Once again, storytelling of the "local tradition" takes hold out in the wilderness away from Empire - again from Brueggemann.
It is remarkable that after that encounter at Sinai, the empire appears little on the horizon of the Moses-Sinai narrative. For the most part it is the departure from and alternative to empire that preoccupies Israel as it builds its local tradition. YHWH's summons and instruction to Moses focuses sharply on Israel's status as a chosen people. That chosenness sets Israel apart from the nations and certainly from the seductions of empire:
"You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord you God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you - for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)
It is the upside-down story. It is the least among you story. It is the reminder that our God is not impressed with the powers of the day - but also - neither should God's people bow down to such powers. When you are nobody and when you think you may be nobody and when all the evidence around you tells you that you are nobody, our God speaks up. From the power of that word - comes life in the face of all other evidence. In this storytelling out at Sinai, it was Israel that was being held up. When we tell the story of Jesus, it now becomes all of God's beloved. All of God's beloved who stretch well beyond the bound of Israel - all who are the least and have been given life through the sheer love of God - now are a people with new life awaiting them. We turn to this Sinai story because we claim the same Lord God. Now, there are to be no boundaries. Now the gates are open for all who long to have life that is not the life of empire.
Connection: The hospitality of the Reign of God is one that is embodied in a people who keep their doors open and welcome the stranger and the foreigner even in the face of the power of the empires of the day that try to determine the worth or worthlessness of each person - for the empire.
O God, lead us home and remind us of the place you have set for us as we enter this day. Amen.
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