God's Still Doing Something

"I am going to do something."     

In Exodus 3, this is basically God's response to the oppression and suffering of his people. 

In Exodus 3:7-8, God says to Moses:

"I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry...I know their sufferings, 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..."

In other words: I am going to do something. 

I'm reminded of this story as I think about the past several weeks. I'm not thinking just about the current circumstances of our culture and world right now. I'm thinking more of the overall human problem and the story of Jesus through Lent and Easter. I'm thinking of Jesus' willingness to become human, to live the life of a homeless wanderer, to struggle for the ones at the bottom of the Roman pyramid, to stand up to religious hypocrisy, to be treated as a criminal and beaten, and to die. And to forgive and offer hope to everyone in the process.

For us he did that. For the world. He did it to liberate us from ourselves, to open up a new way to be human, to give us the hope of being remade. 

Jesus was God's ultimate way of saying, "I am going to do something." 

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The problem right now might be one thing. When things clear up, it'll be something else. And the problems and suffering of this world never seem to stop. We often wonder why. Why does God allow suffering? Good question. 

Have you wondered if maybe it's the wrong question? What if we change our perspective and instead ask a different question: What do I see God doing right now? 

Sometimes we might say, "Nothing." 

Sometimes I wonder if we're too shackled to "ideas" about God that set certain expectations that blind us from seeing what God might actually be doing. We get our heads around certain ideas that God is "good" or God is all-knowing, all-powerful, God is "in control," and so on. The trouble is that we fill all these concepts with our own ideas of what they should mean. Who's to decide what it means for God to be "good" or "in control"? 

Certainly not me. Probably not you, either. Defining how God shows up is not a "what it means for you" game. 

Here's the other thing. The Bible does not work this way. The Bible specializes in defining God through stories of God's activity.

Instead of abstract, undefinable ideas, the Bible gives us human stories about real lives where God shows up. Rather than say, "Why would an all powerful God do this or allow that?" the stories of the Bible point us to a new perspective: here's a story of what God did. Let the stores speak. Let them remind us.

God in the Bible does not give us answers, but action. And this action of God comes alive in real lives and shared stories. These stories look back and give hope for the present and future. 

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The Exodus story is the headliner for defining God in the Old Testament. Time and time again the Old Testament writers refer back to the Exodus story to remind God's people of who God is, and of who they are. 

The Exodus story tells us this: God is a God who shows up to rescue those who are suffering. 

This is what God said to Moses in Exodus, and it's what the gospel writers say about Jesus, the headliner for the New Testament. And, interestingly, the story of Jesus sounds a lot like the Exodus. In Luke's gospel, here's what Mary says about what God is doing through Jesus:

"he has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble" (Luke 1:52) 

Jesus will say it himself, that he came into humanity

"to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to set the oppressed free and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"  (Luke 4:18-19)

The God of the Bible does not sit by watching as the world's activities unfold. God acts in real time. God intervenes. God shows up in response to suffering and oppression. As Exodus 3 says, God is a God who hears the cries of people and knows their sufferings.

We may not see it right away. But that's what faith is. It's living in trust because the God who acts is worth our trust.

So, I say it to remind you, dear reader. As I've said before, God has not given up on this world. That includes you. God shows up. God shows up for the suffering and oppressed. And it's not always where we think or how we imagine. God showed up through Moses, using the lone Israelite farmer and his brother Aaron to speak to the Egyptian empire. God showed up in Jesus to redeem the world -- a homeless, poor, blue-collar Jewish peasant taking on evil, injustice, and suffering.

And this Jesus was raised from the dead. He's still opening our eyes to see. Today it might be you. God might show up in someone's suffering through you, or in your suffering through someone else. You might be the next story.

God's still doing something.