Today's Meditation
This morning's reading continues with Exodus, but now the Israelites have been released from their bondage in Egypt: Exodus 13:3-10
3Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the Lord brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten. 4Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this observance in this month. 6Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the Lord. 7Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory. 8You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. 10You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year.
There is a great deal of theological, historical and anthropological discrepancy about how long the Israelites were in Egypt. There are some scripture passages that list as long as 400 or 430 years, other time frames that list a much shorter period of time. Who knows exactly how long. But, in either case, it was longer than one person's lifespan. The Israelites had moved to Egypt from Canaan to take advantage of Joseph's relationship with the Pharaoh and the prosperity they could have in the land. Over time, the new Pharaoh feared the strength of the Israelites and how numerous they had become and enslaved them. Over the years, weakened by difficult labor and demoralized by their slave masters, the Israelites hoped for a savior, a redeemer to deliver them from the bonds of slavery.
They hoped for something that they could not see. They hoped for something that seemed out of reach, beyond their worldview, beyond even their years of experience in their everyday lives.
In his new book, Until the End of Time, physicist Brian Greene declares that there is no purpose to the universe; it’s just “particles obeying their quantum-mechanical marching orders.” I don't believe that we are just particles in the universe obeying come random order. There is meaning to everything? Brian Greene's view of life is utterly unhopeful.
But we do hope. Ilia Delio, in her blog at the Omega Center says that hope..."is the main impulse of life. Why do we awake to a new day anticipating that things will improve? What accounts for the hope which lies within us? If life was simply about random particles interacting with no purpose or meaning, death too would be meaningless."
Richard Rohr says that there are two kinds of hope, ordinary hope and mystical hope. Everyday or ordinary hope is the kind that is tied to an outcome, an optimistic feeling. He describes mystical hope as:
- Mystical hope is not tied to a good outcome, to the future. It lives a life of its own, seemingly without reference to external circumstances and conditions.
- It has something to do with presence—not a future good outcome, but the immediate experience of being met, held in communion, by something intimately at hand.
I think we are living right now in Mystical Hope times. We don't know the outcome, but we find our lives seeking the presence of God, an immediate experience of being met, held in communion with and by God.
May this day bring you HOPE!
No comments:
Post a Comment