a sermon on 5th Feb about the importance of knowing you’re a princess and on the art of being.
(Exodus 14-24 TMP – Wanderings and Whinings in the Wilderness)
There’s so much in that video. The video is looking at Ex chapters 14-24 – (Bibles hand out).
When I watched it through first time – so I’m wondering if it had this effect on you – I saw a lot of negativity – If only we’d died in Egypt! Did you bring out here in the desert to die? (Ex 14.11, ff, Ex 17.3, )
And that leads to the problem of you can take the Israelite out of Egypt but can you take the Egypt out of the Israelite?
Luther 1517 and all that– when trying to teach people the implications of what our lives as Christians now mean – uses the imagery of a penniless prostitute who marries a Prince. Yes in this scenario you would be the penniless prostitute. But now that she, you, we, are married to the Prince, we now have to learn to live like a princess – that means that we live at the rank and status of a princess in the castle, we can’t be pushed about by the servants, or by other knights, because they’re just knights not Princes.
So we have to learn to live and behave like a Princess, and to speak and treat people kindly & generously– because of course now you have access to the Princes’ finances and resources – we now have to learn to live like a princess.
Oh its not easy.
So I went and had a read just of the headings in these chapters. – So I’m not doing the whole video – I’m jumping to Ch 14 the crossing of the Red Sea, then the miracle of sweet water, then the miracle of manna and then the miracle of quail, then the water from the rock, then victory over their enemies, then the 10 Commandments and the awesome presence of God over Mt Sinai.
We all go through tough times, it seems that God has forgotten us, is leading us in the wrong direction, we think Maybe if I go back.
But That’s not where we are. And that can be hard to come to terms with. And it wouldn’t make any difference because God is leading us onwards. Luther even came up with a latin phrase for it. Semper Reforma – Always reforming, always changing.
Derreck told me the story an elderly lady in the congregation phone him up to buy one of the books he’d recommended in the magazine. What I love about this lady is that she hasn’t stopped learning, growing, wanting to be more – if you follow my analogy – of a Princess, to be more Israelite and less Egypt, to still grow as a disciple, to be more closely following Jesus.
We did Ron Audus’ funeral on Youtube precisely because having started it at the beginning of the pandemic, it gave Ron a new way of connecting to the family of the Church, of feeling part of the family and of continuing to grow in his faith.
So the take home point today is I want you to remember that you are a Princess – not in the Disney Oh save me save me sense, you’ve been saved, you’re now married to the prince, or to use more of a bible term – You’re the bride.
And Not a Princess in the entitled, selfish sense. But a princess meaning someone who knows who she is, that she is loved, that she has the resources of the prince, of the king to hand. And so she, we are learning to live in that love and faith and hope that comes from knowing that we are the bride.
And that might help us process the wining, it won’t stop us asking the questions – where’s the food and water coming from! But it might make us a community of people who see the blessings of God and strive to live in the light of them.
So there’s some wining in these chapters but there’s also a ton load of blessings and miracles. And there’s also a call –
Jethro comes to Moses and says ‘You need to do things differently, to delegate more.’ That’s easier said than done.
And Moses comes to the mountain – and I think its Ex 24.12 but my Hebrew isn’t good enough but one commentary I read pointed out that there’s redundant doublet – God says to Moses come up the mountain and up the mountain be. Something like that. English translations flatten it out so it makes sense.
But the Rabbis say No this makes perfect sense. Because we are terrible at climbing up mountains, no sooner do we get there than we start thinking about the return journey, and God wants us to come up the mountain and to just be.
If point one is Know that you are a Princess.
Point 2 is Be. I’m terrible at this. I work an average of 6 hours on my day off. Tuesday.
But the idea could be for today, here and now, that in the worship, in this space, in the prayer, that you might just think, I’m going to stay here a little longer in prayer and worship. Don’t mind us as we put the chairs back.
You, be. Be up the mountain, Don’t just go up it turn around and come back down, but, Be.
- You’re a princess, we are the bride. Pray for God’s help to let that truth sink in that we might live the life we should live because this is who you are, we are.
- Be. Take a moment to become aware of God’s presence and then Be. Don’t rush off.
Yes I am a hypocrite – esp in this regard – I do not practice what I preach – but that doesn’t mean its not good stuff. And perhaps I will succeed one day at learning to Be.
Amen.