Festina lente I was told by my father. This is what the Israelites do on the night that God leapt over them as they initiated a celebration of the past before the fact (Ex. 12:1-14). It is something we sometimes forget to do in our haste to accommodate or pursue something that appears to be important to us. Often we understand what we want to do and leap into action before making some form of understanding as to how we can get there. There are some people who are able to do that because they see the end result without having to see the way there but for most of us we have to be careful as the end result may not be the one we expect to come from the actions we take.
There is a sense of urgency as the story progresses, from the Egyptians. A wish for the Israelites to disappear from their land as quickly as possible and indeed in a later text (Deut 16:1) it appears as if the Israelites leave in the night. Yet, they stay in their houses waiting as if with bated breath, for the morning when they leave with the gold of their neighbours. In this stillness before the action of leaving takes place they undertake the pesach meal prior to God's leap yet undertaken in remembrance of that leap that is in the future. There is a tenseness in their waiting, girded for flight but not moving in their established dwellings. Only when morning comes does the action of flight take place and with it the recovery of wealth from their neighbours. There appear to be all sorts of paradoxes inherent in the text a remembrance meal before the event, a need and pressure to go yet a waiting in tenseness. All of these things point to a need to control our haste our need to jump in and flee the horrors of life to attempt a plan without that first hesitant stop.
This is perhaps distinguished to a certain extent in the passage from Matthew and our response to those things that occur around us (Matt. 18:15-17). There is a sense of going forward in a manner that is both fast and slow, a paradox. So often in today's world our first response is to go directly to some form of judgement, either a court or tribunal, before even beginning to sit down with the people supposedly in opposition to try and work out the issue. Often times the issues are around how we perceive things and our interpretation of what is required. Unless we can firmly state exactly what is required our words are indistinguishable from threat and violence. Each step in the process that Matthew outlines is a step that slows everything down. In our modern age we will, like Clive Palmer, go directly to the courts. Everything we do is around how quickly can we involve the court system. This does not speed the process but rather slows it till it crawls like a snail and we are left wondering for years as to what the outcome will be. Taking our understanding from Exodus, we still ourselves before God and wait for God's response in our hearts and then follow with the slow response. How often in the past have our actions been quick leading to poor repercussions? The quick response to the insult, the quick response to violence leading to more violence, the quick response to someone pushing an agenda with an opposite response. All of these things we can see in our lives and in the various power levels of the world. China in a hissy fit America responds with one of their own; Liberal policies and Labour spins the opposite way. These are like young teenagers who squabble over the slightest defamatory remark that is perceived to have been aimed at them. No wonder we cannot move forward either in our own lives let alone the lives of our communities.
It is often the consequence of leaping ahead of ourselves that devolves down to a split or a division where there should actually be none. By moving to fast and without understanding we fool ourselves into believing that we are moving forward. We have been fed the illusion that we need to complete everything in the quickest possible time to reap the reward. Just as with any growing thing in nature, maturity takes time, there are no shortcuts either in growing plants or in relationships. If we want a community that is based on the precept of God's presence then we need to take time to listen. to hear, to see, to contemplate and to mature our relationships. Only when we can truly give ourselves can we truly become true citizens and able to obey the laws not only of authority but of love. In order to forward ourselves and grow as a child we must open ourselves to the other in harmony and in understanding which takes time and a hesitancy before action to ensure the consequences are the ones that we desire.
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