Emotions run high as we relax pandemic rules. How do you feel? Perhaps you long for a hand of reassurance on your shoulder. Perhaps you long to comfort others. Today, we remember the outstretched arms of two legendary bible characters, which pointed to open spaces just when life seemed to be closing in.

Thanks to Shawn Hoke under Creative Commons

Our two stories are separated in time and place but both are about a community of faith being shown a new, unfamiliar, path forward.

The first is in Exodus, a book in Hebrew scripture in which the Jewish patriarch Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. They must learn to live differently. At this point in Chapter 14, they are trapped in the wilderness, with the mighty and ferocious Egyptian army on their tail and the sea ahead. No going back. No way out.

Moses then follows a command from God, to stretch out his hand over the sea. And a miracle takes place: a strong easterly wind drives back the waters, carving a pathway through; a route towards new life on the other side. As Moses lowers his arm, the waters close back in on the approaching army.

What do you feel about this?

If you like, imagine yourself in the shoes of an exhausted, traumatised and institutionalised Israelite suddenly ushered between the sea walls. How does this feel?

The meaning of the word ‘wave’ has changed for all of us, of course. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the ‘first wave’ threatened to overwhelm the NHS. And more were coming.

The ‘waves’ of the COVID sea have cost us. It has been exhausting.

Picture yourself in the waves of the sea. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you reflect on your pandemic journey; is there an outstretched hand?

Perhaps it helps to think about the conversations that took place as the Israelites walked between the incredible walls of water, along the dry strip of newly exposed seabed. What kind of new togetherness was this?

~

In Matthew’s gospel, at the end of Chapter 12, Jesus is addressing a crowd when he is interrupted by the news his mother and brothers have arrived and are anxious to have a word with him. Of all the responses he might have made, the one he chooses takes us by surprise. He asks the messenger:

‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’

He then stretches out his hand, in an expansive gesture, taking in all his gathered disciples and declares:

‘Here are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’

What do you feel about this?

We have all experienced the anxious wait for someone to answer the phone, reply to a text message or email. The feeling of being ignored is painful. We want that other person to prioritise us, especially if they are family!

Can you remember a time when you have felt ignored, vulnerable or disrespected because someone you value fails to respond to your communications?

There is much we do not know about this Jesus story. But the gesture he makes seems to show that those gathered were included among the family ‘doing the will of my Father’. And it seems he wanted to make the point, very clearly, that this important family bond stretched out way beyond the borders of social expectation.

Others’ outstretched arms can lead to feelings of resentment and inadequacy; we long to be number one; we struggle to include strangers in our inner circle. Perhaps the pandemic has helped to show us, in new ways, how we are all connected. Perhaps we might even reach out a hand, ourselves.

How do you feel when you sense God is reaching out, as it were beyond you?

The gestures of Moses and Jesus in these stories have very different contexts, yet both demonstrate a strange, even terrifying, but determined Divine love, and an invitation to trust in that love and follow its lead. Here lies the path out of the wilderness of individual anxieties and the way to enter community with brothers and sisters we encounter on each day’s journey.

You may like to listen to this song by The Porter’s Gate.