In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.”
DEUTERONOMY 6:20-22
I, like so many of us, overuse my phone. I don’t need it to do everything it can do. Nevertheless, I choose to use it too much. I use the navigation feature to get me to places I’m already familiar with in hopes of shaving precious seconds from the trip, discovering an unknown route that circumnavigates all the riffraff stuck in traffic. I recently downloaded a new navigation app that enables me to change the voice of the trip narrator. Granted, nearly all navigation apps do this, but this one is a bit more unique. Yesterday, I drove from our house in Mission Viejo to an appointment in Irvine while the voice of Morgan Freeman told me where to go. Because his voice was released as part of an upcoming action movie promotional campaign, the navigation felt like it had the seriousness of international espionage.
The journey from my house started with this call to action: “There are those who would like to see you fail on your journey. That’s not going to happen on my watch.” When I had to go through a roundabout, Mr. Freeman’s regal and important voice led me onward with: “At the roundabout, take the second exit… for freedom.”
“Yes,” I thought to myself, “this drive through suburbia and my upcoming meeting — they were about freedom.” Suddenly, I felt like the whole balance of global security rested on my ability to get to Irvine (It is worth noting that one of the other voices available for download is Colonel Sanders. His voice didn’t have the same kind of gravitas as Morgan Freeman, though it did make me briefly consider all eleven of the herbs and spices in his original recipe.). The intent of something like Morgan Freeman helping me on my journey through all the pitfalls of my perilous commute was to give my drive an ironic sensation that I was living in the midst of story that was bigger than myself — that I was part of a something with implications I could not possibly fathom. It worked. It’s pretty fun. It is, however, hard to explain to the police that I was violating the basic speed laws… for freedom.
As we’ve been reading in the Daily Walk Bible, the Israelites are making their long journey out of Egypt… for freedom. Moses instructs his people to tell the story to future generations who have not known the captivity of the past personally. The story of freedom is reason behind the necessity of obedience: “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt…” In other words, when it feels like a boring commute, rather than a journey of staggering importance, remember that this is part of a bigger story in which God orchestrated a path to freedom from captivity at his expense. Obedience, then is merely the way in which we live as God’s newly freed people.
Today, the context of the story has changed, but the message hasn’t. We’re a community of people WHO HAVE BEEN moved from captivity, into freedom. And, we’re also a community of people WHO ARE BEING moved from captivity, into freedom. The Bible tells us that the journey behind us and the journey ahead are as perilous as they are glorious. So, we tell the story of freedom. We live the story of freedom. We invite people longing for freedom to join us.
This Sunday night at Vision Night, we’ll get a primer on what God, the bringer of freedom, intends to do with our church in the next year of ministry. We’ll eat together. We’ll celebrate what God has done. We’ll eagerly anticipate what he’ll do in the future. Let us know you’re coming by clicking here so we can make sure we have enough food, childcare, etc. If Mariners is the place you serve and lead, or if you’re curious and passionate about our church, join us. For those of you who might miss your version of the Super Bowl, set your DVR to record the chunk of the Oscars you’ll miss. Catch up during the commercials and feel free to judge everyone’s poor fashion sense without missing anything… for freedom.
See you soon,
Jeff
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