A Deliverer Is Born
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series I, Cycle A
The River Nile is the longest river in the world, snaking 4,160 miles from Burundi, Africa, to the Mediterranean Sea. And in this beautiful, exotic, life--giving river lives one of the most fearsome creatures in the world - the crocidilus nilocticus - the nile crocodile. Twelve species of this strong, ferocious creature watch from the shoals ready to spring and devour an unsuspecting animal or human.
Hardly a place to hide a child - a beautiful child. In fact, nowhere in Egypt was it safe for a Hebrew child to be born and live under a paranoid Pharaoh like Ramses II (1290--1224 B.C.E.). Human crocodiles were on the prowl on the Nile banks, in the streets, in the back alleys, with instructions to kill every Hebrew male child they could find.
In this setting of Pharaoh, paranoia over the rapid growth of the Hebrew people, a Hebrew couple from the tribe of Levi married and a baby was born - a beautiful child to father Amram and mother Jochebed (Exodus 6:20). This child would not be left to the human reptiles. The child was placed in a basket plastered with bitumen in the reeds of the Nile. It was a safe place. Sister Miriam watched.
The anonymous writer to the Hebrews explains, "By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict" (Hebrews 11:23).
Five strong women played roles in the saving of this child: Shiprah and Puah, Jochebed, Pharaoh's daughter, and Miriam.1
The two brave midwives - Shiprah and Puah - defied Pharaoh's orders and allowed the children to live. Pharaoh's orders were clear. "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, she shall live" (Exodus 1:16). However, the midwives Shiprah and Puah feared God more than Pharaoh and every boy child that was born was saved.
Mother Jochebed (and father Amram), motivated by faith, put away their fears. Jochebed, whose name means "Jehovah is glory," could think of nothing but protecting her child, God's gift to her. Jochebed boldly became a risk taker and went against Pharaoh's killing frenzy.
Pharaoh's daughter, unnamed and unlike her murderous father, is overcome with compassion as she approaches the Nile River for a bath. She takes pity on the child and orders him to be pulled out of the water. She adopts the child as her own, although a princess, she does not do the actual tending of the baby. He then becomes a prince in the palace.
The child's sister, Miriam, waits and watches the child in the basket from the shadows. At the proper time Miriam steps forward. She offers her own mother, the child's own mother, as a nurse. The arrangement is sealed.
We meet five women of faith, compassion, imagination, and ingenuity who save the child whose name in Hebrew means "I drew him out." He is "the one drawn out." He is Moses!
When nine miners from Pennsylvania were rescued from a flooding mine shaft, many recalled the dramatic rescue of eighteen--month--old Jessica McClure in Midland, Texas, back in the late 1980s. Jessica fell into a 22--foot well and was trapped for two and a half days. The entire community rallied to save her, and eventually a paramedic pulled Jessica to safety from a newly--drilled shaft. Later when asked, "Who saved you?" Jessica replied, "Winnie the Pooh." You see, her mother kept singing to her into the microphone, dropped down the well, her two favorite songs, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Winnie the Pooh."
The literal meaning of Moses is "saved; delivered by God." Your name and my name is Moses, too. We have been drawn out of the dangers of sin, death, and the power of the devil. Our Savior is not Winnie the Pooh, but Jesus the Christ.
What compelled such drastic, courageous, and lifesaving acts on behalf of the future deliverer Moses? Jacob's family, which numbered seventy, was safely in Egypt. However, Joseph and his generation all die off and new generations of Hebrews appear. These folks were exceedingly successful. "But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them" (Exodus 1:7). This account of the Israelite population explosion in Egypt fulfills the Lord's promise of numerous progeny to the patriarchs. (See Genesis 13:16; 15:5; 26:4; 32:13).
But a new king comes to power in Egypt who does not know or does not care about the Hebrews. An earlier Pharaoh had called Joseph incomparably "wise" (Genesis 41:39), but this king either resents that history or is simply ignorant of the great contributions of Joseph. This new king says 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" (Egypt 1:9). Fear and paranoia consumes the new king. His security is threatened.
Since 9/11, we in the United States and the democratic free world have been threatened and terrorized. Uncertainty rules. Where and who do you and I look to for safety and security?
