We Confess We Forget

During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the third reflection: We Confess We Forget. Thirst in the desert will test any heart. Using Exodus 17, they trace the tension of freshly freed people, real dehydration, rising panic, and ask why human memory collapses right when we need it most. Their focus lands on confession as a path back to freedom: admitting that we forget and that fear tempts us to outsource our agency to leaders or systems that cannot carry our soul. 

Walking through the story, they name the true cost of freedom—responsibility and agency—and sit with Moses in the uncomfortable middle between a grieving crowd and a listening God. Rather than scolding the ancestors, we let their honesty teach us. If you’re standing at the edge of a hard need—health, money, work, or grief—this conversation invites you to carry memory like water and to trust that provision may arrive from an angle you didn’t expect.

Transcript

Remembering Buoyancy In Need

Bishop Wright 0:00

There is a buoyancy that we must remember. I think that's the ask in this. That we must remember that only memory can provide us with. I mean, while we are afflicted by the legitimate needs that we have, and some very dire, some critical, in fact, we're supposed to find solace and strength and courage and comfort in thinking about who God has been in our lives.

Melissa 0:40

Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm Melissa Rau, and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. Now, during the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten series called We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org. Good morning, Bishop.

Bishop Wright 1:17

Good morning.

Melissa 1:18

You called this week's devotion Lent 3. We confess that we forget, based off of Exodus chapter 17, verses 1 through 7.

Bishop Wright 1:29

That's right.

Melissa 1:31

Frame this for us.

Bishop Wright 1:32

Sure. Well, I mean, uh, again, we're focusing on the Old Testament uh for uh for this season of Lent because uh uh we've we've done the gospel and we've spent a lot of time in the gospel over the years, but I wanted to just take a look at these Old Testament lessons through the lens of we confess, and each one is different. And of course, uh by confession, I just simply mean um uh to uh give voice to the ways in which uh we are out of alignment with God, right? So confession is actually the first step back home to freedom, back home to God, back home to myself, uh back home to the best sense of neighborliness. So it's it's all of that. This week we're thinking about uh these Hebrew slaves. Uh they've been liberated by God through Moses. Uh they're now in the wilderness. They're 42 days in the wilderness. Uh, they've just seen God do some amazing things. They've just seen God defeat the most powerful emperor, Pharaoh, and empire that the world has ever known. Uh, but now 42 days into the wilderness, they're thirsty. Uh, they've got legitimate bodily needs, uh, and uh there's no refrigerator to be found. Uh they need water, and the water prompts uh, I think, a great conversation for legitimate needs uh and uh and also uh can God be trusted? Can God's provision be trusted? And what role does memory of God's former deeds play when we're standing at the door of needing now?

Melissa 3:15

Wow, that's a great question because I'm thinking, yeah, not only did they forget what God said God would do, but they also forgot how bad things were actually in Egypt.

Freedom’s Cost And Nostalgia

Bishop Wright 3:26

Exactly right. That's exactly right. You know, my joke always is that, you know, I mean, here we are, right? I mean, freedom costs agency and responsibility. That's what freedom costs. Uh, freedom is not just roll in, as Dr. King used to say, on the wheels of inevitability. Uh, it it costs something. Um, and there's a loss oftentimes. And so what they had to lose was a dependency on Pharaoh's ability to provide them, as they say in the prison system, with three hots, three hots and a cot, three meals and somewhere to sleep. And it's interesting, as soon as the thirst gets them, and I'm probably no better. I mean, I want to establish that. I think this is very normal for human beings, um, they immediately uh minimize 400 years of chattel slavery.

unknown 4:19

Right.

Bishop Wright 4:20

And they say to Moses, hey man, you've brought us out here in the wilderness to die. And look, we're thirsty. Our children are dying, our cattle are dying. Uh, where's your God anyway? I mean, again, 42 days ago, they just saw, you know, fire, a pillar of uh and smoke and water stand up like walls, right? Uh they just walked out of uh of slavery uh with a stuttering leader, liberator, Moses. And now 42 days in, they're calling the whole thing in question.

Melissa 4:56

Oh, bishop. So, all right. I I'm curious if you could even diagnose why this is the way it is. Because this is this is like, you know, the human condition.

