Brueggemann Exodus Sermon

please peace and mercy in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Exodus story is our indispensable story he's indispensable for Jews and for Christians he keeps showing up in the Old Testament he keeps showing up in the New Testament he keeps showing up in the daily newspaper wherever there are questions of justice so when you read the newspaper look for Pharaoh Pharaoh will be there we know a lot about Pharaoh we know that he from the book of Genesis he had dreams of scarcity he was afraid of running out and so he was a very anxious man and what he set out to do because he thought he would run out yet he would accumulate he would accumulate money and land and food grain people to work until he had a monopoly of everything in Egypt and then the book of Exodus begins as in our reading by saying when you have on the Monopoly and you think you don't have enough yet you will we will always end up in violence and so he treated the slaves harshly because he thought it was legitimate to oppress them in order to enhance his monopoly but the book of Exodus is not written by Pharaoh he is written from underneath it is written by this company of people who were in debt who were in despair and who were in bondage and who became a cheap labor supply for Pharaoh they tell the underside of the story of world history and when the story begins Pharaoh who is scared of his slaves all slave masters are scared of their slaves was so free that he made a decree that all the baby boys born to slaves should be killed because he did not want too much dangerous manpower and then something very happens in the story that we read today there are these two Hebrew midwives they are uncredentialed the amazing thing is that we know their names their names are Shiphrah and puah say Shiphrah and puah and don't you forget that and what Shiphrah and puah did was to defy Pharaoh they did not kill the baby boys but they miss them and miss them and boost them and we are told that they did that because they feared God they did not fear Pharaoh if you're making what they did they engage in civil disobedience they engage in political resistance there are people I've heard there are people that say I've seen Timms who are afraid that the church is becoming too political well it's political from the ground up it's not liberal politics it's not conservative politics it is exodus politics and Exodus politics are at work wherever there is a predatory economy were the big ones eat the little ones and people in power take advantage of powerless people but they did not fear it fell and so they engaged in dangerous action they got called in for interrogation and for said to them why did you do that why did you not do what I told you to do and kill all those mega boys well they're very clever women so they did not tell Phil that they feared God because that would have been inflammatory instead what they told Pharaoh you can look it up in the text they said well it just happened the Hebrew baby boys just kept popping out and we couldn't stop them because the force is with us the force is not with FAL the force is not with those who are at the top of the heap who have a monopoly of money and power and land and food but the biblical story all the way to Jesus of Nazareth is that the force Wells up from below and works justice and mercy and compassion and freedom for those who live in despair it's amazing that we do not know Pharaoh's name I suppose that's because if you seen one Pharaoh you've seen all Farrell's but we know the names of the two midwives their names are Shiphrah and puah and the Bible believes that the course of human history is the contest between Pharaoh and Shiphrah and puah boy it is the contest between Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth where it is the contest between all the powers of injustice and the strange work of Justice that is done by people who commit civil disobedience and who refused to obey Pharaoh but these two midwives did was to imagine that that the world could be lived outside of the reality of Pharaoh and I believe there's a straight line from the book of Exodus to Romans 12 which is the Epistle reading for today which is why insisted against our rector that we needed to read it today he was trying to save his time in Romans 12 which you did not have printed in front of it you can look it up Paul writes the Christians at the church in Rome about how to obey Jesus and the thesis sentence is do not be conformed to this world but be transformed according to God's Spirit and I propose for these months while we read the book of Exodus we may be reflecting on how we conform and how we are being transformed by the power of God it's easy to be conformed if you are like me you can be conformed without having to think about it you just go with the flow but to be transformed means to be intentional and thoughtful and disciplined about being in the world differently so then Paul gives a catalogue of some of the ways in which we may be transformed first he says that if you conform you will be miserly and selfish and greedy wanting to get more but if you are transformed says he you are invited to generous generosity generosity even toward people who did not deserve it generosity in terms of charitable acts generosity in terms of public policy about education about housing about healthcare second he says that if you are conformed you will want to build fences to keep everybody out that is not exactly like us because all strangers are threats but if you are transformed says Paul show hospitality to the stranger and so the jesus movement is all about reaching out to strangers and welcoming people who do not belong to our tribe or our national group or our race or our gender and third Paul says if you are conformed you will keep score and take vengeance you will respond to every insult every slight every offense to be sure you get even and deep a dot the pole ends this great chapter in Romans 12 by saying that the people of Jesus never take vengeance because vengeance belongs to God and so what you should do is to give your enemy food and thereby heap coals of fire on his head so women's talk is a catalogue that includes these three aspects of transformation there is enough for all of us to be working at and if you do that what becomes clear is that doesn't have anything to do with the liberal or being conservative it has to do with conformity to Pharaoh which liberals and conservatives can do well it has to do with generosity hospitality not taking vengeance which transformed people liberals and conservatives can do so I imagine that Shiphrah and puah in all sorts of women that practices civil disobedience are still at work in the world and every time one of us commits an act of transformation Shiphrah and puah dance again oh man [Music]

Channel: diosohio

Views: 3,919

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: exodus, episcopal church, diocese of southern ohio, walter brueggemann

Id: Zxc9b9Ln51g

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2017