Rev. George Miller
Oct 4, 2026
Exodus 14:10-14
During Creation, a wind from God
sweeps over the waters. In Resurrection,
Jesus breathes upon the Disciples. On Pentecost,
a rush of wind pours upon the people. In
Exodus, an east breeze makes a path through the Red Sea.
Each moment the birth of something new in
a situation that seemed wildly improbable…
Recently the world lost a great
light. It felt like the time Lady Di and
Mother Theresa died, and the day we heard about Betty White.
The great light known as Dolly Parton, beloved
for her generosity and philanthropy, her sense of humor and style who bedazzled
us.
What a light Dolly was: making sure children
had access to books; using her royalties from “I Will Always Love You” to
support a Black neighborhood in Nashville.
God bless Dolly who overcame the obstacles
of poverty, misogyny, limited educational experiences, and no running water.
God Bless Dolly, for she knew exactly who
she was, and made no apologies for wearing high heels, rhinestones and wigs-
big wigs, blonde wigs with teased towering waves.
Wig.
There
is a special meaning with this word. WIG
is an acronym for Wildly Improbable Goal.
This concept is found in the 2002 book “Finding
Your North Star” by Martha Beck, who experienced her first Wildly
Improbable Goal when at age 13 she decided she wanted to go to Harvard, and
somehow, someway she did.
For Beck, a WIG is not something you
plan. The idea comes out of nowhere; a
jolt. It boggles the mind; it seems
impossible.
Beck describes how she processes these WIGs-
writing down what is needed; using her non-dominate hand to write whatever
answers bubble up; to imagining where you would be 5, 10, 40 years from now,
and how you think you would feel and life could be like if you achieve this
WIG.
She discusses thinking of the steps,
making the choices, and to notice how opportunities come along, things happen. How people step into your life who somehow
have a way to make that WIG, that Wildly Improbable Goal possible.
Not only did Dolly Parton live a life of bold
blonde wigs, but a life in which she made and achieved so many Wildly Improbable
Goals.
What we have in today’s reading is a holy WIG
moment- the parting of the Red Sea that not only led the people of God from here
to there, but took them from the trappings of the past into the freedom
of the future, tranforming them from assured death into life victorious.
WIG- Wildly Improbable Goal. Here we have God, Moses, and Miriam, dealing
with a major WIG- freeing the people from 400 years of bondage.
They’re tried everything- face to face
consultations, frogs from the sky. Finally,
finally the Pharaoh says “OK, Ok- just go.
Let’s see you try to survive the desert sand.”
But as the children of God leave in their
wagons and worker’s clothes making their way to the Red Sea, the Pharaoh has a
change of heart.
He sends out his entire army in their
sleekest, meanest fighting machines. They
descend upon the people in carts meant to carry vegetables to market.
The people are scared. Death is assured. They refuse to believe there is a future;
they deny all probabilities.
In their fear they get mad at Moses. They want nothing more than to return to
being enslaved.
Moses stands 2 feet strong in God’s Wildy
Improbable Goal and says to the assembly-
“Be brave.
Watch what God is about to do.
Don’t waver to the left; don’t waver to the right. Experience how God
fights for you.”
This is not God telling them to be passive
or lazy but to be faithfully still and proactively patient, to see what is going
to come next…and it is amazing.
As Pharaoh’s war machines rage upon them, they
have absolutely nowhere to go. Moses is instructed to raise his hands upon the
sea and the wind, the breath, the ruah of God drives the waters apart.
Just as God’s breath swept across the
waters of creation, just as Christ breathed upon the disciples, just as the
mighty wind of the Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost Day, God’s heavenly luftzug;
God’s brisa fresca moves across the waters.
And perhaps the most magical thing
happened- the people who were so afraid, who stood still, found the courage to
step forward.
It is one thing to know that Moses raised
his hands and God parted the waters, but perhaps the biggest miracle is that
someone, somehow, was brave and believing enough to take that first step
upon the ground and then take another step and another, until everyone made it
to the other side.
Talk about a true WIG- the Widly
Improbable Goal of a group of people going from the chains of their past into
the possibilities of a promised land.
A group of every day folk finding a way to
trust and believe in God.
No matter how much they worried, no matter
how much they cried out, no matter how much they got angry, that with God,
through God, they made it.
They had a new beginning, and their God
had taken care of them just as with the sparrow and the lost sheep.
Today’s story, featuring wind and
allusions to death is a Creation Story and a Resurrection Story; an adventure
and a testimony.
We are the descendants
of these brave individuals who dared to step upon the uncertain ground and make
their way through waters that had seemed to be their certain end.
Imagine what that means if we also are
willing to finds those ways to stay faithfully still, the courage to faithfully
step, and the ability to faithfully believe that the promise of the future is
worth leaving behind that which causes harm.
How awesome to have a God who is able to
deliver us. How wonderful to have a
Savior in Christ who death could not defeat.
How great to have a Holy Spirit that
inspires storytellers to write this down so we never forget-
Nothing is impossible with the Lord.
For the sake of God’s Kingdom, there is no
Wildly Improbable Goal that cannot be met.
And like Dolly, God will always love us.
Amen and amen.
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