Rev. George Miller
Oct 3, 2021
Exodus 2:23-25
“While I kept silence, my body wasted away…my strength was dried up as by
the heat of summer…”
While I kept silence.
These are the words of the Psalmist, conveying a reality that many of us may
face- suffering via silence.
Silence, lest anyone think we are not strong enough, faithful enough, Christian
enough.
Yet suffering in silence is not a truly biblical example of how to live a
life of faith.
There are many instances in which scripture tells us that people under
great duress cry out to God, they raise their voice, they grieve.
Yet we have been brain washed by popular theology into thinking we must
stay positive or else no one will want to be around us or people may question
our faith.
But what if…what if crying out, what if the articulation of pain, of
suffering is actually the most faithful response of all…and we have been going
about things all wrong?
What if it is our tears that bring forth change?
What if it is our shouts that shape the future?
What if it is the acknowledgement that things are not well with our soul
that allow the Spirit to swoop in?
Think of the Creation story.
We’re told that in the beginning when the earth was a dark and formless
void, the breath of God moved over the waters and God said “let there be light.”
How did God speak?
Was it a hush? A whisper?
Did God speak calmly?
Did God speak as one with authority?
Or what if…
What if God had had enough of the chaos
The darkness
The void
And God yelled
God screamed
God cried out those words?
What if Creation began not with a
strategic set of calmly spoken words, but with an anguished moan of a
God who was tired of being alone?
2 weeks ago, we studied the story of Sarai. We touched upon the way she abused her slave
girl Hagar.
Do you know that in Genesis 21 there is this powerful scene in which
Hagar and her son are cast out into the wilderness, run out of water,
And certain of her child’s death, Hagar lifts up her voice and weeps from
the bottom of her feet to the top of her hair, and the Lord hears.
The Lord responds.
The Lord speaks.
The Lord opens her eyes to the life-giving resources that are around her.
The story of Joseph we like to tell again and again about a man badly
abused by his brothers?
It is through an overwhelming amount of tears and sorrow that Joseph can
make peace with his family.
In Genesis 45 we are told that Joseph, the 2nd most powerful
man in the land, wept so loudly that all of Egypt heard and Pharoah’s household
heard him.
It was his sorrow, his tears, that allowed space for the family’s healing
to take place.
Neither Hagar and her son, neither Jospeh and his brothers found peace by
thinking positive or hiding their sorrow-
They found peace by expressing their pain, shedding their tears, and
raising their voices.
It is as if their cries brought forth new creation.
Which is exactly what we hear in today’s reading.
We are now in the Book of Exodus. The
descendants of Sarah and Rebekah have unfortunately fallen under slavery.
Four hundred years they are enslaved, forced into back breaking work,
their sons murdered.
The Pharaoh dies and the people cry out.
Not because they feel sad for the king, but they groan under their
suffering.
Collectively, all the Hebrews have had enough, and they do the one thing
they can all do- they cry out for help, they weep, they raise their voice.
And, as we are told, God hears.
God remembers the convenant God made with their ancestors.
God look upon the people suffering and God notices them.
God comes up with a plan for how to deliver them.
God designs a way to take their chaos and despair and bring about a new
creation- a people who God will call God’s own.
This scripture, though short in length, is rich in meaning.
Today’s reading shows us how God is not just a being out “there”.
God hears. God remembers.
God looks upon. God takes notice.
In the next chapter, God calls forth Moses, a savior to save them.
This all happens because the people cry out.
This does not happen because the people put on a smile.
This did not happen because the people tried to stay positive.
This did not happen because they chose not to question their faith.
The change in their collective lives took place because the people had
become sick and tired of being sick and tired.
So they groaned, they cried, perhaps they even screamed and yelled.
In other words, the people find their voice…and in finding their voice,
they find that God is right there, seeing, remembering, and ready to act.
Friends- how often do we think we must suffer in silence?
How often do we think we must hide away or apologize for out tears?
Yet Hagar didn’t.
Joseph didn’t.
Jesus didn’t.
So why should we?
What if we revisit Genesis 1 and ask ourselves- did God speak, or did God
cry out?
Did God softly whisper or did God yell at the top of God’s lungs?
Did Gd speak with clarity or did God groan and moan out of sorrow and
loneliness?
How do we expect a new beginning or make room for a new creation, if we
are nothing but smiles, we are nothing but “just fines”, we are nothing but
silent?
May today’s reading be a reminder that God can not only handle our tears,
but God welcomes our tears.
May today’s reading be a reminder that not only does God hear our cries,
God sees our cries.
May today’s reading be a reminder that sometimes the very things we think
we need to hold in, are the very things God wants us to let out.
Our cries, our tears, our moans…they are all valid and they are all valuable
to God.
They can be the very things that water the soil of a new beginning.
For that, let us say “Amen.”
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