Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPFd0iy0th0
Program Transcript
Exodus: Freedom and the Presence of God
Sometimes the most important moments in life feel like standing at a doorway. Behind you is the life you have always known. Ahead lies a future you cannot yet see.
The book of Exodus tells the story of a people standing at such a threshold. It is the story of a God who opens a path from bondage to freedom and leads his people into a new life shaped by his presence.
God hears the cries of an oppressed people and moves with compassion and power to bring them out of slavery and into a new life.
Through Moses, God confronts the powers that hold his people captive. The plagues reveal that the God of Israel is not distant or indifferent. He is the living Lord who sees suffering and acts to bring deliverance.
When the people pass through the waters of the sea and step onto dry ground, they discover that freedom is not simply escape from oppression. It is the beginning of a relationship.
God rescues his people so they can belong to him.
In the wilderness, God begins forming his people into a new kind of community. At Mount Sinai, he gives them his covenant and his law. These instructions are not meant to burden them, but to guide them into a life that reflects God’s justice, mercy, and holiness.
The law becomes a way of learning how to live as a people shaped by God’s character.
Freedom leads to a life shaped by God’s ways.
But the story of Exodus goes even deeper. At its heart is not only freedom or instruction, but the presence of God himself.
God tells his people to build a tabernacle so that he may dwell among them. The Creator of heaven and earth chooses to live in the midst of his people, guiding them through the wilderness and forming them into a community that reflects his glory.
God’s deepest desire is to dwell with his people.
The story of Exodus reminds us that God’s work of salvation is not only about rescue. It is about relationship. The God who brings his people out of bondage also leads them forward into a life shaped by his presence.
The journey of Exodus shows us a God who hears, rescues, and remains with his people. In the passage that follows, we hear the words that reveal God’s heart and his promise to dwell among those he has redeemed.
14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Exodus 33:14-17
May we remember that the God who delivers his people is also the God who walks with them. And may our lives reflect the freedom, trust, and hope that come from living in his presence.
Program Transcript
Exodus: Freedom and the Presence of God
Sometimes the most important moments in life feel like standing at a doorway. Behind you is the life you have always known. Ahead lies a future you cannot yet see.
The book of Exodus tells the story of a people standing at such a threshold. It is the story of a God who opens a path from bondage to freedom and leads his people into a new life shaped by his presence.
God hears the cries of an oppressed people and moves with compassion and power to bring them out of slavery and into a new life.
Through Moses, God confronts the powers that hold his people captive. The plagues reveal that the God of Israel is not distant or indifferent. He is the living Lord who sees suffering and acts to bring deliverance.
When the people pass through the waters of the sea and step onto dry ground, they discover that freedom is not simply escape from oppression. It is the beginning of a relationship.
God rescues his people so they can belong to him.
In the wilderness, God begins forming his people into a new kind of community. At Mount Sinai, he gives them his covenant and his law. These instructions are not meant to burden them, but to guide them into a life that reflects God’s justice, mercy, and holiness.
The law becomes a way of learning how to live as a people shaped by God’s character.
Freedom leads to a life shaped by God’s ways.
But the story of Exodus goes even deeper. At its heart is not only freedom or instruction, but the presence of God himself.
God tells his people to build a tabernacle so that he may dwell among them. The Creator of heaven and earth chooses to live in the midst of his people, guiding them through the wilderness and forming them into a community that reflects his glory.
God’s deepest desire is to dwell with his people.
The story of Exodus reminds us that God’s work of salvation is not only about rescue. It is about relationship. The God who brings his people out of bondage also leads them forward into a life shaped by his presence.
The journey of Exodus shows us a God who hears, rescues, and remains with his people. In the passage that follows, we hear the words that reveal God’s heart and his promise to dwell among those he has redeemed.
14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Exodus 33:14-17
May we remember that the God who delivers his people is also the God who walks with them. And may our lives reflect the freedom, trust, and hope that come from living in his presence.
Psalm 124:1–8 • Exodus 1:8–2:10 • Romans 12:1–8 • Matthew 16:13–20
This week’s theme is even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us. In our call to worship psalm, the psalmist praises God for rescuing Israel from overwhelming danger and confesses that their help comes from the Lord alone. In Exodus, God preserves Moses’ life from the hand of Pharoah so that he can later lead God’s people out of slavery. In Romans, Paul urges believers whom God has shown mercy, to offer themselves as living sacrifices. And in Matthew’s Gospel, as Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah, Jesus entrusts to Peter, and the church, with kingdom authority to carry out God’s work on earth.
Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.
