Be Transformed NOT Conformed August 24, 2008

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10
Matthew 16: 13-20
There is a certain symmetry about this morning. Michael Capron was a member of the Pastor Nominating Committee, and today he and his wife Meghan have presented their second child for baptism. A Dozen years ago, this morning, the last Sunday in August, the week before Labor Day, we read these very passages, sharing together in worship. When ever this comes up, people get a little hinky, for me it is just nostalgia, a good experience of reflection on the Transformations we have shared thus far.

One of the greatest joys for me as a pastor, is the distinction between ministry and teaching. A Teacher has a curriculum. Teachers know because they taught the lesson last year, that the Alphabet is ABC, and 2+2 will always equal 4. There are right and wrong answers. But faith is not a set curriculum, even reading the same passages, we have differing situations and relationships in our lives, so we hear differently. The joy for me as Pastor is not knowing where we are going to go, but that we travel this journey together, and challenge one another in Transformation, never letting the other or God go. Some of you will recall when we confronted whether to turn the Sanctuary, conforming to the Architect's directions, or listening to tthose who said NO, we have been this way since 1890, how can we change; and we came in on Sunday morning, to find the Pews facing where hey always had been, but now with different aisles.
With a Fund raiser for the Clinic this evening, some will recall when the Sudanese first came amng us as refugees. Others when John brought his mother. Others what it meant to have the pastor leave for Sudan right after the war had ended. Others what it represented in this community to have a wedding where the Sanctuary was bursting and half the people were white, and half had been born in Africa.
Some will recall, the Sunday the Covell's son was shipping out for Marine Special Forces and we had him carry an infant in his arms.
Sme will recall, when a child of the Church had been found guilty, and we trusted placing an infant in his arms, vowing to pray for both. And this day, that man has paid all his debts, and demonstrated his maturity, so as to go away to college.

Of all the ideas in all the world, the most exciting/ the most dangerous, are those we thought we knew, and accepted, which challenge us to reconsider other possibilities, to consider life and all we thought we believed differently. We celebrate a wedding, the birth of a child, the Sacraments of the Church, the life and death of a loved one; we listen as we are read the story of “Pharoah's daughter claiming the Sacrificed Infant Moses from out of the Bullrushes” and “Jesus asking his Disciples if they believe him to be the Christ/Messiah”. Could anything be greater acts of conformity, tradition and ritual? And yet it is in these acts, in these relationships, in these ancient stories, when rather than CONFORMING to ACCEPT, or REJECTING in REBELLION, that our LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED BY NEW IDEAS, by The Renewal of our MINDS.

Imagine all of life, not as ACTIONS, motivated by circumstance and fate, or profit and loss, or time; but that everything we do is based on A POLICY OF TRUSTING GOD. every relationship, all of our understandings are intentional acts of faith, as if our very lives were living sacrifices, acts of spiritual worship of God. Life is not composed of individual unrelated actions, but commitments and convictions, and a continuous lineage far beyond you and I. For each of us, there are momentary glimpses, spaces out of time: when,
Staring at a newborn sleeping, or their unconditional love, we are overcome with awe.
Cancer is diagnosed and we question the fairness, the choices not taken, priorities.
We stare into the eyes of our partner and realize we have found our purpose.
We are confronted by what others imagined routine questions, and we struggle.
We think we know what we believe about the death penalty, and a neighbor we have known all their life in post-partum depression kills her baby.
We believe in forgiveness, and the love of God, but is there not still right and wrong and sin? Personally, these are circumstances that make me believe in the reality of God, that I must trust God with what I cannot know, and leeting go that control can itself be a TRANSFORMATION.

Faith is not about living out our actions on the surface, taking things for granted, conforming to expectations, or immediately rejecting out of hand. Faith, is wrestling with our minds and hearts, to confess LORD I DO BELIEVE, But Help me with my unbeliefs. Faith is the Transforming of our Minds.

When by the circumstance of birth, we live in comfortable homes, with multiple cars, with the advantages of education and health care, and technology, and ample food, these stories are hard for us to claim with anything but a romanticised storybook aura. To hear EXODUS, we need to know the foundations of Genesis, that GOD BLESSED LIFE TO BE FRUITFUL; and GOD CHOSE ISRAEL to WRESTLE WITH GOD AND WITH THE WORLD.

