Halloween

 

Happy Halloween everyone!! 

 

Today is the second biggest holiday economically speaking.  Americans spend $8 billion dollars – or $92 per person – that is a lot of Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Dove dark chocolate.  But I will try to do my part today.  I remember one of my favorite costumes growing up was a robot.  I took a large cardboard box, colored every inch of that box grey (I went through several crayons and markers), put several bright large buttons of various sizes and shades on the front and sides of that box.  I made a computer screen on the front ~ some of my dear readers will remember those first DOS computers where you had to type in code…ah the good old days. And then, because I went all in, I wrapped my arms in tin foil.  I wonder if part of the reason I remember this costume was because I made it.

 

Do you remember a costume growing up?  Go ahead and post a comment in the chat today.

 

There are a few reasons why I think Halloween is popular.

 

First, candy.  Any holiday that encourages us to enjoy chocolate is a good day. Yes, I realize that Skittles outranks M&M, Snickers, and even my beloved dark chocolate.  But the reason still holds.  And see how much you are learning today?

Second, costumes.  This allows us to think about our alter-egos as a superhero or pirate or movie character.  Last week we talked about Moses’s two identities, and this day honors that it isn’t just who we’ve been but who we want to be that feeds/fuels our lives.  Hold this truth with me for a moment.

Third, even in our Enlightenment, scientific world, we all sometimes feel haunted by un-holy ghosts.  Halloween invites us to be open to this truth.  To switch holidays for a moment, we all know what is like to be visited by ghosts of the past, present, and future this time of year ~ thank you for that metaphor, Charles Dickens. 

Fourth, there is a thin veil this time of year between this life and the next.  In fact, next Sunday we light candles to honor our Saints.  Maybe it is the cool, crisp air or the darkness that descends earlier each day or the fact that the year is wrapping up/winding down ~ but we feel that thinness of this life right now.

Fifth, I save the best for last, we need fun and joy.  As a pastor, too often I take life way too seriously and somberly.  But I believe God hears laughter as prayer.  I believe God’s prayer is for us to be fully alive.  I believe God longs for us to us to pay attention to the blessings, not just the brokenness.

 

Now, is your chance.  Add to my list of why today is a good day.

 

Wait, you think, there is homework?!?  But it’s Halloween!  As you go about your day, be open to wonder.  Be open to the goodness and grace.  Be open to how this day is holy.  And may the God who delights in human joy be felt in your heart this day and this week. 

Prayer ~ Moses Moments

 

I pray this week you had a new insight into who God is crafting/creating you to be.  I pray you’ve thought of your “Moses’ moments” and your true self.  I pray the focus on water brought one new insight.  I pray for questions that send you on adventures because the root of that word, “questions,” is “quest” as in movement toward something.  The point of a good question is never to wrestle it into a solution but to live the journey that questions takes you on.  I pray you found traces of God’s grace abundantly in your life. 

 

As I look back on the week, I give thanks for (fill in two moments that brought a smile to your face).

As I rewind the past five days, I have felt the energy of emotion in my heart (name and notice some of the emotions sitting on the shelves of your soul).

As I examine where I’ve been, this person and place comes to my mind (sit with an experience from the last week.)

And I look to the coming days, I pray You would go before, beside, and behind me when facing (name an upcoming event where you need God to arrive first in that situation).

 

God wash over me with a promise, presence, and possibility as October soon turns to November let Your love lead me, Your grace strengthen me, Your peace hold me, and Your wisdom forever reside in me.  Take my life, O God, this day and let me be caught up in the joy of You.  Amen. 

Breathe

 

Breathe in God’s grace that saturates our lives…breathe out the troubles and struggles that so often occupy our minds.

Breathe in God’s comfort, care…breathe out the pain that we can’t seem to process or ever let go of.

Breathe in God’s love that renews and refreshes and like water is constantly being recycled.

 

What sits on the shelves of your soul this morning?  What news from family or friends or the headlines you just read?

