Building a Culture of Generosity – God’s Amazing Generosity

Exodus 33 & 34 

“Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

Ah… Moses. 

Saved by the midwives Shiprah and Puah, his sister Miram, his mother and the Pharoah’s daughter. Moses – raised by his own enslaved people and the ruling class.

Moses, who fled Egypt for Midian, married Zipporah, was called by God in a burning bush to go back to Egypt—Moses, asked to do something he didn’t at all feel qualified to do—but with the help of his brother Aaron, he did it.

Moses, who was venerated and hated by the people who he led out of Egypt into 40 years of wilderness wandering.

Moses, who kept intervening for that whole people with God… but who would not see the end of their journey with them.

Moses… who found God’s favor, who knew God’s name…

In chapter 33, verse 23, we learn that God shows Moses all God’s goodness safely by passing by Moses while he’s protected in the cleft of the rock… not God’s face but God’s back is something Moses could experience without dying. But by chapter 34, when Moses is remembered after his death at age 120, they remember Moses seeing God face to face.

 

You can see why so many storytellers and filmmakers have tried to bring this epic story to life. You can see why the Israelites wept for 30 days when Moses died. Moses’ cross-cultural life spanned an amazing era full of transformation for the people. And although Moses did not enter the “promised land” with them, he certainly set them up for success, passing the spirit of wisdom on to Joshua who led them into the next part of their story. 

 

So, here the story ends for now with the death of Moses. We began in the summer following the stories of ancestors from Genesis and Exodus who were Anything But Ordinary—following their lives into a new theme—Building a Culture of Generosity—and today, we sit in wonder at God’s Amazing Generosity. Do you remember the song, Dayenu? If God had only brought them out of Egypt, but would not have fed them manna in the wilderness, it would have been enough. If God had only fed them in the wilderness but wouldn’t have brought them the Torah (the Ten Best Ways or 10 Commandments), it would have been enough. If God had only brought them the Torah, but had not brought them to the promised land, it would have been enough. God continued to be generous beyond measure to this little group, insignificant by comparison to the more well-known cultures and peoples around them… 
God taught them how to be strong, how to endure, how to be good neighbors.

 

This fall, we have a wonderful Bible study teacher who has written the Bible studies for Gather magazine – the resource we use for the CLC Women’s Bible Studies. Pastor Meghan Johnston Aelabouni is the ELCA Theologian-in-Residence for the Middle East and North Africa desk. She and her spouse, Gabi, who is also an ELCA pastor, live in Jerusalem. They cannot write too much on social media these days as the conflict in Palestinian territories and Israel is very intense, but months ago, she wrote this beautiful study about Holy Places from the context of serving in that place. It’s a land where thousands of people travel to visit the ancient stones. The hosts ask visitors “Please do not only visit the ancient stones. Please also come to visit the living stones.” In other words, notice how we--the Palestinian Christians living through occupation--take seriously their call to be “living stones built together spirituality into a dwelling place for God.” (1 Peter 2:4 and Ephesians 2:22).

 

Her study reminded us that:

Many people outside of Israael/Palestine know little about the Palestinian church. The global Christian community does not always recognize the importance of these living stones. Mindful of our sinful history of anti-Semitism and of verses in the Hebrew Bible identifying the land of Israel as a “promised land” for the Jewish people, many Christians (sometimes unknowingly) support policies that oppress their fellow Christians in this land, alongside their Muslim neighbors. Palestinian theologian Daniel Bannoura Has pointed out that for Christians, all biblical interpretation is through the lens of the gospel—that word meaning “good news.” If the Bible is interpreted to say that Palestinians do not have the right to exist in their own homeland, Bannoura says,
“This is when the Bible stops being good news for [us], God’s word for [us], and begins to be God’s word against [us]. If the Gospel is not good news to me as a Palestinian, and good news to the Israeli and to the Jew and to the Arab and to the Muslim, and to all people from all backgrounds, it’s not the gospel. It’s not good news.” In other words, if the Holy Land is not sanctuary for all of God’s people, it is not sanctuary.

The call to be the living stones of God’s presence in this and every place is rooted in the fact that we once were “strangers and aliens” ourselves. We embody sanctuary for others because we, too, need and receive sanctuary from God…

As the people of Israel return, they are called to be a “light to the nations,” to build a community of justice that cares for the vulnerable, and to recognize that they are not the only people God has invited home. (Gather, September/October 2023).

 

So how do we respond to Zionists—Christian or Jewish—who believe that the land of Israel is Israel’s alone to occupy, no matter how that impacts others? How do we respond to scriptures, taken out of context, that seem to reinforce that the modern-day state of Israel can do whatever they want—just or unjust—and that our nation is compelled to fund and support them out of fear or out of loyalty?

What do we do with our nostalgic visions of “promised land” and “manifest destiny” that are as problematic in the Holy Land as they have been in the United States?

What do we think as we look with Moses over into the “promised land” and see that it is not empty and free-for-the-taking but inhabited, filled with people who also need their home? 

How do we honor those who were already living here, always living there, whoever the political rulers happened to be? How do we work together for peace and equity and justice for all vs. just for some?

 

These are questions that we need to ask and wrestle with as we consider all the ancestors of Moses, that prophet who knew God’s generosity so well, and remember together that God’s people are always called to be a community of justice who cares for the vulnerable. God’s “welcome home” is for the original people in the land, and Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Christians, Arabs and Muslims, Native Americans and immigrants, and to all people from all backgrounds. That is what makes a land holy, God’s generosity and the action of extending it to one another—recognizing in everyone who lives in the land, you are God’s living stones.