Notes from a Sojourn
August 23, 2020
God’s Deliverance Prevails
A Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
Psalm 124, Exodus 1.1-2.10, Matthew 16.13-20
If the Lord had not been on our side, when enemies rose up against us;
then would they have swallowed us up alive in their fierce anger toward us;
they would have overwhelmed us and the torrent gone over us;
then would the raging waters have gone right over us…(Psalm 124)
Today’s readings from scripture proclaim God’s deliverance of Life from Death.
The psalmist’s water based imagery evokes the story of Moses we read in Exodus:
Moses’ infant life is in mortal danger from a human conflict beyond his ability to defend against.
In an act of faithful desperation, he is set adrift by his mother. He floats precariously between the force of water that could easily overwhelm him, but is saved by the outstretched arm of another woman. She will preserve his life.
Through the subversive and creative acts of mercy exchanged between Egyptian and Hebrew women, God will prevail against the genocidal violence of human hate and fear.
Moses’ beginnings are threatened, fragile, and weak…but he is the living hope of God’s deliverance for his people.
There are three parallels I see between this story from Exodus and the scene in Matthew’s Gospel that catch my attention. The first parallel is the backdrop human strife and conflict rooted in imperialism.
The Exodus narrative begins with the envy, suspicion, and rivalry of humans striving for domination over each other. The days of Joseph in Egypt are over: a new Pharaoh has arisen who does not remember Joseph. This new king looks at the number and strength of the Hebrews in the land and is envious:
“Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.”
The Pharaoh sows suspicion, stokes jealousy, and begins a rivalry that aspires to domination over the Hebrews in the land. Soon, rivalry and suspicion become a way of life that leads to slavery that spirals into genocide. The Pharaoh begins ordering the murder of newborn Hebrew children.
This kind of Imperial ambition is built on domination. Through slavery, taxation, financial debts, warfare, genocide, and a thousand other forms of subjugation, imperial powers try to convince the world that there is something inherently superior about them that can justify any means to achieve their ends.
The Gospel scene is also set against the backdrop of imperial domination.
It’s a small detail, easy to overlook, but the entire scene of Jesus’ confession to be the Jewish Messiah takes place in a city called Caesarea Philippi. The significance of this place is in its name – Caesarea was renamed by Herod the Great (the client king of Judea appointed by Rome) after the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. And in this city, Herod built a great temple to pay worship to his patron, the world’s strongest 'Strong Man.'
In the shadow of this temple built to the worship the Caesar, Peter prophetically (ironically) declares Jesus “Messiah” and “Son of the Living God,” a direct rebuke of the Caesar’s claims to divine power - the divine power that he claims to justify his people's domination through division, conflict, and subjugation.
Against the backdrop of these powers that be - the Pharaoh of Egypt and the Caesar of Rome - God blesses people who seem utterly powerless and inconsequential - and infant in a basket and a "rocky" disciple. And this brings me to the second parallel I see in these readings: God discloses his identity, blesses, and equips for his purposes ordinary people.
In Exodus, this ordinary person is Moses.
I’ve already talked about the weak and threatened beginnings of Moses’ life; about the small but significant acts of human mercy that preserve his life from death. And, as we will hear next Sunday, God will reveal himself to Moses as “I AM”, bless him, and equip him, a fugitive from the law and a person with a speech impediment, to go back into the shadow of Pharaoh's Egypt to proclaim God’s truth and announce God’s deliverance.
In the Gospel, this ordinary person is Peter.
Peter’s real name is Simon. “Peter” is a nickname – in Greek petros, meaning “rock” – or “rocky” even. This might sound like a compliment, and in a way it is. But it’s also a bit of a joke. For example, Peter once boldly stepped out of a boat to greet Jesus on the waves of a sea storm, but then sank like a rock when he started to take notice of the threats surrounding him.
Jesus also calls Peter a “son of Jonah” – which is not really a compliment. Remember Jonah? He’s the prophet who disobeys God’s instruction, is entirely ungrateful to God for anything, and throws a hissy fit when God is merciful to the kinds of people he doesn’t like. Not exactly a flattering comparison.
All told, we know from the Gospels that Peter is inconsistent and weak in his own ways - like all of us. He is keen yet often misguided. He’s a bit foolhardy, fickle, and really fearful all at once. In other words, placing a bet on Peter to secure the continued proclamation of God’s truth and announce God’s deliverance through Jesus Christ to the powers that be would be what we call “high odds.” Yet, it is to Peter that Jesus discloses his full identity, and blesses him, and equips him with the authority he needs to do just those things!
Well, guess what. As grace would have it, you and me are all Peter’s successors – proclaiming God’s truth and announcing God’s deliverance. Which leads me to the third parallel I see in our readings: the powers that be - the powers of Death – will not prevail against God’s deliverance.
Today we begin the first chapter of the book of Exodus. It's the story of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. It's a story that starts with a seemingly powerless and inconsequential baby floating precariously between life and death against the backdrop of imperial violence and domination. But it is this lowly and insignificant child to whom the identity of God will be revealed in the wilderness of Midian, who will proclaim the truth of God and announce the message of God's deliverance to the darkness of Pharaoh's Egypt: and Pharaoh will not prevail against it.
God's identity in Jesus Christ ("Messiah" and "Son of the Living God") is disclosed to Peter as a gift of revelation not an intellectual or moral achievement ("For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven"). And this Simon - "rocky Peter," "Son of Jonah," - will go on to proclaim God's truth and announce his deliverance through faith in Jesus the Christ in the very heart of Caesar's Rome: and the Caesars will not prevail against it.
The three parallels I see in our scriptures today can be summed up this way.
Against the backdrop of human divisions, conflicts, and subjugation, God makes it his business to disclose the truth of his identity and the ways of his deliverance to ordinary people like you and me - powerless infants in need of rescue like Moses and conflicted sons of Jonah like rocky Peter. And, as a community of people who proclaim God's truth and announce the deliverance God gives us through faith in Jesus, we will struggle with the powers of Death that oppose God's mercy and love. We don't get a free pass on the struggle. But our story, our faith, and our hope proclaim that the gates of Death will not prevail against what God is saving. God's mercy will deliver us. And God's love conquers Death.
Colin+
Painting: The Mother of Moses by Simeon Solomon (1840-1905)
