Practicing Holy Disobedience
A Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 27, 2023
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 1:8-2:10
How perfect that we hear the story of Moses’ birth and childhood beside the Nile River, as we worship here by this river. Water imagery runs all through the scriptures, beginning in Genesis at creation and flowing to the end in the last chapter of Revelation, as the angel shows John the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God. In scripture we learn that water is essential for life, it is cleansing, it is healing, and it is powerful. It was part of the patriarchal narrative in Genesis as Hagar found a well in the desert, and as Isaac and Jacob both met their beloveds drawing water at the well.
We are moving on from the patriarchal narrative in Genesis, ending last week with Joseph’s reconciliation with his family. Today’s reading from Exodus introduces us to Moses. From the beginning we know that things are different. “Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.” Apparently, the new king was ignorant of what had happened in the past. He did not know that God, with Joseph’s help, had saved the people of Egypt from the famine, along with others in surrounding lands. The new king did not fear the God of Israel, but craved power and control and would go to every horrific length to get it.
The new king felt threatened by the Hebrew people, so threatened that he planned to eliminate them. But there were some women in this story who were not afraid to do what was right. Because of their act of civil disobedience to a ruthless king, they worked with God’s intention to save the child Moses, who would become the one who would later lead them out of bondage in Egypt.
Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives, disobeyed the king by allowing the male Hebrew infants to live. The baby’s mother, Jochebed, disobeyed by hiding her son for three months and then placing him in a basket in the river, where his sister Miriam kept an eye on him. When Pharaoh’s own daughter found the baby, she took him as her own and raised him with the help of the baby’s mother and sister. Together, these women chose to be part of God’s plan, practicing holy disobedience.
God’s sovereignty is often associated with powerful and divine acts where God alters the forces of nature. God’s sovereignty in scripture is also portrayed through human violence and warfare. But in this passage we see another perspective, as God protects a baby through these women.
As the river flows, so does God’s divine plan. As water reshapes all that is in its path, so God shapes our lives. The seemingly small rebellions by these women had a ripple effect in God’s salvation history that was to follow, the salvation history that continues to flow.
The things we do on any given day, in any week, and throughout our lives, create a ripple effect. Our actions, decisions, and choices will ripple out with consequences known and unknown, for good or for ill, for the health or the damage of creation.
How will you choose to practice holy disobedience and create a ripple in this world? Take a moment after the service to go to the river’s edge, if you are able, or watch as others do. Notice what changes the flow of the of the river, observe the currents. Find a rock or a stick or even a leaf and toss it onto the water. Watch it to see where it goes. What might speed up or impede the river’s flow?
When you are faced with a decision to make, remember Shiphrah and Puah. Remember Jochebed, Miriam, and Pharoah’s daughter. Remember the flow of this river, a metaphor of God’s salvation history.
Your decisions to be generous, to do the right thing, to take the higher ground, or offer forgiveness, these are the seemingly small and sometimes rebellious actions that will create ripples in the river of life, ripples that catch the light and reflect God’s love. This is how God saves the world.
Comments
Post a Comment