Exodus 1:8-2:10
Proper 16 (21) – Year A
There are many gifts. In the Moses story there are folks who have the gifts of disobedience, secrecy, complicity, adventure, subversion from within, etc.
In the Jesus story there are gifts of Baptist John, Elijah, Jeremiah, and other prophets that help to define who Jesus is and isn’t.
Likewise there are gifts in each of our lives as we interact with those closest to us. This includes those we yet name as enemy as well as friends who challenge and/or support and feed us to become more than we currently are.
There is no one else’s story to tell but our own. So the disciples were told not to tell the gift of Jesus; that was for him to reveal. So, too, no one else will tell the secret of who you are—it is yours to reveal and this is a good time to reveal it.
Are you someone whose gift of compassion will not allow you to go along with the dicta of society? Are you a gift willing to give birth to something new even in the face of overwhelming evidence that such is not desired? Are you willing to be practical enough to let go of your child and gift it another space where it might yet grow, knowing your own space is too risky for it? Are you gifted to reach out to the forbidden and make it your own? Are you willing to participate in the irony of life that flourishes within your own non-ironic life?
- - - - - - -
how shrewd we are
as we look around
to the dangers
and opportunities
to enhance our power
our very shrewdness
turns all too readily
to ruthlessness
we only perceive
as extra shrewd
being so shrewd
we fail to find
the irony in ruthlessness
that destroys
its beginning shrewdness
somehow it is never our fault
that what we have set in motion
will come back to haunt us
through the very structures
of our elite electedness
we move from “us”
who are fearful
to restrictions
that fall apart
at the next “I”
as we look around
to the dangers
and opportunities
to enhance our power
turns all too readily
to ruthlessness
we only perceive
as extra shrewd
we fail to find
the irony in ruthlessness
that destroys
its beginning shrewdness
that what we have set in motion
will come back to haunt us
through the very structures
of our elite electedness
who are fearful
to restrictions
that fall apart
at the next “I”
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
"Many years later a new king came to power. He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt.... The Egyptians put slave bosses in charge of the people of Israel and tried to wear them down with hard work." [CEV]
Many years later a new fundamentalism came to power. It did not know what Jesus had done for creation.... The Literalists put slave bosses in charge of the people and tried to wear them down with hard legislation.
Eventually it came to throwing babies into the bath water.
Eventually, the cries coalesced and the bath water threw back a baby.
It is just so darn hard to be pure. Patriarchal literalists will always find themselves betrayed by their own daughters.
Huzzah! for Shiphrah and Puah and older sisters and mothers and Pharaoh's daughters with an open heart for those who cry.
Huzzah! for anyone with an open heart for those who cry.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/august2002.html
Look to bricks (our lived reality). Look to a rock (a sign of release).
Look to a flimsy papyrus basket and chaotic waters (our lived reality). Look to the heavens and earth (signs of release).
As we play with that which binds (our lived reality) and that which looses (signs of release) we recognize that these play back and forth in mysterious ways that cannot be well anticipated. A release becomes a binding because of our lived realities (those now in power insist on control through destruction -- Tom Ehrich's comment today includes: "Pharaoh's strategy to secure his rule by destroying other lives wasn't original to him. Killing baby boys was Herod's answer, too. Killing entire families was Hitler's. If you look inside any of the cruelties that plague our world, from genocide to office politics, you will see exactly this: one rules by destroying another, a few rule by destroying many, or many rule by destroying a few."). A captive people leave a country and cause others to have an exodus from their country as they come to claim it. A constitution that frees landholding white males continues seeing blacks as fractional people and women as no one. A wall is built to divide a city and political blocs. A system of intentional racial divide makes law after law to make others powerless. An overthrow of economic colonialism sets up fights and divisions based on religious sensibilities. The list goes on.
That which seems so set in stone falls apart at a moments notice, releasing new life for more folks. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are set up, pardons are given, amendments are made, walls do fall, etc., etc.
Each of these bindings and loosings and bindings . . . are still being worked out. There is nothing new under this sun.
Listen for the swing of the pendulum that we might do our part to shorten binding times and lengthen loosing time.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/august2005.html
There are many gifts. In the Moses story there are folks who have the gifts of disobedience, secrecy, complicity, adventure, subversion from within, etc.
