Good Beginnings
Exodus 1:8 - 2:10; Matthew 16:13-20

August 21, 2005

We have made several trips to Florida since our son moved there several years ago. This Christmas we travelled by car. It takes longer, but avoiding the hassles at airport security makes it almost worth it. Another advantage of driving over flying is that you can stop where you choose along the way.

One of our stops was at Nashville, Tennessee. We did go to the Grand Ole Opry, but that was not the primary reason. My ministry has not always been with the United Church. Before going through the hoops to be received into the United Church Order of Ministry I had served in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for twenty-nine years. Congregations of this denomination are scarce in Canada, but it is one of the mainline Churches south of the border.

The Disciples of Christ Historical Society is located in Nashville. I had several boxes of materials--sermons, newsletters, etc. to dispose of. Some family members had alternate suggestions as to what might be done with them, but the Historical Society had expressed an interest in sorting through them and deciding what should be saved from the shredder.

Just outside the main entrance to the Historical Society building there is a monument to four of the Founding Fathers of the denomination. One of these is Barton W. Stone. Stone was a Presbyterian minister in the early 1800s. Early in his career he became distressed over the divided state of Christendom and the parties within his own Church. He devoted his life to working for Christian unity. The United Church of Christ in the USA (which was Bob Kitchen’s Church before he became enlightened!) also claims him as a founder. Engraved on the monument are these words of Stone:

“Let the unity of Christians be our polar star”

“Let every Christian begin the work of union in himself”

These latter words of Barton Stone are the “launching pad” for today’s sermon. For God’s work to be done in the world, whether it is God’s work of “union” or “salvation” or “peacekeeping” or “reconciliation,” it BEGINS WITH US.

If you read and observe with discernment what is going on in the world, whether from the pages of the daily newspaper or the Bible you will find names of individuals who have let God’s work begin in them who are beginning God’s work. I wish to lift up some of those names.

The first name I would cite as one who is beginning a work of God is that of CINDY SHEEHAN. She is the woman who has been camping at the entrance of President George Bush’s ranch at Crawford, Texas. Her son was killed in Iraq. He died in an ambush the fifth day of his military service there. She wants an audience with the president. She wants him to answer WHY her son had to die. There has been no opportunity for confrontation or even eye contact because the president flies in and out of his ranch by helicopter.

I do not believe that God is pleased with the carnage that is going on in Iraq. I do not believe it is God’s will for young people to be killed and maimed in a war that seems to be going nowhere. I do believe that someday God’s will, will be done in that corner of the globe. And it will happen, because women, like Cindy Sheehan, have made a beginning of God’s work there.

Two more names of persons who have been at the beginning of God’s work are SHIPHRAH AND PUAH. Several hundred years have passed since Jacob & Sons settled in Egypt. Their descendants prospered. Their birth rate was zooming ahead of that of the Egyptians. The Egyptians became seized with the fear that, “Soon there will be more of them than us!”

What could be done about the “Hebrew problem?” Pharaoh’s first solution was to enslave them and put them to work under hard taskmasters making bricks and building his treasure cities, and work them to death. But this didn’t solve the problem, and there was no decline in the birth rate. So Pharaoh recruits the midwives of the nation and orders them to kill all the Hebrew baby boys as soon as they are born. These orders are ignored. Killing babies is not what midwives do!

Two of the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are summoned before Pharaoh and demanded to answer why his orders are not being carried out. They offer the explanation,

“Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” (Exodus 1:19)

Were the Hebrew women really more vigorous? I doubt it. But Pharaoh bought it. Men stayed clear of the delivery room in those days. And kings especially could not be bothered with such things as women’s affairs.

Enlisting the services of the midwives did not work, so Pharaoh issued the order that all newborn Hebrew boys be thrown in the river. But these two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, had defied the king. They chose life, and were at the beginning of a resistance movement against Pharaoh’s oppressive policies.

