Exodus 17: 8-13 First reading for 29th Sunday Cycle C
Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses therefore, said to Joshua, "Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage the Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he left his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses' hands, however grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady until sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
First note that Amalek attacked Israel. Amalek here for us represents evil attacking the soul. Amalek attacked without provocation and attacked the weakest Israelites; raiding the camp and killing the weakest of the people of Israel. Amalek attacked when the Israelites were escaping Egypt. They were leaving slavery. God delivered them from bondage. They were however not very strong or well recovered from the beginning of their exodus. So they were not a threat to Amalek, and Amalek hit them when they were down and vulnerable. So too it often seems that the negative challenges in our own lives creep in and hit us when we are weakened already and so most susceptible. God delivers us from our bondage in many ways. He then allows the community to support us when we are most vulnerable to unexpected attacks, so that evil will never triumph.
Moses leads Joshua to take on this attack of evil and promises that he will be near supporting the warriors in prayer. As long as he prays and lifts his hands to God the battle goes well, but when he wearies, the battle does not go well. So Aaron and Hur help him to pray and to keep his arms lifted to God. When we are battling negative forces in our own lives, we try to keep our hearts lifted to God and our arms raised in prayer if you will. But sometimes we get discouraged and weary so our "arms" and our direction drops. We have a harder time focusing on the greatness of God and the faithfulness of God sometimes when we are weak, tired and challenged. So just as Aaron and Hur helped Moses we have communities of folks who help lift us up and keep our "arms," our hearts lifted to God.
We do not go home alone and we cannot fight all the battles against evil alone. We need each other and we need the help of God to have the energy to fight the good fight. There are many challenges in our world and much injustice. In the face of so much that needs fixing how do we choose which battle to fight and how do we keep energized on the crusade? We need each other. We need to pray for each other, to be in touch with each other, to keep each other lifted up; when one gets weary, another has strength. We simply do not go home alone, our journeys aren't meant to be solo treks. We are made for community, for human family, for connecting one to another at some primal level of our creation. Connecting with each other is in part how we connect with God and God with us. Our gifts ignite in the community we serve.
Prayer is the soul's conversation with the divine, but even more so it is the soul's reception of a song that is presence, that is Living Love. Prayer takes us home to God and grounds us therefore in ourselves fully. Just as there are a plethora of personas, so too the music of each person's prayer is unique. But even in these private and silent connections of our heart to the One who created our heart, we are supported and encouraged by the presence of others on the journey. They don't have to understand us or our relationship to God nor do they have to understand our current battle with evil or darkness or simply the challenges of our daily lives. But their presence "holds us up," keeping us from defeat in the inevitable weariness that is part of everyone's journey.
So may we look for ways to support each other in prayer and simple ways that we can bear each other up to keep on fighting the good fight, to keep on persevering in caring about the things that really matter and working for good in whatever ways we can, never giving in to the darkness but trusting the Light of God's promise to us.
God bless.
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