Small Acorns - Sermon Transcript

Once again, good morning.

My name is Reverend Elizabeth Mosley, and I am happy to be with you as we continue the sermon series we've been in for the last few weeks called Recoloring the Bible, where we take a closer look at those stories in Scripture that we might have heard as children, but maybe, as Leah pointed out, don't remember all the details of.

And so Anna preached about King David,

 And Roy preached about Joseph and his brothers.

And last week, Joe preached on the Tower of Babel.

And this week, well, my story falls right after Roy's story, a little bit more after Joe's story, but before Anna's story.

And it is the story of baby Moses.

Now, Moses...

 is a big deal.

Moses is a big deal in the Bible.

Moses is a big deal in our faith tradition.

You remember the story.

He starts off as a baby in a basket, rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, brought up as a son of Egypt, even though he was really an Israelite.

 Remember Moses?

He runs away and he gets married, but then he has that encounter with the burning bush.

Remember that?

And God calls him to be God's representative to Pharaoh, to demand that Pharaoh release God's people.

Remember, let my people go and all that?

 Then there are the 10 plagues and finally God's people are released and then they flee to the Red Sea and the Red Sea parts, which I am told you can see some great artwork out on our Ross sidewalk about the Red Sea parting and baby Moses.

 They escape across it, the Israelites do.

Then the Egyptians are drowned, and it seems like they're free, but then they're wandering through the desert, and Moses goes up to Mount Sinai, and he gets the Ten Commandments, and he sees God, and he turns really old, and then there's that whole thing with the golden calf, and then they wander in the desert some more.

And I feel like at this point in Moses' story, we've left the felt boards from Sunday school, and we are fully in the Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Ten Commandments movie.

 Which I loved as a child.

But that's not actually what we're going to talk about today.

The point is though that Moses is iconic.

This story is not really just a story for kids because Moses has such a huge impact on so much of our world even to this day.

 He is a significant foundational religious figure for both Jews and Christians.

In the New Testament, you might, I'm sure you remember this, he appears with Jesus and Elijah on the top of the mountain during the Transfiguration.

Moses is one of those people that appears.

His connection to the law, and remember the Ten Commandments,

 It makes his character almost an archetype for the Israelite people and the Jewish faith in general.

And his role in leading the Israelite people out of slavery links and has linked his character to fights for freedom throughout history around the world, notably in our own civil rights movement here in the US.

 In fact, MLK Jr.

repeatedly referenced Exodus throughout his work, and in his sermon, I've Been to the Mountaintop, he likens himself to Moses, claiming that just like Moses, he was gazing upon the promised land even though he might not get to enter it himself.

Moses is an iconic character.

 His story, all that he does in his life is a powerful account and testament to the work of God in our world through this important and influential character.

Again, this goes far beyond our own faith and reaches our broader cultural traditions.

 God's work through Moses creates an entire new relationship to God that impacts so much of how our world operates and truly, in many ways, could be argued, leads us to where we all are today.

So, it's worth a closer look at how he began.

It's worth a closer look at Moses' origin story, if you will.

 To really understand the things that happened to him that set him up for what he did for the rest of his life.

So that's our goal today.

Would you bow with me for a moment of prayer?

Oh God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

For you are our rock and our redeemer.

And we love you.

Amen.

Amen.

 I was thinking about my high school yearbook the other day, and in my high school yearbook when we were seniors, you got to have a senior page.

Does anyone remember that?

Anyone have a senior page in their yearbook?

And on your senior page, you could have whatever pictures of yourself you wanted and also include whatever quotations you wanted that meant something to you in your life.

 So I had a picture of myself as a senior, and then I had several quotes, and it's really funny when you look back and see the quotes that meant something to you at that time in your life.

I honestly cannot remember all of them that I had listed on my page, but I do remember that I had one from the movie Wayne's World.

All of my elder millennials especially will appreciate that, I'm sure.

And then I also had this quote.

 Remember that even the mightiest oak was once a little acorn that held its ground.

 Remember that even the mightiest oak was once a little acorn that held its ground.

And I'll be honest, I'm not actually sure where that came from.