What stirs in your heart?  The love of people that infuse and inspire, experiences that hurt and leave a mark.

What roams around your mind, problems on which we can fixate and ways I can creatively catastrophize thinking, “This is the worst thing ever!!”  Oh, I am so good at creating future fictional problems, worse case scenarios, you’d think my degree was in this art form. 

 

Now, pause.  Listen to the gentle breeze or bird or even the sound of the soil changing outside.  What wisdom does this offer you? 

Now, pause.  Listen to the hum of lights or the air conditioner or the very sound of your life.

What wisdom does this offer you?

Now, pause.  Listen to your head, heart, and soul all seeking alignment with God as you start this day.

What wisdom is there within you?

 

May the One who calls you, “Beloved,” have the first, middle, and last word this day and this week.  Amen.

Two Meanings Poem

 

As we focus on Moses’ name meaning, “Drawn out of water,” I am reminded of a poem, The Beginning of the Beginning by Phuong T. Vuong.  I invite you to read this slowly savoring each word.  I invite you to open your sacred imagination to the images.  I invite to hold the holy questions the poet is powerfully asking.

 

Who decides where a river starts? When are there enough

sources, strong currents and water wide enough for its name?

 

In Colorado, the Chama begins in smaller creeks and streams,

flows into New Mexico to form the Rio Grande, splitting Texas

 

and Mexico (who decided?) and moves deeper south. I think

a few of these thoughts by a creek on a beaming hot day,

 

as water rips by in rapids propelled, formed in mountains far above.

The water icy even in this summer heat. People grin

 

some false bravery. They sit in tubes and dip into the tide

and be carried away. I think of drowning. Of who sees water

 

as fun. Who gets to play in a heatwave. Who trusts

the flow. Migrants floating in the Rio Grande haunt me, so

 

I think of families tired of waiting, of mercy that never comes,

of taking back Destiny. The rivers must have claimed more

 

this year. Knows no metering but the rush of its mountain

source’s melt. A toddling child follows her father into water’s

 

pull. Think of gang’s demands, of where those come from. Trickles

of needs meeting form a flow of migrants. Think of where

 

it begins. Think of the current of history—long, windy, but

traceable and forceful in its early shapes.

 

Prayerfully ponder these words about water, who decides the name of the water, who decides who has a claim on that water?  I think about how water invisibly evaporates into the embrace of the atmosphere only to be formed into clouds that let loose rainwater that fills the rivers and seas and oceans ~ nature’s recycling program.  That with each breath we breathe in the past and with each exhale we contribute to the present ~ human recycling project today.  May the wisdom of this poem sit and stir in your heart and soul today and this week.  Amen. 

Two Meanings Part 2

 

Exodus 2 tells us that Moses ran away from one understanding of his identity and name ~ that as an adopted Egyptian, living in the posh palace of the Pharaoh, and the incompleteness of that identity. 

 

But he doesn’t race toward embracing and embodying the Hebrew understanding of his name immediately.  He doesn’t go and live right away with his tribe of people.  Rather, he goes to another place.  Moses marries, becomes a shepherd, and settles into life away from Egypt. 

 

Often discovering who we are takes a lifetime, because it is not only discovering but living from what Richard Rohr calls our “True Self” ~ or our made whole/holy in God’s image self.  Too often the voices of the world clamor chaotically for your affirmation and allegiance.  This is true politically, families, culturally (see advertising), and religiously.

 

We define ourselves by what we are not or more specifically what we fear. 

We define ourselves by our relationships to others, but always worry that we are going to be voted off the island with our friends/groups.

We define ourselves by what we buy ~ we consume therefore we are ~ to re-phrase Descartes.

We define ourselves by beliefs that we hold tightly, rather than realizing God can never be confined or contained by human thoughts.  Or as Isaiah 55 puts it, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares God. 

 

Often all our striving and struggle to define ourselves…taking another class or reading another book or even preaching another sermon (to make this very personal) are all trying to help open you to an experience of the Infinite that is indescribable/uncontainable/mysterious. 

