Exodus 14:5-7, 10-15, 21-29 on October 4th, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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Charlton Heston. I just want to go ahead and get his name out there because whenever this story is read, most or all of us have that image of him as Moses from the movie The Ten Commandments. The clouds are swirling as he stretches out his arms, staff in hand. The music swells to this climactic crescendo. The sea in front of him starts foaming and splashing and eventually retreating, revealing a path. Dry land. This baby, one of the most iconic scenes in the whole Bible, and certainly one that is very iconic in the movies. I'm not even that sensitive to this kind of stuff and I got chills when I pulled up the clip on YouTube.
There's good reason why this scene is so dramatized. Exodus 14 is the most important chapter in the Old Testament. It may not be too many people's most loved story, nor does it have many favorite quotable verses, but that does not take away the fact that this event, the escape from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, is the most important event in the history of the Israelite people. This is the story of a God who does not abandon God's people when they are about to be destroyed, even when hope is lost, when armies come, when they are stuck, God turns the tide in their favor.
We've skipped a lot of the biblical narrative since last week, so let's catch up a bit. Joseph eventually does get out of jail, which is where we left him last week. He is appointed to Pharaoh's court where through his ability to interpret dreams, he is able to save all of Egypt and those brothers who sold him into slavery from a seven-year famine. Happy times ensue.
However, generations pass and all of this important culture-saving history is eventually forgotten by a new Egyptian Pharaoh who enslaves the now numerous Israelites. God hears the cries of the people and acts. God speaks to Moses from a burning bush. "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." This reminds Moses and us of the covenant that God made so long ago. So God sends Moses to let my people go. After rejection and plagues and Passover of the Lord, the Pharaoh finally relents. The Israelites are free to go.
This is where we pick up today. The Israelites are on their journey to freedom except — they are trapped. It seems that Pharaoh changed his mind and now is on the chase. Now, the Israelites are stuck between an oncoming army and a giant sea. They are scared, freaked out and nervous. The end is near. "What have you done to us, Moses?"
Then Moses says, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to keep still." That's important because sometimes we turn Bible stories into extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. Israel doesn't do anything here but worry. Even Moses, despite the drama, doesn't save Israel. There is no clever escape route. They are trapped between forces that they cannot control themselves.
God makes a way. God saves. God does the impossible to claim them. God makes the miraculous happen to save them. God yanks them out of the clutches of death so that they may have life. God keeps the covenant alive. A nation blessed so that all the world may be blessed. Those are the lengths that God will go to keep the covenant.
That is why Israel tells the story again and again and again. When there was nowhere for them to go, when they were on the wrong side of the powers of this world, when they were in the midst of certain death, God acted. God did something. God did something pretty freaking amazing. God saved them. God did it. They didn't do a thing. So Israel and we remember. We remember who God is. We remember what God has done. We remember that when Pharaoh says, "I've got you now," God says, "No, you are mine." When the sea says there is nowhere to go, God makes a way. Which is what God does.
And for us too, there is this defining story of God's saving action that we tell again and again and again. We remember what God has done in Jesus Christ. We remember that when sin says you are condemned, when death says there is nothing else, when the tomb closes and it seems like the end, God acts. God makes a way. God gives life in the midst of what seems final. Pharaoh cannot stop God. A sea cannot stop God. A cross cannot stop God. A sealed tomb cannot stop God. God makes a way. A way from slavery to freedom, a way from death to life forever. That is the story we tell.
And lately God has made a lot of ways open for us here at St. Philip. And I know that I sound like a broken record sometimes telling you the same thing again and again and again. But we are blessed as a congregation. When renovations seemed too daunting, God made a way for us to improve our worship and welcome. When fellowship hall worship seemed to go on forever, God made a way for us to bring creativity and flexibility. When building loan debt may have been insurmountable, God made a way for generosity to set us free to flourish.
Our space and our worship lifts our spirits. It gives us hope and inspires all. We are able to welcome more, both in numbers and in the ways we gather both before and after service. We proclaim Christ crucified and risen. We love our neighbor. We expand God's table in spirit, song and service.
And one interesting thing about our text is that after Moses says the Lord will fight for you, God says, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward." Tell the Israelites to go forward through the way that God has made. And now perhaps God is telling us to go forward too.
As we turn in our 2027 stewardship and intent cards today, we know that God has a way forward for us. God has brought us to an exciting place as a congregation, but there are more steps to take. Our ministry with children and youth is just one example. We have grown, and that growth means we need more support, more planning, more dedicated attention to help our young people grow in faith. And that's just one piece of what it means to be a growing congregation.
And so as we return those intent cards today, our generosity is one of the ways that we participate in that movement forward. We put what God has entrusted to us into the ministry that God has given us to do. And God is already doing so much in us and through us. God has brought us here, set us on this path, made a way, and says, "Tell St. Philip to go forward." And if history is any predictor of the future, I know that we will move forward together into the amazing things that God has in store. I don't know if there will quite be Charlton Heston drama-worthy, but they will be great indeed.
The God who makes a way through the sea is the God who makes a way through the grave. The God who brought Israel from slavery into freedom is the God who in Christ brings us from death to life. Nothing could stop God then. Nothing can stop God now. God makes a way. And God's people go forward. Amen.