St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (11/23/14)
Exodus 1:8-14
8Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, 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.” 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
Exodus 16:13-21
13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ 17The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. 18But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. 19And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ 20But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. 21Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
There is a doctrine within Christian theology that is called Total Depravity. Total Depravity. This is the belief that all of us, at the core of who we are, are selfish, sinful, broken people. It is the belief that we are captive to sin at our birth, until we are saved from that total depravity. It is commonly acknowledged that this doctrine was first explained and articulated by St. Augustine of Hippo, in the 4th century. Augustine is given credit for this theology and terminology shaping all of Christendom, for the past 17 centuries. But I have a hard time believing that. I have no evidence against St. Augustine, no special insight into the historical reliability of that claim. But I have a hard time believing that St. Augustine first thought of total depravity because of one thing. And that is . . . St. Augustine did not have any children. He was never a parent. I find it hard to believe that the understanding that humans are naturally selfish and sinful would come from anyone other than a parent. Or that there was ever a parent who doubted this fact.
Little children are awesome. They bring joy and love beyond measure. I have the best ones ever, in my opinion. But they show us, probably because they’re so honest, a clear picture of the human condition. Let me just show you . . . in this digital age, there are now web pages and twitter accounts created to share pictures of small children having tantrums for ridiculous reasons. Let’s check out a few of these pictures.
There are some of us here who find these pictures to be therapeutic. Some shared commiseration is healthy, right? Total depravity seems like a helpful description, or at least takes some of the blame off of us parents.
Total depravity. The human condition . . . A new king, a new Pharoah, arose in the land of Egypt, who did not know Joseph. Joseph, the right-hand man of a previous Pharoah, had saved this nation of Egypt from drought. With his foresight and wisdom, he stored up large amounts of food. Those large stores of food gave life to the Egyptians and many of their neighbors, including Joseph’s family, the family of Israel. The new Pharoah did not know Joseph. For some reason, he feared Joseph’s people. We may not know why, but we probably know why. We’ve seen the pattern. As Dennis Olson, the Old Testament scholar, writes, “A tempting political strategy for new leaders, whether an Egyptian pharaoh or a Nazi Hitler, involves trying to solidify power by singling out a relatively weak minority or outsider group and calling them an enemy. Fear of others can be a powerful source of unity.”[i] Don’t we know that is true?!
We have seen the pattern. Self-interest leads to manufactured fear, which leads to suspicion, to conspiracy, to oppression, demonizing, and finally, genocide. We see the pattern. The Israelite people are more numerous than us. Misinformation for the sake of fear. Let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies. Suspicion. These people might be against us. They probably are. To conspiracy. In the possibility of a war, they might betray and destroy us. They probably will. For sure, they will! They set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They are ghettoized, separated into a labor force. Oppressed. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharoah. Supply cities? These Egyptians were living in excess. They were so wealthy in extra resources that they needed new cities to store all of their excess. The large barns of the previous Pharoah pale in comparison. We need new cities to store all that we have and don’t even need. Rameses is our best guess at the name of this new Pharoah, and the name of one of those supply cities. Some people put their names in gold letters on the side of their massive buildings, and some people are able to name entire cities in their honor. Cities full of extra, unneeded stuff.
If the Israelites were such a threat, why were they so easily enslaved? If the Egyptians were overflowing with wealth, what were they worried about? And yet we are told the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites, and made their lives bitter. Demonized. These people are now feared by the people of Egypt, and for what reason? They clearly had the resources, the wealth, and the power to provide for all. While the previous Pharoah stored up excess to provide life and sustenance for all, this Pharoah hoarded excess in order to destroy life, which is exactly what he did.
As we read on, we see the inevitable next step of genocide. The midwives were instructed to kill the baby boys as they were born, though those brave midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, did not comply. The Egyptian people were then instructed to throw every Israelite boy into the Nile River. The Nile River was, and is, the source of life for Egypt. Pharoah used it for the sake of ending life.
We know the details of one baby boy who was put into that river. Though his mother kept him in secret for 3 months, until he was a little stronger, and then she put him in the Nile River, in a basket coated with pitch and sealed from the elements. The Hebrew language that is used here is rich in imagery, referring to the basket as an ark. The water intended for destruction became instead a journey to life, again. Moses was rescued by the daughter of Pharoah and then cared for by his own mother, through the cleverness of his sister, Miriam. The irony could not be thicker. Life happens from within the clutches of death. The women in this story, those who physically produce life, are the heroes. Some of them are even named in the story, defying their low position in society, while the Pharaoh, defying his dominant position, is never named. Not in all of Exodus. Life triumphs in this story, from the unlikeliest of circumstances.
And then we fast-forward through this epic story. The Israelite people are freed from the clutches of this nameless Pharaoh. And in today’s 2nd reading, from Chapter 16, we see one of the foundational stories of this new nation. And it is the antithesis of the previous story, the rejection of the previous society. This is revolutionary stuff. Those of us who have heard these stories for all of our lives can easily miss just how unpredecedented this story is. Israel’s first day in the wilderness gives us a picture of equality. No single person stores up more food than they need for that day. Moses tells them, and us,
This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.
