The People Who Came

What sets us off on the trek has also remained constant ‘better living conditions’ we call it as either economic pressure or oppression, racist, religious or oppression, racist, religious or cultural move us outward - and the expectations too, the grass will definitely be greener elsewhere.

And at the end of the journey comes the settlement involving those who had come before us and who had forgotten that they too had arrived at the end of a journey, and who have now assumed that this land is theirs to be defended against all intruders. So the painful struggle, the push and pull continues as some venture to welcome and to extend hospitality while others recoil in fear of the unknown and the different.

The Exodus experience was seminal in the creation of the People of God. A motley band of slaves of different ethnicities escape oppression and follow a charismatic leader who holds them in the desert for 40 years during which, through hunger, thirst, confusion and nostalgia, they come to know themselves as the People of God.

Every people, every person must make this Exodus journey from false security through naked trust into communion and community. Few of us undertake that journey willingly; circumstances move us out of our comforting falsehoods into the light of Truth.

This is the opportunity of this phase in our journey as we are jolted by executive orders and recession and the failure of those institutions that were supposed to protect us from change into a frightening world where the reference points have disappeared.

Who will be our New Moses leading us from darkness into light? The usual ones disappoint, and the desert is increasingly hostile. This is the moment to hear once again the call to be light ourselves.

Because our civilisations have had the benefit of over two centuries of the presence of the Light of the world, our journey does not merely recycle back into the old circles of despair.

The New Moses goes before us and walks with us on this uncharted phase of our journey.

But we are not passive followers whose task is to grumble and ask for more; we are tasked with being ourselves light for others, salt, giving flavour and zest for those who walk the road with us.

This is a moment to become what we are, the People of God on pilgrimage towards our true homeland where the only security needed is the willingness to love. We cannot continue to pretend that salvation will come from the almighty dollar or the foreign-flavoured dialect that promises paradise without pain. This is the moment when we look with fresh hearts at those around us in all their apparent differences and recognise a brother, a sister; a member of the family who takes its name from the Father in heaven. This is the only antidote to fear and violence.