 

Deep in your heart who is God crafting and creating (for God is never finished) you to be today?  I long to be loving, open, and creative.  I long to explore laughter’s healing art.  I long to stop controlling or striving to achieve/prove/earn.  Rather I feel the nudge to seek joy, fun, even enjoy being God’s beloved child ~ and my life would reflect evidence of that joy.

 

Take some time today to listen to your shy soul…and if you are a verbal processor, feel free to give me a call.  May the God who fashions, forms, and loves you into being remind you that your identity is “beloved”.  Amen. 

Two Meanings

 

A few weeks ago, we heard how the name “Moses” has two different meanings.  In Hebrew, Moses means, “drawn from water.”

 

Pause with me on your “Moses’ moments” when you were drawn from water.  I think of my baptism at age 12 at Eden UCC in Iowa.  I think of a trip to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota in my teen age years ~ a week of canoeing and camping and feel close to God.  I think how my wife and I returned to the Boundary Waters for our honeymoon.  I think about living next to the Gulf Waters now, how the waves wash up on the soft sand of Siesta Beach, and the sound of the sea can soothe me. 

 

Moses is also an Egyptian name meaning, “Born of or son of…”  In Egyptian, the word “Moses” is incomplete, leaves you hanging, the word is fragmented or just a fraction of what it could be.  The word, “Moses” in Egyptian is partial and patchy. 

 

Pause with me on this meaning of Moses’ name.  Ever felt incomplete or less than whole?  “Only on days that end in ‘y’, Wes,” you think to yourself.  Ever felt like something was off or there was a call into the unknown-ness of the world ~ but you were unsure about taking that first step? 

 

Moses is genetically connected to one group and relationally bound to another.  His DNA calls him a son of Abraham and Sarah, but his street address says that he has power/privilege.  There is a tension that is true both then and there for Moses and still for each of us.  Genetically we are all connected, but politically, relationally, geographically, religiously we are separated by canyons today – may feel incomplete or less than whole.  Feel and hold that tension with me.   

 

The genius of Exodus is that Moses lives both meanings of his identity.  He lives in the Pharaoh’s palace, but he is incomplete.  He rubs elbows with the rich and famous, but that is not truly who he is.  It is only when he lives from his Hebrew roots of being drawn from the water that he can stand before the waters of the Red Sea with God’s grace. 

 

Water flows through Exodus, the book is hydropower ~ from the name of Moses to God’s way of liberating love being through the Red Sea.  I invite you today to take a cup of water and hold this life-giving, thirst-quenching liquid before you.  Take a small sip.  Feel how the water washes away the dryness of your mouth and slowly flows down your throat.

Pause. 

Give thanks.

Now take another sip.

 

In the waters of baptism, you and I claim our original identity of being sons and daughters of God.  In the waters of baptism, you and I hear our inheritance of being created/crafted in Gd’s image.  In the waters of baptism, we are renewed every waking day. 

Take another sip…say your name aloud…and listen for God’s love blessing you this day and week.  Amen. 

Friday Prayer

 

God who is found in the people we encounter this day.  We give thanks this week when we caught courage from another.  We give thanks for people whose love is a light to our lives.  We give thanks for those who have shaped us into who we are today ~ our mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, teachers, adoptive parents, mentors, friends, and fellow church members.

 

God, You are everywhere, so You are here with each of us.

 

As I look back on the week, I give thanks for (fill in two moments that brought a smile to your face).

As I rewind the past five days, I have felt the energy of emotion in my heart (name and notice some of the emotions sitting on the shelves of your soul).

As I examine where I’ve been, this person and place comes to my mind (sit with an experience from the last week.)

And I look to the coming days, I pray You would go before, beside, and behind me when facing (name an upcoming event where you need God to arrive first in that situation).

 

Take our lives during this harvest season and let them be, part of Christ’s community.  Take my heart, hands, and whole life to be help me sow seeds of unity.  In the name of the One who came to gather all Your children as a mother hen gathers her brood, Jesus the Christ.  Amen. 

