Exodus 1:8-2:10
Matthew 16:13-20
“whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Peter is given the keys to the kingdom. Peter, the rock on which the church is built; there
is a word play going on here, as the word for Peter in Greek, is like the word
for rock.
one implication is that the church
has the keys to the kingdom. just imagine you have the keys, do you use the key
to lock the door and guard the entrance? or do you use the key to unlock the door
for everyone to enter?
often in the church we talk about
heaven and hell as places that exist after death; I think heaven and hell
exist, but they exist here, in this dimension of time and space. it is easy for us to think the keys to the
kingdom are for keeping out the ‘wrong’ people; but in doing so at times we
make life hell for each other.
during this past week at the retreat
we looked at holiness, shame and vulnerability:
how often do you worry about saying something
in case people laugh at you?
how often do you worry that you are not
enough, not clever enough, or pretty enough, or strong enough,…?
how often do you worry that people won’t
like you if they knew what you were really like?
that is shame. guilt is sorry for something
you have done, shame is sorry for who you are. many people feel shame, it keeps
us small, trying to not get noticed.
shame also makes it hard for us to
be vulnerable, yet we need to know vulnerability if we are to feel empathy, if
we are to act with courage, if we are to stand alongside people who are
hurting. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable means being honest with ourselves,
and with others, about who we are. and yes it can be hard.
..
the Hebrew people were in Egypt because
Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and Joseph ended up in Egypt, did a
good job and was promoted by the then Pharaoh. then famine hit the homeland and
Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt looking for food, and so the whole family moves
to Egypt.
years later we pick up the story, there
is a new Pharaoh who doesn’t know Joseph, and the Hebrew people are large in
number. so Pharaoh does what many in his positon have done throughout history,
and continue to do; he got scared. ‘ 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."
heard anything like that recently?
Pharaoh not only was worried, but
told the people of Egypt to be worried. there
is no suggestion that Hebrews and Egyptians had not lived peacefully until then.
the Pharaoh, the King, was scared, the
Hebrew people are made to be slaves, they build cities, they are oppressed and still
they breed. the fear increases and the oppression increases. until finally the King decides that something has
to be done; all the baby boys will be killed.
but there are some flaws in his
plan:
- the midwives are about life not death
- the river that is meant to be the place of death, maintains life
- and girls/women were more trouble than the king imagined they would be.
This story
is one with a number of heroines: the midwives who refused to kill, the mother
and sister of Moses who refused to give up hope and the Egyptian Princess who
refused to ignore a child. This reminded
me of other times when women have been the ones to speak out against injustice
and violence. women like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who met as they looked
for their ‘disappeared’ children, during the military dictatorship in 1976 – 1983
in Argentina; women like Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan form Northern
Ireland who received the Noble Peace Prize in 1976. these women were generally in
traditional homemaker roles. the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo were demanding their
right to care for their children – something they couldn’t do when their
children were taken by the secret police.
Moses grows up and God calls him to
free the people from slavery, and leads them out of Egypt, safely through the
water that kills the Egyptians. there are a lot more steps in the journey until
we get to that point. sometimes it can seem that God saves the people from slavery
in one giant amazing miracle, but there are small steps throughout the story of
Moses. and each step is necessary for the story as a whole.
“It's a courageous act of civil
disobedience that changes history, And it all starts here, with two women
willing to say "no" to an act of injustice. I doubt very much they
thought they were changing the world. But they were, just by being faithful, by
following the dictates of their hearts, by heeding the call of conscience.
The things
we do this week -- our actions, decision, choices -- will, in fact, ripple out
with consequences foreseen and unforeseen, for good or for ill, for the health
or damage of the world. That question isn't whether, but what...what will we do
this week to make a difference in the world.” [David Lose, working preacher]
the action of the midwives is ‘civil
disobedience’, or as one person has put it ‘divine obedience’. [http://sweetjubilee.tumblr.com/post/79831990907/imagine-a-woman-confronting-injustice-shiphrah-puah]
we can stay out of sight, we can hide,
or we can stand up, we can speak out, we can protect life.
here is a quote from Nelson Mandela: “ for to be free is not merely to cast off one’s
chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
and another quote , this time from Desmond
Tutu
”If you are neutral in situations of
injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its
foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will
not appreciate your neutrality.”
Jesus told the disciples not to tell
anyone he was the Messiah. I wonder if it is because our living speaks louder than
our words.
in our world today there are many
examples of injustice, poverty and oppression. in our world there is a need for
people to act with integrity, compassion and courage.
