Advent 2: Love...Pastor Phil Strong

12-5-10

Text: Exodus 1:1-22

The salvation story is embedded in the story of the exodus and rehearses the circumstances which made rescue seem so desirable, but so unlikely.

Some historians consider this the “darkest moment in Israel’s history”.

The salvation text begins with context: oppression--- all that’s wrong; all that opposes them; all that makes life hard and bitter (1:14).

As with any epic story of rescue, it has (2) components: 1) it is a “life and death” story and one which is almost immediately put at risk; hopes almost prematurely extinguished, because it is seemingly subjected to human decision, 2) the plot involves those assumed to be the “least likely” candidates to serve as the heroes. In this case, (2) peasant women, yet women with names--- Shiphrah and Puah, two women who have gained little notoriety historically, but who now have their own FB page! God’s saving work always happening in the margins of life; the empty spaces.

Shiphrah and Puah were midwives and midwives had (1) primary responsibility: to serve “beginnings”; to  assist with the birth process; to “attend to mystery”.

It’s hard not to notice that God’s seeming absence is always part of our salvation story.

These are entire generations of people (some 430 years) whose experience was characterized by divine-absence. Generations living and dying without the fulfillment of the promises of their Messianic hopes. “Where has God been all this time? What about the promises?”

Sometimes we go for long stretches of time with nothing motely like salvation happening in our lives. Many times, no amount of introspection will uncover the source of the delay

Psalm 10:1 O LORD, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most?

Psalm 13:1 O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?

Psalm 42:9 "O God my rock," I cry, "Why have you forsaken me? Why must I wander in darkness, oppressed by my enemies?" [“Remember me, God?”]

● Matthew’s gospel (ch.2) intentionally creates a parallel between the birth of Moses and the birth of Jesus because he is presenting Jesus as the “new Moses” [not going to fully develop; look for expanded notes]

            Hearing of baby boys being ruthlessly sought and slaughtered by the ruling emperor of the day would remind Matthew’s readers of the way Moses narrowly escaped a similar fate.

Most of what happens in salvation is beyond us; it is inaccessible to us so that our only reasonable posture is one of receptivity…. welcoming salvation.

 It’s not that we didn’t participate but that our participation is entrenched in the God who is saving us.

            Then, the interesting phenomenon is that most of the attention is given to the ones being rescued. But, this is not an Egyptian story or an Israelite story… it’s a God-story!

How often do we watch as the rescuer walks away virtually unnoticed? It’s not until the initial excitement wanes that people even pause to consider the rescuer.

Salvation is God’s work and it is happening all the time, even in his seeming absence; even in his apparent lack of involvement.

            It’s often hard to notice, but God’s saving work is happening all around us--- at work, at school, in our neighborhood, in our children, in our relationships--- in ways that are often subtle and more inconspicuous. In fact, everywhere they (Israelites) looked, there were signs of enslavement; no visible indicators that God was aware and that rescue was imminent.

● Long before the commandments written by the finger of God; long before the miraculous crossing of the sea; long before the mysterious and lingering presence of God with them in the cloud and fire, salvation was happening… the rescue operation had begun.

The saving acts of God are most often worked through the saving acts of his people.

Curiously, the story begins, not with the thundering presence on the mountain or the booming voice of God from the heavens, but amidst the vocation of (2) faithful, yet obscure women who were committed to God and to serving the people who were most vulnerable and most at risk.

Although this was clearly a “God-story”, it was Shiphrah and Puah who facilitated the salvation operation that God had set in motion.

When involving ourselves in “God-sized stories”, it is somehow easy not to notice all the places, circumstances and names that seem to be essential to the story.

● Moses names these (2) women; intentionally inserting them into the salvation story. Why? 1) because they are not to be easily dismissed as dispensable components of the God-story, 2) they were part of his salvation story.

We are called to “midwife” (serve the process of) what God is beginning/birthing in others.

                “My dear children, for whom I am in the pains of childbirth…” Galatians 4:19

            We are not responsible for its conception; for the unseen processes at work, but we are called to come alongside to “advise and support” at a time when there are so many changes taking place and so much uncertainty and anxiety.

            We are often there to share in the joy of the delivery; to become witnesses to all of the unseen work that God has been doing which has now been brought to fruition… attending to mystery.

Life seems to happen no matter what else is going on.

Despite the oppression and the poverty; despite the adversity which makes the entrance of a new life seem an absurd proposition…new life arrives; new life is welcomed.

Amidst what appears to be barren and empty in our own lives, God is always conceiving something new; always birthing life into what appears to be some of the least favorable conditions--- conditions where it appears that the new life might not survive.

            The “womb”--- dark and inaccessible, but it provides the ideal context for the growth and development of life.

Keep in mind… Advent is the point at which we are available to God.

            “Helplessness” and “Hopelessness”… it’s not until our strategies and energies have proven futile, we are finally actually “free” to consider the offer of salvation. Until then, we are not really free, because we are still holding onto some remnant of our own device, some way to fashion our own rescue.

● “Exodus”, is a word derived from (2) Greek words meaning “out” (ex) and “way” (odos)… a “way out” [e.g. “exit”, from the Latin meaning, ‘he goes out’].

Exits are, at the same time, both “announcements” and “invitations”--- signposts to a destination. Moses didn’t stand before the people simply to announce that God was feeling warmly toward them or was saddened about their plight, but that he came ready to lead them to the “exit” of a life that had embittered them and was announcing that they didn’t have to live like this anymore.

Salvation comes to us in story, in a meal and in song.

            Exodus 15:1-18 (read): This is Moses’ version of “free-stylin’”. Songs aren’t explanations, they are expressions. They help us remember, don’t they? How did you learn the alphabet? How about the books of the Bible? How about personal hygiene? (“This is the way we brush our teeth, …”)

● I’ve noticed that we tend sing songs on a couple of different occasions: 1) when the spoken word seems to fail us (“I didn’t know how to say this, so I wrote you a song.”), and 2) when we are particularly joyful.

It is uninhibited; it’s spontaneous and unscripted; it doesn’t have to rhyme, but simply be a means of expressing yourself.  It’s the sheer exhilaration of the realization of a long-anticipated end.

            We don’t know the songs, but it makes us want to sing along!