Crazy Family Stories: lent, the red sea and baptism

Do you have any crazy stories in your family history?
The kind of stories that get handed on from generation to generation?
The stories sound so outlandish that they couldn’t be true
But by the same token sane person would make up a story like this and expect people to believe it
What’s more these stories often have so many witnesses that the details that have survived are the details that everyone could testify to

Its both odd and true how these stories define you,
they tell you where you have come from
and they hold a promise of destiny,
they tell you where you are going

My grandfather was 10 when his family fled the Soviet Union in 1926
They left a small farming town in the Ukraine called Sergievka
Life was very hard back then, the brutal violence of the bandits, the white guards and the communists was almost the same, just different uniforms

They were on the last ship to leave the Soviet Union
Late in the season travel by sea is more treacherous
The role of the ship was so terrible that my grandfather remembers chasing bowls of sugar cubes up and down the tables, the first sugar he had ever tasted
The storms they encountered where so bad that the captain of the ship assembled the passengers for their own funeral, and so they worshiped together before they would die

This epic journey from the terrors of the Soviet Union to Canada was brutal and dramatic.
My family had a clear and powerful awareness that God had rescued them
Their salvation was real – they where alive to tell the tale
They had miraculously crossed the sea
They had moved from a difficult life to certain death
And when the storm was darkest and the future the bleakest they called on God.
And God came through

Do you have any crazy stories in your family history?
The kind of stories that get handed on from generation to generation.
Family stories that have become your story
Its both odd and true how these stories define you,
they tell you where you have come from
and they hold a promise of destiny,
they tell you where you are going

Tonight we are sitting around as a family telling stories
there are recent stories – we might call them announcements
there are epic stories – we sing them in our songs
and then there is THE story
the one where everyone leans in
the suspense and danger are real
even though everyone knows the ending
This is the family story, the one that tells us who we worship, who we are, and what we are about
When this story is your story, then you know you are part of the family

Moses the great CAA travel consultant and Hebrew prophet was in trouble
after 10 plagues the Egyptians wanted him out, mosses and all the people gone, good riddance, leave and don’t come back
frogs, flies, grasshoppers where bad, a river of blood was worse,
but when all their first born died, both their children and their livestock they had had enough
they wanted to get rid of their Hebrew slaves so badly that not only did they allow them to leave they sent them packing with back pay, gold and food

listen to the send off story

At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh…, to the firstborn of the prisoner… and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me."

The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"… The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds…

40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.

Crazy isn’t it

And we aren’t even at the good part yet it gets better

So we have 60000 men, and their families – sorry single guys –
in the olde days you weren’t a man if you didn’t have a family

So 600000 men and their wives, and their children
(remember that this was before birth control)
so lets make a conservative guess of 3 kids each,
that comes to something like 3million people who ask for and get their neighbors stuff, all the good stuff, and make a run for the boarder

Now as you can imagine 3 million people marching on foot don’t move fast,
so the Egyptian slave masters who had just given away their new 52 inch flat screens wanted them back –
they wanted the free labor for their fields and they wanted to watch football on Monday night so they set out in hot pursuit

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle…

the red sea eh? That’s a dead end, a blind ally, it’s a trap

21 By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

To weird, can you imagine? Keep going!!!

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 "Tell the Israelites to camp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea.

They’re trapped between the mountains and the sea

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!" 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him… 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea…

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? … It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

This gets weirder all the time

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. …

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place… and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived... 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians,

That’s my story!!! (reader 1)
And my story!!! (reader 2)

So the family story is the story of exodus
The story of Gods saving action
The story of crossing through the waters
The crossing of the red sea set a boundary
The story of no going back
This is a crazy story and it is our story
its my story and If your part of the family its your story

To this day every devout Jew celebrates Passover to remember this story
To remind each other that they worship the God who saves

So lets try a little word association game
I will ask a question and you fill in the blank
One of the important things families do is celebrate
Our celebrations are not usually optional
Are you ready to play?
We mark Babies with showers and birthdays with a cake
Engagements with rings, Marriages with weddings and anniversaries
Studies with graduations, and Deaths with funerals

And Jews remember the exodus with Passover
Here is a tough one
Jews celebrate belonging with circumcision at birth and a bar mitzvah for coming of age
Christians remember Christ’s birth with Christmas
His death with good Friday
His resurrection with Easter Sunday
And the coming of the spirit with Pentecost

But how do Christians mark belonging? Baptism

That’s right, and baptism is no more optional for followers of Jesus that circumcision is for a Jew.

There is another story
It is also a wild crazy and outrageous story
And it is also our story
We are much more familiar with this story
And the outlines of this story are kind of the same

A people held as slaves – that’s us
Not slaves to the Egyptians, but slaves to sin
And our rescuer is the Yahweh the God who saves
Yasuah – Jesus is the God who saves

In the most improbable of stories
Jesus enters our world, a baby with a mission
Jesus lives among us, a man facing all the temptations and frustrations that you and I face
Ultimately Jesus dies
To the watching world he died for no good reason,
or he died because he was a political hot potato

In the economy of life and death,
Jesus died for us so that we could live for him
But lets face it – we will all die
The miracle is the resurrection
Jesus rises again – beats death at its own game

Jesus rises again so that those of us who completely identify with Jesus in the dying would find that Jesus completely identifies with us in our living
And we to can cross through death and into life
That boundary we cross
That commitment we make
Is marked with Baptism

If this isn’t a crazy family story I don’t know what is
The Jesus story is our story
Its both odd and true how these stories define you,
they tell you where you have come from
and they hold a promise of destiny,
they tell you where you are going

Just as Jesus was a Jew, the red sea story is our story
And the Passover is our supper –
we have stripped down an elaborate meal called the Passover and we call it communion – bread and cup
remembering our salvation with thankfulness

Just as Jesus is our savior – the Man/god who saves
We identify with him in baptism
He crossed through death and came out on the other side dry and alive
And baptism is how we mark our belonging

We join the story and we retell the story
When in our baptism we make public what Jesus has done in us and is doing in us each and every day

The apostle Paul tells it this way

Stand with me and let’s declare with passion the story that is ours to tell – Please read the bold text
Romans Chapter 6 1-11 (TNIV)
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Its both odd and true how this story defines you,
The Jesus story tells you where you have come from
The Jesus story offers you a promise of destiny,
The Jesus story tells you where you are going

Song – he reigns

So let bless you as we go with these words
May you grasp on to Jesus and onto the Jesus story as your very own
May you tell the story over and over again so that others may join the story
May you take the next step in living out your part of the story, whether it is seizing the promise, sharing the cup, getting baptized or following Jesus on the next part of the journey
Go with Jesus who tells you where you are going

There’s coffee in the back – don’t forget to express your thankfulness in the treasure box and start a conversation with someone you have never said more than hi to.