I don't remember where I heard it first, but that is a quote that still comes to me every once in a while.

And I have to admit that as cheesy as it is, it's cheesy.

It's okay.

I kind of like it.

I think for me, it's a reminder that

 Over time, seemingly small things can have a huge impact.

It's a reminder for me that a little grit, a willingness to hold your ground, to take up space, to push back against the forces that might try to swallow you up can yield tremendous results.

 It's also a reminder that the big successful end outcomes that we see are often the results of earlier, smaller, simple actions.

And I think that that is certainly the case when we look at the story in scripture today.

 Now while the image in our head starts with a baby in a basket, the context that surrounds, that really encapsulates this story is so important.

So I'm gonna read a lot of scripture, okay?

We're gonna start in Exodus 1 and read part of that, and then we're gonna go into Exodus 2.

Now the place in the story where we start is right after the end of Genesis.

And in that place in the story, the Israelites

 have ended up in Egypt.

You know, that's the story of Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat and his brothers and how he was betrayed and taken to Egypt.

That's the story that Roy told a couple of weeks ago.

And the important thing for this story is that the Israelites are in Egypt, and because of Joseph and all of that story,

 They have a great relationship with Pharaoh and the leadership, and they are all good.

They are in Egypt, but they are good.

And then the Israelites did and do what Joe reminded us last week that they were supposed to do.

They were fruitful and they multiplied.

At this point, there are now several generations born in Egypt.

 And then Joseph's generation passes away.

We're going to pick up in Exodus chapter 1 with verse 8.

Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

 He said to his people, look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.

Come, 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.

 Therefore they, the Egyptians, set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor.

They built supply cities, Pithom and Ramses, for Pharaoh, but the more they were oppressed,

 the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites and made their lives bitter with hard service and mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor.

They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 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.

But the midwives feared God.

They did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.

 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?

And the 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.

So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and became very strong.

And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

 Then 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.

Now, we're not going to spend a ton of time on the details of this.

There's so much we could talk about.

But I want to point out two things.

Pharaoh is not smart.

 because everything he does leads to more Israelites, which is the very thing that he is afraid of.

You heard that line, right?

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.

So one, when I think we see that when decisions are made out of fear, they are often bad decisions

 And sometimes they can result in actual evil.

And when people are in positions of power and are afraid, their bad decisions can become systemic evil and lead to the oppression of entire communities and peoples and even nations.

 And that is what happened to the Israelites in Egypt.

Now, Pharaoh tries to get to the root of his fear, or so he thinks.

Again, we can talk more about this, but the math does not add up if you're really trying to limit the number of people born.

So he goes to these two midwives who are named, which is unique for women in Scripture, they are named Shiphrah and Puah.

 Because of their skill set, these two women are all of a sudden in a position where they have a choice to make.

Either they go along with Pharaoh's horrific command, or they don't.

And we are told that because they feared God, which means they respected God,

 They actually end up becoming the first wave of resistance to this oppressive evil, and they straight up lie to Pharaoh's face.

Remember, as midwives, their role is to help bring life into the world, and they refuse to let themselves become agents of death.

 They make really a creative, courageous, clever choice when they have to, when they're forced to.

And so too, I think this part of the story, this context reminds us that we all maybe are more powerful and influential than we realize sometimes.

Because all of us will face a moment when we must decide how we will align ourselves

 either with good or with evil.

And what we choose may perhaps sometimes literally mean life or death for others.

Now because Shiphrah and Puah plead ignorance, Pharaoh shifts his tactic and demands that all of his subjects are to kill any boys that are born to the Israelites by throwing them into the river.

 And here I just want to point out that once again, he intends to weaponize people against each other, taking what is meant to give life, community, and changing it into an environment of potential death.

So the people, the Israelite people, are systematically and ruthlessly oppressed, and everyone is a potential threat.

That's the context.

 in which we now get to talk about baby Moses.

So here from chapter two, verses one through 10.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.

The woman conceived and bore a son.

And when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.

 When 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.

His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

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.

When 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.

Then 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?

 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, yes.

So the girl went and called the child's own mother.

