Optional Memorial of Saint Apollinaris, bishop and martyr

Lectionary: 396

Then the LORD told Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their charioteers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth.

The annihilation of Pharaoh and his Egyptian army -- the most powerful military force on earth at that time -- is the most important Old Testament Mighty Work of God. The inspiration, initiative, planning, power, and execution of this astonishing incident are entirely the LORD's. Moses, who is the only other actor in this drama, can take no credit for it. Nor can the Hebrews who witnessed it. 

This is the way of all God's mighty works, in the Old and New Testaments. Human beings have their part but it is never greater than God's. All they had to do was walk on the dry bottom of the sea to the other side, and then watch what happened. They were only minor characters in the drama. There was nothing about Moses or his rod that could make the Red Sea open up, induce the Egyptian force to rush pell-mell into the depths, nor close it up again. 

The principle holds true of New Testament miracles, the Apostolic church, and the centuries that follow. In John 5:19-21, Jesus insists upon that:

Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,* so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.

We hear it also in the Acts of the Apostles as the disciples are both directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

The practice of faith is essentially that. We wait upon the Spirit's guidance as we choose opportunities, pursue careers, and engage in relations with family, friends, neighbors, and church. If a mighty work is done, the credit is God's. If anything gets done, the credit is God's. 

At first blush that might sound stultifying, as if God would stifle human initiative. There are two responses to that: first, God's work is planned and directed toward eternity. If I want to do something that will outlive me, that's the way I want to go. Secondly, the Lord uses our intitiative to make things happen. The inspiring impulse comes from God and tracks through me to completion. 

This is why we can say the Son of God is the Son of Mary. Without her total engagement in that marvelous deed -- physically, mentally, and spiritually -- the child would not have been born. God never uses the willing in an unseemly fashion, for his own utilitarian objectives. But he does use the unwilling, as the hapless Pharaoh discovered.

And so we pray each day and many times a day, "...thy will be done." As the poet Dante said, "In his will is our peace."