Standing Up for What's Right (Sun. Sept. 27th)

This Sunday, K-5th graders in church school will be exploring Moses' encounter with Pharaoh that leads to the liberation of the Hebrew people from their oppression in Egypt (Exodus 10-14) It's a very accessible story for kids -- lots of action, clearly defined good versus evil, cosmic elements of divine intervention, miracles involving the parting of the sea. These are wonderful details that help children remember this story, one of our faith traditions most important memories of God's liberating power.

But I think sometimes in all our songs about the various plagues and choruses of "let my people go", we forget that what made this incredible moment of liberation possible, was Moses' willingness to stand up for what was right, even to people who were more powerful than he was. Where did this shy, silent type get the strength and courage to risk his own safety for the sake of values he knew to be right and holy? Perhaps it was from his mother, that courageous woman who risked disobeying the law to save his life, as we learned about in last week's Church School story. Or perhaps it was from the encounter deep in the wilderness at the burning bush, when God called Moses to stop hiding out, laying low, and to use the moral strength he had been given for a purpose. Or perhaps it was when Aaron, his brother and friend, agreed to assist him, to be his friend even if it meant he would be risking his life, too. Maybe it was some of all of them, but whatever it was, Moses made the choice to stand up for what was right.

Kids today don't have many public role models when it comes to standing up for what is right, even if it costs you something. It's often so much easier to select role models because they are successful, or beautiful, or rich, or talented. Even when we look up to celebrities who are doing good works around the world, we are still so often as enthralled with their celebrity as we are with their charity or works for justice. Their calling out injustice in the world is important and good, but it is not the kind of personal risk-taking for justice that our world so badly needs. That is what this story is about: this possibility of moral courage and the good to which it can lead.

Moral courage is about standing up to things that are wrong, hurtful, or evil; about standing on the side of the vulnerable, even becoming vulnerable to challenge injustice. This does not have to be a global struggle -- in fact, moral courage is most fully expressed in our local communities and environments (because the closer the relationships, the more that is at risk for the sake of doing the right thing). I wonder where our kids see unfairness in their lives? What seems unfair to them? Not just unpleasant (like having to eat vegetables), but actually unfair. If they chose to stand up against this unfairness, what might happen to them? Are they willing to do it?

Throughout the Bible, God promises to be with those who are vulnerable: youngest children, widows and orphans, prisoners and those who are sick. And God especially promises to be with those who CHOOSE to become vulnerable, to speak up for those whom the world has made vulnerable (through poverty, through disease, through oppression). In fact, God is not just with but IN those who take this kind of risk, because that is the same risk God took in Jesus: to become vulnerable for the sake of those who had no choice except to be vulnerable. When we stand up for the bullied kid or the last one picked for the team; when we share our lunch with a kid whose family couldn't afford to send dessert; when we refuse to enjoy special privileges because not everyone can participate; we are allowing Christ within us to shine, and the liberating power of God to come into and transform the world. This is how Moses, sustained by God's presence with him, brought freedom where there was injustice, and how we, working with God in us, can do the same in our communities.

Chris