And Pharaoh'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.

And when 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.

 for the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, and for the word of God within us.

Thanks be to God.

This story is iconic and it's powerful, especially if you remember who Moses grew up to be and all that he did throughout his life.

But honestly, this story of baby Moses is not a story about Moses.

It's a story of the three women in Moses's life.

 The first is Moses' mom.

Later in Exodus, she is named Jochebed.

Jochebed sees that her newborn baby is a fine baby, and that literally is translated to the word good, the same word that is used in Genesis when God sees all that God has made and calls it good.

 God creates the world and sees that as good, and because like God, Jochebed sees her child as good, Jochebed refuses to obey in advance.

She does not throw her baby into the river to drown.

She hides him.

And when she can hide him no longer, you know what she does?

She creates a mini ark.

 Yes, like Noah's ark.

We didn't talk about that story in this series.

Maybe in the next series.

But like Noah's ark, because the bitumen and pitch that this story references are the exact same materials that were used to create the ark and make it watertight so that it could save the remnants of creation.

You see a theme here that's being repeated.

She does take Moses down to the river, but she sets him afloat on it.

 I mean, maybe technically you could argue she follows the law.

The river was a source of life for all the people in the community in that area.

And once again, Pharaoh had tried to take something meant for life and make it a source of death.

But Moses' mom, in her one action of desperation, not knowing what else she could possibly do,

 She refuses to allow that to be so.

She refuses to let what is for life be used for death.

She doesn't know what will happen to Moses.

She sets her baby in a basket to float along the river and doesn't know if it'll work.

But she was going to do anything instead of what she knew was evil.

 Next comes Moses' sister.

Now later in Exodus, we know that her name is Miriam.

Now she's a smart cookie.

The apple really does not fall far from the tree here.

 She sees all that is happening in her land.

She sees what is happening with her people and with her family.

She knows she has a secret baby brother.

She knows that her mom is taking a huge risk, and with typical older sister energy, she does not sit by on the sidelines.

She keeps up.

She pays attention.

 She doesn't ignore it or look away.

In fact, we're told that she deliberately follows the basket to see what will happen.

And I'm just going to say that I think it's so okay to take breaks and to rest and to engage in self-care.

But when there is the potential for injustice, we must keep watch.

We cannot pretend that it doesn't exist.

 We cannot close our eyes and feign ignorance and hope that it just goes away.

We have to watch.

And even more, when the moment comes when Miriam's brother is found, she doesn't just watch, she speaks up to royalty.

Let's just not, let's not forget that this is Pharaoh's daughter that she just kind of jumps out of the reeds at and says,

 with boldness and courage, the right words at the right time, that really changes everything.

She orchestrates the best possible outcome, which is to keep her family together.

Even as a child, Miriam is not afraid to use her voice when the time is right.

And that brings us to Pharaoh's daughter.

 Just a princess, minding her own business, going down to the river to bathe.

She sees this basket in the reeds, she opens it, she sees this child crying, and she has pity on it.

Now she is not a dummy, okay?

Also, these women are all very smart.

She immediately knows that this must be one of the Israelite children.

She knows.

 She knows that her father has ordered all of the people to kill the boys that are born to the Israelites.

We don't know anything else about her.

We don't know her name or her age or what she does next.

We don't really see her again in Scripture at all, but we know one thing, that she very intentionally and deliberately in this one moment when confronted with this baby in a basket,

 She defies her father and her king and she adopts this baby as her own.

She even pays the Hebrew woman to take care of him when so many of the Hebrews and the Israelites were not being paid for their labor.

 She does the opposite of what she's supposed to.

She doesn't throw him into the river.

She draws him out of the river, which is exactly where his name comes from.

And you know what?

She doesn't talk about it.

She doesn't call a press conference or draw any attention to this decision.

It's all done.

It seems kind of very quiet and just off to the side.

 And she does this one thing in her control that changes the course of history.

She didn't seek this choice out, but when she's faced with a baby in a basket, she makes a choice out of pity, of kindness.

It's a risky choice.

Maybe she's intentionally defiant even.

