Latest Posts

Six Women God Raised Up Making the Torah Possible

June 13, 2018 0 Comments

Preserving life and pursing God’s vision of human flourishing requires leadership.  Resisting a culture of death requires leadership. Within the regular conversation of the Church is what some may experience as an annual interruption provided by the Incarnation of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus: women who lead. The women who showed up at the tomb became the first to proclaim and give witness to the Good News, “Jesus is alive!” Its this work of God that inspires the New Testament.

 

Likewise, though not as regularly considered in the church, the redemptive work of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt provides us with what is not meant to be an interruption. In fact, I believe its because these events are treated as “interruptions” and not the normal activity of God that we find ourselves so shorthanded in the church and the mission of Jesus. If only we remained hitched to the full testimony of the whole Scripture, we would see that the interdependence of men and women in leadership has been God’s way in all our beginnings.

 

The extraordinary redemptive work of God precedes our texts. Exodus gives birth to Genesis. Moses emerges from the influence of the Egyptian empire because God has heard the cries of His people and is working. Genuine leadership in the Kingdom of God, is a response to the graceful stimulus of God. Such leadership takes its form in the promotion and preservation of life.

 

Exodus 1:15-22 (NIV)

15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

 

Exodus 2:1-10 (NIV)

1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

 

Exodus 2 is most often read as an introduction to Moses. But actually its an introduction of God and how He is working. These six women are called out by God. They are called “out” because they act in resistance to the culture of death. They have gotten out of step with the empire and the king’s insistence that every male child be thrown into the Nile. They are out of step with the culture of death.

 

The Company of the Committed

Let’s list out the company of those who resisted, who became aligned with God. They  surely had to make internal decisions to pursue life even at the risk great cost, even their lives. That’s what leadership does: a leader counts the cost for pursing a vision greater themselves especially when it aligns with God’s righteousness.

Shiphrah and Puah: The midwives who delivered boys and girls equally and resisted the king’s death edict. They entered into a form of civil disobedience against evil; they did not give in when confronted by the king.

Jochebed: The mother of Moses. She kept her son and then strategically let him go. She built an ark for the preservation of his life. Her name means, “YAHWEH is glory.” Her husband is Amram.

Miriam: The sister of Moses. She assisted the redemption of Moses from death by strategically floating Moses in the Nile, waiting to see what happens, and then intervening with Pharaoh’s daughter to strategically find help (Jochebed) for nursing the child. Her name has several associations but the most direct is to her own birth: bitter – in reference to her birth in a season of bitter labour and harsh treatment at the hands of the Egyptians. (It should be noted that in some commentary Jochebed and Miriam are sometimes identified as the brave midwives, Shiphrah and Pauh.)

Bithiah: The Pharaoh’s daughter. In direct opposition to the king’s edict, she ordered the rescue of Moses from the Nile, had compassion on the baby, adopted him as her own, named the child, paid for his care (which came to Jochebed), and welcomed him into the Pharaoh’s court and family. She is named in 1 Chronicles 4:18. In Midrashic tradition is considered to be the one and the same daughter who rescued Moses. Her name means, “Daughter of Yah” — most often understood in reference to Yahweh.

The slave girl and the attendants: As persons under the leadership of Bithiah and as witnesses of Bithiah’s life preserving actions they have become complicit with her resistance to the king, and are aligned with her great value life.

 

 

Leading Agents of God’s Redemption 

These six women are raised up by God as agents within His redemptive work. Together they conspired to preserve the life of a vulnerable child. They knew his name. They knew his history. They knew the treasonous actions that preserved his life. Yet, over the next twenty years they never yielded. As far as we know they never used the subversive knowledge as a threat. They did not know what Moses would become, but God did. They did not know what Word would create God’s people. They became participants in the supreme flow of God’s purpose.

 

The exodus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is the Passover. But the Passover has a history too. It is built on a series of redemptive acts inspired by God, making His values visible, and leading up to His dramatic intervention. Likewise the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is Easter. However, the story of God’s Kingdom is an extended series of redemptive actions inspired by Jesus before and after His Resurrection. In both the Exodus and in the Resurrection, women and men led themselves and others to respond to God even in the face of raw, violent, oppressive power. They chose to obey God in the regular course of their lives rather than those who would project a false supremacy and a culture of death. In so doing, they became leaders and participants in the flow of God’s true life. We can celebrate, we must celebrate how God works. God has always chosen to work redemptively through the leadership of both men and women.

Discipleship, Leadership

, , , ,

You are not too much for God

June 13, 2018 0 Comments

My friend, you are not too much trouble for God. When unbelief is a rising tide drowning out any ethical thinking and action your voice may seem small, your determination may seem wasted, and your resolve may seem weak. You may ask, “How long, Lord, how long?” But God hears. God sees. And the Psalmist declares, “The LORD knows all human plans: he know that they are futile.” (Psalm 94:11)

In the bone-crunching, blood-pounding, gut-wrenching struggle we may not see the help present for us. But one day we may declare with joy:

Unless the LORD had give me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD supported me. when anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” (Psalm 94:17-19