The story opens with a new chapter of characters: A FRIGHTENED FEARFUL DICTATOR, a GROWING IMPOVERISHED CLASS, TWO DEFIANT MIDWIVES, and a COUPLE IN LOVE. The new Pharoah does not have carefully thought out foreign policies, domestic policies, blueprints for the first 100 days. Instead, his policies are confined to actions, reactions and fear. Imagine a ruthless fearful King, who instead of being motivated as Jesus describes “Anyone that is not against us, must be for us.” instead is so motivated by fear that he believes anyone who is not for us must surely be our nation's enemy. If our population becomes too large, they may overthrow us, so kill our people before they become our enemy.

There are juxtapositions of faith in this story that should leap off the page at us.
The Ruler/ The Leader, whose responsibility is to serve, instead is afraid of his people, so afraid he orders his nation's working people made into slaves, no longer human, no longer people, and put to death.

And the Great and Powerful Pharoah is so afraid, he demands an audience with the Midwives, Not with his Advisors, not with his Surgeons, not even with the OB/GYNs, but with the Midwives, whose role iand purpose s to help Life be born.

Throughout this story, the Pharoah is never named and yet we know the names of the Midwives Shiphra and Puah. And for all the Egyptians and all the Hebrews, there are only these two Midwives.

The Pharoah orders the baby boys killed before they can be given to their mothers, but SHIPHRA and PUAH fear God more than they fear Pharoah; and they defy the order of the Pharoah. SHIPHRA and PUAH Transform the order to the Pharoah by describing that Hebrew women are stronger (which plays into his fears) and they birth before te Midwives can come for the coming of the Baby.

The FEARFUL PHAROAH now FRUSTRATED, bypasses the Midwives, and goes directly to the Parents conceiving children, demanding that the Parents put their boy babies in the River. Yet, in addition to WATER being a SYMBOL for CHAOS, the River in Egypt is not simply a body of water, the NILE is believed to be the source of all life, the NILE is named as one of the tributaries from the Garden of Eden. So how could the parents put their children to death in the Source of all life?

The emphasis of the story shifts from the Power and Authority of PHAROAH to one of the sons of Levi, who's identity reminds us of GENESIS, and God's claiming a relationship with JACOB/ISRAEL. Rather than the Power and Auhority of a Dictator, This Son of LEVI is motivated by loving a Daughter of Levi, they marry and have a child, whom surprisingly they love.

Finally, when they can hide the child no more, they TRANSFORM Pharoah's orders. The parents place their boy child in the Nile River, but they do so, cradled in an ark, made of pitch and bitumen, and reed of gopher trees. This is the Genesis story of Noah all over again. And who rescues the baby from the water, but the very daughter of the Pharoah. And just to underscore for us, that this is a circumstance in the midst of a great reality, the Baby Boy known as Moses, has an Older Sister named Miriam, and an older Brother named Aaron.

Yesterday, we celebrated a wedding, but what was different for us, was that the bride's family were Spanish, so we included the tradition of the ARRAS. 13 gold coins that are presented by their families to the Groom, that he shares with his Bride, demonstrating their trust, describing that marriage is not only the union of a couple and their vows before God, but the creation of a home, where others are welcome. Such a simple symbol, yet often we imagine marriage as only the wedding, or the union of the couple, but this was also claiming of their home and families.

According to Mathew's Gospel, Jesus had called the disciples, had taught them, they had witnessed his accomplishing miracles. The disciples thought him a great teacher, a Rabbi, a Faith healer. We know where the story is going, so anticipate Jesus asking DO YOU KNOW I AM THE CHRIST? But instead Jesus asked them a question which TRANSFORMS their minds. THE SON OF MAN is a Sacred Identity in Scripture, WHO DO PEOPLE THINK IS SON OF MAN? Elijah has several references to Son of Man. Jeremiah does also. Those Old Testament Prophets, who lived their lives in a different time and different culture. Then he asked, AND WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? To which Peter lept to the conclusion, YOU ARE THE CHRIST!

So the question before us this morning, is what does it mean for us to have faith? In earlier generations it was to worship on the Sabbath, to pay a tythe, in the early history of this church “Having Faith” was to PRAY AND READ THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, and do so with your family or neighbor's family as well. Now having heard all these words, WHAT COMMITMENTS OF FAITH WILL YOU RISK TO TRANSFORM?