FEELS  LIKE HOME
 
Exodus 2: 11-16; 3:7-14
 
2:11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses….But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian…
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22 She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”
3:7   Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” 
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 
 
Thematically, at least, Jacob and Moses had remarkably similar histories.   Both men lived favored secular lives and both men gained their position through their mother’s shrewdness.  Both men do something reprehensible and criminal.  Both must flee to save themselves and both must start over as ‘aliens living in a strange land.”  Then, both have their lives dramatically interrupted by epiphanies. They gain radically new ideas about their God and their place in the world.  And, finally both risk their lives to face the very people they had fled.
 
What caught my attention is the interaction with God which allowed these men to redirect their lives—even when it meant danger.  God’s promises transformed Jacob and Moses.  Jacob is promised land, many descendants and that he would be a blessing to all people.  Moses is given the Holy name as his foundation to both rally the people and stand against Pharaoh.  The promises provided hope for a different future for both Jacob and Moses individually and for Israel corporately.  Such a future could not have been imagined by a displaced nomad or a convicted murderer.   
 
By any conventional standard, such promises sounded absurd. God does not choose homeless people or slaves to be the people God champions.  ‘Common sense’ tells us that wealth, position and power are the indicators of God’s favor.  Yet, God chose the ‘least of these’ to demonstrate that secular ranking is irrelevant to God’s care.  This is the story we call the good news and this is the story we claim as our own. We believe we all matter.  We believe we are all God’s children. Similarly, by any secular standard, neither man could have expected to be chosen by God. Yet, again, the promises were made to these undeserving individuals on behalf of marginalized people.  It would be the modern day equivalent of promising the ICE detainees that God had chosen them. They would have a safe place, a secure future and through them all nations would be blessed.  When the world treats you like a nobody and you come to believe you matter, your whole life is transformed.  
It is no accident that three world religions emerged out of Nomadic cultures. A nomad’s life is a contingent life.  They had no place they could reliably call home.  They were constantly moving, pushed about by forces bigger than them—political unrest, drought, and famine.  The theological promise is that everyone, admired or marginalized, can have a home, a safe resting place.  Such a promise means a lot more to someone living on the edge or someone deemed unworthy by secular standards.  Typically, we are enamored by the American dream—hard work and determination can always provide a home.  A nomad or slave is all too aware that hard word and determination may or may not provide even a brief resting place.  Without such knowledge, entitlement replaces gratitude.  
 
It is hard to overestimate the importance of home.  I asked our FIRL members what they meant when they referred to home.  The response was varied.  There were geographical homes, family homes, church homes, ‘the place where they have to take you in’ homes, ‘home is where the heart is’ homes, the place I feel connected and cared for homes, the place I chose to build a network of connections, or most simply, ‘the place where I am’ homes.  Most of these responses reflected actual experiences but in real life, home is often disrupted by illness, unemployment, abuse, divorce, death and even more extreme, by bombing, fire, natural disaster and genocide. 
 
In Moses’ day, much as in ours, the gods were ranked by their power, and their power was ranked by their victories.  It is a familiar secular overlay.   So the god of thunder and lightning beat the god of music and flowers every time.  Moses knew he was swimming upstream.  Pharaoh wanted him dead.  No wonder he was a reluctant messenger.  Moses wanted to know who it was that had his back.  God’s answer was ‘I AM WHO I AM’.  Tell them ‘I AM’ sent  me.  The Hebrew is present and future.  ‘I AM’ is now and ever shall be.  This is a level of authority that exceeds the gods of nuclear arsenals, the gods of ‘the bible says so’ and the gods of power and position.  Such a God transcends all mortal claims of power and authority.   In ordinary relationships claiming “I AM” without needing to justify yourself is immensely powerful and is fundamental to intimacy.  The faith claim is that our job is claim and utilize our ‘I AM’ not to edit or erase it.  
 
The real promise is that God offers a way to be at home in the whole of life, no matter what our external circumstance.  That is the promise that transforms and allows us to live and engage the present.  (Unfortunately, that often means we have to give up our ideas of safety—and that will require our grieving— in order to discover God’s home.)  The home we are all promised becomes the place where we can be our most authentic self.  We discover the I AM within us.  We are holy when we are whole. That is a vastly different faith claim that we are holy when we measure up.  
 
Trust God’s promise.  You have a home where you can be who you are and home where you are treasured—no matter what life brings.  Such a faith is trans formative.  It is life giving. 
 
Let it be so.
 
 
Vernon Gramling is a Parrish Associate at DPC. He has been providing pastoral care and counseling for over 45 years. You can find more about Vernon, the Faith in Real Life gatherings and Blog at our staff page or FIRL.