Breathe

 

Breathe in the courage, conviction, curiosity, and creativity of Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter…breathe out the color commentary in your mind that suggest or say you can’t make a difference.  

 

Breathe in the fiercely faithful actions of Shiphrah and Puah…and breathe out a commitment today to do one thing to help someone you encounter.

 

Breathe in the courage of Jochebed to make the basket for Moses…and breathe out the need to control the outcomes or to cling tightly to doing it only our way.

 

Breathe in the words of Miriam who convinced Pharaoh’s daughter to adopt Moses…breathe out the sense that words don’t matter.  Trust that words create worlds as Rabbi Abraham Heschel said.

 

Breathe in the conviction of Pharaoh’s daughter to raise Moses right under Pharaoh’s nose… breathe out a prayer that we might act in ways that cooperate with God’s liberating love and building God’s realm.

 

Breathe and be in these Exodus days knowing, trusting, and living the promise that God isn’t finished yet.  Amen. 

Finding Our Way in these Exodus Days

 

Any day you don’t have to bury a body in the sand, is a good day.  If you happen to miss the sermon last Sunday, that line might surprise or shock you.  I encourage you to listen to the reflections I offered on Exodus 2 last week. 

 

Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

 

Moses becomes Moses because of three sheros ~ Jochebed (his mom); Miriam (his older sister); and Pharaoh’s own daughter who defies her dad and decides to go her own way by adopting Moses.  Moses grows up running around the Pharaoh’s palace.  I picture Pharaoh pounding on the bathroom door when Moses took too long of a shower or wondering why the grocery bill was so high when Moses was in his teenage years.  Eventually Moses grows up.  One day he is out walking when he comes across an Egyptian guard beating and battering a Hebrew.

 

Remember, Moses was a Hebrew by birth.  These are his people, his tribe, this is his DNA, and so he feels a surge of anger in his soul.  He ends up killing the guard and then wondering, “What have I done?”  So he buries the body in the sand.

 

Any day you don’t have to bury a body in the sand, is a good day.  See suddenly yesterday wasn’t so bad after all.  Moses thinks he got away with it.  But the next day when he sees two Hebrews arguing, tries to intervene, they say, “What you gonna kill us like you did the guard?”  Insert Moses’ heart racing and mind spinning ~ what have I done??

 

Moses’ secret is out in the open.  The gossip grapevine is active and sharing all kinds of stories about this would-be justice seeker.  So, Moses runs.  He leaves skid marks in the sand as he gets out of Egypt just as Pharaoh is putting up “Wanted Man” posters on all the pyramids.

 

I relate to Moses ~ often my attempts at trying to do justice fall flat.  I say the wrong thing or someone points out how my efforts fell short.  Or I wonder if I am really making a difference.

 

I relate to Moses ~ tempted to run away from my problems to find a fresh start.

 

I relate to Moses ~ unsure what to do in a world that seems to be uncontrollable.

 

And I remember that it takes a lifetime.  Moses goes away for years before he comes back singing, “Let my people go”.  Moses only comes back when his hair is grey, and he needs a staff to stand upright.  Remember Moses might have been 80 years old when he made the journey “home” to Egypt.  The point may not be that I cross some great finish line and arrive in faithfulness.  Just like I will never finish all of the internet or Netflix, I might never see justice flow down like a mighty river.  Nor do I stop collaborating and cooperating with God’s creativity today.

 

May this invitation find you today, this one day in the span of your lifetime, filling you with inspiration to do justice, show loving kindness and walk humbly with God.  Let it be, O God for me I pray.  Amen. 

Finding Our Way in these Exodus Days

 

Pat, Linda, and Sue ~ these three amazing women are my Jochebed (Moses’ mom), Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter in my life.  These three fiercely faithful women, all pastors, taught me so much and were the ones from whom I caught the love of God.

