This week in our scripture readings, the people of Israel made it into Egypt. It is a story of redemption and reconnection. A resurrection story - this son that Jacob thought was dead is alive, the son that was lost is found. The family moves to the land of Goshen and settles separately from the Egyptians because of their agrarian way of life.
Fast forward hundreds of years and the Israelites have become numerous and the new rulers in the land fear them and enslave them. God’s desire is to fulfill God’s promise to the people of Israel that they would live in the land of Canaan - the land promised to Abraham.
God calls to Moses from the burning bush to get his attention. The beginning of many strange wonders, but Moses has a hard time trusting God. In order to show Moses that God desires a collaboration, God gives Moses a partner - his brother Aaron - to accompany him. Through a series of devastating plagues, God demonstrates sovereignty over the gods of Egypt and provision for the people of Israel. Before each one, God gives Pharaoh a chance to avoid the oncoming plague.
This has always been presented to me as a story of good guys and bad guys. God’s chosen people and those destined for destruction. It’s easier that way. Clear winners and losers. But I am trying to listen better to the good news for all, so I tried to see how this story could possibly be good news for Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
In the specific context of Egypt, they worshiped many gods - even Pharaoh was considered a god in human form - often as Horus, the son of Ra. Each of the plagues dismantled the power of the Egyptian gods in increasing measure of importance and power. The last two plagues, darkness and death of the first born, attack Ra, the Sun god, and Pharaoh as the son of Ra.
That’s part of the good news for the oppressors.. A chance to see that the gods that they depend on for their safety and dominance are nothing compared to the God of the universe. God dismantles the systems little by little, giving Pharaoh a chance to change - to repent.
The redemption for the enslaved people was physical freedom, but the redemption for the oppressors was breaking down the systems that made enslavement possible. Israel will be on the receiving end of this type of redemption several hundreds of years later when they find themselves conquered and in exile. It can’t be good news for Judah and Israel later if it is not also good news for Pharaoh and Egypt now.
As I was praying about how this story could possibly be good for all parties in the story, the picture of the end scene of The Lord of the Flies flashed into my mind.
If you haven’t read it or seen any of the film adaptations, the basic story is of a group of boys who find themselves without adult supervision on a deserted island after their plane is shot down and the pilot (the only adult!) is killed in the crash. They start to develop some rules of order and leadership, but things start to disintegrate quickly as one of the boys, Jack, sets himself against Ralph. He leads most of the others to accidentally kill a boy named Simon during a frenzied violent “dance” and mistreat and eventually kill another boy whom they nicknamed Piggy.
At the end of the book, Jack is leading all of the other boys to hunt down and kill Ralph. They can’t find him in the thick jungle of the island and so they decide to smoke him out. This large fire attracts the attention of a nearby ship who comes to the island to see what is happening.
As Ralph emerges from the cover of the jungle onto the beach where he is vulnerable and exposed to his attackers, he finds himself at the feet of a soldier. As the other boys emerge from the jungle, screaming and covered with war paint and wielding homemade weapons, they too see the soldier and they are stopped in their tracks.
In the 90s film version, the soldier says to the boys, “What are you guys doing?” In the book, it is even more profound and deeply layered: “What have you been doing? Having a war or something?” This interruption provides salvation for not just Ralph but also for the boys who were about to do something unthinkable and destructive. This type of violent behavior affects the perpetrators as trauma.
In this article on the Inclusion Solution’s website, this type of trauma is described:
- Mark Charles, a Native American (Navajo) pastor and activist, contends that white people who have perpetrated injustices against people of color over generations also experience trauma, not as victims but as perpetrators. Perpetration Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS), a term coined by peace psychologist Rachel MacNair, describes incidents of PTSD resulting from the trauma of having committed violence, as contrasted with trauma caused by witnessing or being the recipient of a violent act. Charles says that a nation built on 500 years of perpetuating injustices must also be experiencing historical trauma. He quotes Socrates: “The doer of injustice is more miserable than the sufferer. “
This concept is part of the messianic song which we see in Isaiah and then again in Luke:
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The good news for the oppressors is different from the good news for the oppressed. For those of us experiencing relative privilege in the world, the words of John the Baptist provide a simple path to this type of redemption: “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
And of course, Jesus Himself gives us instructions along these same lines when He describes the sheep and goats: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me,” (more on this here).
At Uptown Church yesterday, Pastor Jeremy gave a similar message. In our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer, the focus was on the first words, “Our Father.” This inclusive, plural pronoun packs a punch. It shows that God is the God of all! In the practice of faith in this country, this has not been the case. He reminded us of the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o'clock on Sunday morning.” He then outlined racial injustices in the history of the church, in particular around the Great Awakening and the Asuza Street Revival.
I am thankful to be part of a church that is actively seeking to give voice to the disenfranchised and marginalized among us in Uptown. Our corporate benediction reflects our values: “Lord, help us to disrupt suffering and mend what is broken with the hope of Jesus.”
As I read the Old Testament this winter, I am asking God for the grace to read from the perspective of an oppressor. I am asking God to show me the good news for all people so that I, together with every nation, tribe, language and people, can look into the face of my Savior and be made whole in His presence.
