Today Is The Day

Exodus 12:1-14
Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of a new year. Tell the people of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they are to take a lamb for each household. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month and then slaughter it at twilight.

You shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which you eat the roasted lamb. You shall eat with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD. For I will pass through the land that night, and strike down every firstborn in the land, both human beings and animals. But when I see the blood on your doors, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land with death.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.

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For some of you, if not all of you, today is the day. Today is a day to remember, to remember your new start, your new beginning. Today is the day.

You don’t have to kill everyone or everything in your way. You don’t have to kill a lamb and splash blood on your door lintel. You don’t have to put on your sandals, grasp a walking stick or gird up your loins. But you do have to be ready. You have to be ready to move forward as quickly as possible. Because some doors close as quickly as they open.

Today is the day to do what you have long meant to do but just haven’t. Today is the day to wake up from apathy. Today is the day to break from inertia and indifference. Today is the day to break out of fear, to leave guilt and shame behind.

The Hebrew people sweltered in bondage for four hundred years. And then a door opened just as one has opened for you after 40 years or 4 years or just the past 4 days.

Today is the day to stop, look and listen to your life. Today is the day to love without fear, to be bold and daring.

Today is the day to let go of grudges, resentments and regrets. Today it the day to be a little kinder and more forgiving to yourself and others. Today is the day to love your neighbor as yourself.

Today is the day to call a long neglected brother, sister, son, daughter or friend. Today is the day to visit your neighbor facing hard times. Today is the day to visit a friend facing her final days.

The Hebrew people sweltered under bondage for four hundred years. And then a door opened just as one has opened for you today.

Today is the day to listen to the crying of the hungry and invite them to your table. Today is the day to listen to the crying of the hungry, not just crying for food, but crying for recognition, acceptance and friendship. Today is the day to invite them to your table.

As Steve Garnaas-Holmes put in his “Happy New Year” piece: Today is the day to speak to the person you’ve avoided; to celebrate what you have been given and look forward in hope to what will come; to begin a new way of being; to be born again, to turn a corner, to start over.

The Hebrew people sweltered under bondage for four hundred years. They were slaves in Egypt. They were owned, bought and sold like cattle. Not the first or the last to be enslaved.

But that’s not the only kind of slavery. Guilt, shame, grief, regret, fear and addictions can own us, control us, crush, degrade and destroy us.

Those Hebrew slaves hated their bondage and meant to break free but it was never a good day just as today is not the right day for you. Today is not so good, you say. Maybe tomorrow.

Those Hebrew slaves hated their bondage and meant to break free but it was never a good day. Maybe tomorrow.

And then something happened.

The One who is more like a verb than a noun, the One who is within as much as without, the One who is unfolding even as we speak, the One who hears the cry of the oppressed, the One who comes like the wind—that One breathed in them, opened a door and said: you’re free to go.

It was true for them. And now it’s true for you. A door has opened.

Today is the day. This is the chance you’ve been waiting for.

Let go of your shame. Let go of your guilt. Let go of regrets. Let bygones be bygones. Let go of excuses. Let go of fear. Love yourself and others like there’s no tomorrow.

Let’s go, says the Beloved Spirit. Take my hand. Take the first step and I will bear you up upon my wings. And if you should fall or fail, don’t worry. We can start again For wherever you may be, I will always be with you.

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HYMN
“Spirit of God” (by Steve Garnaas-Holmes)