop and sing after finally escaping the pursuing Egyptian army.
Bread of Heaven. Here is Israel’s experiential learning about God’s economy. It stands in stark contrast to Pharaoh’s economy, where you work your fingers to the bone (what do you get? bony fingers!) and can barely sustain yourself. In God’s gracious economy, there is enough for every day plus more so that rest is built in. This is the “bread of heaven” vs. the “bread of capitalism,” in our context.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want, But If You Try Sometimes... Pastoral leaders love the stories about Moses’ burnout, his frustration with the people, the good advice that he get some help and learn to delegate. Being in partnership with God is a limit experience – meaning, we’re pushed, sometimes, just beyond the edges of our capacity – and this is where God meets us. (And – what would it look like to be one of the “able men among all the people” (v. 21)? Ready for responsibility, waiting to be asked?)
Ten Words. Posting the 10 Commandments in every Texas public school classroom is a bad idea… But remembering what they are, how practically the high concept of “love God, love your neighbor” can be rendered, is a good idea.