Long Exodic Journey

Thirty years ago I and my Central European friends lived through quite radical changes. Those were the heady times of the Velvet Revolution and the breaking down of the Berlin Wall. The Russian totalitarian regime in Central Europe had just collapsed, the Iron Curtain was no more, reunification of Germany started to be discussed and Vaclav Havel was president.... After many many decades of occupation, oppression, political and economic corruption and a permeating cold war with the constant danger of nuclear annihilation we were just starting to breathe freely, almost nothing seemed impossible.

          And exactly at that time, as we were intoxicated with the newly achieved freedom our professor of the Hebrew Bible gave us an ice cold shower. We have just left Egypt, he told us. Soon you will be serving churches and your task will be to lead your congregations through the forty years of a wilderness pilgrimage. Gaining freedom is the first step, preserving it, expanding it and learning how to live with it will be the center of the true spiritual struggle. 

            And he was so right, so prophetic, so prescient! Just look at Hungary or Poland these days! My native Czech Republic or the original lands of the East Germany are still struggling with it...  Even if everything goes right - such great societal transitions do move like glaciers, slowly with geological speeds, requiring patience and tons of perseverance because unfortunately they can be easily stopped, reverted or overturned. Just think about, in our American experience how it was with the Emancipation, Reconstruction and what happened afterwards.

            My professor was not clairvoyant - he just knew well his Hebrew Bible. He knew, he taught us, that the Exodus was not history, I learned from him that it was best described as a legend or a myth, but exactly for that reason it was perfectly suited to describe our human nature and experience across ages. The crossing of the sea into the freedom is always just the beginning. It is followed by forty years of a tough journey requiring discipline, patience and perseverance.

            Complexities of the Exodus journey, that road to freedom, will be our theme this Sunday. Join us to learn and be encouraged.