Exodus

Series: Into the Wild
August 3, 2008




I was fascinated with the film Into the Wild as I am always intrigued by stories of people who pursue the ideal of the "Noble Savage."

I remember when I first heard the idea of the “Noble Savage.” It was when Kevin Costner’s film, Dances with Wolves came out. Costner’s character, disillusioned with the humanity and society through witnessing the tragic events of the civil war, set out into the wild, into the frontier, to pioneer a new life. He joined a long history of people embracing the ideal of the “Noble Savage."

The noble savage idea is this- that humans find their true humanity, their true nobility, their true purpose and calling by shedding the constrains and corruption of society. In fact, the idea goes, one cannot truly find themselves within society or civilization, because civilization, by definition, by design, is corrupt and further corrupts our human nature. But in going into the wild, becoming a so-called savage, one can discover themselves. The idea was grounded in the romantic notion that peoples uncorrupted by society were more in touch with themselves and life the way it was meant to be lived. This is exactly what happens to Costner’s character. He discovered the uncorrupted frontier, he discovers a connection with the land, and he discovers a connection with the native people, the “savages,” only to discover that they are more in touch with the land, with life, with true humanity, with themselves, than the rest of civilization.

By the 20the century all philosophers had basically rejected the ideal of the noble savage as nostalgic, unrealistic, and even condescending. People, in primitive or advanced cultures, are people. Some are good citizens, so aren’t. Some seem savage, others seem noble.

For those of us who affirm the biblical world view and what scripture teaches us, we know that the noble savage ideal is a lie. All people, in every time and culture, are tainted by original sin- The doctrine that that all people, not matter their sex, race, culture or time, are born into a world of sin, commit sins and are sinned against, and are in need of a redeemer and savior. And therefore, people in modern civilization, or in more primitive conditions, both suffer from the same sickness and fate- sin and death, and need the same solution- Jesus Christ and the life he gives us.


But still, the idea of the noble savage has endured and has seeped into our modern mindset. We wonder if maybe if you remove yourself from society, you get a little bit closer to life the way it’s meant to be lived. While so many have plugged away to make things bigger, better, fast and more; there has been this still small voice saying you’ve missed the point, your messing things up, you need to break free from all this, breakout of so-called society, and get back to the wild.

It’s all part of this dream we have to find ourselves. How many people do we know who have had to go out into the wild to find themselves. How many of us have gone on such an adventure. It’s the modern day right of passage, and we desperate need some rites of passage in our lives. In my own way I’ve been enamored with the idea of the noble savage. Frustrated with much of modern life and society, with a love of the outdoors, I’ve wondered if we’ve fundamentally messed everything up. I threw myself into a search for a more noble way of life. I began backpacking, rock-climbing, and pretty much trying to spend as much time as could outside. I was an environmental science major, and began to learn about the creation. I traveled the world to see and to serve different people. I studied in Belize. I went on mission trips to Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, and Scandinavia (Yeah, I was a missionary to Sweden for a summer- hey, beautiful blonde women need Jesus just as much as everyone else. I was just the one willing to say here I am Lord, send me!). I decided to see how the world next door lived too. I lived on an Amish farm as I studied and embraced their culture and way of life. I have many stories to tell from all these adventures.

We all have been frustrated with modern life. We’ve seen the misery of people rich and poor alike, we’ve seen the evil committed in the name of progress, we’ve seen a blind eye turned to injustice, we’ve seen the loss of mercy, the corruption of corporate greed, the abuse of power, the plight of the poor. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all sensed it. We’ve all wondered if somehow we’ve messed up the whole thing called culture, if we’ve messed up civilization and society; we’ve gone so far as to wonder if civilization itself is in fact the savage. If the modern world, by default, by design, is doomed to create a savage society bent on the self-destruction of those who build it? We’ve wondered, have we totally missed the boat? Have we become so far removed from the creation, that we’ve forgotten who we are as creatures? Have we lost touch with the world, our place in, and what really matters in life? Have we forgotten who we are, who’s we are, where we are, what’s wrong with the world, what we are called to do?