 

You see, Moses won’t be Moses without Jochebed, Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter.  Moses wouldn’t even exist!  He would have been another heartbreaking and soul aching statistic of Pharaoh’s fear-based policy. 

 

These three women share and shine their lights of love. They collaborate and cooperate with each other ~ maybe without even realizing it. 

 

Who are you collaborating with today?  Maybe on volunteer committees or in your neighborhood or with family in making plans for the holidays?

 

You collaborate with your church community.  Without you ~ we are not the “we” God calls us to be.  Without your voice, your presence, your light, and your love, our “we” is incomplete.  We are in the midst of our Stewardship Season at the church, the annual invitation to share time, talent, and treasure.  This is our opportunity for every “me” to collaborate and cooperate for the wider “we”.  You support our three covenants.  You support our vibrant music ministry.  You help make these morning meditations possible.  You help us pay the light bill so we can be a beacon or lighthouse to the community. 

 

If you have questions about the way you can share and shine your candle of love to create a greater light in our community, please contact me.  For the saints who founded the church, for the saints who call the church home today, and for generations to come, we have a story to tell about the power of collaboration and cooperation with each other and with God’s still creating love.  Thank you for your gifts that make all the difference in these days.

 

God, Your giving knows no ending.  Your grace never ceases. Your love never runs dry.  Help guide and ground our church in these uncertain, uncontrollable days.  Help us continue to be a place of refuge and faith and love in these days.  Amen.

Finding Our Way in these Exodus Days

 

Confession: growing up I had a favorite family member.  I know you are supposed to love your family equally and unconditionally.  But I loved my Aunt Marie who taught me that age doesn’t need to define or confine you.  She was constantly moving, feisty, and made the best apple pie.  There was a spark and sparkle to Aunt Marie.

 

Do you have a favorite family member from growing up?  It’s okay to share, we are among friends here.

 

What were the traits of that person who you admired?

 

I think about my Aunt Marie when I hear about Miriam bravely and boldly advocating for her baby brother Moses in Exodus 2:7. Picture the scene with me.  The Pharaoh’s daughter has wade in the water…and God is gonna trouble the water when she spies with her little eye a basket nestled in the reeds nearby.  Pharaoh’s daughter looks inside the basket, and she immediately, instantly knows that this is a Hebrew baby.

 

Cue the close up on the Pharaoh’s daughter’s face.  She has an ethical choice to make.  Is that basket going to be an ark of new life for Moses or his casket?  Will she follow her father’s policy of violence, or will she choose another way?  The fate of Moses rests in her hands.

 

Hold that for one moment ~ is there a decision you are facing this day or this week that weighs on your heart or keeps you up at night?  Where do you find yourself trying to sort through the right way to go or the next right step?  Can you listen to your soul, let God’s grace/love get a word in edgewise before you make up your mind?

 

Miriam…like Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1:15-22… is courageous and creativity.  She knows that the Pharaoh’s daughter knows her brother is a Hebrew ~ maybe even overheard her say that.  So, she interrupts and intercedes on behalf of her brother.  She helps, even forces, the decision.  “Let me get a Hebrew nurse for you.” Then, she goes and gets her mom ~ Moses’ mom, to nurse her own son, which she would have done for free…only now Moses’ mom gets paid to do this.

 

So wonderfully subversive and faithful.

 

Today, hold the people in your life who have left a lingering impression.  Give thanks for the Miriams in our midst today who help move toward life and God’s liberating love.  And think back on the people who have made you who you are. 

 

If you would like a wonderful exercise on this, click the video above and watch the Artful Prayer session from last Thursday.

 

God grant me Your courage to change what I can.  Grant me Your acceptance for that which I cannot control.  Grant me Your wisdom and love to know the difference.  Amen. 

Friday Prayer

 

God of Exodus moments when we live in the meantime.

God of uncertainty when we’d rather close the doors of hearts and homes ~ shut out the world.

God of life amid storms, surround and sustain us with peace.

 

Where I am tired, fill me with the energy of Your Spirit.

