June 2021

Dear Gather Family and Friends,

This week’s Exodus study features a drumbeat as the Israelites are repeatedly instructed to keep the memory of their struggle as a “sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead so that you will often discuss the Lord’s Instruction, for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with great power” (Ex. 13:9). Never lose touch with your past; keep it top of mind, God tells the soon-to-be-liberated Israelites. It is the story that will shape their future as nation, as a faith community, and ultimately become the ground on which our own Christian faith is built.

Israel’s liberation amounts to more than crossing a reedy sea with miraculous waterwalls on both sides. The story of a humiliated, enslaved people proving so important to God proves how faithfully—and predictably—our God stands with the oppressed, marginalized, and outcast. This has been true again and again. A sign on your hand, a reminder on your forehead. Don’t forget it. It will keep you moving.

This message is especially timely, coming between last Saturday’s Juneteenth holiday and this weekend’s 52^nd anniversary of Stonewall. Both represent a parting of waters to open the way toward greater equality and justice. But Exodus reminds us the past must never become a fading history lesson. It’s vital to keep our struggles alive in memory, constantly reminding ourselves that freedom is a moving target. Movements push us forward, propelled by injustices and atrocities of the past.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Dr. King famously said, paraphrasing the 19^th-century abolitionist preacher Theodore Parker. That we still draw strength from this truth tells us how long and arduous the quest for freedom really is. If we are wise, we will make room for remembering to keep us headed in the right direction. Gratefully, two occasions for remembering happen this week at Gather.

Join us tonight at 7:30pm CDT for the next chapter in our study series, “Exodus: The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told”.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82424012625
Meeting ID: 824 2401 2625
Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

Then on this coming Sunday at 5pm CDT, make sure you’re with us for our annual Pride service. Our own Janice Beard will bring a dynamic message and the music will celebrate the genius of Stevie Wonder. You’ll find us via our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCldChQ-w8vS1vkbSDyyxLOQ.

We’re thrilled to have these opportunities to be together and hope you’ll take part in them!

In freedom, with love,
Pastor Tim

Dear Gather Family,

As our Exodus adventure unfolds, we see how incredible events that defy “natural order” reveal a higher purpose. The flaming bush that doesn’t burn out attests to a God who does not destroy what God creates. And now, in this week’s discussion, we get the first nine plagues that begin rather comically as a showdown. Then, as the attacks intensify, Pharaoh’s magicians lose their mojo. The conflict is not, as first seems, between religious or even political ideologies. It is a battle of wills: Pharaoh’s willfulness and God’s uncontestable intention. In between rests a community of people drawn into harder labor with steadily reduced rights and dwindling power to embrace their identities as children of Israel (which means, “wrestle with God”) and Hebrews (“outsiders”).

The problem is bigger than enslavement. As divinely directed, Moses insists God’s people must be at liberty to leave Egypt, where they can worship God according to their own convictions. The prophet is very clear: this move is for everyone in the community. No one is left behind. No one is rejected. Not even the livestock are allowed to remain in captivity. If you’re an outsider—a wrestler with God—it is per divine edict that you’re free to worship God safely and with meaning. (In chapter 12, we’ll learn the Exodus also included a “diverse crowd” that extended beyond the Israelite slaves. So, as always happens, freedom drew others into community.)

The plagues portend something far more dangerous than ecological disasters. Any time people oppress a band of scrappy outsiders, the strategy inevitably backfires. The border patrol inevitably hems itself in. “How long will this man trap us?” Pharaoh’s leaders ask (Ex. 10:7). It is from this example we learn the right side of history always supports crossing boundaries, opening space, and embracing freedom for all. The right side of history is always transgressive in powerful, world-altering ways.