I want to tell you that the truth of our lives, the truth of our world, is that we’ve already been thrown into the wild. We’ve been thrown into a wild world where things go wrong, and people mess up, and people mess each other up, and people mess up the creation, and people mess up civilization. Our hearts desire is that we would live in a way where we connect with God, and with one another, and with the creation, and with ourselves; that we would live in a way that is sustainable, and peaceable, and civilized; a way that honors God, honors the creation, honors other people, and honors us.

You see folks, we already are in the wild, and some of us just haven’t realized it yet. We are in the wild and we have lost touch with our calling. And our journey is to find our way back- back to God, back to people, back to the creation, back to ourselves. Our journey is to find our rite of passage, out of the wild, and into the discovery of ourselves, our calling, our purpose.

I want to set up this series for you, and set up this journey for you, by telling you the story of God’s people, but more, what God did, to bring them out of their captivity, through the wilderness, their rite of passage, so they could find themselves. You see the bible tells a story that starts in Garden, where a man and a woman lived in perfect harmony, perfect peace, Shalom, connection with God, with each other, with the creation itself. But that part of the story was short-lived. They sinned, they turned their backs on God, and were then thrown out of the garden and into the wild. And so was born into all human this inner awareness that our world is not the way it’s supposed to be, that something is profoundly wrong, and we no longer live as we should. We no longer live where we should. And so to be born into the world is to be born into a journey to find our way out of the wild, and back to our home.

The mantle of the journey was taken up by a man named Abram, when God told him that he would be the father of a great nation and many peoples, and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through his descendants. God called Abram to leave his country, his people and his household, and to go to the country God would show him. And he obeyed, because he knew he had not arrived at the home he was destined for, but risked the adventure from a land called Haraan, to a land called Canaan, a land he had never seen before, a land he knew nothing about, but a land he could call home.

His journey into the wild was not easy. God did give him son, but not until he and his wife were 100 years old. Isaac, the son of laughter, continued the journey into the wild unknown of trusting God. Isaac had a son named Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph, his favorite son, began his journey into the wild of Egypt, where God had an amazing plan for his life. After many trials and tribulations, Joseph rose to be the second most powerful man Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. God used Joseph to store enough supplies to save the entire known world from a seven year drought that would destroy the land. The drought drove Joseph’s brothers and his father Jacob to Egypt, where they were reunited with Joseph, and the family was reconciled.

Then a 400-year silence, where, in the relative peace and stability of Egypt, the nation of Israel grew, and grew and grew, until it was over a million strong. In fear over the prosperity of this growing nation within their nation, Pharaoh enslaved Israel, and put them to work. The nation continued to grow, so he commanded that the Israelite midwives kill all baby boys, but they refused. Finally Pharaoh issued the decree that all Israel’s baby boys would be thrown in the Nile.

But God had a special plan for a boy named Moses. He was spared death, embraced by Pharaoh’s own daughter, and raised under pharaoh’s roof. Until he discovered that part of his story was that he was one of the Israelites. Torn by the reality of his own existence, Moses lashed out in anger. He stood up for the Israelites; he killed one of pharaoh’s slave masters, and fled into the wild in fear.

There he took a wife, made a life, and tried to forget who had been. But all of this was preparation for God’s bigger plan. There in the Egypt Israel could grow in numbers, but also grow in misery, God preparing their hearts for the journey they were about to take. There in the wilderness God was preparing Moses, humbling him, shaping him to be a shepherd of sheep, then of the nation.

God spoke to Moses from a burning bush and told him his plans to set his people free. God had heard the outcry of the people. They were ready for their journey into the wild, though they didn’t know it themselves. Moses, the reluctantly leader and spokesman for God, went to the people, and told them God had sent him. Moses went to pharaoh, and told him let my people go and worship in the Promised Land. Everything unfolded just as God had said it would. Pharaoh protested, the people were punished, Moses stood firm, and God did everything he promised. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened toward Israel, and toward God. God brought plague after plague, and Pharaoh began to wear down. With each plague Pharaoh gave a little more: at first he vowed he would never let them go, then he said to worship God within Egypt, then he said to worship God outside of Egypt, then he said to leave Egypt, until finally, he sent them away, not empty handed, not running with their tail between their legs, but he sent them away with the plunder of Egypt- with livestock, silver, gold, and everything else they would need for their journey into the wild, and into the promised land.