Testing Trust And Spiritual Memory

Bishop Wright 5:11

Well, it is the human condition. And I guess what I want to just say is rather than beating up on our spiritual ancestors, like we're so much better, right? Is you know, this is the genius of the way that the Old Testament frames all these wonderful narratives. You know, it's it's not in these sort of terse statements, but it's in this story of real people standing at really difficult intersections, um, being called and chosen by God to live differently in the world, and at the same time struggling with that. Uh, that God, in you know, the way that God wants to be with us and is is not magic. It's not, I like to say it's not microwave popcorn, right? And so it takes something. So here they are, they're thirsty. They do what we probably would do was to send an email or have a conversation or buy a coffee with the designated leader, which is Moses, and say, hey man, you know, you're missing the boat here. Uh, we thought you were the guy, you're not the guy now because we the community has legitimate needs. And then Moses, of course, talks to God about the whole thing, right? So then Moses is in that uh sort of rock and hard place. Uh, you know, he's in the middle. Uh, he's the mediator. But I guess what I really want to say is that there is a buoyancy that we must remember. I think that's the ask in this, that we must remember that only memory can provide us with. I mean, while we are afflicted by the legitimate needs that we have, and some very dire, some critical, in fact, um, we're supposed to find solace and strength and courage and comfort in uh thinking about who God has been in our lives. Um, and so it's not to diminish the need that we're standing in front of, but it is to bring resources to that need so that that need is just raw need. Um, we have a friend. The need is mitigated by the knowledge that we have a God who showed up previously in ways that we had prayed for, and maybe even beyond the ways that we prayed for, or maybe in oblique ways that we had no imagination to bring to the situation. And then that God made a way. Uh we we saw closed doors, somehow God made a window. And I think what we're trying to say here with this is to remember and to um sort of remember ourselves, right? To continually stitch ourselves together with the knowledge that God is not uh deaf or dumb or blind. Um, that God hears this is our faith, this is our hope. Uh our ancestors' lives bear it out, that God doesn't answer the prayers always the way we want them answered, but that God is answering prayers, uh, that no sometimes is the answer. Sometimes no is not now. Sometimes the answer is, well, I've given you agency and intellect. Uh, what are you maximizing at this intersection right now? So you see how it gets very complicated, but I guess what I really just want people to hear is is that uh are you are have you maintained and developed um a robust spiritual photo album? And are you walking around with that in your head because that's what's going to pull us through the dry times?

Melissa 8:44

So you used a big word, and I was thinking it. You you said agency.

Bishop Wright 9:09

Yeah.

Melissa 9:10

And I was thinking about how I would put myself into the story now. And I'm certainly not Moses. Yeah, certainly I'm certainly not God. And so I'm curious about the agency and how quick we are to blame other people for the predicament that we're in, despite the fact that the people had full agency. They didn't have to leave. Yeah, that's right. Right.

Bishop Wright 9:32

That's right.

Melissa 9:32

And so, got any insight? Like, I'm thinking about Edwin Friedman and the failure of nerve.

Bishop Wright 9:39

Yes, that's right. Yeah.

Melissa 9:41

Got any insight on that?