Where I am worn, remind me that the desire to follow You is a step toward You.

Where I am weak, offer me a place to rest in the shade of Your love.

 

As I look back on the week, I give thanks for (fill in two moments that brought a smile to your face).

As I rewind the past five days, I have felt the energy of emotion in my heart (name and notice some of the emotions sitting on the shelves of your soul).

As I examine where I’ve been, this person and place comes to my mind (sit with an experience from the last week.)

And I look to the coming days, I pray You would go before, beside, and behind me when facing (name an upcoming event where you need God to arrive first in that situation).

 

Be thou my wisdom this day and every day. Amen. 

Entering Exodus ~ prayer

As we breathe in God’s presence today, we name and notice the ways that fear/frustration/ apathy or feeling overwhelmed too often picks the radio stations, sets the destination on the GPS of our daily living, and grasps the steering wheel of life. 

 

As we exhale all the emotions that swirl and sting and stir in our souls, we sit in this moment.

 

Gracious God, we know that fear/feeling overwhelmed makes the world binary.  Either or.  Us versus them.  Fear is the currency of oppression, pulling others down.  And we acknowledge, name, and notice our fears today.

 

Help us breathe in a Shiphrah and Puah way of courage, curiosity, and creativity.  Help us embrace and embody those words every hour today.

 

God, we know that courage is to speak one’s mind by telling one’s heart or as Paul said in Ephesians, “To speak the truth in love.”  Let that wisdom and invitation guide us.

 

God, we know that curiosity is an openness and willingness to listen and learn ~ help us not be so closed off and confident that we think we’ve got it all figured out or that our way is the only way.

 

God, we know we are all artists in the art of daily living. So help our words, actions, decisions, presence be like a box of crayons coloring on the canvas of life called, “Today.”

 

Take our lives and let them be blessed by You eternally…

Take our intellect, hearts, and hands to guide us as You choose.

 

Amen.

Entering Exodus Part Three

 

In Exodus chapter 1, the people of God are living in the meantime.  They are neither where they were in Exodus 1:7 (living their best life), nor where they want to be in the Promised Land ~ which doesn’t happen for another 120 years (80 years of Moses and 40 years of wandering in the wilderness ~ and I didn’t even need a calculator to do that math!). 

 

In the meantime is not exactly the easiest place to reside or call home.  Often, we are pining for the past or fearing the future.  Often, we can think that things were so much better back then or constantly criticize the shortcomings of today. 

 

In the meantime, when things are not as they once were and not how we hoped them to be.

 

Where is that true for you today?  In what ways are you living in the meantime?  I know for me there are situations in my family where this is true for my soul.  I know there are things in our church where we are in the meantime with COVID, with stewardship and budgeting, with what worship will look like. 

 

In the meantime…is one of the truths of Exodus 1 and 2. 

 

May that truth speak to your life this day.

 

Prayer: God who is here in the messy middle of my life, I pray for in the meantime moments.  I pray for that which is unresolved or even unsolvable.  I pray for that which bewilders and befuddles me.  I pray for the puzzles that perplex and where life is a Rubix Cube I cannot solve.  Help me be open to You now and every hour this week.  Amen.

Entering Exodus Part Two

 

We are diving and dwelling in Chapter 1 of Exodus this week.  Yesterday, we noted in the space between Exodus chapter 1 verse 7 and 8, things go from blessing to brokenness in the blink of an eye.  

People go from living the dream to a nightmare.

People go from normalcy to tragedy.

People go from walking on sunshine to the aftermath of a hurricane.

Living amid the storm ~ we know something about that.  We are seasick from life.  And, because the deep truth is that there is always an “and” with our still writing/editing/composing God, there is Shiphrah and Puah.  These two fiercely faithful women who don’t solve all the problems, but do what they can where they can.

How did yesterday go with finding Shiphrah and Puah like courage, curiosity, and creativity in your living?  Did those words stay in your mind?  Did those words find expression in your presence?  Did you find ways to embody those words in these days?  