This is an entirely new way of living, an inconceivable picture of society. A wholly different model of living built on equality and justice. This is the complete opposite of the society that they escaped from. There was no hoarding. And from this starting point of manna and quail, the principles flowed through all of Israelite culture. We do not know how well they were able to follow these principles, but they were always the goal, and they have been carried on through 3 ½ thousand years, and passed on to us to carry on.
Equality was the goal of this society and oppression was not allowed, even toward outsiders. In Chapter 22 we hear these words, “21You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22You shall not abuse any widow or orphan” (Exodus 22:21-22). The oppression they had experienced in the past shaped their foreign policy for the future. The wealthy were not allowed to take advantage of the poor, as they were required to allow gleaners to harvest the edges of their crops, interest on loans was against the law, and every 49 years, the year of Jubilee, all property was returned to its’ family of origin. Poverty was not allowed to be generational.
In all things, thanksgiving was shown by giving a tenth, or a tithe, back to the Lord, recognizing our dependence on God. Mutual generosity and shared resources permeated every part of Israelite culture. Perhaps most impressive has been the stubborn insistence on the Sabbath, the day of rest. It is the Sabbath that most clearly demonstrates generosity, for time is the one resource that can never be increased or hoarded. Taken from a person and given to another. Generosity with time is a powerful habit and a revolutionary statement to the world. Setting aside one day of rest says that we are all dependent on God and on each other. As Terence Fretheim wrote, “The increasing gap between rich and poor in modern societies is certainly in part due to the hoarding of manna. It witnesses to a failure to recognize that all that we have is due to God’s goodness, not our ability to gather manna better than anyone else.”[ii] Taking a day of rest is an act and a statement against the importance of self. It is putting others above the self. It is putting the community above the self. It is trusting God above the self.
All of these central elements are a statement against selfishness, greed, hoarding, oppression, and violence. This is a picture of revolutionary living. Sharing manna and quail, showing hospitality to the stranger, freely giving to those in need, refusing to charge interest, ending cycles of poverty, freely giving away a tenth of our possessions, and stopping to rest. The story of the Israelite people is a starting point of God’s intentions for humanity. This story comes to completion in the person of Jesus Christ, as we are told in the earliest Christian hymn that we have, found in Philippians 2
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a human slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).
This way of life is a response to selfishness at all levels. It is the answer to total depravity. It is the path to spiritual health, that is, a right relationship with God, with others, and with our natural world. When we follow this way of life, generosity and self-sacrifice, we are making a statement against selfishness, greed, oppression, and violence.
It is a joyful way of life, but it’s not always an easy way of life. It is difficult to slow down and to Sabbath. For the first 18 years of my life, it was really difficult, because when God created the dairy cow, he did not include a Sabbath setting, and so my farming family was not able to take a true Sabbath. It is difficult to give. Modern day farming involves a tremendous amount of debt, especially for those who do not inherit any land. Though I imagine almost anyone can come up with good reasons for why revolutionary living is hard. But I received a life-changing lesson just after I turned 17. My older brother, Jason, then a college freshman, was involved in a head-on car collision. When I took the phone call from a Sheriff’s deputy on that February night, I had no idea what to do.
Someone from my brother’s college called me minutes later, and let me know that our Pastor had been contacted. Within an hour, my Pastor and some church members had picked up my Dad from a college basketball game and arrived just as my Mom showed up. They drove to the hospital with my parents and sister, while other church members showed up at my house that night, and for weeks afterward, to run the family farm with me. Jason was in a coma for 17 days, and then endured a long recovery. It was a profound crisis for my family. It was also a profound lesson in the importance of spirituality. Without our church family, without our faith in God, I don’t know what would have happened to us. From that point forward, I have not been able to waver from the conviction that we can only live well in communion with God and with each other. We are all in this together, and life breaks down whenever we forget that.
We are called to revolutionary living. And we have been celebrating this community’s part in that, especially over the past 5 weeks of our Stewardship Campaign. We have heard testimonies of how this faith community called St. Andrew’s follows the example of Jesus, and Moses, and all who follow God. Lives of mutual generosity, self-sacrifice, and compassion. We have celebrated a few of the stories that represent the myriad of stories of who we are as a church family. And today, on Commitment Sunday, we have the opportunity to respond to this call on our lives to revolutionary living.
This is something that we do once a year as a church family, it is not something that we expect our guests to participate in. It is, and it has to be, a voluntary act of personal devotion. As we continue to worship this morning, in response to God’s word, may we prayerfully consider what God is asking each of us to give. This is not about your portion of the church budget. We hope you don’t think of it that way. The church budget is but a side effect, a good side effect, of the spiritual devotion of individuals and families. It is the result of spiritual health overflowing to the community. What are you called to give? Let us continue to worship as the Choir gives us a gift of this anthem. Amen!
[i] Olson, Dennis “Commentary on Exodus 1:8-2:10 www.workingpreacher.org
[ii] Fretheim, Terence Exodus: Interpretation Series, p. 186
Upside Down World 