The first Reading from Exodus , for those of us in the United States, immediately brings to my mind a visual – that of the classic 1956 Cecil B. Demille Hollywood movie, The Ten Commandments, where this particular Old Testament story was shown and told in full artistic form.  I can still easily visualize the Egyptians being drowned in the sea and the favored population running up the sea shore to dry land and saved.  As a young adolescent and at that stage of spiritual and moral development, whenever I heard this Reading or read it or saw its movie version, I rooted for the ‘children of Israel.’  As I read this in 2009 as an older adult on my spiritual and moral journey, I react differently.  I raise questions as to its meaning and wonder about its deadliness.  And, I wonder, do spiritually-formed adults in 2009 use this story to root for their favorite side in a war?  And, wish for such destruction of another population?

One theme that connects the three Readings is that of consequences for one’s behaviors.  One theme that contrasts the Gospel from the first two Readings is the Gospel transmitting a message of inclusiveness.  Jesus stretches his hand (an inclusive behavior) and verbally extends his definition of who his brothers are (an inclusive verbal statement.)   In this glorious shrinking global world that we have been gifted with by God, may we practice inclusiveness of all.