The Lenten sermon series, “The God Story,” is using the traditional elements of storytelling to identify the overarching narrative within the Bible. In the “introduction,” we identified the main character in scripture – God – who with great power and love creates the cosmos. We also met the secondary characters of the story, human beings. The first thread that is found throughout the God story is that God speaks to human beings because God seeks to be in relationship with them. We also noted the main plot – Human beings disobey and run away from God, but God continues to seek relationship with them. Last week, we discovered a second thread found in the story of Abraham (and throughout the Bible) – God is faithful to God’s promises.
This week, we fast forward in the God Story to the account of the Exodus. This grand narrative
represents the Rising Action. Here’s a basic definition: During the rising action, the basic conflict
is complicated by the introduction of secondary conflicts and obstacles that frustrate the resolution of the plot. The grand story of Exodus is the first of many stories in scripture where God’s goal of being in relationship with human beings is challenged. We pick up the story in the desert wanderings of the Israelites. This represents a point between the difficult past of slavery and the promise of a land, a future, and a hope. In the midst of this transitional time, they have no place to call home, they are exhausted and they are hungry. So, they cry out to the Lord. And God answered their prayers with the gift of manna.
While the details of this episode in the life of the Israelites may seem far from us, the truth is that
much of our lives are lived in transitional times between promise and fulfillment. We may not feel
enslaved, but we experience forces that hold us back: fear, addiction, illness, guilt, and the
suffocating rut of life. This Sunday, we will explore what the Exodus story has to say about the Rising
Action of our own lives — those seasons of transition where the old life is behind us but the
promised future isn't yet in view. Spoiler alert: the difficult middle isn't a sign that God has abandoned you. It actually might be where your truest character is being formed.