The Osama bin Ladens, who are motivated by a bad mix of politics and religion, have taken away our securities and made us vulnerable. Our faith in the military, our expectation of economic prowess, and our democratic free society are suddenly threatened. Where and in whom is our faith to be secured?
The new king has a solution to the "Apiru" problem ("Apiru" refers to the Hebrews and all landless folks). Pharaoh oppresses them with hard slave labor. He is ruthless in imposing tasks that makes their lives bitter and miserable. Forced labor, the new king reasons, will sap the vitality and productivity of the Hebrews while constructing public buildings, canals, irrigation, and other public works. They would build the great storehouses at Pithom and Rameses, which archaeologists today have confirmed as two of the most likely sites of forced labor. But the hardy Hebrews continue to flourish.
Oppressed people in every age have been able to identify with these Hebrews subjected to slave labor. The Black religious tradition, while unique to Black Americans, contributes much in song and theology to the belief that "God is on the side of the oppressed." The Black American experience, in which they groped for meaning, relevance, worth, assurance, reconciliation, civil rights, and a proper response to God, illustrates this common dilemma with the Hebrews in Egypt.
Black Americans were, and in many cases still are, a people who, while in a strange land, still sing the songs of Zion to the glory of God. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley (1856--1933), pastor of the famous Tindley United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was one of the most prolific of the Black hymn writers. The poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden found solace in his music.
An example is found in the words of "The Storm is Passing Over":
Courage, my soul, and let us journey on,
Tho' the night is dark and it won't be very long.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The storm is passing over, Hallelujah.
One refrain of Tindley's hymns was transformed into the greatest of all freedom songs:
Original version:
I'll overcome some day, I'll overcome some day:
If in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome some day.
Transformed version:
We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome some day;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall overcome some day.2
Songs written by Black Americans that connect and have a universal appeal to every human heart have great themes of hope, cheer, and joy amidst the pity and sorrow.
Amnesty International estimates that there are more oppressed people in the world today outside of the Communist era than at any time in history. Oppression can come from religious fundamentalism, dictators, or oppressive regimes. It can be oppression of a group of people within a society. The oppressed can be women, children, gays and lesbians, ethnic clans, and caste systems. It is easy to be blind to oppression in one's own backyard. It is just as easy to be blind to oppression in distant lands and places.
Professor Jim Limburg of Luther Seminary, in his classic The Prophets And The Powerless, reminds us that the powerless are special groups of people in the Old Testament. They are the widows, orphans, poor, and strangers. Isaiah, Amos, and other prophets denounce the powerful who hold the oppressed down.
There is the temptation for arrogance in power. In Egypt and Mesopotamia the ruler could be exalted to a superhuman, even semi--divine position. Rulers, such as the new king in Egypt, easily become arrogant, intoxicated with power, and lift themselves above the rules of common decency.
Meanwhile, there is a great yearning in human hearts and lives for deliverance. The deliverance may not only be social, but personal. The yearning for deliverance and wholeness is intense today because many feel so fractured and torn. We want our lives to have happy endings. We want to experience grace.
The wondrous message of scripture is that God brings a deliverer. For the people of Israel it would be the one who was "drawn out of the water" - Moses. For all humanity, Moses is a type of the one to come at Bethlehem. Christ is the deliverer of deliverers.
A young black convict was heard pleading as he was being executed in the South many years ago, "Joe Louis, save me; save me, Joe Louis." Joe Louis, the then heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was his only model of strength and power and salvation.
I want to be saved, and safe, from whatever would threaten me or my family. I yearn for hope and purpose. My hope is not built on my stocks and bonds, my government's military, on human structures, and institutions. My hope and salvation is Christ and him crucified.
One Sunday morning, Rocky O'Daniel was crossing the bridge over the Bad River near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, when he saw a boy had fallen into a hole in the ice. Eleven--year--old Tony Nye flagged Rocky down and said his playmate was drowning. Mr. O'Daniel raced to the river, broke through the ice, and discovered it was his own son, Alan. A garden hose was thrown out and both father and son were rescued.
When we know we are "Moses," too - having been drawn from the waters of Baptism, we move forward, freed and delivered in faith, with joy and anticipation of what God has in store for us. Thanks be to God.