You are not too much trouble for God. He loves you. Jesus says,

27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:27-29

Discipleship

, , ,

City Garden Scapes

June 12, 2018 0 Comments

good fences

good neighbours make

but now we build walls

great cedar walls

now the neighbour

owns the sun

’till middle hours

shorten shadows

and the garden

joyfully awakes

— – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – —

Six Foot Notes

  1. good grief
  2. good fences
  3. permeable are made
  4. so neighbours joyfully awaken
  5. to fruit sown long before
  6. dark shadows fall

 

Creation, Poetry, Relationships

, , ,

Delusions of the wealthy and the poor

June 12, 2018 0 Comments

Wealth is a seducer. Jesus believes we are in danger of barrenness when we are taken in by its false promises and premises. He says in the parable of the soils,  “16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.’  (Mark 4:17-19)

I live in a city of great wealth and conspicuous consumption. At times I sense our barrenness. The poverty of soul reveals itself in shallow conversations, narrow fields of self-interest, and sickly love for our neighbours. Our materialism abandons the divine dimension of our relationship; in fact our minds are so hardened by the pursuit of material conquests that we cannot conceive of the Creator nor discern whether He has a first-right calling on us.

I find a slow reading of Psalm 49 gives perspective.

Psalm 49

 

1Hear this, all you peoples;

listen, all who live in this world,

2both low and high,

rich and poor alike:

3My mouth will speak words of wisdom;

the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.

4I will turn my ear to a proverb;

with the harp I will expound my riddle:

 

5Why should I fear when evil days come,

when wicked deceivers surround me—

6those who trust in their wealth

and boast of their great riches?

7No one can redeem the life of another

or give to God a ransom for them—

8the ransom for a life is costly,

no payment is ever enough—

9so that they should live on forever

and not see decay.

10For all can see that the wise die,

that the foolish and the senseless also perish,

leaving their wealth to others.

11Their tombs will remain their houses forever,

their dwellings for endless generations,

though they had named lands after themselves.

12People, despite their wealth, do not endure;

they are like the beasts that perish.

13This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,

and of their followers, who approve their sayings.

14They are like sheep and are destined to die;

death will be their shepherd

(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).

Their forms will decay in the grave,

far from their princely mansions.

 

15But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;

he will surely take me to himself.

 

16Do not be overawed when others grow rich,

when the splendor of their houses increases;

17for they will take nothing with them when they die,

their splendor will not descend with them.

18Though while they live they count themselves blessed—

and people praise you when you prosper—

19they will join those who have gone before them,

who will never again see the light of life.

 

20People who have wealth but lack understanding

are like the beasts that perish.

Discipleship

, ,

Institutional Amnesia and the Justification of Dominance

June 7, 2018 0 Comments

Genesis exists because of Exodus. 

 

We might not observe this readily as our minds are captured by the chronology of the Bible as “the books” have been arranged. But, with a bit of reflection you may arrive at the same conclusion. Genesis exists because of Exodus. 

 

The redemptive work of God forming a people as His own reveals Him as Creator and the One who has ultimate claim on the lives of men and women created in His image. 

 

As I read the first five books of the Bible, the gift of the Torah, is God’s gift after His redemptive work displayed through the exodus of Israel from Egypt. The work of the Exodus pre-dates the revelation of the Torah but not the work of God.

 

Even as the Church we must not forget that the substance of our faith resides in the redemptive work of God through Jesus Christ in a body, from this people, on a cross, and in a grave, to form a people from the nations as His own. He endured the cross “for the joy set before Him.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 

Exodus begins with power and its institution nurturing amnesia.

 

“Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” Exodus 1:6

 

This new king, a pharaoh, systematically begins to dismantle the worth and the place in society held by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just as Joseph meant nothing to him, the people of Israel, would mean nothing to him unless they served as cheap labour, for his projects, and for the projection of his dominance. He needed them around so he could show his greatness. The Pharaoh needed Egypt to forget that these Israelites were persons. In fact, Egypt would have to forget that the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and Joseph, had organized their own rescue from famine. Indeed they tried to forget, but they could not, so their contempt turned to dread.

 

The pursuit of amnesia is meant to excuse Egypt’s shameful treatment of bodies. This historical amnesia is framed by the pursuit of national security. Egypt might be embarrassed someday to discover that the Israelites had joined with an enemy of Egypt in order to take autonomous action for their own lives. Shame, even the threat of shame, holds in it not only the loss of honour and respect but also the loss of economic security. Pharaoh would not be the first man or the last to exercise language and a “divine edict” in order to justify, not just justify, actually blind others to his quest for greatness.

 

“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

11So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13and worked them ruthlessly. 14They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.  Exodus 1:9-14

 

Exodus gives birth to Genesis.

 

The glorious revelation of God as Creator, personally involved with His Creation, is rescued from a sea of forgetfulness. To read Genesis from this side of the Nile is to bask in the light of revelation: every child of ‘Adam and Eve, is of immense and equal worth. To read Exodus with the light of Genesis is to see what extraordinary lengths God will go to free His Creation from death’s domination and its fake promises of life animated by structures that seem so real and so necessary in the ordering of things… and persons.

Institutions that want people to forget are often led by persons who need everyone  to forget their connection to a redemptive past. Why? I believe its because they are plagued by the threat of shame and perhaps anxious about the economic insecurities accompanied by remembering and honouring the redemptive work fully.

Change

, , ,