Exodus 1: 6 – 2:10 Matthew 16: 13-20 In the 21st Century we have been taught to listen for sound bytes. The Bible is different, has such an economy of words, We each need to think for yourself. Ancient listeners would have been following along in Genesis. Recalling the words of Laban, when Jacob had lived with Rachel and Leah’s family for 20 years, the host recognizes “How blessed they have been by having Israel in their company.” In that time and for generations to come, Israel was treated as GuestWorkers, a favored people. Then the readers come upon description that: Joseph and all of that generation died; but their descendants were fruitful and multiplied, growing exceedingly strong, from which the reader would think for themselves, and they would reason 400 years passed from the end of Genesis to the beginning of this Second Book of Torah. AND they would recognize foreboding “a New King arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph”. Maybe after 400 years the new Pharaoh (who is un-named because he is remembered only for what he did, not his relationship to God) no longer believed the truth of history. Maybe he chose to forget. But with SHREWD EYES he looked on people, not seeing a blessing, but seeing them with fear in his heart. There is a pun here, shifting from the adverb “shrewd” to the noun… for what is a Shrew? It is a vicious little vermin. The Bible describes this King as being a FOOL. For in contrast to the Pharaoh, the powerful King of Egypt, The Most Powerful, there are a number of powerless individuals, women, each whose names are remembered. The Pharaoh starts by issuing Executive Orders that the people of God are now his slaves. Then he instructs the Midwives to kill the Hebrew baby boys at birth. Literally he follows his Policy of Social Control SLAVERY with Population Control. Remember also, that where Egypt’s Pharaoh ordered the death of all the male Hebrew babies, with the 10th Plague all the firstborn of Egypt die. However, the Midwives named Shiphrah and Puah feared God more than they feared the King. Ironically, there were only 2 Midwives for the thousands of women, Egyptian & Israelite, in Egypt! So Shiphrah and Puah play upon the Pharaoh’s racial stereotypes, citing that these slaves are such “hardworkers”, they are not like Egyptians, the women deliver before the Midwives ever even arrive. So the Pharaoh goes to the people, telling all the Egyptians and Israelites to throw the male baby boys into the river to drown. FIRST, Who are going to be the slaves to build the Pyramids, if all the boys are killed? SECOND, the Nile River was considered the Source of ALL Life; so how could the baby boys be killed in the source of life? The story shifts, instead of focusing upon Pharaoh, to focus upon the Hebrew people, dealing with how to live with his Shrewd Laws. A Man and a Woman, just like at the beginning of Genesis testing the Law, they are of the Tribe of Levi, from whom are descended the Priests of God. And the woman of the couple gives birth to a baby. Here the RSV translates that “When she saw he was a goodly child”, actually in Hebrew, she says exactly the words God said in Genesis at the Creation of each element of Life: And the Creator said “It is Good” and it was so. Bells should be going off for us, the Bible is quoting from God’s act of Creation! “And the Woman and Man hid themselves” and she hid the child for three months. How long? a good Biblical number: three. When she could hide him no more, she follows but undercuts the Law, because she made for him an Ark, reeds mortared together with pitch and bitumen to be watertight. Again, the Bible reminds us of Genesis and God instructing Noah how to preserve his family against the chaos of the Flood. In a foreshadowing of Baptism, she symbolically buried the mortality of the son that was hers, by placing him into the waters, for him to drawn out with a new name and new identity for God’s purpose. The name that he is given is literally “Drawn out of the waters of death” in Hebrew Moshe, Mossy, we know him as Moses. But we skipped an essential part, the part of the young girls, not yet Women. As we have watched daughters over the years, it has appeared there are two basic types. Some daughters are Princesses (Cinderella/Ariel/Frozen’s Elsa), and some daughters are spies (Harriet the Spy/Nancy Drew/Wonder Woman incognito as Diana Prince.) In this story, the Princess does what princesses do, she comes to the river to take a bath, trying to have privacy from everyone following her, she just wants to soak and be perfumed, perhaps to have a baby doll that she can mother without having given birth. Miriam, the elder sister to the Baby, witnesses, watches in the reeds waiting, spying, observing. Except, neither of these girls does what was expected, they think for themselves. For the Princess it would have been easy to ignore a Hebrew Baby. Knowing her Father’s Orders, she could have tipped the basket, or pushed it downstream, but instead she drew the baby out and saw that he was Good. The Witness could have remained hidden, secret, but instead she stepped out and offered to the Princess, shall I get a wetnurse to feed and care for the baby for you? Such simple connections, that changed the course of history. Shiphrah and Puah could have killed the baby boys; the Levite Couple could have ended their son’s life; Princess could have ignored the baby or followed her father’s rules; Miriam could have stayed silent… but by a simple act each provided for this Savior to enter into the time he was needed. Andy Andrews in the book The Butterfly Effect describes that none of us know the impact of our thinking, of our simple acts. He describes Moses and Susan Carver were Unionist Land-owners in Missouri, who adopted a slave’s orphaned baby they named George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver as the adopted son of a Farmer became a Botanist, the creator of Peanuts, who often took a young boy Henry Wallace for long walks through his gardens. Henry Wallace was a one-term Vice President, who in New Mexico created a position for a scientist to cultivate seeds for dry arid climates and hired as that scientist Norman Borlaug. Borlaug developed a high-yield disease resistant corn and wheat, credited with saving over 2,000,000 people from famine. None of which would have happened without each simple connection, each person thinking for themselves, in faith. Preachers often dwell on Peter’s making the leap of faith that Jesus, the Carpenter’s Son, the Nazarene, the Rabbi, was the Son of God. But I think there is a more basic and important point here. Up until this point in the Gospel, Jesus of Nazareth has been an itinerant Rabbi and Miracle Worker. He has Called his disciples, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and taught in Parables. Much of what we remember as the Man, Jesus. Jesus here asks his disciples the same question that has been asked over and over again throughout the Gospel: “What are you searching for?” “Where is God?” “Do you believe God will send a Messiah, a Savior, and who is that?” “Who do the people say is the representative of humanity, the Son of Man?” Jesus’ disciples quote all the parts of the Bible: Elijah, Jeremiah, the Prophets, the popular answer of the day being John the Baptist. Then Jesus asked the question all of us ask about ourselves, “Who do people say I am?” I am my parents child, my wife’s husband, my children’s father, your pastor, and wear a number of volunteer hats. But for Simon Peter this somehow jarred loose the challenge, “You are the Christ, the Messiah of the Living God!” and this takes Jesus into “what it will mean to live out and die for this identity.” Rather than going along with the assumptions about our lives, to think for yourself and claim what you want your next life from here forward, your legacy to be. Reynolds Price discovered he had a cancerous growth on his spine in 1984. He went through surgery and radiation, afterward wrote the book As Whole New Life, because quite literally he could never return to whom he had been. His mate, his children, his friends all wanted him to go back to what he had done, to continue where life had left off because that was what they knew, where they were safe. Price said, “The most kind thing anyone could have said five weeks after radiation, would have been to look me in the eye and pronounce “Reynolds Price is dead. As one who today lives beyond death, who do you want to be? Live Resurrected, Live, whoever you will be!” At the end of a marriage, at the end of a career, when a dream dies, when hope is broken, literally the old self is dead. Price described “If I were honest, the years between 1933 and 1984 were comfortable and good, but despite an enjoyable 50 year head-start, my life since the catastrophe have been better.” Think for yourself: who do you want people to say you are?