Move - A Sermon for Sunday October 4 2026
Today marks a shift in our Narrative Lectionary,
we have completed our survey of Genesis for this year,
and we move into the book of Exodus.
The Exodus story happens about 500 years
after Joseph’s story.
Joseph, who although being sold into slavery by his brothers,
later provided for his brothers
during a long drought.
Jacob’s descendants - Israel, the Hebrews -
Joseph and his brothers,
then settled in Egypt around 1750 BCE.
The book of Genesis ends with the promise that
the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
would be many.
But they are not living in the promised land.
They are living in Egypt.
The Pharaoh of Joseph’s time treated the Israelites well.
But a lot can change in 500 years.
You might recall the story of the burning bush.
God spoke to Moses.
I AM who I AM.
Free My people.
Moses saw creation burning with the presence of God.
God wanted God’s people freed.
God promised them land.
So God sent Moses.
This happened after Moses had fled Egypt.
You may recall that Moses had committed murder
against an oppressive Egyptian
who was beating a Hebrew
and word was spreading.
Pharaoh wanted Moses dead,
perhaps because he is a person of justice,
or perhaps because Moses is a Hebrew
taking revenge on an Egyptian.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians hated the Hebrews.
Even under their oppressive slavery,
the Hebrews were growing in numbers,
the Hebrews were becoming
a threat to their power
and the Pharaoh, like any
insecure,
tyrannical,
power hungry,
wisdom-lacking,
racist commander,
needed to find a solution
to the problem of the hated outsiders.
A lot can change in 500 years.
a lot has remained the same these past 3500 years.
Moses, as an infant,
survived the slaughter of innocent babies,
the so-called solution
to the so-called problem of the hated outsiders.
Today we pick up the story years later
as Moses returned to Egypt, to face the
insecure,
tyrannical,
power-hungry,
wisdom-lacking,
racist commander,
the unnamed Pharaoh.
God is faithful.
God keeps God’s promises.
God remembers God’s people.
God promised them descendants which were many,
God promised them blessing,
now to keep the promise of land:
God will bring them home.
Invite reader forward
As we enter the story today,
God brought down the ten plagues on Egypt.
By God’s promise,
death passed over Israel,
with lamb’s blood painted on their doors,
and with the first born of Egypt dead,
and Pharaoh’s heart,
no longer hardened,
allows Israel to leave.
Or has he…
Let us open our hearts and minds to God’s Word
for us today.
First Reading: Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29
A reading from Exodus.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him; 7 he took six hundred elite chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
10 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24 At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic. 25 He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon
The assembly is seated.
I’m going to just come out and name it,
This violence is difficult to hear.
It is difficult to deal with.
What do we make of these stories,
particularly in the Old Testament
where God is portrayed as being so violent?
Remember the story of the Flood
God promised to no longer flood the earth.
God promised to no longer battle
corruption with corruption,
to no longer battle
violence with violence.
Yet this is another story of violence,
either committed in God’s name,
or by God’s permission,
or committed by God.
It is difficult.
Consider the context in which this was written.
Some humans can only see God’s victory
coming at the destruction of others.
That’s the crowd this is spoken to.
They are celebrating at the death of the Egyptians.
Did God commit the violence?
The text says so.
But it sure doesn’t sound like the God we know
through Jesus Christ.
Let it be.
Struggle with it.
But know that this story is not about the violence.
After all, God protected Israel,
with a pillar of fire and cloud,
with the parting of the sea,
and no one told Pharaoh to go after them,
they are the ones who chose to go into the sea.
Perhaps Egypt is punished,
not so much for their sins,
but by their sins.
This is a story for people who are hopeless and oppressed.
This is a victory story.
Don’t dwell on the violence.
This story does not give permission
to do terrible things
when you believe God is on your side.
This story is about a God who reverses fortune
a God who shows favour
a God who rescues,
a God who saves.
It is also about how God saves.
Israel was on their way out of Egypt.
Freed.
Moving slowly with all their belongings,
young and old,
with their belongings
following Moses who promised freedom,
only to look behind them and see Pharaoh’s army.
They were fearing for their lives.
“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?”
Except what Pharaoh’s army was bringing
was worse than death.
They weren’t out to kill them, not with 600 chariots.
Pharaoh was trying to reclaim
his oppressed workforce.
Pharaoh was bringing Israel back into captivity.
Those who would not return to slavery
would die.
But Moses said to the people,
"Do not be afraid, stand firm,
and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish
for you today;
for the Egyptians whom you see today
you shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you,
and you have only to keep still.”