Life Or Death Trust In God

Bishop Wright 9:42

Well, you're talking about system dynamics and you're talking about how crowds act. Um, and you're talking about that impulse in in all of us to varying degrees that wants to excuse ourselves from agency. Now, the truth of the matter is that when the shofar blew and when uh the the gates of Egypt fell open, everybody had a choice to make, right? And my guess is, though we don't talk about this very much, my guess is that a few people who were probably living pretty good because of their proximity to Pharaoh probably stayed, even though they were Hebrews, right? They were Hebrew house slaves, if you will. And uh they probably had pretty good clothing and pretty good food to eat in comparison uh to those who were in the brick pits, um, uh and those who had all the menial, super menial tasks. So, yeah, so there's that. But yeah, uh, people sort of walked out of the gate of Egypt that day and said, off we go. And it's probably highly likely that nobody ever stopped to think, what's this gonna cost me? And uh, you know, it may be even, and this is where I think it's really delicious to think about, it may be even that they it down in the slave quarters, uh, they probably had some version of religiosity, some version of liturgy, of gathering together to worship. And it may be in those, uh, in those places and over you know, four centuries, that they just became words to say rather than saying, when God initiates this, um, I'm going to join God in that. Um, sometimes uh worship uh uh we think that it can be best measured by longevity. Uh, and I don't think that is the best measurement. Some people will tell you they've been in church all their life, and I'm saying, congratulations, but longevity and fidelity are not the same thing, right? So to be ready to be faithful when and how God acts is really the measure of fidelity. And so, what this required, um, you know, to stay in the story, this required a little bit of latitude and a little bit of constructive self-talk among those people who wanted to complain to Moses, to say, you know, where was the group that said, hey, Moses, you know what we're gonna do before we come for you? We're gonna gather and just refresh ourselves with what God did 42 years, 42 uh days ago. We're gonna refresh ourselves uh by being that generation who got to walk out of Egypt uh rather than all the generations that died in Egypt when Liberation Day was only a silly thing to hope for. And so I think that is a possibility. But then I think also, you know, how this ministers to many of us who may be even listening right now, who are standing at the doorway of uh of real need. Because look, this is thirst. This is thirst in the dev in the desert. I mean, this is no trivial thing. This is not, oh, the Starbucks is closed and uh, or they've run out of my favorite drink at the grocery store. This is not an inconvenience. This is a matter of life or death here. So I think we have to be fair to the ancestors when we take a look at these stories. And I think um the invitation, though it's hard, uh uh it nevertheless throughout our faith tradition, the invitation is especially when it's a matter of life and death, trust God. Especially when it's a matter of life and death, trust God and who God has been and who God will be. Um, and that's the hardest part of this story.

Melissa 13:27

Wow. What would it be like if we lived our lives every day like it is life or death?

Practicing Remembrance And Gratitude

Bishop Wright 13:33

Well, that's it. That's it. And in a funny kind of way, it actually is. I mean, it's not uh and we've surrounded ourselves, at least certainly here in the West, I realize that our listening audience is lots of places in the world. But for at least for us in the West, um, you know, we're surrounded by such a thick cloud of convenience that we don't even realize in many ways that it is a matter of life and death, the quality of life. I mean, so it's it's not life and death, it's existing or actually living. Uh remember, the invitation, of course, is to abundant life, not simple biological existence. Right?

Melissa 14:11

And so if we're regular worshippers, Bishop, we approach a table and every Eucharistic prayer, you know, we're reminded to remember, you know, to this in remembrance of me.

Bishop Wright 14:21

Yes.

Melissa 14:22

Are there things or tips or tricks that we could do in order to better remember?

Closing And Listener Invitation

Bishop Wright 14:27

You know, it's a paradigmatic shift. I've said this another other times. Uh some of us are born spenders and some of us are born savers. And then something comes along in life that shifts our priorities. Our priorities now have to be uh flipped, uh, whereas spenders now become savers or however however uh real changes happen to you from your default uh to some new and amended way forward. That's what we're talking about here. We're talking about in the midst of catching hell, um, in the midst of having your back up against the wall, can you also remember all the ways in which, previous to that moment, God has been good to you? And it's not just a sentimentality that we're talking about, it's a soul power and a soul force we're trying to activate. Um and the activation really comes out of the deep well of gratitude. Um, and it helps us, it companions us as we find ourselves in the midst of hardship. I mean, I don't want to go, frankly speaking. I don't want to go into my next hardship, totally blank about all that God has done for me in my last 62 years. The fact of the matter is, I want to ride into my next trouble season, my next dry season, totally gorged on the fact that God has been good to me, that God has made a way for me out of no way. Uh, God has turned some of my tears into praise and shouts of joy. Uh, God has turned some of my lack of clarity into some clarity. God has changed some of my questions about my own self-worth into an abiding sense that I am beloved of God, and so are my neighbors. I mean, I don't want to go into my trouble without the knowledge that God is a good companion and has been good provider for me.

Melissa 16:18

Well, thank you so much for reminding us all the things that we should remember. And listeners, thank you for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright or by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Please subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back with you next week.