A FAITHFUL APPROACH TO LAW, ORDER, AND JUSTICE
©Wendell
Griffen, 2017
New Millennium
Church, Little Rock, AR
August 27, 2017
(Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost)
Exodus 1:8-2:10
8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know
Joseph. 9He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are
more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, let us deal
shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our
enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ 11Therefore they set
taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. They built supply
cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12But the more they
were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came
to dread the Israelites. 13The Egyptians
became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14and made their
lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field
labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
15 The king of
Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other
Puah, 16‘When you act as
midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy,
kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.’ 17But
the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them,
but they let the boys live. 18So
the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done
this, and allowed the boys to live?’ 19The
midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian
women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.’20So
God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very
strong. 21And because the
midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22Then
Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews* you
shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.’
2Now a man from the
house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.2The
woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she
hid him for three months. 3When
she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it
with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds
on the bank of the river. 4His
sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river,
while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the
reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When
she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him.
‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7Then
his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the
Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’8Pharaoh’s
daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s
mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter
said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your
wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When
the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as
her son. She named him Moses,*‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out* of
the water.’
PRAYER BEFORE SERMON
Your
voice burns within the depths of our being,
O God of our ancestors,
and draws us into your presence and service.
Hear the cries of your people
and speak a word of comfort,
that we may proclaim to all the earth
the glory of your name. Amen.
O God of our ancestors,
and draws us into your presence and service.
Hear the cries of your people
and speak a word of comfort,
that we may proclaim to all the earth
the glory of your name. Amen.
Across the United States and elsewhere
around the world, people are concerned about what some consider a resurgence of
bigotry, hatefulness, white nationalism and white supremacy.
· We worship today
two weeks and a day after a young woman – Heather Heyer – was murdered and 19
other people were injured in Charlottesville, Virginia by a white supremacy
sympathizer who used a car as an instrument of terror and destruction.
· The evening
before that tragedy, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and neo-Fascists marched
onto the campus of the University of Virginia shouted racist and anti-Semitic
slogans. They surrounded a chapel where
people from many faith traditions and ancestries were assembled for prayer and
preparation to protest against white supremacy and racism the next day.
· Last Tuesday
evening, President Trump boldly hinted that he would issue a pardon to former
Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio was
convicted by a federal judge on the charge of criminal contempt of court for
willfully disobeying a 2011 court order that required his agency to stop
racially profiling Latinos. On Friday
afternoon, while national attention was understandably focused on the threat
Hurricane Harvey presented to the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coastal region, Mr.
Trump announced that Arpaio would be pardoned.
· On Thursday
evening, people gathered in the Old Supreme Court room of the Arkansas State
Capitol for a public meeting concerning the Little Rock School District heard
Commissioner of Education Johnny Key and members of the Arkansas Board of
Education declare they do not plan to restore local governance to the Little
Rock School District at any specific time.
The State of Arkansas dissolved the democratically elected Little Rock
School Board of Directors on January 28, 2015.
Since that time, the largest public school district in the largest and
most racially diverse city in Arkansas has been run by Commissioner Key,
un-elected bureaucrat and former state legislator with no previous experience
or education in public education.
The passage we ponder today offers
helpful moral, ethical, and theological light for us about how God’s people
should respond to bigotry, hatefulness, nationalism and claims of ethnic supremacy
that are disguised as appeals to “law and order.” The book of Exodus begins with this lesson
about how an empire – Egypt – was led by a ruler and regime who did not know
their own history and who feared the Hebrew minority population. That collective ignorance and fearfulness
motivated the Egyptian ruler and ruling regime to oppress and enslave Hebrew
workers. When they could not work the
Hebrews to death, the Egyptian ruler and his regime ordered the death of all
Hebrew male babies – infanticide – and commanded that Hebrew mid-wives become
murderers.
But two midwives – Shiprah and Puah –
engaged in a non-violent and subversive protest campaign against that
scheme. At Exodus 1:17 we read: But the
midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but
they let the boys live. When
summoned before the king to give account for letting Hebrew boys live, Shiprah
and Puah claimed that “the Hebrew women … are vigorous and give birth before
the midwife comes to them” (Ex. 1:19).
So Pharaoh – the title of the Egyptian ruler – ordered that all Hebrew
baby boys to be thrown into the Nile River (where they would either drown or be
devoured by crocodiles).
The first ten verses of Exodus 2 show how
one Hebrew family defied that decree. A
Hebrew husband and wife did not throw their baby boy into the Nile. His mother hid him for three months. When she could no longer hide her son, she
built a basket, placed him in it, and hid him among the river reeds. His sister stood watch to protect him. After the Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the
boy in the basket, the sister volunteered to find a Hebrew nursemaid for him –
his mother.
Pharaoh’s daughter did not obey her
father’s royal decree. Instead, we read
how the daughter of a ruler who wanted to wipe out the Hebrew male population
paid the mother of a Hebrew baby boy to nurse him, not kill him. The daughter of a tyrant bent on murder and
infanticide became the protector and sponsor of a boy she eventually named
Moses.
One
lesson this passage offers is that ignorance, fear, bigotry, and greed work
together to cause hateful and oppressive results for immigrants and other
vulnerable people. The Egyptian Pharaoh and his ruling regime
“did not know Joseph.”