Another beginner of God’s work is JOCHEBED. Her name is not given in today’s reading, but we learn later that this was the name of Moses’ mother (Exodus 6:20). This mother gives birth to a “fine” baby. Some versions say that he was a “goodly child.” From a mother’s point of view is there any other kind? She hides the child for three months, living in fear of the day when there will be a knock on the door and the child will be discovered by the authorities. She needs a safe place for her son. And she has a plan. She waterproofs a basket and places the baby and basket in the Nile, and trusts in God. But she was also careful to put the basket where it would drift to the spot where Pharaoh’s daughter was accustomed to bathe. And the baby’s sister was not far off to monitor the course of events. The princess finds the basket and falls in love with the baby although she immediately recognizes it to be a Hebrew child. Miriam makes herself known and volunteers the information that she knows a Hebrew woman who could nurse the child. Miriam is sent to fetch the nurse, who happens to be Moses’ mother. And Moses is raised by his own mother in Pharaoh’s house, and his mother is paid wages for doing it! You can be sure that before he became of age Moses was well instructed in the history of his people. Things worked out as they should, and God’s plan was moving along, because Jochebed took the act of faith to place her son in the river and trust in God!

Someone else whose action was a beginning of God’s work was PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER. We do not know her name. The princess was her own person. She was not in sync with her father’s policies vis-a-vis the Hebrew problem. It was an act of defiance to adopt a Hebrew child. It would be comparable to Laura Bush inviting Cindy Sheehan to the White House for tea! I would hope that might happen, but it’s pretty unlikely.

This woman knew that her father’s program of genocide was not right. And she acted on that conviction. She did not care what the Tabloids might do with it!

So far all these beginners of God’s work have been women. The next name I would submit is that of a man. Today’s Gospel tells the story of PETER making a good beginning. The disciples have been intimates of Jesus. He is at the height of his popularity. He asks them, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” A question that never ceases to be asked is, “Who is Jesus?”

The list of answers to that question is endless. We find answers in movies and popular novels. The movie that has received the most notice is The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson. Jesus comes across as a super heroBa very, very tough guy, who can take all the abuse Pilate’s thugs can inflict. We do not learn much else about Jesus, and if it is there we are so immersed in the violence, that we are likely to miss anything else the movie might say about who Jesus is.

The other popular portrayal of Jesus is in Dan Brown’s novel, The DaVinci Code. The information that Brown provides is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. He shared his power with her. They had children, the descendants of which are still around. Maybe some of you are among them! These claims have excited some people, partly because of the shock value. The novel is a work of fiction, as is most of the evidence given for the family life of Jesus. But regardless of the validity of the personal information about Jesus, it does not answer that all-important question of “Who Jesus is.”

The disciples reported some of the answers that were in circulation.

“Some say John the Baptist, but others, Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14)

It was Peter who gave the right answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” In other words Peter is saying, “You are God’s anointed. You are God’s Chosen One. You are the One who reveals God, and the word of God. You are the One to follow.” Peter answered correctly, but he had a long way to go before he understood the implications of the truth he affirmed.

Jesus responded to Peter’s bold declaration, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” Some Protestant scholars have gone through theological and exegetical contortions to prove that Peter was not the rock on which Jesus would build his Church. I suspect some anti-Catholic bias here. The fact is that Jesus is the builder, and the building material of his Church is people who are committed to the Messiahship of Jesus. Without Peter making that leap of faith that day at Caesarea-Philippi, and others then, and down through the ages, following his example, Jesus could not build his Church. God’s work in the Church had its beginning in Peter that day!

In our own time and place God’s work begins with us. It will not happen if it does not start with you. Let us sneak a peek ahead to next week’s text. We will hear the story of Moses at the burning bush. He had fled for his life from Egypt after killing an Egyptian taskmaster (So much for the super-hero approach to helping his people!). But he had been fervently praying for their deliverance, and waiting for God to do it. The LORD informs him that he is about to deliver his people, and says to Moses, “I will send you.” And then Moses starts with all the excuses why he can’t do it. Finally, the LORD says, “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2) all that was in his hand was a staff - his tool for herding sheep. But with that staff he confounded Pharaoh, parted the Red Sea, brought water from the rock, and saved the people from their enemies.

It is the same question God asks of you, “What is in your hand?”

Will you let God’s work begin in you?

Preached by Howard Hanson
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan