1999 was year A in the Revised Common Lectionary, the pattern of Bible readings we used for planning worship and faith formation activities in the congregations we served. Year A follows a continuous narrative, providing worshipers with a series of texts around some of the foundational stories of the Bible. In late Pentecost, the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. In Judaism, the story of Exodus is told as part of the annual recognition of Passover, which occurs in the spring of the year. The story appears in the fall for Christians following the Revised Common Lectionary. Both faith traditions take the biblical command seriously to teach the story to every generation.

Having the story land in the fall is interesting timing as in the northern hemisphere, fall is the season of returning to school after summer vacation, and in the churches we served, it was the time of returning to regular Sunday School programming after a summer break. In 1999, our congregation was led by a worship-based church school curriculum that followed the lectionary. We worked to closely coordinate faith formation activities for all ages through worship and church school. One of our goals was to have all ages explore the same biblical texts each week. Experiencing the story of the Exodus seemed like a perfect opportunity.

In our plans, we tried to develop a capstone experience for all ages. What we wanted to do, after several weeks of going through the story, was to have an experience for all ages that involved telling the whole story. We looked to the example of the Seder, which is celebrated in Jewish families and congregations as part of the annual Passover celebration. However, we were cautious about appropriating the celebration of another religion and wanted to respect Jewish authority over Seder. Later, we developed a relationship with a local synagogue that enabled leaders from the synagogue to lead Seder observances in our congregation as part of our Holy Week observances, but we had not yet developed those connections.

Our attention was caught by the popular animated movie Prince of Egypt, which had been released to theaters the previous Christmas. Many of the families of our congregation had seen the movie in theaters in those days before streaming movies. We explored renting a historic theater in our community and moving the entire worship service into the theater for a showing of the movie to conclude our series of learning experiences around the Exodus story. The theatre was open to the plan, but there was a significant problem. Movies were marked in a very different way back in 1999. The movie had been placed in blackout, meaning it was not being released to play in any theaters. The blackout was part of the marketing campaign around the movie's release on VHS, set for September 14, which happens to be our daughter’s birthday. The theater could not obtain the film to be shown on the date we wanted to use it.

Marketing was critical to what then was an emerging new company, Pixar. Prince of Egypt was the animation company’s second film. Still, the film seemed like such a good fit that we decided the worst they could do was say “no.” We appealed directly to Pixar. They not only agreed to allow us to show the film, they provided a copy to the theatre without charge for our exclusive showing. As far as we know, it was the only theater showing the movie during the official blackout.

The experience was positive for our congregation. People still remember that fall’s programming. Hopefully, children and adults learned some of the basic principles of the foundational story of our faith—principles that guide them in their lives a quarter of a century later.

One of the integral techniques the movie uses to convey the biblical story is music. The songs from the film continue to keep the story fresh in my mind. Recently, I found myself singing the song Through Heaven’s Eyes by Brian Stokes Mitchell. In the movie, the song is sung by Jethro, who becomes Moses’ father-in-law after Moses flees Egypt to Midian before God calls him. Moses is working as a shepherd for Jethro when he is called to return to Egypt by God speaking through a burning bush.

When Moses arrives in Midian, Jethro welcomes him with the song. The song's chorus asks, “So how can you see what your life is worth or where your value lies?” It is answered with, “You can never see through the eyes of man. You must look at your life through Heaven’s eyes.” Later in the song, Jethro poses another question, “How do you measure the worth of a man? . . . In how much he gained or how much he gave?”

The words ringing in my mind this week as I read the news from Washington D.C. come next in the song: “And that’s why we share all we have with you though there’s little to be found. When all you’ve got is nothing, there’s a lot to go around.”

The billionaire in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency is applying a scarcity formula to our nation. He is radically cutting programs and jobs on the theory that the government needs to save money. He sees programs that benefit those with needs as excessive and need to be cut because “we can’t afford it.” At the same time, he reaps personal benefits. Since Donald Trump's election, his personal wealth has increased more than all of the proposed cuts in government spending.

He doesn’t know the simple truth of the book of Exodus, illustrated by a simple song. There is never enough when you are wealthy - a prince of Egypt. There will never be enough wealth to satisfy the nation’s richest billionaires. They will never be satisfied. They will always want more. They will always see scarcity despite their inability to spend the money that they have.

Poor folks, however, understand abundance. They know that sharing is more important than acquiring. They know that abundance comes from community, not from personal wealth. I have seen it over and over again. On behalf of the church, I once received a donation of $2 from a woman I knew had only $20 to her name. A real tithe! I witnessed a family that didn’t have rent money invite the neighbors for a meal. Abundance does not come from wealth. It comes from sharing. Acquiring will never produce enough. The wealthy will always want more.

If you want to live abundantly, you must learn to give.

I don’t know how much of the lesson was taught in our program in 1999, but I know I have seen gracious generosity from some of those people and have learned to be more genuinely generous. I am not a wealthy man, but I am a happy one. I pray I will continue to give without fear and leave acquiring wealth to others.