In the Jesus story there are gifts of Baptist John, Elijah, Jeremiah, and other prophets that help to define who Jesus is and isn't.
Likewise there are gifts in each of our lives as we interact with those closest to us, those we yet name enemy, those whose challenge and/or support feed us to become more than we currently are.
There is no one else's story to tell but our own. So the disciples were told not to tell the gift of Jesus, for that was for him to reveal. So no one else will tell the secret of who you are, it is yours to reveal and this is a good time to reveal it.
Are you someone whose gift of compassion will not allow you to go along with the dicta of society? Are you a gift willing to give birth to something new even in the face of overwhelming evidence that such is not desired? Are you willing to be practical enough to let go of your child and gift it another space where it might yet grow, knowing your own space is too risky for it? Are you gifted to reach out to the forbidden and make it your own? Are you willing to participate in the irony of life that flourishes within your own un-ironic life?
- - - - - - -
how shrewd we are
as we look around
to the dangers
and opportunities
to enhance our power
our very shrewdness
turns all too readily
to ruthlessness
we only perceive
as extra shrewd
being so shrewd
we fail to find
the irony in ruthlessness
that destroys
its beginning shrewdness
somehow it is never our fault
that what we have set in motion
will come back to haunt us
through the very structures
of our elite electedness
we move from "us"
who are fearful
to restrictions
that fall apart
at the next "I"
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Moses was pulled out of the water: Peter was pulled out of the water. Thanks be for those who pull folks out – from a maid to a daughter of Pharaoh to Jesus to you.
The need for being pulled out has to do with a lack of power. The social setting around one can sap one's power. The faith setting within one can sap one's power.
Without a sense of factual history a fear is set up based on a scary future [how pertinent is that in today's world?!] and babies are set adrift. Here a baby is not thrown into a river, but is lovingly placed in its care. Creation and midwives and mothers know better than most of us how precious life is and why we must be diligent in pulling life from death (whether from the world around us or within us).
Sometimes we are the puller and sometimes the pullee. May you enjoy both aspects of this yin and yang reality of spirit living, of justice living.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
In sorting folks out, life changes the sort. Who’s king now? It makes a difference to many.
In one realm a mere son of god can do well while in another it takes The Son of GOD to even come close to breaking even.
Instead of looking at titles such as Pharaoh or midwife, which can begin to distract our eye from what is needful, we might do well to keep our eye on where the next good might be done and be clear about the temptations that lead to a next harm, even a small one.
It turns out that a king eventually takes a back-seat to a daughter and a midwife and a mother and sister of one who will do in the king. How did they pull it off? Well, they lost their fear through a picture larger than the current power structure. This loss of fear made room for longer-term decision-making. They chose “pity” [2:6]. Each expressed it in a different way, but tears of the past, present, and future were heard and responded to. As a result, past tears were reconciled, present ones energized, and potential tears entered into with purpose.
The same process is available today - what good needs to be done; what harm avoided? This doesn’t need one to be King or Son of God, simply human, created in an image of those who show their steadfast love through action of pity more than piety.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/08/exodus-18-210.html
Consider Ferguson, MO in the news today. You can substitute any conflictual situation if you are still uncomfortable facing the realities of endemic racism. Eventually, though, all these breaking relationship based on one criterion or another will be seen as the same issue.
Here The New Revised Standard Version names our malady, "Dread".
Our friends at Merriam-Webster helpfully define Dread as:
1 a : to fear greatly
b archaic : to regard with awe
If we move from the archaic to the present we see a shift away from trust in steadfast love. The King James translation affirms that we are to fear G*D, to regard G*D with awe. Now, without the awe of having mercy visited upon us regardless of our deserving, we turn an abundance of mercy into a lack of it and fear one another, fear greatly.
This is helpful in that it gives us a clearer place to stand to begin the Pentecostal work of sharing wonders openly on the street rather than sharing fear in a locked room. What is the cultural dread that keeps both brutal and silent killing (both physical and spiritual violence) rolling on without ever being surfaced and dealt with? Where we had abundance we now have scarcity. What revisioning needs to go on in your community?