[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 16A

[Joe Parrish]

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-----Original Message-----
From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Sat, Aug 20, 2011 8:52 pm
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 16A


Dear Friends,

Tomorrow’s sermon is entitled “The Birth of Moses” or “It’s Not About
You!” and deals with the Old Testament lesson (Exodus 1:8-2:10). Here
it is:

	Do you remember how President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what
your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”
In other words, instead of looking at this great nation like children,
full of “gimme’s,” look at our country and say, “What can I do to make
it better?”  That was a wonderful idea for us in terms of our country,
but it’s an even better idea in terms of God.  “Ask not what God can
do for you.  Instead, ask what you can do for God.”  In other words,
don’t keep begging God as if God were Santa Claus.  Instead, you do
something (or many things for God).  St. Paul’s, Corunna, has a
mission statement that states this idea simply: “Live the life!”
That’s what I’d like us to think through this morning.  St. Paul says
all of this in still another way (Romans 12:1):“Dear friends, I beg
you to offer your bodies to God as a living sacrifice.”  So when you
do things for God, be sure some of them are sacrificial.  Don’t just
do the easy things that you find enjoyable.  Instead, sacrifice for
God.  Do the hard things.  Take risks.  Do what you really don’t feel
like doing, but what you know is loving, helpful, kind.  Go the extra
mile for others.  When we refuse to help others, we are refusing Jesus
himself.
Today’s Old Testament lesson about the birth of Moses offers four
examples of faithful people who didn’t take the easy way, they took
the loving, hard, risky way in following God; and their sacrifices
allowed the great prophet Moses to live and thrive.  As you recall,
the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt because the Egyptian pharaoh
was afraid they would multiply so fast that they would support Egypt’s
enemies and take over his kingdom.  He decided to reduce the Jewish
population by ordering the Jewish midwives to kill all the Jewish baby
boys at birth.  They could simply tell the babies’ mothers that their
infants were stillborn.  The brave midwives (Shiphrah and Puah)
outsmarted him.  They outsmarted the pharaoh by saying that Jewish
mothers delivered their babies so fast- his order was impossible to
carry out.  They sacrificed for God by doing the loving thing, no
matter how great the risk.  How are you doing on that one?  Like the
midwives, do you love God enough to sacrifice and do the loving thing,
no matter what the cost?
Then there was Jochebed (Moses’ mother).  When Pharaoh found that his
evil scheme had failed (having the midwives kill all the Jewish baby
boys at birth), he knew he needed a new strategy.  He ordered all
Jewish parents to throw their baby boys into the Nile River.  I’m sure
Egyptian soldiers roamed the streets listening for the sound of a baby
crying.  As a baby got older, it would become increasingly difficult
hiding him.  I remember years ago when I felt sorry for a poor little
abandoned, flea-bitten kitten.  (This was when I lived in Detroit,
before I was married.)  You know what I did- took that kitten into my
“no-pets-allowed” apartment.  I thought I could hide him.  Do you know
how loud a kitten can be and how a kitten can climb up on window
ledges to see outside?  I ended up moving to another apartment that
allowed kittens.  When Jochebed knew she was putting the entire family
at risk by keeping her baby, she did throw him into the river-
officially obeying the pharaoh’s order.  She made two slight additions
to the order, however.  She floated him in the river in a little boat
and sent Moses’ big sister Miriam to watch him.  When she couldn’t
totally solve her problem, she didn’t let herself fall into depression
and despair.  She did what she could and then gave it to God.  How do
you handle such situations?  If you can’t have your way, do you just
have an attitude and give up?  Are you a “my way or the highway”
person?  Like Jochebed, do you trust God enough to sacrifice and do
what you can and then leave the rest to God?
Next was Moses’ sister, Miriam.  What a boring job- day after day
sitting by the river watching her baby brother floating in his own
little boat!  Then, can you imagine how frightened she must have been
when Pharaoh’s own daughter found her little brother?  Can you imagine
how much she wanted to run away and hide?  Instead, she stood her
ground, kept calm enough to think, and listened to God’s still small
voice with a plan to save the day.  The result was that the baby’s
very own mother got paid to nurse and raise him until he was old
enough to move to the palace and grow up as an Egyptian prince.  Like
Miriam, do you love God enough to sacrifice by standing your ground
and using your God-given talents to make a bad situation better?
Finally there was the princess- Pharaoh’s daughter.  Remember back to
the kitten.  When I called my mother to tell her that I had rescued
that pitiful little kitten, you know what she said.  “Judy- put that
kitten right back where you found him.  You can’t hide a cat.  You’ll
end up having to move!”  She surely was right- I did have to move.
Can you imagine what the Pharaoh said when he saw the enemy baby his
daughter brought home?  She must have out-thought and out-argued her
dad though, because Moses was raised in the palace as a prince.  Like
Pharaoh’s daughter, do you love God enough to accept others, even when
society says they aren’t “your kind of person”?
My friends, you’ve heard the old saying: “Only one life, ‘twill soon
be passed.  Only what’s done for God will last.”  Stop begging God and
start asking God what you can do for him.  Like the midwives, love God
enough to sacrifice and do the loving thing, no matter what the cost?
Like Jochebed, trust God enough to sacrifice and do what you can and
then leave the rest to God?  Like Miriam, love God enough to sacrifice
by standing your ground and using your God-given talents to make a bad
situation better?  Like Pharaoh’s daughter, love God enough to
sacrifice by accepting others, even when society says they aren’t
“your kind of person?”  Live the life!  Sacrifice for God.


For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American
wisdom statements are posted on our parish web site. The address is:
http://www.stpaulsepisag.com .

Blessed preaching.
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan

 
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