2021.04.25 Those Were the Days
Notes
Transcript
Those Were the Days
Those Were the Days
10 As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.
11 Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?
12 “Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.
14 “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
[sing]
Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade
Guys like us we had it made
Those were the days
Archie Bunker would have been comfortable in the crowd of Israelites in today’s reading … (except, of course, that he hated Jewish people)
This passage from Exodus is defined by defining moments:
Moses and the Israelites are both being called to do something for God…
Moses (on the one hand)
Doesn’t see a way out of their dilemma
Faces a near mutiny from his entire nation
He sounds like a parent comforting his child:
"Don't be afraid. Stand your ground, and watch Yahweh rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never ever see again. 14 Yahweh will fight for you. You just keep still."
Israelites (on the other hand)
sound like petulant children
“WOE ARE WE!!!”
11 They said to Moses, "Weren't there enough graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the desert? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt like this?
12 Didn't we tell you the same thing in Egypt? 'Leave us alone! Let us work for the Egyptians!' It would have been better for us to work for the Egyptians than to die in the desert."
They Doubt
Doubt Moses’ leadership
Doubt their decision to leave Egypt with him
Doubt God’s calling on them
They’re feeling “nostalgia” for Egypt
“Those were the days” – Archie Bunker
We tend to remember things more fondly than they really were
We remember situations with past girlfriends and boyfriends much better than they really were.
When our job gets hard, we remember our previous job with nostalgia … as if everything was peachy there. (Then why’d you leave?)
That’s because we don’t really want to push into new territory … we don’t want to push new boundaries. We KNOW the past, and even if it’s worse than the future, we tend to prefer what we KNOW instead of what’s RIGHT or BEST for us.
Back in February, we celebrated the Transfiguration, where Jesus is ‘transfigured’ in front of three of the disciples. In Luke’s Gospel, right after the Transfiguration, is where we find today’s Gospel reading:
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Those Were the Days
Those Were the Days
So what is Jesus saying to us?
I’ve had many conversations with church folks who want to lament that society has changed and people aren’t expected to go to church every week, and the church isn’t respected like it used to be and “Oh, how I wish things would go back!”
Oh, remember back in the 1990s when St. Mark’s was bustling and we had so much going on and so many people participating? Oh, remember when finances weren’t a concern for us … we’d just asked for money and it all came in? Remember when we were ‘the place to be’ in the Decatur church scene?
Remember before COVID when we would gather in person without masks or hesitation? Remember when we shook hands and hugged each other and patted each others’ shoulders?
Oh … remember when … ?
Archie Bunker was a caricature of people lost in the past. He longed for a bygone day and the world had passed him by. He missed a lot of what life had to offer because he wasn’t willing to adapt to the changed world in which he found himself. He believed the days of the past were better than the days ahead. And that thinking can certainly make it happen. Believing our best days are behind us, can certainly make the days ahead worse.
Similarly, the Israelites were stuck in the past. They looked at Egypt instead of trusting that the Promised Land was coming. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years while the first generation died because the entire generation couldn’t fathom or trust that God would actually carry them into the Promised Land … and Egypt wasn’t good at all, really … just like that last girlfriend, or my previous job.
So … what is God calling you to? What is God calling us to? What does God want to see on the other side of this transition? I can assure you of one thing … it’s not what he saw on the back side of it. God doesn’t want us standing still. He doesn’t want us lamenting the loss of past days that weren’t as good as we remember them. He demands we walk into the future intentionally and with a passion for his gospel!
If we are willing to put our hands to the plow and work the land where God’s placed us, we should trust there is a Promised Land awaiting us. Lamenting the loss of “the good old days” has us in a circling pattern that denies God’s call and provision. Perhaps we’ve been wandering in the wilderness because we’ve been “looking back” instead of looking forward.
Are we ready now to move forward? The trip forward will not be the easiest path. It will be hard! It may challenge us in every area of life … but we have to decide …
Do we want to lament back, or do we want to work forward? There is no doubt that God has a call on us …
What’s in doubt is whether we will rise to his calling like Moses … or if we’ll shrink from it like the Israelites?
Jesus says that those who stay in the past are not “fit for the Kingdom of God”.
So what will it be?