But she does all of that in spite of her privilege as a daughter of Pharaoh.

 She doesn't go out and adopt all the Hebrew babies.

She simply does what she can for the one that is there.

When the choice presents itself to her, she took the option of mercy, even potentially at great cost to herself.

 The story of baby Moses is amazing.

It's amazing and powerful and wonderful, and not because of Moses, but because of all the women who acted on his behalf, his mother and his sister and his adoptive mother.

So when I think of something small having a huge impact, I think of the choices that these women have made.

They're like the little acorns that hold their ground.

 These women made individual, seemingly small decisions that took up just enough space to grow into something that God ended up using in a mighty way to change the world.

 Moses grew up to be a powerful, iconic figure.

He led the Israelite people to freedom.

He embodied this relationship between humanity and God in this new way.

But he would not have done any of that.

He would not have grown up at all if it weren't for the actions that each of these women took.

 Out of context, their actions might even be small.

They're individual acts of desperation or defiance or bravery.

These aren't grand sweeping collective actions.

These women weren't writing treatises or leading armies or followers or claiming to have extraordinary power.

They are ordinary people doing what is presented in front of them, making a choice in an ordinary everyday moment.

 They don't actually know, no one outside of these women actually knows the individual choices that they made.

And truthfully, none of these choices alone, none of these actions that these women took alone would have saved Moses' life.

But it was because when you put those actions together, those seemingly small actions together, have a huge impact.

 They all have a choice.

They all had a choice.

They could go along with what was evil and cruel and stupid, or they could choose a course of action that was risky, but loving and merciful and just.

And the truth is we have the same kind of choices today.

There are a lot of Pharaohs in our world

 There are a lot of people in power who are afraid and who are making unwise and downright evil decisions that impact entire communities and groups of people.

There are pharaohs in our own lives, people who use their power and influence in ways that cause harm and destruction to those around them.

 At every level, even you and me have the option to choose how we respond when moments like this present themselves to us.

Will we go along?

Or will we be like Jacobed, refusing to let people take what we know is life-giving and full of grace and love and to use it for evil and oppression and death?

 How might we in our own lives refuse to obey in advance and instead figure out how to let our love for others guide us rather than blindly following evil laws based on fear and hatred?

Will we obey the pharaohs in our lives or will we be like Miriam, paying attention to what is happening and then courageously speaking up when the moment requires it?

How can we take up some space and refuse to be sidelined?

 Will we submit to evil and tyranny and let it harm those around us or will we be like Pharaoh's daughter and risk our privilege and sacrifice our peace in order to resist what we know is wrong?

How can we make room for those who might need a place so desperately?

 We will, all of us at some point, face a moment where we must make a decision about how we will act.

It might be in how we respond to those in need around us.

It might be in how we speak up against hatred, even in small conversations at home or at work or at school.

It might be in where we spend our money or in how we vote.

But ultimately, it will be in how we respond to the individual moments of potential mercy that present themselves to us every day.

 As Christians, we follow a God who called creation good, and I don't know why, but we believe that God always has and always will act in this world through people just like these women and just like us.

 Through our small individual acts of justice and love and sacrifice, God doesn't need us to always be big and powerful.

God just needs us to be faithful in the moments that they present themselves to us.

 So when we pay attention, when we refuse to obey unjust laws, when we are willing to take on great personal risk to do what we believe is right in the name of God, when we choose to act, even in small ways, even if we're not sure if it's going to make a difference or it will lead to anywhere, when we treat someone with kindness or forgiveness or respond in the moment with pity and with mercy,

 God uses it all and works through us to transform the world to bring freedom and redemption and goodness and love to all.

The mightiest oak was once a little acorn that held its ground.

God's mighty works in our world and in our lives stem from the small actions that we choose to take every day.

I don't know this week

 What decisions will confront you?

I don't know what choice might come your way, what moment may materialize that you did not ask for, but there will be something this week or next week or some time, some moment where you can choose mercy and sacrificial love and bold courage or not.

 And I pray that when that happens to you and to me, that we will remember baby Moses, but most of all, that we will remember the women who saved his life.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.