“When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, you shall make this response before the LORD your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.’” (Exodus 26:4-5)
This week marks the beginning of Lent – a forty-day period of sombre reflection that takes us right up to Easter, and it seems appropriate that we begin such a journey by reflecting on where we have come from.
Exodus 26 depicts Moses giving instructions to his people about what they are going to do when they take possession of the land that God has promised them. Moses was intent on seeing that his people established their new community on a solid foundation, and to do that they needed to know their story.
Every community has its story. It’s generally a heroic tale, detailing how the founding fathers and mothers overcame impossible odds to deliver to their descendants what they enjoy today. In some cases, though, as with the Australian Indigenous people, the story told is more often one of oppression and dispossession. What about the story of the people of Israel?
“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (Exodus 26:5).
That’s how Israel’s story starts. Our founding father was a nomad. It’s a stark contrast to the story of Rome, where its founding fathers, Romulus and Remus, were brought up in the wild and suckled by a wolf. The Romans were warriors and survivors from the outset. The Israelites, by contrast, trace themselves back to a homeless guy!
From that point forward, the history of the people of Israel, according to Moses, was a history of grace. Their people grew in number, yet they were soon oppressed and enslaved. That might have gone on forever except that the Lord, their God, saw what was going on and had compassion on them.
“The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders, and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 26:8-9)
That’s their story. It’s not a story of human heroism or dogged perseverance in the face of impossible odds. It’s a story of grace. These people were nothing special. They were not born of any celestial union between a human and a god. They were not especially strong, creative, or heroic, but God was gracious to them. God freed them from slavery and gave them somewhere where they could live in peace.
The natural outcome of this story is thanksgiving. Accordingly, Moses tells his people that every time they have a harvest, they must take the first fruits that their land produces, give them to the priest, publicly retell their story, and celebrate!
“Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.” (Exodus 26:11)
It should not surprise us that the party has to include not only the Levites (who don’t own any land) but also any landless foreigners who happen to be in the region. Grace must be extended to those who might otherwise go hungry, just as God was gracious to you!
Our story defines our identity. Many Australians cling to the story of the ANZACS as our national story – a story of individual heroism against impossible odds. Others, as mentioned, remember a darker story. The key thing to recognise is that, to a great extent, we choose our stories, and it is the stories that we chose that define us as a people – whether we are proud, arrogant, angry or thankful.
It was Orwell’s most memorable quote from 1984: “Who controls the past, controls the future, Who controls the present, controls the past”.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of people trying to take control of the past. I remember visiting Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, back in 2002. It was full of monuments to Confederate war heroes back then, all of which have subsequently been taken down. I’m not sure if they’ve changed the name of the street.
Closer to home, this year has already seen a series of attacks on statues of Captain Cook in both Sydney and Melbourne, along with attacks on a variety of other images of persons earmarked as white colonialists. It’s as if we were trying to erase a part of our history that we don’t want to remember. The problem with this, of course, is that forgetting the past tends to leave us more open to repeating it.
I don’t think we need to alter the past in order to choose our story. The past contains many stories. One of those stories is the story of what God has been doing with humanity, and that’s the story we need to adopt as our own, for our story defines our identity, and our identity will determine our destiny.
Our Sunday Eucharist
We celebrated another wonderful Sunday Eucharist last weekend. It was great to have my dear friends, David Baldwin and Tom Toby, with me.
Tom had just returned from Lebanon, having attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, and that inevitably dominated our opening discussion. I’ve included a clip from that discussion below. It’s been watched more than 5,000 times on TikTok alone so far, and all the comments have been positive. Indeed, it was a historic event.
Catch all the video shorts from last Sunday, including one from Dr Stephen Sizer on the Transfiguration, on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, or visit our full video archive on my YouTube channel.
This Sunday I’m looking forward to having Rob Gilland and Father Mark Battison back on the panel. Do join us at midday on TheSundayEucharist.com or on Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Faithia.
I look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊
Let me work your corner
If you’d like to see my work continue, please click here to make a one-off donation. If you can afford a monthly contribution, sign up at Patreon.com and choose from:
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Every dollar helps keep the wheels turning – the websites, the newsletters, the broadcasts, the boxing club and the bush camp. Sign up at Patreon.com.
What’s On?
- Saturday, March 8th – Boxing @Legends Gym in Kensington from 3.00 pm
- Sunday, March 9th– Our Eucharist from noon via thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram orFaithia).
- Tuesday, March 11th – Boxing at the The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7pm.
- Thursday, March 13th – Boxing at the The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7pm
- Friday to Sunday, March 14 to 16 – @Binacrombi. Please join me.
It’s been good to get back into boxing over the last few weeks, and I’m glad to see our team gradually building up again. We still have room for a few more souls to join us though at the Mundine Gym if you’re interested in getting your fitness up and your weight down. I’m still trying to work off the extra 3kgs I put on over Christmas, but I’m on track, and am happy to help a few more get back on track. 😊
If you haven’t seen the dialogue I shared this week from my friend, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, it’s well worth taking the time to listen to it in full. His topic is The Role of Donald Trump in World History, and it is highly insightful.
Dr Muzaffar is not a fan of President Trump. Even so, he sees him playing a pivotal and positive role in evolving world affairs. Click here to watch it, and be patient with the pace of Dr Muzaffar’s delivery. He is not a young man, but he is full of wisdom.
In terms of broader world affairs, things seem to be spiralling out of control. Leaders across Europe are clamouring for a war with Russia. If you’re still trying to think that one through, I recommend our friend, George Christensen’s, substack on “Zelenskyy, NATO, and the West’s War Machine“. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli government has shut off all deliveries of food and water! This is a death sentence for the more than two million people living there. How can the world remain silent?
With the Arab Summit taking place in Cairo, I had hoped that there might have been some sort of meaningful response. With this all taking place at the beginning of Ramadan, it’s surely an insult to Muslim people everywhere! Even so, the responses thus far have been as few as they have been toothless.
One small ray of light is the email campaign launched by the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN). If you’d like to join us in urging Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, to speak out before things deteriorate further, click here.
And to finish on a brighter note, my beloved Joy wants to offer you something she put together to help you through your Lenten journey. It’s called “Stepping Out with Jesus” and is a series of reflections and activities designed to help you maximise your Lenten experience. Download it here.
May the Lord bless and strengthen you for the work to which you have been called.
Your brother in the Good Fight,
About Father Dave Smith
Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four