Except Moses was wrong.
Moses said keep skill.
In the verses we skipped over today,
the LORD said to Moses
“Why do you cry out to me?
Tell the Israelites to go forward!”
God will deliver,
God will rescue,
God will save,
but the people have got to move.
This way forward into freedom will not be easy.
This way forward was confusing.
What do you mean move?
you just told us to be still?
It is confusing and scary sometimes
figuring out what it means to live a new way of life
after being held in captivity,
after only knowing captivity.
What do we do when a threat to our freedom arises?
Do we stand still and let God work?
Do we move?
Yes.
You let God work.
God will save.
but you’ve gotta move.
I believe this is an Exodus time for the church
and an Exodus time for many of the faithful.
The church finds herself captive,
not to forced labour,
not to oppressive leadership,
The church finds herself captive
to buildings that are costly to upkeep
The church finds herself captive
to an image of the good old days
and the good old ways of doing things.
The church finds herself captive
to finding financial success
amidst dwindling numbers.
Let God work.
God will save the Church.
but you’ve gotta move.
God promised Israel blessing,
and descendants,
and land.
God keeps God’s promises.
When their land was threatened,
God acted, and God called the people to move.
You have a new covenant with our God
through Jesus Christ,
the one who saves us.
You are forgiven before God,
you are fed and nourished at God’s table.
When there is a threat to God’s gifts
God will act, Wait for God,
but God’s people are called to move.
But for some of us,
we can’t think of the church or our own lives
without getting past our own captivities.
Many of us find ourselves captive
to hoarding things that we think bring us value,
just look at the china cabinet
or storage locker.
Many of us are captive
to repeatedly erasing our web browser history
Many of us are captive
to toxic ways of thinking about another person
or other people
or ourselves.
Many of us are captive
to dwelling on what once was.
We are captive to sin,
and cannot free ourselves.
You are the church.
You are the baptized.
You no longer live in captivity to death,
captivity to fear,
captivity to sin.
Every day that old you dies in the waters of baptism.
Every day you can say;
"I am captive to sin, I cannot free myself,
but you, O God have freed me by your grace.
I am a new creation.
The old has passed away,
God has made me something new!
I am resurrected.
It is no longer I but Christ in me!
Some days that will get messy and confusing,
but God’s work in you
takes that which is dead
and nothing
and dying
and trapped
captive
broken
and God brings forth new life;
new life now
and in the life to come.
God will bring you home.
God rescues you.
God saves you.
but you’ve gotta move.
Moses led God’s people away from that life of bondage
away from enslavement to others
away from a life of death.
but they had to move.
To be freed from Egypt
means moving out of Egypt!
It might not be as dramatic as parting the waters,
but trust that God is before you,
beside you,
behind you.
Take faith, take hope - When God calls - move.
God’s work is reversal.
The powerful are brought down from their thrones
and the lowly are uplifted.
God does this accompanied by prayer,
and by the movement of the spirit,
moving God’s people.
Expect God to free God’s people from sin,
from institutional sin
from captivity and sin,
individually and corporately.
Expect God to free God’s people
who experience sin
and the abuse of power
and corruption.
By Christ’s work, you are free.
Your freedom might not look like a new place to live
or a certain insecure,
tyrannical,
power-hungry,
wisdom-lacking,
racist commander,
brought down from his throne.
Your freedom might not mean a cured illness
or that new job
or that raise
But God keeps God’s promises
and you are promised
and you are given
forgiveness for what was
forgiveness for what will be
and newness of life.
Trust in God to save.
Pray - plead with God.
Ask God to clog the wheels of injustice today.
Ask God to stop the ocean waters from rising
Ask God to provide for the impoverished
But that kind of freedom only happens
when, by God’s Spirit
God’s people move.
Trust and believe
God’s Spirit will continue
to clog the wheels of injustice,
that you and any might be free.
Trust and believe
God will feed you on this journey of faith,
and now it happens -
Today, like ancient Israel before you,
God gives you manna,
bread from heaven,
for your journey.
But you’ve gotta move.
you can’t receive God’s grace with hands closed
or mouth closed.
you can’t enter the promised land
if you won’t stand up and walk.
You can’t pass safely through the sea
if you aren’t willing to wade in the water.
God’s gonna trouble the water.
So move.
Wade in the water.
So come to the table,
take on Christ
receive your bread from heaven,
Trust in Christ to save, to feed,
Trust in Christ to deliver. Rise.
