{"id":116,"date":"2011-11-02T22:15:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T22:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onscripture\/?p=116"},"modified":"2012-04-12T13:22:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T17:22:00","slug":"exodus-1419%e2%80%9331-singing-through-the-sorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onscripture\/2011\/11\/exodus-1419%e2%80%9331-singing-through-the-sorrow.html","title":{"rendered":"Exodus 14:19\u201331: Singing Through the Sorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Barbara Kay Lundblad<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the text for this Sunday, September 11?\u00a0 The minister may read a text from the Bible but many people will be hearing other texts that aren\u2019t in the book: the reading of names, the melancholy drone of bagpipes, a final goodbye left on an answering machine. Some of us may return to scripture verses read ten years ago \u2013 Lamentations\u2019 poignant picture of the lonely city that once was full of people or the psalmist\u2019s assurance: \u201cGod is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved.\u201d Many of us who live in New York City found the psalmist\u2019s promise difficult to believe then, perhaps even now.<\/p>\n

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Yet there are texts for this Sunday, read in churches that follow a pattern of readings. In congregations across the country, people will hear the powerful story of the Israelites crossing the sea (Exodus 14: 19 \u2013 31<\/a>). How will this text sound alongside the other texts of 9\/ll? This story is well known. Even if you\u2019ve never read the book, you\u2019ve probably seen the movie. At least once a year The Ten Commandments <\/em>returns to television and Charlton Heston waves his staff over the sea. Miraculously, the waters are swept aside, leaving a dry roadway for the former slaves to walk across in safety. Pharaoh\u2019s chariots pursue them but Moses raises his staff again and the waters crash back covering the chariots and the chariot drivers: \u201cand Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.\u201d Why couldn\u2019t the Exodus story have ended earlier? \u00a0Perhaps a few verses back when the Egyptians said to one another, \u201cLet us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.\u201d Wouldn\u2019t that have been enough? The army was retreating. The Egyptian soldiers acknowledged the power of God and the Israelites were safe on the far side of the sea. Did the Egyptians have to be drowned? Did we have to see their bodies dead on the seashore?<\/p>\n

Maybe you know what comes next: Moses and the Israelites sing a joyous victory song. We sang the song at church camp \u2013 not Moses\u2019 long oratorio (Ex. 15: 1-18) but his sister Miriam\u2019s shorter version: \u201cI will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.\u201d (Ex. 15: 21) The song had three different parts which were sung all at the same time — and we sang each part with gusto. If we had tambourines we would have joined Miriam and the women in their dancing.<\/p>\n

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But does God want such songs?<\/strong>
\nLong after the sea was crossed and the singing died out, the rabbis struggled with this story. Did the people walk into the sea or wait until the sea retreated? Did God part the sea only after<\/span> the people showed their faithfulness by stepping into the water? To answer such questions the sages developed the art of midrash<\/span>\u2013 <\/em>stories to fill in the gaps, to deal with contradictions and confusion. In one story from the Babylonian Talmud<\/span> angels were watching as the sea covered the Egyptians: “In that instant the ministering angels wished to utter song before the Holy One, but He rebuked them, saying, ‘The works of My hands are drowning in the sea, and you would utter song in My presence.!'” [1]<\/em> A rabbi friend told me that over the years this midrash has been retold with God rebuking not only the angels, but the Israelites themselves.<\/p>\n

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Watch the Video: 9\/11 the Conversation we never had<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As we approach the 10-year anniversary of 9\/11, faith leaders reflect on the challenge of living with the deep ideological and religious differences that persist in our multi-denomination society. “You can’t have healing unless you have dialogue and unless you have engagement,” says Bishop John Bryson Chane, an Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The midrash didn\u2019t erase the text for a midrash never does that. Nor did the midrash ease the tension. How could God chastise the angels when God caused the drowning? The text was not erased, but a new word was spoken. The sages remembered other strands of Torah which called God\u2019s people to care for strangers and foreigners, exiles and wanderers. If God is the God of the stranger and the alien, why would God delight in foreigners \u2013 even enemies — drowning? \u00a0Biblical scholar John Collins puts it this way: \u201cThe Bible does not demystify or demythologize itself. But neither does it claim that the stories it tells are paradigms for human action in all times and places.\u201d[2]<\/em> Delighting in the death of enemies is not a paradigm for every generation. The rabbis found a way to live with the tension: to hear the text of Exodus, yet also to hear God chastising the angels for singing songs of victory.<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t had any clear victories to sing about since September 11, 2001. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ambiguous from the start and drag on to this day. Thousands have been killed, both soldiers and civilians. While many cheered the death of Osama bin Laden, his death has not turned sorrow into joy or filled an empty place at the table. What song shall we sing now?<\/p>\n

Ten years ago two women found each other and began to sing through their sorrow. Susan Retik and Patti Quigley lost their husbands that terrible day. Both were pregnant with babies their fathers would never see. They had never expected to be pregnant widows yet it was that terrible reality that connected them with widows in the nation we had named our enemy. These two American women started an organization called \u201cBeyond the 11th<\/sup>\u201d dedicated to helping Afghan women who were widows like themselves. As of last year they had helped more than 1,000 Afghan widows start businesses to support their families. All the work done by this organization over nine years has cost less than keeping one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan for eight months. (Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times<\/span>, Sept. 10, 2010, A31). These two women sang a song not of revenge or retribution, but of new life and connection. Who knows what might be different if we had joined their singing? Perhaps the very notion is na\u00efve. Is it any more na\u00efve than assuming we would win the war in Afghanistan?<\/p>\n

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What song shall we now sing? Ten years ago we sang \u201cGod, Bless America\u201d as a fervent prayer out of our fear and brokenness. As weeks passed the tempo became more like a march sung in theseventh inning stretch at ballgames. As a prayer the song sings of deep gratitude for our country \u201cfrom the mountains to the prairies to the oceans decked with foam.\u201d But when the song becomes a prayer for our country alone, we need a midrash to remind us of the breadth of God\u2019s love beyond our borders.\u00a0 If we lack the wisdom of the sages, let us at least join in singing a second verse to the song:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God Bless the World <\/strong><\/p>\n

God bless the world we love,
\nStranger and friend,
\nGo before us, restore us
\nWith a hope that despair cannot end.
\nEv\u2019ry people, ev\u2019ry nation,
\nMighty ocean, heaven\u2019s dome.
\nGod bless the world we love
\nOur fragile home.
\nGod bless the world You love,
\nOur fragile home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Cited in The Book of Legends: Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Legends from the Talmud and Midrash edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, translated by William G. Braude (New York: Schocken Books, 1992) 73. Footnote #11 gives the source as B. Sanhedrin 39b<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[2] John Collins, \u201cThe Zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence\u201d (Journal of Biblical Literature: Vol. 122, No. 1: 2003), 20<\/em><\/p>\n

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  By Barbara Kay Lundblad What is the text for this Sunday, September 11?\u00a0 The minister may read a text from the Bible but many people will be hearing other texts that aren\u2019t in the book: the reading of names, the melancholy drone of bagpipes, a final goodbye left on an answering machine. 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