Then Pharaoh’s hardened heart changed his mind again. He had let all of Egypt’s slave labor work force go, and they took with them the riches of the land. He took his army and when after them. Israel was caught between an army, and the Red Sea. The people cried out in fear, was it because there was not enough graves in Egypt for all of us that you brought us out here to die, Moses? It would have been better to live as slaves in Egypt, where at least we have food our plate and a roof over our head. Better to serve pharaoh than die in the wild they said.

Moses reassured them, Do not be afraid, you will see, stand firm and God will fight for you this day. Moses stretched out his staff, God sent a wind that drove the sea into two walls of water, with dry ground between. Israel began to march through. God blocked the path with a fire and cloud. Israel passed to the other side, Moses stretched out his staff once again, and the walls of water came crashing in on the army, and they were destroyed.

They had broken free from Egypt, they had crossed the Red Sea, God saved them from their enemies, but their journey had just begun. For now on the horizon stood the vast deserts of Sinai. God had called them not go into the wild, but to pass through the wild. Not to campout and make the desert their new home, but to pass through this wilderness and into the Promised Land. It was a land they had never seen before, a land they knew nothing about. There were no topographical maps to plot out the journey. There we no travel brochures to whet their appetites. There were no guidebooks to tell them how far they’d gone, where they were going, how far they had yet to travel. They would have to depend on Moses every step of the journey to guide them, and God to provide for them. They would have to depend on God for water to drink, food to eat, direction and protection.

He would show them who he was, who they were, and how to live. Because after 430 years of slavery in Egypt, they had forgotten. They had forgotten what is was like to be free. They had forgotten what it was like to be chosen. They had forgotten what it was like to be special. They had forgotten what it was like to have a future, to have a promised, to have a land to call their own. They had forgotten that theirs was the living and true God, that God had a plan to bless them and bless the entire world through them.

There journey was not one of discovery, for their ancestors had already been to the promised land. There’s was a journey of remembering…



The nation of Israel stood on the edge of the wild, and in going through it, God would teach them to remember who they were. That they were the chosen people. That God had not forgotten them. That they had an amazing plan and purpose in the world. That God would make them his own nation. That through them all nations would be blessed. Because through them would come the savior, Jesus Christ.

Remember who you are- you are a noble child, a child of the King. You have been called into life. You have been called to known God and be known by God. You have been called to love God and be loved by God. You have been called to love your neighbors and to find love among your neighbors. Remember that you are so loved by God that he sent his Son Jesus Christ to call you back to himself. Remember that you are so loved by God that he laid down his life for you. Remember that you are called to take your place in the world as the ambassadors of God, those commissioned to carry the good news to all the world. Remember that you are a part of the body of Christ, part of something bigger than yourself, bigger than space and time itself. Remember that in Jesus is everything we’ve forgotten, everything we’ve ever hoped for, everything we’ll ever need.

Folks, we are about to set forth on our journey into the wild. We are going to remember who we are, and whose we are, where we are, and what we are called to do. We are all children of Abraham, children of the living God. We have saved from slavery to sin, and set free to life in Jesus. We have been given the promised of a new land and the guidance of how to live in that land. Over the next two weeks we are going to look at the law of the wild, the law of the jungle that teaches us how to live and behave and navigate our life journey. We are going to come to the edge of decision, the edge of a choice, and we are going to see the single greatest temptation that steers us off course. Finally, we are going to come back to the edge, back to the edge of the wilderness, and we are going to have to make a decision, a decision that literally means life, or death. A decision that should be so obvious, that we wonder why it’s even a question. But you’ll see how you, your friends and family, people all around us, are fooled into making the wrong decision every day.

But right now, as we end this mornings worship service, I want you to look into yourself, and I want you to remember. Remember who you are, remember whose you are. You have not yet become what you were created and called to be, until you remember that you are a child of the King. As we start this journey it’s not too early to make the decision to become what you were created to be, a child of God. To embrace the connection to God that can only happen through Jesus Christ. By simply saying God, I believe that you are real. I believe you sent your son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins. I believe that without Jesus I am dead in my sins. I receive the forgiveness you offer. I make you my Lord and my God. I believe.