Make sure you join us this Thursday at 7:30 CDT as we look at confrontations with Pharaoh through the lens of God’s overarching intention: freedom and worship in inclusive, diverse community.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82424012625
Meeting ID: 824 2401 2625
Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

Peace and blessings,
Pastor Tim

Dear Gatherers,

Our Exodus journey continues with another pivotal event: Moses’s burning bush encounter with God. (Click here to read this week’s passage.) In the popular imagination, this is one of those amazing moments when there can be no mistaking what’s going on. We call these occurrences “theophanies,” where the divine presence is manifested so vividly no questions are necessary. Who else can it be, but God? What else could one do, but say yes? How else could one feel other than totally sure? For goodness sakes, this is a flaming bush that doesn’t burn up, in a voice that comes from nowhere, and knows everything about Moses, his people, and their situation. “I’ve seen… I’ve heard… I know,” the voice says (Ex. 3:7). Not much to question there.

Except Moses has lots of questions and plenty of doubts, not only in the viability of God’s strategy, but also in his own ability to pull it off. If Moses struggles, we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves if we’re taken aback when the Spirit speaks to us, reminds us who we are, what we need to do, and why we’re essential to God’s work in the world.

The call to stand for all that is just and against anything that smacks of injustice is every bit as real for us as it was for Moses. And if we suppose a burning bush and voice from on high would give us the necessary oomph to do this work, let’s look more closely at Exodus 3 and 4. Soon enough, Moses will become the prophetic mediator, increasingly overshadowed by the bright lights of divine revelation and guidance (as happens to most prophets). Right here, on this mountain, where God is speaking and God’s relentless nature is revealed in a fire that refuses to burn out, Moses is remarkably human—so like us it’s uncanny.

This Thursday, we’ll revisit the burning bush with new eyes and ears. Hopefully a closer look at Moses will raise new questions about ourselves. When God’s Spirit calls, how do we respond? How often do we reject the idea God would ever call on us, given our uncertainties and inadequacies and the size of the task before us? How quickly do we fall into the same groove that Moses falls into: You need somebody else. Nobody’s going to care what I say. I’m not equipped for this. How easily we forget about Moses! How easily we discount God’s faith in us and undervalue faith we need in ourselves!

Don’t miss our next chapter in Exodus: The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told! We meet this Thursday at 7:30p CDT. See you then!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82424012625
Meeting ID: 824 2401 2625
Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

Peace and blessings,
Pastor Tim

Dear Gather Family and Friends,

A summer unlike any we’ve ever known is opening its arms to us. After 15 long months of isolation and hyper-vigilance, we’re experiencing the first tastes of freedom. It’s time to get out and about! No doubt, many of us suspect this experience of captivity and fear has probably altered us in ways we can’t understand yet. Over time, we’ll get there. But for right now, being free matters most. The Hebrew slaves of Egypt must have felt the same way. When time came to pick up and move out, they had nothing left to lose and everything to gain from trusting their divinely appointed leader, Moses.

Especially for those of us whose vision of the biblical account is marred by Charlton Heston mixing it up with Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments, it’s easy to assume the slaves’ deliverance is purely a God thing. And as liberation Christians we’re right to imagine divine concern for Israel automatically places God on the side of the impoverished and oppressed. But the authors of Exodus emphatically tell us history’s most famous freedom ride begins not with godly wrath, but rather with the protests of the enslaved. “The Israelites were still groaning because of their hard work. They cried out, and their cry to be rescued from the hard work rose up to God,” we read in Exodus 2:23.

The first big lesson of Exodus isn’t “hang around passively and God will intervene.” It’s closer to, “Raise your voice! Make some noise!” And it’s in that spirit that we’ll launch our summer-long travels with Moses and the Israelites. Each week will burst with intriguing moments (most of which never made it into the movie) and more than a few surprises. Plan now to be with us each Thursday at 7:30pm CDT for a wonderful time of learning and sharing together.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82424012625
Meeting ID: 824 2401 2625
Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

I’m really excited about this series and can’t wait to share it with you!

Peace and blessings,
Pastor Tim