August 21, 2011 – Exodus 1:8-2:10
Exodus 1:8-2:10
Shiphrah and Puah: Changing the World
10th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 21) – August 21, 2011
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We all know, I think, that God acted to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
And if we’ve seen Cecil B. DeMille’s film of the 10 Commandments,
we imagine that as a big flashy event through huge columns of water.
But if it hadn’t been for two lowly women whose names we are lucky to have,
that day would likely never have come.
If it weren’t for Shiphrah and Puah, two midwives, and their small, defiant act,
the Israelites would never have made it to the Promised Land.
Because it was Moses who led them and got them there.
But if not for Shiphrah and Puah and their faithfulness,
Moses would likely never have been born.
And the Israelites would have remained enslaved.
And ultimately, you and I may not be sitting here now,
and the world might look very different.
Small faithful actions can change the world.
This has been given a name in the world of science: it’s called “The Butterfly Effect,”
and it acknowledges that something as small as the flap of a butterfly’s wings can
create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of
a tornado or prevent it altogether (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)
For us Christians, it’s simply called
trusting God to work restoration and healing through our every day faithfulness.
So it’s not too much to say, then, that what you do this week could change the world.
(http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=501)
God will ultimately act in a big way to save the Israelites,
but it all begins way back here with two women who are
faithful and honourable in their everyday work.
They are midwives after all: they are called to bring life into the world, not work death.
They are not about to allow even Pharaoh to tell them that they should deliver death
rather than life.
They are simply being faithful to the thing they’re called to.
You might ask where God even is in this story, because it’s not obvious.
God remains shadowy and behind the scenes, but nonetheless effective for that.
God is working through the faithfulness of a couple of midwives.
And then God works through the attachment a mother has for a fine looking son.
And then through the quick-thinking of a caring sister.
And finally through the pity, the compassion, the love, of a pagan princess.
Each of these women – and it’s women, note, in a lovely irony, whom Pharaoh
doesn’t bother to kill, who are ultimately his downfall! – each of these women
change the world through their faithful, life-giving actions.
They don’t know they are changing the world though:
they’re just doing what they need to do in that moment.
So what you do this week could change the world: what you do this week could have
consequences – for good or for bad – that ripple out and affect many, many lives.
How you spend your time, how you spend your money, how you use –
or choose not to use – your gifts:
these things could make a huge difference in the world.
Somewhere in Canada, not too long ago, in a Lutheran Church basement somewhere,
a few people got together to do something good with their time and
with their talents.
They got together to make quilts for Canadian Lutheran World Relief.
They resisted the pressure to do something else that evening, to surf the internet, to
play a video game, to head to the casino, to entertain themselves, to go shopping.
Instead, they went to a church and made quilts.
The quilts were donated to CLWR and shipped to Africa,
where they found their way to a large refugee camp.
And one of those quilts found its way to a man who shivered in the cold at night,
and that quilt – that quilt kept him warm.
The man survived and eventually found his way to Canada.
When he landed in North Vancouver he found his way to a Lutheran Church.
He has now helped sponsor 27 members of his family to Canada,
where they have become members at this same Lutheran Church and
where their presence is transforming and bringing this congregation to life.
These people were not Lutherans in Africa.
So when the first man was asked why he made his way to a Lutheran Church in Canada,
he simply said: “When I was in a refugee camp in Africa, I received a quilt from
Canadian Lutheran World Relief. And that quilt saved my life.”
What you do this week, could change the world, and change lives.
The good news in these stories of a people sore oppressed in Egypt and of a man
sore oppressed in a refugee camp is that God acted even before being called upon.
When people are suffering – and when you are suffering, for you are beloved of God –
God isn’t standing idly by.
God is moved by suffering – God is always moved by suffering.
The Hebrews in Egypt were not yet crying out – as they later would –
when God decides to act through the agency of Shiphrah and Puah.
The dude in the refugee camp didn’t ask for a quilt, didn’t fill out
Requisition Form ALX-2510 for it.
It was just given to him. It was grace.
It was grace because a group of people in Canada got together in a church basement
to do something good with their time and skills,
not knowing what impact it would have but simply trusting God to
bring good through their good and trusting the amazing network of
people we have in the church called CLWR.
God intervenes in and changes history most often not through events that
are great in themselves, but through small, almost hidden ways,
and through the “little ones” of this world: through Shiphrah and Puah,
through quilters in a church basement, through you and me,
through a Jewish peasant who was the incarnation of
all the love and all the mercy in the universe who
died on a cross.
In our daily living, in our work, in our families, in our schools, in our congregation:
in every interaction: you could change the world this week.
And what you do can change the world because it is God’s love, it is God’s care,
and it is God’s faithfulness that are being extended through
the work of Hebrew midwives,
through the time and gifts of ordinary congregation members,
through you.
Through you God can change the world. Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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