Exodus chapter 1 sets up the scene ~ people are oppressed.  The sandal of the Pharaoh’s foot is on the neck of the people of God.   And most scholars think that Moses is about 80 years old before he will sing to Pharoah, “Let my people go.”  Eighty years plus before Moses goes from the sidelines to finding his voice to speak truth to power of Pharaoh.  I know Dr. King taught us arc of the moral universe bends toward justice and liberation, but does it have to be that long? I know that arc is never smooth sailing  ~ that it can be two steps forward twenty back.  Why can’t we microwave justice because door dash can deliver my groceries same day?  

80 years ~ that’s a lifetime.  And that is the point.  What will you give your one wild and precious life to in these days?  It is so tempting to race and run after every cause today.  There is a lure of responding when our hearts break and souls ache, we want to do something ~ anything!  And yet, often, like Shiphrah and Puah, we can do what we can, where we can.  I know others may express disappointment in you, I have heard that.  I know others may demand you do something, I have heard that.  I know expectations and assumptions feed and fuel our anxiety today in ways that keep us endlessly racing and running around.

What is that one place you long to share and shine your light in these dwindling days of 2022?  Where does your courage, curiosity, and creativity long to find expression on the canvas of life?  You don’t have to answer these questions today or even this week.  Sometimes, as the poet Rumi said, we live the question and in living the question faithfully each day we live into an answer ~ sometimes as with Moses ~ it takes a lifetime.  May the words of Exodus continue to inspire our living every day.  May you and I, like Shiphrah and Puah, find ways to be the soul of the places we stand today.  Amen. 

Entering Exodus Part One

 

Courage

Curiosity

Creativity

 

These are three words that come into my mind when I think about the actions of Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1.  To rewind and recall what we heard yesterday in worship, the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt.  They had gone down to Pharaoh’s land because there was a famine in their homeland.  They became refugees because of need ~ which is still the story of today.  In this foreign land, Jacob’s descendants thrive ~ live their best life.  For one verse.  You can open your Bible to Exodus 1:7 to read this. For one verse everything is chocolate rivers and pony rides or milk and honey or pizza and ice cream. 

 

Then…a Pharaoh comes to power who failed history class.  The new king doesn’t know about Joseph, doesn’t know why these people are here, doesn’t know how to manage his own anxiety.  The fear that brews within Pharaoh boils over as he forces the Israelites into labor and enacts a policy of killing babies. 

 

Welp, you think, thanks for this uplifting morning meditation.

 

If you go to the Bible searching only for inspiration, sometimes what we find mirrors that the world has brokenness ~ that was, is, and will be a truth Scripture shines a light on.  The Bible won’t let us hide from the woundedness of the world but asks us to bring our full selves to the hard history then and now. 

 

And, there are always traces of grace too.  Amid the fear and forced labor are two fiercely faithful women ~ Shiphrah and Puah ~ midwifes who are told by Pharaoh to kill the baby but say, “No.”  They have:

 

Courage

Curiosity

Creativity

 

Courage to not just go with the flow, but to find another way.

Curiosity to seek a way that lets life thrive.

Creativity to respond to Pharaoh’s confrontation (I love their response in Exodus 1:19, which is essentially to say to Pharaoh, “Golly gee, Pharaoh, the Hebrew women already have their babies by the time we get there.  The babies are practically toddlers when we arrive.  We just don’t know what to do!” Wink, wink, knowing smile here.)

How might you and I be inspired by Shiphrah and Puah in these days?  Where do you need courage today?  Sometimes courage is the willingness to be curious, not just assume that we know it all or that our point of view is anything other than a view from one (single) point.  Where can we be creative?  So often creativity is kept contained in the field of art, but you need creativity in the art of living every day.

So may you, my brothers and sisters, live courage, curiosity, and creativity this day and every day this week.  May you and I be Shiphrah and Puah today.  May you and I be the soul of the places we find ourselves.  Amen.