The parting of the Red Sea is one of the best dramas ever written about freedom and liberation. It even includes the essential crowd-pleasing chariot chase scene rivaling any James Bond movie. It has channeled the creative energies of cinema more than any other historical event.

Cecil B. DeMille developed innovative special effects in the original 1920 film "The 10 Commandments." Using double-exposure filming, he first shot hundreds of people walking in a line down a California beach. The film was imposed on the second shot of a close-up of two Jell-O molds with a gap between them. Someone poured water over the Jell-O from both sides to create the effect of water flooding over the people. To show the Red Sea parting, he just ran the film backward. 

In the second version of the Ten Commandments, in 1956, DeMille used multiple exposures with the Israelites in one shot, a separate filming of a big storm, a video of water flowing into a special design trench in the Hollywood studio, plus a sideways shot of rushing water to build standing wall of water. Many film critics say it was the greatest of all time special effects before computer-generated imagery. The 2014 movie, "Exodus: Gods and Kings," with Christian Bale as Moses, was a digitalized wonder with multiple tornados, lightning, and crashing seas. (None of these features are in the original 1300 BC version written on papyrus.)

The parting of the Red Sea has also inspired a search for various natural causes of the phenomenon. Biblical scholars have long believed the accurate translation of the Red Sea is "the sea of reeds," which could be in the lake area of the Nile Delta near Tanis. This area would be shallower, which could be affected by winds and tides, creating the parting of waters described in Exodus. In 2014, Carl Drews, a National Center for Atmospheric Sciences researcher, wrote a scientific paper based on computer modeling of how the Reed Sea could part. Drews read Exodus 14:21, which says, "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." His computer model estimates that winds up to 60 mph in the specified area could create a land bridge of 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers for four hours. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/no-really-there-is-a-scientific-explanation-for-the-parting-of-the-red-sea-in-exodus/

I noticed Drews did not account for the tide. Passover is dated by the full moon, which causes the most dramatic shift in tidal levels. So, a supermoon and strong winds could have created an effect like Popham Beach here in Maine. On my first trip to Popham, I enjoyed looking at Fox Island in the distance offshore but was surprised at low tide to see we could walk across the exposed land bridge. If you have ever noticed how quickly the tide rushes across the sand bar and shuts down the corridor, you can imagine how the effect of winds and the moon could have saved the Israelites and swamped the Egyptian chariots. 

Let's ask an essential theological question about all this speculation - so what? From a faithful perspective, what is at stake in understanding how the sea of reeds parted? As it happens, Drews is both a scientist and a Christian and believes in God, evolution, and the scientific method. His scientific research generated significant controversy. Christians who interpret the Bible literally were angered regarding the search for natural causes, eliminated miracles, and took God out of the picture. Here is an example:

Scientists, hear me, the Bible doesn't need your explanations. Try curing the common cold and leave the Bible to people who understand it. Bloody gits. Naturalistic explanations have been around since the Enlightenment. And do you know what they prove? Nothing. People of faith don't need them, and people without faith don't need them either. Apologetics as an enterprise is a vapid and pointless exercise in futility, and- quite frankly, God doesn't need you to defend Him, you arrogant prat. 

https://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/another-naturalistic-explanation-for-a-theological-claim/

Aside from being sharp-tongued and disrespectful, this point of view has caused needless conflict with science from Galileo to Copernicus to Darwin. This antipathy to science has made faith unpalatable to many in the modern world. Fighting science has accelerated secularization Because it makes faith look like superstition to many people. I want to explore three reasons why more dialog between science and biblical studies is essential.

First, the opening line of the Apostles Creed says, "I believe in God…creator of heaven and earth." I think we need to spend as much time understanding creation as we do the death and resurrection of Christ. The world spoke of the glory of God before Jesus walked among us. I love the poetry of Genesis 1 and the wonders of scientific explorations of the universe's origins. The creative energy behind the Big Bang is a part of what I name God. 

I've read more nature and science books since moving to Maine than in my previous lifetime, which adds richness to my faith. We find the essence of who God is within the world around us. Just as you pass on much of who you are to your children, there is divine DNA in every living thing. All matter contains the energy that originates in God. As Paul said in Acts, "In God we live and move and have our being." In Romans 8:22, Paul says, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time." In this Exodus passage, when the author talks about parting the waters of the sea, it's referring to the first day of creation, where God parts the waters from the dry land. God continues to work in creation.

These Biblical passages lead me to believe God is within creation, moving it towards divine goodness. When we separate ourselves from nature, we lose something essential to God. We are losing a source of wisdom and connection to the sacred. Theodore Roosevelt understood this and created thousands of acres of national parks. The wide-open spaces of the West healed his grief at the death of his wife and daughter. He believed we needed to preserve wilderness areas for the good of our souls. When we don't see God within creation, people tend to exploit it and use it in unsustainable ways, causing our current climate crisis. A creation spirituality like Genesis and Paul and the many nature parables of Jesus points us towards finding God in new and fresh ways and a new vision of how we relate to our planet in this time of climate change. 

You might be wondering, but Pastor Todd, don't you believe in miracles? I've always wondered why people insist that miracles are supernatural events outside of the laws of science. Why would God go to so much trouble creating a complex and marvelous world and act outside creation to accomplish divine purpose? By insisting on the supernatural cause of all events in the Bible, I am concerned that we are pushing God out of nature and placing God far too separate from our lives and world.

Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." I see the sunset before the storm on Friday as a miracle. The miracles I love include the wonder of a full moon, the love I give and receive, leaves changing colors, the fall of the Berlin Wall, MLK and the Civil Rights act, birth, what happened on Easter morning, coffee, wine, and consciousness itself. If God is the source of all good things, it's all a miracle. It's a miracle if we can explain it by science, and it is a miracle if we can't. 

In this Exodus story, we read of more divine actions than any other part of the Bible. We have burning bushes, a staff that turns into a snake, plagues, seas parting, a pillar fire, water from a rock, and so on. You know what surprises me at the end of the story? These events do not inspire the Israelites to have faith and believe more fervently in God. They experience all these things, and then Moses goes up the mountain for a couple of weeks, and they melt down their gold to make an Egyptian calf god. Apparently, a faith based on miracles alone is only as good as the next miracle. 

This leads to my third point: faith comes from a relationship of trust with God. Moses walks with God from the burning bush to the Jordan River. Sometimes, he argues with God, has a vision of awe, acts courageously, and gives into despair. But he keeps returning to this relationship, and God works through Moses. God does nothing unilaterally in Exodus. Moses and the people must participate in God's action. 

Just imagine if the parting of the Red Sea happened as Carl Dawes imagines. The wind is howling like it was this weekend, and dry land emerges as the waters shift. Are you walking out into the unknown, not knowing when the water will close up again? But you look at Moses holding his staff, urging you on. Are you going to trust him? Divine intervention or not, it is a tough sell. Walking with God is seldom as clear-cut in the moment, as it is in hindsight. 

We all have our Red Sea moments when life pressures us on all sides. It is the divine relationship that carries us through and helps us act. The miracle we often need is God shows us a way, where we thought there was no way.