____________
1. Arley K. Fadness, Holy Moses (Custer, South Dakota: Onesimus Press, 2004).
2. J. Cleveland, Songs Of Zion (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1981).
Hardly a place to hide a child - a beautiful child. In fact, nowhere in Egypt was it safe for a Hebrew child to be born and live under a paranoid Pharaoh like Ramses II (1290--1224 B.C.E.). Human crocodiles were on the prowl on the Nile banks, in the streets, in the back alleys, with instructions to kill every Hebrew male child they could find.
In this setting of Pharaoh, paranoia over the rapid growth of the Hebrew people, a Hebrew couple from the tribe of Levi married and a baby was born - a beautiful child to father Amram and mother Jochebed (Exodus 6:20). This child would not be left to the human reptiles. The child was placed in a basket plastered with bitumen in the reeds of the Nile. It was a safe place. Sister Miriam watched.
The anonymous writer to the Hebrews explains, "By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict" (Hebrews 11:23).
Five strong women played roles in the saving of this child: Shiprah and Puah, Jochebed, Pharaoh's daughter, and Miriam.1
The two brave midwives - Shiprah and Puah - defied Pharaoh's orders and allowed the children to live. Pharaoh's orders were clear. "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, she shall live" (Exodus 1:16). However, the midwives Shiprah and Puah feared God more than Pharaoh and every boy child that was born was saved.
Mother Jochebed (and father Amram), motivated by faith, put away their fears. Jochebed, whose name means "Jehovah is glory," could think of nothing but protecting her child, God's gift to her. Jochebed boldly became a risk taker and went against Pharaoh's killing frenzy.
Pharaoh's daughter, unnamed and unlike her murderous father, is overcome with compassion as she approaches the Nile River for a bath. She takes pity on the child and orders him to be pulled out of the water. She adopts the child as her own, although a princess, she does not do the actual tending of the baby. He then becomes a prince in the palace.
The child's sister, Miriam, waits and watches the child in the basket from the shadows. At the proper time Miriam steps forward. She offers her own mother, the child's own mother, as a nurse. The arrangement is sealed.
We meet five women of faith, compassion, imagination, and ingenuity who save the child whose name in Hebrew means "I drew him out." He is "the one drawn out." He is Moses!
When nine miners from Pennsylvania were rescued from a flooding mine shaft, many recalled the dramatic rescue of eighteen--month--old Jessica McClure in Midland, Texas, back in the late 1980s. Jessica fell into a 22--foot well and was trapped for two and a half days. The entire community rallied to save her, and eventually a paramedic pulled Jessica to safety from a newly--drilled shaft. Later when asked, "Who saved you?" Jessica replied, "Winnie the Pooh." You see, her mother kept singing to her into the microphone, dropped down the well, her two favorite songs, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Winnie the Pooh."
The literal meaning of Moses is "saved; delivered by God." Your name and my name is Moses, too. We have been drawn out of the dangers of sin, death, and the power of the devil. Our Savior is not Winnie the Pooh, but Jesus the Christ.
What compelled such drastic, courageous, and lifesaving acts on behalf of the future deliverer Moses? Jacob's family, which numbered seventy, was safely in Egypt. However, Joseph and his generation all die off and new generations of Hebrews appear. These folks were exceedingly successful. "But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them" (Exodus 1:7). This account of the Israelite population explosion in Egypt fulfills the Lord's promise of numerous progeny to the patriarchs. (See Genesis 13:16; 15:5; 26:4; 32:13).
But a new king comes to power in Egypt who does not know or does not care about the Hebrews. An earlier Pharaoh had called Joseph incomparably "wise" (Genesis 41:39), but this king either resents that history or is simply ignorant of the great contributions of Joseph. This new king says 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" (Egypt 1:9). Fear and paranoia consumes the new king. His security is threatened.
Since 9/11, we in the United States and the democratic free world have been threatened and terrorized. Uncertainty rules. Where and who do you and I look to for safety and security?
The Osama bin Ladens, who are motivated by a bad mix of politics and religion, have taken away our securities and made us vulnerable. Our faith in the military, our expectation of economic prowess, and our democratic free society are suddenly threatened. Where and in whom is our faith to be secured?
