There is perhaps no greater story that formed the Hebrew imagination than the Exodus from Egypt, and in particular the crossing of the Red Sea. God, through Moses, has led the Hebrews out of their bondage and they are liberated! Then this mixed multitude, having barely breathed sweet liberation, face the sea. From behind, Pharaoh and his military are pursuing them, threatening to subjugate the Hebrews once more. It is more than being stuck between a rock and a hard place. It is being stuck between death at the hand of the Egyptians and death by drowning.
We’re familiar with how this chapter in Israel’s story ends. The Lord parts the Red Sea, and the Israelites pass through on dry ground, flanked by walls of water on either side. It is in retelling this pivotal moment in the life of God’s people that the prophet Isaiah writes, “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters” (Isaiah 43:16, NRSV). God is the Waymaker, making a way where there is no way. And death is the ultimate “no way.” Trapped between death and death, God made a way for life for the Israelites.
At Palmer, we form and equip waymakers. We annually recognize an Alumni Waymaker in Service and Ministry, and as a community we celebrate the honoree’s innovative pursuit to share the Gospel in the particularity of their context. As Christ entered the world in a particular time and space, so are we called to minister to the communities to which we have been called, and in the age in which we find ourselves.
Palmer’s commitment to bring The Whole Gospel to the Whole World through Whole Persons is a tall order to meet. At the center of the Gospel is the message that God-in-Christ was not caught between death and death. It appeared that Death was victorious. The ultimate “no way” seemingly claims Jesus.
And yet the cosmic plot twist occurs. Christ is raised from the dead. God raises God. God made a way where there was no way. The same power that made a way through the Red Sea is the same power that went one step further! At the cross, the odds were not merely in Death’s favor as it was when the Israelites faced the Red Sea. At the cross, Death won the dice roll. But the Waymaker leaves behind an empty tomb.
We are bold enough to share the whole Gospel to the whole world because Christ has already done the impossible! Christ’s resurrection has made a way through the ultimate “no way.”
We’re waymakers because, as Paul writes to the church in Corinth, we are to imitate Christ. We are striving to imitate the Waymaker. We are creative beings who get to imagine what it means for the Gospel to be lived out in our neighborhoods, in our businesses, and in our broader communities. As whole persons, each of us brings talents, experiences, and insights that allow us to imitate Christ in a way that perhaps others cannot. We each have eyes to see a place where it seems Death has the final word, where this is no way, and – even so, to say “Jesus, I see where you are making a way here.”