Standing in the Breach – Installation of Rev. Laura Loving

Sunday, Oct 09 2011

Speakers: Rev. James M. Rand

Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14, Philippians 4:1-3, 8-9

He …

·         Grew up in Pharaoh’s house – as the adopted son of a tyrant.

·         Committed murder and went on the lam.

·         Married a Midianite, not one of the covenant people.

·         Claimed that God talked to him.  From a bush!

·                 … And that he argued back!

·         His followers murmured and grumbled against him …

·                 … And worshiped an idol when he turned his back.

·         He had trouble setting priorities, with a to-do list ten items long.

·         and he wasn’t very flexible, since those ten things were written in stone.

If you want a model for ministry, he’s probably not your guy.  Yet, the end of Deuteronomy says, “Never since has there arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses.”

What was it about him?  What set him apart?

I think it’s that he went where few mortals go, and angels fear to tread.

·         Near a bush that was on fire but wasn’t burned up

·         Face-to-face with Pharaoh, saying “Let my people go”

·         Out in the desert, where few favors are granted

·         And into the gap between the divine and profane, between human idolatry and holy justice, between Israel’s failed past and God’s promised future.

* *

Psalm 106 (v. 19-23) offers a theological reflection on today’s Hebrew text.  Retelling the story, it says:

They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a cast image.

They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt …

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Therefore [God would have destroyed] them –

had not Moses, [God’s] chosen one, stood in the breach …

to turn away [God’s] wrath from destroying them.

Moses “stood in the breach” to turn away God’s wrath.

He “stood in the breach” between “an ox that eats grass” (do you hear the sarcasm?) and the God who did great things in Egypt … between a little golden statue and the One whose anger melts gold like butter in a saucepan.

That’s what set Moses apart.

He “stood in the breach – in the gap – to turn away God’s wrath from destroying [stiff-necked, idolatrous people].”

So, Laura Loving, welcome to ministry with Moses!  And good luck.

**

How’d he do it?  I’ll give you three “R’s” for an answer.  He had to Resist, Remember, and Retell.

1.   Moses had to resist the temptation for personal glory and gain – a temptation God set before him.  God said, “Let me alone … so that I may consume them; and of you [Moses] I’ll make a great nation.”

God offered to break the covenant with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, and to write Moses’ name in their place.  Tempting as it was, Moses had to resist and say no.

2.   He had to remember.  He had to remember how Israel’s salvation history actually went, not as God wanted to rewrite it.  God thunders at Moses about “your people, whom you brought out of … Egypt” – to which Moses answers, “Wait!  They’re your people [not mine].  You brought them out!” (v. 7 and 11).

      Moses can stand in the breach, because he remembers that he isn’t God.

3.   That frees him to retell the covenant between God and God’s people.  With daring bravado, he recites it to the One who enacted it, saying, “Remember Abraham, Isaac and [Jacob], your servants, [and] how you swore to them by your own self” to multiply their descendants and to give this land to their offspring to inherit it forever.

Resist personal glory, Remember God’s story, and Retell the covenant.  That’s how he stood in the breach between flawed, ordinary people and God.

Laura, I hope your heart throbs and mind soars, as you say to yourself, “Yeah!  That’s my calling!  That’s why I left the classroom – so I could do these things again!”

I hope others around you, clergy or not, are saying, “We want to stand in the breach too, Laura, to resist and remember and retell all of this with you!”

* *

But at the risk of bursting your bubble, I’ll say, that’s the easy part. Standing between God’s fiery anger and sinful people is a cakewalk … compared to standing between people riled up in a good church fight of their own!

That’s where the Apostle Paul stands in today’s New Testament reading.  He doesn’t take the high moral ground, and doesn’t stay on the sidelines, but enters the breach between two churchwomen in the midst of a spat.  Talk about hard places!

We don’t know why Euodia and Syntyche were mad at each other.  But it’s a good bet they didn’t sit in the same pew any more, and everyone noticed.  The whole church could see something was up.  Maybe the whole city of Philippi knew.  A feud among goody-two-shoes Christians?  And two women, no less?  Don’t you know that fed the gossip mill all over town!  News like that travels fast.

Paul heard about it in prison, in some faraway place.  Rather than ignoring it, he singled the women out in a letter.  He talked about it.  By name!  In front of the church!  He says, “I urge Euodia and … Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.”

Maybe he could do that, in prison, locked up, out of reach from those women, where they couldn’t turn their combined venom on him.  More likely, though, he saw it as his calling.  It was his calling to stand in the breach with Jesus Christ, who by his own death and resurrection “tears down the dividing walls and the hostility between us” (Eph. 2:14).

To stand in the breach between humans and God is one thing.  But to stand between human beings – both claiming to have Jesus on their side – and who are at odds with each other … that comes with the turf too.  It’s not “either-or,” but “both-and.”

And there are plenty of breaches to stand in … between:

·         Democrat and Republican, conservative and progressive, as political rhetoric grows ever more sharp;

·         Haves and have-nots as the income and opportunity gaps widen;

·         Presbyterians divided against one another over changes to the Book of Order;

·         Christian and non-Christian;

·         Husbands and wives or parent and child, in homes filled with tension;

·         Individuals at war within themselves over the joy of the gospel in their hearts, which they hear and believe, and unrelenting grief over their losses in their souls;

·         Consumerism that puts self first, and stewardship that reaches out;

·         Between urban gang-bangers, international warlords, and warring nations;

·         And yes, between Christian and Christian, as with Euodia and Syntyche, where both struggle faithfully – but differently – to do the work of the gospel.

Much work to do.  Many breaches to stand in.  Did I say, “Good luck, Laura”?

* *

The good news is it isn’t up to you, solo.  This is part of the genius Paul displays in his letter.  Knowing there’s only so much (or so little) he can do, he enlists the whole church to stand in the breach between those women, and help make amends.

He calls the whole company of believers to fill the chasm between Euodia and Syntyche in order to build – or become – a bridge that restores, reconciles and reunites them to each other in Christ.

Paul calls the whole church to resist personal ego, remember God’s story, and retell the covenant for people on all sides of every question.  Not to take sides, but to stand in the breach.

While he calls the whole church to that work, he singles out two people to take the lead: Syzygus and Clement.  Who were they?  We don’t know.  They could have been anyone in the church.  In fact, Syzygus’ name only appears only in a footnote.  They weren’t standouts, just ordinary Christians.

But Syzygus and Clement were crucial players for standing in the breach, because the name Syzygus means “True Companion,” and Clement means “Merciful” or “Gentle.”  Paul is saying that whoever dares stand in the breach, reconciling people to people, and people to God needs to do so with mercy, gentleness, and companionship at their side.

He also says there’s a reward for such people.  Their names are “in the book of life.”  That’s better than good luck.

That book can’t be found in a seminary library you haunted decades ago, or on a shelf in your study, or at Amazon.com (where you wouldn’t go anyway!).  The book of life is always in the breach – between hurt and healing – where God’s people go

·         to liberate slaves,

·         to guide lost people toward places of promise,

·         to unmask idols, turning away God’s fierce anger,

·         to reconcile and restore a community of saints … and finally,

·         to live a resurrected life in the liberty and grace of Jesus Christ.

To the glory of God