Why did they not know how their nation
had been faithfully served and saved by Joseph, the immigrant great grandson of
the Hebrew patriarch Abraham?
Did the regime “not know Joseph” because
Egyptian historians did not include Joseph’s service in accounts of Egyptian
history?
Did the Pharaoh “did not know Joseph”
because Egyptian educators did not teach about Joseph and the contributions of
Hebrews to Egyptian society?
Did the Egyptian ruling regime “not know
Joseph” because there were no statues to remind them about him?
How else could anyone ascend to lead the
Egyptian government and “not know Joseph?”
A
second lesson in this passage is that ignorant, fearful, and hateful people
will rely on “law and order” claims to justify wicked policies and practices. The Pharaoh used fear of being overpowered by
the Hebrew immigrant population to motivate Egyptian society against them. Hebrew immigrants were considered national
security threats, not neighbors.
The fear-mongering, bigotry,
discrimination, and violence against immigrants we read about in Exodus 1 are
in keeping with the attitudes used to justify the policies and actions of
Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio, Adolf Hitler, and other nationalists across human
history against marginalized people. Fear
of being dominated and the obsessive desire to dominate others are foundation
rocks for every “law and order” reaction to demands for liberation and
justice.
This
passage also highlights the role of women as leaders in the movement for
justice. The Hebrew midwives – Shiprah and Puah –
conducted the first non-violent subversive protest movement against tyranny
that we find in the Bible. The mother
and sister of Moses concealed him and guarded him. Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion for him and
financed his care. His mother nurtured him
until he was old enough to be delivered to Pharaoh’s daughter, who reared him
as her son.
Women are not secondary characters in
this account of the early life of Moses.
The heroes in this account are heroines
– “she-roes.” Women paved the way
for Moses. Without the courage and
cleverness of Shiprah and Puah, there would have been no Moses. Without the determination and resourcefulness
of his mother and sister, there would have been no Moses. Without the deliberate decision of Pharaoh’s daughter to defy her
father’s order to kill Hebrew boys, there would have been no Moses.
Shiprah
and Puah protected Hebrew boys because they feared God. That’s important to remember. They engaged in social protest because they
feared God. They did not obey the law –
they were law breakers, not law followers – because the justice of God is
always superior to legal rules imposed to dominate and oppress others!
Shiprah
and Puah disobeyed the law because they feared God. They shielded Hebrew families from losing
their sons because they feared God. They
misled ruling authorities because they feared God.
Think of Shiprah and Puah as forerunners
of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Remember Shiprah and Puah not only when you think about Harriet Tubman,
Dorothy Day, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Coretta Scott King. Remember Shiprah and Puah when you think
about Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and Jeremiah Wright, Jr.!
Remember Shiprah and Puah when you think
about other women who refuse to “go along and get along” with ruthless men and
oppressive schemes. When preachers try
to talk you out of following the unction of the Holy Spirit, remember Shiprah
and Puah. Acknowledge that you are
competent to hear and understand God’s will without a male filter. Trust that the same God who inspired Shiprah
and Puah to confront and out-think an empire can and will inspire you to become
an agent for love, truth, justice, peace, and hope.
In
the same way the Egyptian Pharaoh and his regime “did not know Joseph,” many
religious people do not know Shiprah and Puah.
Preachers and other religious people who provide cover as tyrants
oppress vulnerable populations based on bogus fears about threats to national
security and “law and order” do not know Shiprah and Puah. Bible school teachers and counselors who say
women and girls must obey and submit to abusive male leaders and tolerate
misogyny do not know Shiprah and Puah.
But
more than that, they do not fear God!
They do not reverence God as author of life, love, and liberty for all
persons. They do not reverence the
divine command that we love God with all our being and love one another –including persons who are different from us –
as ourselves.
Politicians
and preachers who claim the right to lead based on maleness not only disregard
the Biblical role of women in the life of Moses. They disregard God’s influence in devout
women to produce justice and liberation.
The
good news is that God works to produce justice in subversive ways – not by “law
and order” – but in subversive ways! We
live to obey the subversive God of Shiprah and Puah! We serve the subversive God whose love
inspired a Hebrew mother and daughter to protect and defend Moses. We are people of the subversive God who
inspired a noblewoman to defy her father and the rules of his realm as being
part of a conspiracy to save the life of a Hebrew boy.
In the name of that subversive God, do
not be afraid to resist the tyrants of our time who are oppressing immigrants
and other marginalized populations.
In the name of that subversive God, do
not be afraid to work for justice for transgender persons. In the name of that subversive God, rise up
and resist President Trump’s order to ban transgender persons from military
service. In the name of that subversive
God, resist his plan to discriminate against service members who are
transgender.
In the name of our subversive God,
resist the effort to deny equal access to higher education to children of
undocumented immigrants.
In the name of our subversive God, let
us live for justice and liberation for all persons. In the name of our subversive God, let us
stand against every law, resist every ruler, denounce every movement, and
bravely overcome any threat and force for hate, fear, ignorance, and
oppression.
We
are God’s subversive people. We are
subversive because God is subversive! We
are subversive because justice is always subversive to tyranny. We are subversive because truth is always
subversive to propaganda and deceit. We
are subversive because God’s love is always subversive to hate. We are subversive, and in the name of the
subversive love and justice of God witnessed by Shiprah, Puah, and the other
women in this passage, let us work for justice and overcome the forces of “law
and order.”
Amen.