The new king has a solution to the "Apiru" problem ("Apiru" refers to the Hebrews and all landless folks). Pharaoh oppresses them with hard slave labor. He is ruthless in imposing tasks that makes their lives bitter and miserable. Forced labor, the new king reasons, will sap the vitality and productivity of the Hebrews while constructing public buildings, canals, irrigation, and other public works. They would build the great storehouses at Pithom and Rameses, which archaeologists today have confirmed as two of the most likely sites of forced labor. But the hardy Hebrews continue to flourish.
Oppressed people in every age have been able to identify with these Hebrews subjected to slave labor. The Black religious tradition, while unique to Black Americans, contributes much in song and theology to the belief that "God is on the side of the oppressed." The Black American experience, in which they groped for meaning, relevance, worth, assurance, reconciliation, civil rights, and a proper response to God, illustrates this common dilemma with the Hebrews in Egypt.
Black Americans were, and in many cases still are, a people who, while in a strange land, still sing the songs of Zion to the glory of God. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley (1856--1933), pastor of the famous Tindley United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was one of the most prolific of the Black hymn writers. The poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden found solace in his music.
An example is found in the words of "The Storm is Passing Over":
Courage, my soul, and let us journey on,
Tho' the night is dark and it won't be very long.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The storm is passing over, Hallelujah.
One refrain of Tindley's hymns was transformed into the greatest of all freedom songs:
Original version:
I'll overcome some day, I'll overcome some day:
If in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome some day.
Transformed version:
We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome some day;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall overcome some day.2
Songs written by Black Americans that connect and have a universal appeal to every human heart have great themes of hope, cheer, and joy amidst the pity and sorrow.
Amnesty International estimates that there are more oppressed people in the world today outside of the Communist era than at any time in history. Oppression can come from religious fundamentalism, dictators, or oppressive regimes. It can be oppression of a group of people within a society. The oppressed can be women, children, gays and lesbians, ethnic clans, and caste systems. It is easy to be blind to oppression in one's own backyard. It is just as easy to be blind to oppression in distant lands and places.
Professor Jim Limburg of Luther Seminary, in his classic The Prophets And The Powerless, reminds us that the powerless are special groups of people in the Old Testament. They are the widows, orphans, poor, and strangers. Isaiah, Amos, and other prophets denounce the powerful who hold the oppressed down.
There is the temptation for arrogance in power. In Egypt and Mesopotamia the ruler could be exalted to a superhuman, even semi--divine position. Rulers, such as the new king in Egypt, easily become arrogant, intoxicated with power, and lift themselves above the rules of common decency.
Meanwhile, there is a great yearning in human hearts and lives for deliverance. The deliverance may not only be social, but personal. The yearning for deliverance and wholeness is intense today because many feel so fractured and torn. We want our lives to have happy endings. We want to experience grace.
The wondrous message of scripture is that God brings a deliverer. For the people of Israel it would be the one who was "drawn out of the water" - Moses. For all humanity, Moses is a type of the one to come at Bethlehem. Christ is the deliverer of deliverers.
A young black convict was heard pleading as he was being executed in the South many years ago, "Joe Louis, save me; save me, Joe Louis." Joe Louis, the then heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was his only model of strength and power and salvation.
I want to be saved, and safe, from whatever would threaten me or my family. I yearn for hope and purpose. My hope is not built on my stocks and bonds, my government's military, on human structures, and institutions. My hope and salvation is Christ and him crucified.
One Sunday morning, Rocky O'Daniel was crossing the bridge over the Bad River near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, when he saw a boy had fallen into a hole in the ice. Eleven--year--old Tony Nye flagged Rocky down and said his playmate was drowning. Mr. O'Daniel raced to the river, broke through the ice, and discovered it was his own son, Alan. A garden hose was thrown out and both father and son were rescued.
When we know we are "Moses," too - having been drawn from the waters of Baptism, we move forward, freed and delivered in faith, with joy and anticipation of what God has in store for us. Thanks be to God.
____________
1. Arley K. Fadness, Holy Moses (Custer, South Dakota: Onesimus Press, 2004).
2. J. Cleveland, Songs Of Zion (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1981).
