Sermon: Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

In January we were a part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at Irving Park Baptist church. Many of our neighborhood congregations took part in the celebration, and between music and dance, we read excerpts from King’s writings. There was a line read that afternoon that has stuck with me since that day, even if sometimes I have trouble understanding what it might mean. “When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Our reading from the book of Exodus for today tells the story of that long bend. The Israelites have made for themselves a home in Egypt, forced there by famine in their homelands, making for themselves a place because Joseph served Pharaoh. But then a new Pharaoh comes to power, one that does not know Joseph, and that new king is afraid. He is afraid of losing his power, and he is afraid that these people will rise up, join the enemies of Egypt and take power from him. So he subjects them to great injustice, making them slaves to the Egyptians, making their lives bitter with hard service. But that arc only bends one way- and so even under this oppressive rule, the Israelites continue to grow numerous. Their bitter life will not stop them from living, and so the Pharaoh comes up with a new plan.
The Pharaoh calls into his throne room two of my favorite characters from the Old Testament, Siphrah and Puah. These two women are midwives- people who help to bring life into that dark world of hard labor. They go to women as they are giving birth and they help to usher that new life out of the darkness and into light. So they come into Pharaoh’s palace, and he tells them that they have a new job- when they go to these women, when they see that the baby is a boy, they are to kill him, but they can let the girls live. Surely, this will keep the Israelites from growing in number- how could they overcome this kind of oppression?
What Pharaoh doesn’t know, is that Siphrah and Puah are no ordinary midwives, they are actually extraordinary. They are called by God to the ministry of life, and no power structure will bend them away from the work they are called to do. So with fingers crossed they leave the presence of Pharaoh, and they quietly go back to the work they were called to, the first women to engage in civil disobedience in the story of God’s people. They are extraordinary, brave, courageous women, doing the most ordinary of tasks, bringing life into the world.
The Israelite people will not be kept down, and they continue to grow in number. Pharaoh, confused, calls Siphrah and Puah into his chambers- demanding they account for all these boys wandering around. They tell the Pharaoh that it’s a genetic issue. These Hebrew women just deliver in a snap! They can’t get there in time to fulfill Pharaoh’s orders.
We know how the rest of the story goes. We’ve seen the movies- baby Moses is born, hidden away in a basket and sent down the river. He is found and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. The universe arcs toward justice, or perhaps irony. But, those two names, Siphrah and Puah are forgotten. Those two extraordinary women who would not be denied their call, who would not do injustice in the name of God, those two extraordinary women get lost to the record books, but it was those two women who allowed that baby to be born. It was those two women who refused to compromise who set in motion the circumstances that allowed for the birth of the prophet Moses.
There are plenty of forces in this world that try to remind us that we are nothing if not ordinary. There are plenty of forces in this world that try to convince us that what we see around us is as good as it gets. But, we, friends, we know better. We know that we are riding that arc toward justice, because that is what our God is all about. We know that we are more than ordinary, because we are made in the image of our God, and we are set to do extraordinary things. Because God continues to use us to bring about God’s kingdom, we are more than ordinary, even if our names our lost to the record books for all time.
As has been said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Who were those women to defy the greatest power they had ever known, held by Pharaoh? They were children of God, destined to do amazing things, destined to be a part of that arc towards justice. Their names are not famous, but their deeds changed the history of a people.
So as we hear their story this morning, we must ask ourselves, who are we? Who are we to deny that God has called us to extraordinary things? Who are we to imagine that we are not to shine with the glory of God? Because day by day, as I watch the story of this congregation unfold I see that arc towards justice. Day by day I see cracks in the huge walls of oppression. Day by day, I see you raising up children who will do extraordinary things. Only weeks ago I watched more than one hundred children dance down the aisles of this sanctuary as we ended magic mushroom, and I saw in their joy, in their spirits, that in this place, extraordinary things are being done. A program that was started by a few people thirty years ago has raised up thousands of children, girls and boys who know that no matter what the world tells them, God loves them. I see you stepping forward in faith and daring to believe that this congregation can have an impact on this neighborhood, supporting a free clinic in this neighborhood when people were saying it was only going to serve drunks and addicts and the bad element. I see you supporting an afterschool program focused on children in this neighborhood that people say aren’t worth our time or our energy, because they are poor or they come from difficult circumstances. And I tell you, somewhere those two Hebrew midwives are saying, well done.
So who are you? In your ordinary work, you are an extraordinary child of God. We are called to do more than we can imagine in ways we can only dream of- but we are called to lives of extraordinary service. I can’t tell you when it will feel like you are standing at the foot of Pharaoh, but I can tell you that time will come. And when it does, when you are afraid and facing that tough choice, I hope you will hear the voices of those two forgotten women, Siphrah and Puah, reminding you that made in the image of God, you are extraordinary, and you are standing in a world that arcs toward God’s justice. Amen.