August 27, 2017 – Exodus 1:8 – 2:10
Exodus 1:8-2:10
Trusting God to Work Good through Our Good
Lectionary 21A – August 27, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Everyone knows that God acted in a big dramatic showy way to save the Israelites
from slavery in Egypt.
Cecil B. DeMille really played this up in his film The Ten Commandments,
where he dramatically shows the Israelites passing through towering columns of water.
But if it hadn’t been for two lowly women acting in near anonymity years and years before,
this event might never have happened and the Israelites may never have made it to
the Promised Land.
If it weren’t for Shiphrah and Puah, two Israelite midwives, and their small defiant act,
that day might never have come.
Moses led the people to the Promised Land through the water, right?
But if not for Shiphrah and Puah, Moses may not have lived past infancy.
And the Israelites would have remained enslaved.
You and I may not even be sitting here now, and the world may look very different.
All because of the brave but small faithful actions of a couple of women long ago.
Small faithful actions have the power to change the world.
In the world of science, this is 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 might ultimately alter the path of
a tornado or prevent it altogether.
For us Christians, we call this
Trusting God to work restoration and healing through our everyday faithfulness.
So it’s not too much to say, then, that what you do this week could change the world.
Yes: God will finally act in a big showy way to save the Israelites,
but it all begins back there with two women who do the leg work that
sets up the big event –
two women who simply do the thing they are called by God to do.
They are midwives, after all: they are called to bring life in the world, not to work death.
They are not about to allow anyone to tell them otherwise, even Pharaoh.
They are simply being faithful to the thing they are called to, to their God given vocations or
callings, and they trust that God will work through their faithful actions.
It is not obvious where God is in this particular story – but the women trust, and we trust,
that God is working through the actions of the women.
And then, after the women have done their work, God works through the attachment that
a mother has for her fine looking son.
And then, after that, God works through the quick thinking of a caring sister.
And, finally, after that, God works through the compassion of a pagan princess.
Each of these women – and you should note that, in a lovely irony, it is women who ultimately
contribute to Pharaoh’s downfall, women whom Pharaoh doesn’t bother to kill –
each of these women change the world through their faithful, life-giving actions.
But I think it’s important to recognize that they don’t know they are changing the world.
They are just doing what faithfulness requires in each moment.
They are just doing what they need to in that particular moment –
and they let God worry about the rest.
The big picture can be burdensome, right?
It can be depressing to think about the big picture and where the world is heading and
all the injustice and all the violence.
Scripture is so helpful in showing us all the people behind the scenes, all the little pictures,
who are being faithful in their small ways, and who pave the way for big changes.
What you do this week, could change the world – or at least pave the way to change the world.
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 to long ago in a Lutheran Church basement –
maybe right here at First Lutheran Church – a few people got together to do
something good with their time and with their talents.
The got together to make quilts for Canadian Lutheran World Relief.
The quilts they made were taken to CLWR and shipped to Africa to a large refugee camp.
One of those quilts made 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 was sponsored to come to Canada.
When he landed in North Vancouver he made 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 man was asked why he made his way to a Lutheran Church here 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, could save lives.
The good news this week in these stories of 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 – when you and those near and dear to you are suffering –
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 – for God to save them.
But God initiates the sequence of events that ultimately would save them through
the small, faithful brave actions of a couple of Hebrew midwives.
The man in the refugee camp didn’t ask for quilt, he didn’t fill out requisition form
ALX-2510 for it.
It was just made for him, and 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 exactly but simply trusting God to
bring some good through their good and trusting the amazing network of
people we have in the church called CLWR.
God intervenes in history and in people’s day to day lives 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 parents and teachers,
through shoe salespeople and accountants,
through children and grandparents,
through students and lawyers,
through firefighters and nurses:
all just doing the things they are called to do in each moment, trusting that God will
work good through their good.
Trusting it will have a good effect.
God works through you and me and through the things this God has called us to do in
wimply caring for those who are close to us.
All of us are God’s agents in the world.
Each of us is called to sacred work, God’s work, in the everyday tasks that are entrusted to us.
All our work and all actions can be sacred.
All our work and all our actions can change the world
So with Shiphrah and Puah, with Moses’ mother and with Pharaoh’s daughter,
let us say “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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