Playing today in class: The Prince of Egypt
Yesterday Chuck V called our attention to one of the themes he sees running throughout the bible, the place and presence of the holy, or where we meet God in our midst, and he suggested that this was one aim of mission.
To illustrate, he put on a clip from the great dreamworks animated film. The runaway prince, Moses, is tending his father-in-law's sheep, and follows a stray into a cave, where he sees this bush inside a mountain, ablaze in white light. And he cannot turn away, meeting someone that can only be described as GOD.
Watching again yesterday, it really struck me that Moses, upon hearing what God was to do in Egypt, could only ask 'who am I to do this?' He, who was raised in Pharaoh's courts, groomed to be a government official, yet who no longer identified himself with that and by that. God's response leaves him in a holy terror, and his reassurance is based on nothing other than God, that 'I will be with you, Moses,' with which he is sent out.
This mind-altering encounter with the God of savage mercy isn't the end point of Moses' story. From here, he returns to Egypt, where those words, 'let my people go,' become his own, and he plays a pivotal role in the national emancipation of a people.
Moses had yearned for this in the past, yet had gone about things all the wrong ways, and had been unable to do anything of positive consequence. Until God showed up, having heard the cry of the people, and moves Moses to engage from an entirely different posture.
The more I read, see, and hear this story, the more I find myself in Moses' position, hearing 'take off your shoes. you are on holy ground,' and everything which follows.
To illustrate, he put on a clip from the great dreamworks animated film. The runaway prince, Moses, is tending his father-in-law's sheep, and follows a stray into a cave, where he sees this bush inside a mountain, ablaze in white light. And he cannot turn away, meeting someone that can only be described as GOD.
Watching again yesterday, it really struck me that Moses, upon hearing what God was to do in Egypt, could only ask 'who am I to do this?' He, who was raised in Pharaoh's courts, groomed to be a government official, yet who no longer identified himself with that and by that. God's response leaves him in a holy terror, and his reassurance is based on nothing other than God, that 'I will be with you, Moses,' with which he is sent out.
This mind-altering encounter with the God of savage mercy isn't the end point of Moses' story. From here, he returns to Egypt, where those words, 'let my people go,' become his own, and he plays a pivotal role in the national emancipation of a people.
Moses had yearned for this in the past, yet had gone about things all the wrong ways, and had been unable to do anything of positive consequence. Until God showed up, having heard the cry of the people, and moves Moses to engage from an entirely different posture.
The more I read, see, and hear this story, the more I find myself in Moses' position, hearing 'take off your shoes. you are on holy ground,' and everything which follows.
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