Mama Bear

As I walked out of my office this week into the hallway, the very first thing that I heard was Annie’s voice talking to someone and she said something like, “I am going to go Mama Bear on you! You need to take care of yourself and do what you need to do to get better.” She then continued to talk to this person to help them understand the importance of what they were talking about and that sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to but that’s a part of life.

I don’t know about you but I don’t imagine that the descendants of Joseph and his brothers which become the 12 tribes of Israel, had planned or ever wanted to go from being a part of the Egyptian society to becoming slaves for them. Yet that is what we discover has happened to them in the opening of Exodus.

Today’s text we find ourselves with Moses and Aaron after 9 of the 10 plagues have already been sent upon Egypt, and the tenth is about to happen. The fierce passion of God is present throughout this process. In fact as I looked at the text today and thought about how God interacts with God’s people and reacts to Pharaoh, I immediately began to think of God as this protective Mama Bear. God taking care of and looking after God’s people and placing their wellbeing at the forefront of everything. It wasn’t even an hour after that idea of God as Mama Bear came into my mind that I walked out of my office and heard Annie proclaim fiercely that she was going to act like a Mama Bear to this individual.

There are two ways that I see this passion of God acted out in this text. Admittedly there are probably more than two and there are others in parts of the story that we don’t get in our text today, but these are the two I wanted to focus in on.

The first being the opening of Exodus 12 where the LORD tells Moses and Aaron that this day, the day of Passover will be the beginning of the marking of time for the people of Israel. On the surface it sounds like this might be the way that the Israelites are now marking the calendar and that their calendar will be different from the Egyptian calendar or any other calendar they know. What I believe it really says is that God is marking a brand new beginning for the people of Israel starting today. And it’s not just when someone says today marks the beginning of something new, but that we are all collectively starting something new today. Today marks a day when the LORD resets everything and this beginning of everything new starts with the Passover.

I wonder what that must have felt like? I honestly cannot even put into words how incredibly loving and passionate God is being right now. I have this sense of joy and excitement inside me but I cannot put it into words. I don’t know that the Israelites fully understood it in the moment either. Yet here is the LORD declaring a beginning. It reminds me of John’s vision in Revelation 21:5 where the one seated on the throne declares that he is, “making all things new.” Preceded by the statement that there is a new heaven and new earth.

I wonder if we will do something similar or already have since the pandemic hit. I know that we look back at those days in March when everything shut down as a new beginning in a negative sense, but I wonder if there will be as distinct an ending to it all as well. Or will we mark and ending to it symbolically? Will we give thanks to God for bringing us through these difficult times and will we ourselves take the time to mark our calendar as the time when God walked through this pandemic with us just as God did with the Israelites in Egypt and the Wilderness Journey. I pray that we do and that we are better for it.

This promise of a new beginning by the LORD is then marked by a vigil which is the Jewish holiday of the Passover. Which is the second part I wanted to focus on today. While they are related I think they are distinct enough it’s important to talk about them separately. This is something I was thinking about and then was talked about in a podcast I listen to about the Narrative Lectionary. The LORD instructs the Israelites to have this vigil in preparation for the final plague, but more importantly for their freedom from slavery. The part that fascinates me the most is the dichotomy between the care and time spent in preparation for the meal and the haste with which it all happens during the actual vigil.

God cares deeply about the importance of this celebration by instructing them all about the care and preparation of the lamb and the making of the bread. Not just on that day but also as future generations celebrate this meal, they are to take the same care and dedication to make this meal. They are also to take the time out of their lives to remember this sacred time. Yet on the other hand the LORD says that when it’s meal time you need to be ready to move and eat fast. Now from the several translations that I read, none of them really capture what God is saying. The idea of gird your loins means to tuck in your long robe into your belt so that you are ready for physical activity. That with your sandals and your staff means: get ready to move!

I see this also as a God as Mama Bear moment in that God deeply cares about us caring about the ways that we celebrate and worship God. This is probably the most urgent time in the lives of the Israelites, yet despite the need to gird your loins and run, God says the preparation and celebration fo this vigil is probably equally important.

God does all of this preparation and celebration so that one day, generations from now when they are eating that unleavened bread they can tell their child the reason for all of this was because the LORD loved and cared for us so much that God rescued us from slavery and brought us into this land. It was the mark of a new beginning from a passionate Mama Bear God.

Which is the exact reason why as Christians we celebrate our own Passover with our own sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ our Lord. So that as we celebrate the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper, we can remind ourselves and one another all that the same passionate Mama Bear God did for us. God sent God’s one and only Son to be that sacrifice so that we no longer have to worry about sin and death. So when we eat the bread and drink from the cup we remember how fiercely and passionately God loves each person in this world and there is nothing God wouldn’t do to make that love known to you, to me, and to everyone. Amen.