In 1997, 20th Century Fox released an animated musical about Anastasia, lost princess of Russia. In the film, we first meet Anastasia leaving an orphanage that has been her home for the last ten years.
She has forgotten her identity, but she knows she has one. She longs for a family, but she is alone in the world. As she makes her way down a snow covered road, she sings of love, home, and family. She musters her courage, as she begins a journey into her future that she knows will take her into her past, and teach her heart what she has yet to learn.
This scene within this animated and fictitious tale of Anastasia reminds me of the Israelites camped here by the sea, trapped by the waters behind them and the approaching Egyptian army in front of them.
In great fear and helplessness, they cry out to Moses:
“Was it because there weren’t enough graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
But Moses responds to the cries of the Hebrew people and he tells them three things:
Don’t be afraid.
Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will bring you.
The Lord will fight for you; you only have to be still.
As the story continues, the Israelites will see God intervene between them and the Egyptian army. Yet to come, is the most remarkable, most amazing event ever recorded. The sea waters divide into two walls that allow the Israelites to pass across the sea bed on dry land to the other side. The other side offers safety. The other side offers salvation. Once across, the waters return to their place, sweeping away the Egyptian army. The Bible tells us that after this incredible, suspense-filled event, the Israelites look across and see the bodies of their pursuers lying on the opposite shore. Yet its not this great cataclysmic event that catches my attention. It is the Israelites we first meet in our Bible story, trapped in fear and desperation on the shore.
What is it in their story that brings to mind this scene in Anastasia? Its the same similarities about the Israelites that remind me of those outside our church. There are those within our community who are like the fearful Israelites with their backs to the sea. Like Anastasia setting out from the orphanage, like the Israelites setting out from Egypt, they walk through our doors.
They are looking for love, home, and family. There are, in fact, several similarities that I see between the Israelites and those outside our church.
First of all, they often know who God is, but they don’t depend on God. There beside the river, as the Israelites looked up to see the Egyptian army coming, fear grips them, and they cry out to Moses. Its as if everything they have been through in recent days never happened. In Egypt, Moses performed many miracles in the name of God. Ten different plagues descended upon the Egyptians while the Israelites remained untouched. The worst of these was the death of the first born male child in every Egyptian household. The Israelites had just commemorated this event for the very first time in the Passover. Blood from sacrificial lambs had been spread across the door frames of their homes. The angel of death passed over the Hebrew homes covered by the blood while each Egyptian home experienced tragic loss. The result was their release from slavery and captivity. In anguish, Pharaoh finally sent them away. They had only come as far as they had come because of the work of the Lord.
As we read their story, we wonder how they could have forgotten this fact so quickly. And yet, if we recall some of our own journeys, times will come to mind when we knew who Jesus was, but we didn’t have a relationship with him. Our minds knew Jesus, but our hearts did not know Jesus. There are those in our daily acquaintances who at this very moment are at that very spot in their lives. They know of God, but they don’t depend upon him. When life becomes difficult, as it does for all of us, they are quick to revert to the same old unproductive and dysfunctional ways of resolving their issues. They know they won’t work, but its the only way they know how to do things.
Drawing a parallel to Anastasia, she knows her past will tell her who she is, but she just can’t remember the past. She knows that she has a home and family who will love her somewhere. She just doesn’t know who they are.
Those within our community need to know we are the home they have been looking for. We are the family who will love them. And we have the opportunity to introduce them personally to God, so that they too will know who they are - children of God - and develop a personal relationship with Christ.
A second similarity between the Israelites and those outside the church is that, though the price has been paid for their freedom, some don’t know it and others don’t recognize it. I think it is this question that causes the Israelites to turn on Moses and question him when things look desperate.
We can’t understand how the Israelites can’t see that God will deliver them after all that God has already done for them. The truth is, this is not an understanding that can be reached instantaneously. Its a journey of understanding. Its the building of a relationship, and relationships take time. This is something that happens as we grow to know one another and as we grow to know God. We must be open, constantly and consciously focused on building those relationships - with God, with those in our family, and with those in our daily lives & in our community who need a family and place to call home.
Another similarity between the Israelites and those outside our church is their lives are in utter chaos. They wonder around aimlessly, looking for direction.
In the beginning of our story, God told Moses to have the Israelites turn back from the direction they were heading. The intent was to make Pharaoh believe the Israelites were wondering around in confusion in the desert, not knowing where to go.
There are those in our community who have this aimless look about them. Survival is a day to day experience. Often times, their lives have some semblance of order to them, but they lack a sense of purpose and direction to their lives. Regularly the question arises, “Why am I doing this again?”
Anastasia had a choice to turn left, down a road to more of the same of what she has, or she can turn to the right. A turn to the right leads her down a road of discovery of who she really is. Down this road, she will discover who her father is, and therefore whose daughter she is. It is the road to her identity.
We are the road sign to those in our community searching for their identity, their purpose in life. We are called to point the way.
Those within our community are like the Israelites in our story because they are homeless. The Israelites are heading towards a place they know they belong. Down through generations for the last 430 years they have heard the stories of Abraham their ancestor. God brought their forefather to the land of Canaan and gave the land to Abraham. “This land, this rich land, will belong to you and your descendants.” Abraham was told. Though they know it is out there, the Israelites have never seen it, never been there. Until they arrive - and at this point they believe if they arrive - they have no place to call their own. They have no place to which they belong.
I don’t need to draw the parallel to Anastasia (but I will). She comes from an orphanage. She sings of home, love, family. She desperately wants a place to belong.
Its the same for those within our community. In this case, I believe perhaps this issue is of critical mass. Individualism and the “Me Generation” has made it difficult for people to pull together. Yet our very beings long for one another. We each long for a place to belong. We each long for a home. Its why such stories tug at our heart strings. We know that feeling, that need, to have a home, to be a part of a family, to belong.
Anastasia and the Israelites, they are all on a journey, a journey of discovery. Perhaps the greatest flaw in the Israelites on the seashore, was to believe that their journey was over. They looked back on the 430 years of captivity as their journey, not knowing that their journey had actually just begun.
We as Christians and those within our community who come to us often make the same mistake. Its like the “happily ever after” at the end of a romantic story. Its not the end. Its just the beginning. Faithful Christians must never forget this. Faithful Christians must be sure to share with those looking for a home among us, that what they are looking for is a beginning, not an end to the journey.
When the Israelites cry out in our story, its not to God that cry to, but to Moses, the representative of God. They look to Moses with expectations and questions. They want some answers.
In the same way, it is those within Grace’s family come in contact with those within our community who have questions and expectations. We each have not only the opportunity, but the responsibility to address their needs, their hopes, and their fears. Though the exact wording may be different, but the message is the same message Moses gave to the Israelites:
“Here there is comfort for fear. Here there is hope for deliverance and salvation.” It requires your participation. Moses told the Israelites, “The Lord will fight for you if you will only be still.” Its an invitation to let God in to each of our lives to begin to work. Its an invitation to stop struggling and fighting, trying to handle everything, but to hand our lives over to God and let God be in control.
This is the message for each of us. This is the message we are to bring to those outside our family.
You have each come here tonight for a different reason and purpose. Some of you have already found a home here. Some of you have discovered your identity. Others of you have come, because you are searching for this very thing - home, family, a place to belong. Something has led you to believe you will find it here.
To each of you, hear these words:
Home, love, family.
This is a place to discover these. This is a place to believe, a place to become, a place to belong.
To each of you:
Welcome home to Grace Church.
