Matthew 18:21-35; Exodus 14:19-22

Several weeks ago we were being Wowed! with Michael Phelps' performances: his many Gold Medals, and the many new records set. At the time, my attention was also drawn to the many former Olympians in attendance at the games. I listened to a report of so many winning, Olympian youth whose lives have been totally dominated by preparation for the quadrennial events. Families' lives revolve around the tough training schedules; families have been known to put up second mortgages in order to continue the training and national competitions and keep a child in competition. I heard too of children in China being removed from their homes with the promise of economic reward in order to train the youngsters. It is the rare exception where the youth are able to maintain well rounded young lives.

All of their efforts are geared toward competition and winning. A sad result once youth move away from the Olympic competition is a sense of great loss, and a deep wilderness as they try to re-establish who they are, what their goals are, what they will do with their lives. For ever since they could remember their goal was to win in an athletic competition. Some don't recover a sense of self or establish another goal. They can't come to grips with a deeper sense of themselves other than the one who entered the ring of competition.

None of us, perhaps, has placed our identity or goals toward a prize in the form of an Olympic medal. But I suspect that many of us have put our identity into such things as our studies, our schools, our beliefs, our work, our relationships, our marriage, and raising our children. When changes: a child goes off to college, a marriage breaks down, one becomes engaged to wed, there's a birth in the family, one looses a job; whether they are losses or gains; when these happen, they cause us to at least pause. For many, we have a need to reconsider who we are, and what we're doing.

Some of us experience the necessity to re-evaluate one's life at mid-life - you've heard of the mid-life crisis; at that juncture, there may not be any changes in our lives, but we are wondering in a deep way, why aren't there changes? Why are we doing the same old, same old? Some retool and others reorient their lives while still others try to escape. Each of these times is a personal time of crisis.

We are experiencing crises at a global and national level; the greater church is experiencing a crisis as mainline denominations figure out how they can be relevant in a changing world that has moved denominations to one side rather than keep them central to their lives. For the most part, the church is living in a modern temperament while the world is living in a post modernity.

As an individual, I had gone through several major changes in my life but had come to a point where I had put everything together in a rather satisfactory way. I had reoriented myself from medical research into teaching. I had a comfortable place in which to live. My faithful Labrador Retriever remained so. I was surrounded by many well meaning youth at Groton School; I could revel in their hope, naiveté, curiosity, humor, and love. I had even started going back to church. That's why it was so unsettling to have this profound feeling come over me that something major was missing. I mean, I had all that I could imagine was needed. This was such an unsettling feeling that I feared what in the world would a mid-life crisis be like?

It was a God moment for me when I realized that it was God doing the nudging; making me uncomfortable. It felt like God was hounding me to reconsider what I was doing in my life. Actually, God was after me saying, 'Hey, you don't need to do it alone, I'm here. Include me.'

These moments when our routines are altered, our relationships changed, our foci of attention are moved, I believe, are all God moments. They can be unsettling times. But they provide opportunities for us. They are times when we can step back and consider to what am I being called. They are times when we can ask what is it that is deeply important to me. Who am I? Is what I am doing and living really reflecting what is important to me and who I am? What do I need to keep in my life; what do I need to let go of?

In their journey, I think Moses and the people Moses was leading were going through a long term, one after another God moments. Many scholars and believers believe that the whole Exodus story is the central story of salvation - saving God's people - in the Hebrew Scriptures. We get hung up, I think, on the details of what sea the red, the reed, or some other sea is being referred to. We get troubled over explaining how the phenomenon of a body of water in that region of the Sinai could allow for folk to walk on by. By getting mired in debating was this a miracle, could this happen, and how many people were traveling with Moses, we miss the point being made here. So let's put those questions aside for today and consider the point: this story is about God, God's power in our lives, God's power in the world. Today's reading is about the formation of a people, a nation.

In Hebraic poetry, particularly in the psalms, there are images and references made to the seas where monsters live. Leviathan is named: a mythological sea serpent that represents chaos. For the Hebrews, the sea was a way of speaking of chaos, was a way of referring to evil. Before the Common Era or BC the sea was a pretty scary place for people. In fact, in early Israelite history before monotheism was fully developed, sea/chaos/evil took on a divine nature. This Exodus story, of which we just heard, told of God's power over any other possible divine nature. In Moses' Exodus, God has power over the chaos. God is the instrument making way for the Israelites; God is the instrument making enemies non-existent.

So what does that have to do with our lives? In many ways we are facing many different crises, impinging on our lives all at once at different levels-global, societal, nationally, locally. For some folk, these crises take on such monumental proportions: avoidance, denial becomes the order of the day. As a church (a denomination), we can take heart that we aren't the ones who are in control. We need to refrain from quick fixes. We have our work to do. But ultimately, it is our working together, listening carefully to where God is working, and keeping our minds open to new possibilities. As individuals faced with change, faced with making sense out of chaos, faced with totally retooling our lives, God is present before us also. We need to look below the surface of events and occurrences; we need to look within.

God led me from teaching, where I was doing quite well. I had not envisioned leaving on my own. And when I left teaching it was to take a leave of absence/a sabbatical. I had not envisioned where God would take me in this life.

Let's consider Exodus again. Clearly God's blueprint for the escape is no nail-biting cliffhanger. God chose the spot where all would get into a bottleneck. Focus is put on the rescue, while there is little gloating over the demise of the Egyptians. Attention is on God's trustworthiness.

Trust is the issue here. Faced with a water wall of chaos and enemies chasing at one's heels, trust that God would provide is a big deal. Will the people trust? Given the people's record of complaining, this is a good question. Given our doubting, it's a fine question for us when the rubber hits the road and we are faced with heavy issues and decisions and changes. Do we put our trust in God finding a way through what seems unanswerable or impossible? Or do we instead rush to fill the void and give an answer?

I'd like to offer an image that comes out when you look at the reading again. Hear these words again from Exodus (14:15-17) …….Do you hear it? God demands Moses to act first. Go forth expecting what God has promised. Then God will act further and deal with those enemies so they, too, will know God.

Elie Wiesel describes the scene in a similar way: One could see people running breathlessly, without a glance backward; they were running toward the sea. And there they came to an abrupt halt: this was the end; death was there, waiting. The leaders of the group urged on by Moses, pushed forward: don't be afraid, go into the water, into the water! Yet, according to one commentator, Moses suddenly ordered everyone to halt: Wait a moment. Think, take a moment to reassess, what it is you are doing. Enter the sea not as frightened fugitives but as free men! (Messengers of God, p 143).

So what might we hear for us today? Enter into the chaos, my friends; enter into the unknowing of a life changed by circumstances; sisters and brothers; enter into the place that is pulling you into choices of impossibilities; anchored in God, trusting that God is before and behind you, and trusting that you/we will find a way together.