We have to die, and the choice is ours. If we don't, we are still holding on to something. And if we are holding on, we aren't really following. Just sort of following. Standing around. [Oh God, what did I sign up for? This Christianity thing is hard. Deep breath . . .] The apostle Paul chimes in, too: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:19—20)

Of course, we all know that dying, rising again, Christ in me, hidden in God, seated in heaven are metaphors—the use of common language to grasp the uncommon, a reality too deep and thick for conventional vocabulary. Following Jesus is an inside-out transformation so thorough that dying and coming back to life is the only adequate way to put it.

adapting the past to speak to changing circumstances in the present.

God's act of salvation in Exodus hearkens back to God's act of creation in Genesis, when God separated the waters on the second and third days of creation. Saving Israel is a divine act of "re-creation.

This theme has a lot of moving parts. The bottom line is that when God saves Israel, it is an "act of creation"—or perhaps better, "an act of re-creation." To save is to re-create because to be saved is to start anew.

The idea of reimagining God as times and circumstances change should, therefore, not strike us as odd or the least bit troubling—our Bible is full of reimagining. Without it, there wouldn't be a "New" Testament or a Christian faith tradition. The entire history of the Christian church is defined by moments of reimagining God to speak here and now.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”

as well as Nebo and Baal-meon (whose names were changed), and Sibmah. And they renamed the cities they rebuilt.

The LORD our God said to us at Horeb: “You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

Surely this is the joy of his way; yet others will spring from the dust.