"My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation."

         This is the old, old story of Jesus and his love. It is really many stories, beginning in the Old Testament. Today we listen to a prosperous farmer who comes into the sanctuary with some of the first fruits of his harvest, and he tells the story as he makes his offering. It is a story of slavery and deliverance and the journey from one to the other. It reminds us that we all must make that journey. It is the love of Jesus that makes such a journey possible.

         So this farmer remembers an old, old story, the story of Jacob and how God took a few wandering people (the word "wandering" can also mean "perishing," "lost," or "ailing") and made them a great nation. We learn in Exodus 1:5 that there were just 70 of them, the family of Jacob. They were hungry and ailing. So God took this fractured, perishing little band of refugees and prospered them.

         But of course, their prosperity frightened the Egyptians. So they came to be slaves, and were put to hard labor, and they lived in misery for 400 years. They cried out to God, and God heard their cry, and saw their misery and brought them out to a new land.

         So after the first harvest in the new land, this farmer brings some of his produce as an offering to God. His overalls are still stiff and new. This farming business is brand new to him. Before the priest, he gives a declaration, a personal testimony. He tells the story of God and his love. He says something like: "I have entered the Promised Land and I am beginning to experience the blessing of the new land, and the new life given by God." His testimony tells the story of God's faithfulness, and it confirms the promises of God made so long ago.

        Many generations later, Jesus hears a cry of despair, a cry for mercy as he walks along. A man finds himself in a frightening situation--an uncontrolled condition has come over his son. An unclean spirit has taken power, has made the boy a slave. The disciples are unable to help.

         Jesus surprises us with his response. Instead of immediately casting out the demon, Jesus quotes a passage in Deuteronomy and applies it to his disciples. Jesus is telling the story.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song recounting God's dealings with his people. It is a story of grace and redemption, much like the farmer told. But then it tells a reality in the history of Israel. After experiencing the redemption of God and the provision of God,

"He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock who saved him. They made God jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

"I will hide my face from them, and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful."

         Jesus says this story has taken root in his disciples, and in his generation. The truth is that those who have been delivered from slavery often wander back into it. The truth is that those who have tasted freedom and prosperity use their wealth and freedom to seek new slave masters.

         The disciples act as members of their unbelieving generation. So they fail to exorcise a demon. They fail to understand Jesus' message about his death. They are not filled with faith, and they are not faithful. So Joel Green states, "Their failure points up the necessity of the long journey which follows, the journey to the cross."

         We too live in an unbelieving generation. We have witnessed in our lifetimes an erosion, perhaps a collapse, of morality. We see in our society a lack of protection for the weak. We see a return of sexual immorality, a cheapening of life, a loss of community and safety, and most of all a lack of faith.

         We see now a return of things we thought were long past. This year is the 200^th anniversary of the outlawing of slavery by the British Parliament. William Wilberforce introduced anti-slavery legislation there in 1789, and then every year thereafter until it finally passed in 1807. Then he continued the fight until slavery was finally banned in the British Empire in 1833. That is 44 years of struggle. A movie has now been made of this story, called "Amazing Grace." But one of the reasons for making the movie is to bring attention to the prevalence of slavery in our world today, and to inform people to the new abolitionist movement.

         According to U.S. government statistics, nearly one million people are added each year to the slave trade in the world. They estimate that about 17,000 slaves are brought into the U.S each year, many initially as domestic help, and a majority end up in the sex industry. The F.B.I estimates that $10 billion is spent each year buying people.

         John Miller of the State Department gave a speech on 2004 in which he said, "Today's slavery extends into every country in the world, including the U.S. If you count the thousands held in internal slavery on the farms of India, in the charcoal pits of Brazil or in the brick kilns of Pakistan, the number of slave victims is probably in the millions."

         Then he says, "Modern day slavery is linked to organized crime. We now have the drug trade, the arms trade, and the people trade." That reminds me of Revelation 18:11, speaking of the fall of Babylon: "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more--cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men."

         So in our generation, real slavery exists, and it lurks beneath our awareness. It is very unpleasant. It brings forth denial in us. We do not want to admit it. And yet, we must. Slavery must be abolished in our time.

         In our lives, we can also experience a kind of slavery. The things we deny in our hearts, the things we seek to hide, can take control. There is a slavery to sin that is real. We are called to a Lenten journey, moving from slavery in sin to deliverance in Christ, to a freedom that brings great joy. For that to happen, we need to go back and place ourselves with the prosperous farmer, who came into the sanctuary to tell the story.

         "My father was a wandering Aramean. We were few and poor and God chose us and made us a great people. He prospered us, and then we were mistreated and enslaved. We cried out to the Lord, and he heard our voice and he saw our misery."

         That is in fact our story. In many ways the story of the Covenant church, which began certainly few and poor, which was born in revivals in which people did in fact cry out to the Lord. But it also tells the story of our families. Almost all families I know have a past in which there was a time of trouble, a time of danger, and then someone began to cry out to the Lord.

         Ours is also a story of prosperity. The Lord brought us out into a land flowing with milk and honey. We have known material prosperity. But our blessing has also been spiritual. We have been given places like Covenant Harbor and Covenant Point which have been such a rich blessing to children, youth and families. We have institutions of education that have prepared people for ministry, service and leadership. We have a rich history of missions and many opportunities to get involved in God's work throughout the world. We have churches that have nourished our faith, called forth our commitment, loved us and cared for us. We are people who have known spiritual blessing.

         The problem is that in the history of Israel, at some point the farmer ceased to bring the produce into the sanctuary, ceased to tell the story. Instead the wealthy and blessed farmer ran after other gods, and that lead to defeat, to oppression.

         Here is the gift of Jesus and his love. It is a story about an unbelieving generation, a culture that even infected the disciples. And Jesus gave his life for sinners such as those. At the cross the love of Jesus broke the power of unbelief, the power of evil. At the cross people find life, and slaves get set free.

         Amen.