How to use this sermon resource.
Even When We Cannot See Him,
God Is at Work to Rescue Us
Exodus 1:8–2:10 NIV
[Read or ask someone to read Exodus 1:8–2:10.]
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
2:1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,saying, “I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 1:8–2:10 NIV
Today and the next eight Sundays we will be discussing what the book of Exodus shows us about God. The book is called Exodus because it tells the story of God bringing his people out — out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom. The word “Exodus” literally means “exit” or “way out.”
So, the title, Exodus, isn’t just about a journey or leaving Egypt — it’s about deliverance. And the people in the Bible story we will hear today are longing for deliverance — hoping for a “way out.” But they have not yet seen that deliverance.
In this way, Exodus is not merely ancient history. It matters to us because it reflects the realities and conditions of all humans — even today. Sometimes God seems absent. But even when it looks like nothing is getting better, God has not abandoned us.
Even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us.
We begin in verse 8:
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.
So how did we get here? You might want to read the full backstory. Genesis 37 is a good place to begin.
But for now, here’s a little background. This story is about Abraham’s family, and last Sunday, we learned about God’s promise to Abraham. We call Abraham and his family — his children and their children and their children, and so on — God’s chosen people. It’s important to remember as we hear this story that these were the people who God promised to bless, be their God, and make them a great nation.
A severe famine hit the land where the Hebrew family of Jacob was living. Jacob is Abraham’s grandson. Years earlier, Jacob’s son Joseph had been sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. Over time, Joseph rose to a powerful position in Egypt and gained the king’s trust and favor. Joseph’s advice helped Egypt survive the famine.
When the famine came, Israel and his whole family went to Egypt to buy food. Joseph recognized them and invited them to settle there. So, the Hebrew people moved to Egypt to survive the famine — and this family of 70 people grew into a large nation.
In the Bible, “Hebrew” is often the name other peoples (like the Egyptians) used for them, especially in earlier stories. Later on, they’re more often called Israelites (after Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel). “Hebrew” may have originally meant “descendant of Eber,” an ancestor of Abraham. So, in our story today, you will hear this nation referred to by both names: Hebrews and Israelites.
The book of Exodus is fundamentally about God acting to rescue, dwell with, and form a people. And the trajectory of the story — where everything is leading — is deliverance. But today we are at the beginning, before rescue is visible. And we can learn something valuable and hopeful about God from this position.
Because even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us.
Favored Guests to Feared Slaves
Let’s hear verse 8 again where Israel’s story turns.
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.
Joseph was the one who had the favor of the king of Egypt, who we also call Pharaoh. But Joseph is now a forgotten man. The new pharaoh looks at Israel and sees a threat. And the Pharaoh holds the power of life and death.
Look… the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them… (verse 9–10).
Fear begins to drive Pharoah’s decisions. “What if they turn on us?” So, Pharaoh sets slave masters over them “to oppress them with forced labor” (verse 11).
Egypt’s leader enslaves the Israelites. Their lives are made “bitter with harsh labor… in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly” (verses 13–14).
Slavery is an unspeakable evil. It is dehumanizing and inflicts grave harm. No doubt Pharaoh intended it to break their will and stop the Israelites from growing. But verse 12 tells us:
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.
Pharaoh intended to shrink them. But God had already made them his own, generations earlier. God keeps his promises. God does not abandon his children.
Even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us.
Midwives Who Fear God, Not Pharaoh
Pharaoh’s first plan has failed, so he moves from enslavement to genocide.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him …” (verse 15–16).
Pharaoh believes he can force the Hebrew midwives to carry out murder. In the ancient world, midwives were women who assisted mothers during childbirth. Often, they were the only help available. They weren’t just medical helpers; they were trusted figures responsible for receiving and caring for newborns in their first moments. Pharoah tried to exploit a time when the Israelites were at their most vulnerable — a woman enduring the pains of labor and a fragile, dependent newborn.
But he underestimated the midwives. Shiphrah and Puah rebelled against Pharaoh and did not obey his orders. Their civil disobedience must have taken great courage. What could inspire the kind of courage it takes to defy the empire and your enslavers?
Verse 17, tells us:
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
Shiphrah and Puah’s reverence for God empowered their courage. They are obedient to God and to preserving life. They are defiant in the face of evil even though they were risking their own lives.
We can be inspired by this story — not because the midwives are the main characters or the heroes — because the very same God who was faithful in them, is faithful in us. The same God who would raise Jesus from the dead and opposes death, moves in these midwives.
Pharaoh orders Shiphrah and Puah to appear before him. And he asks them,
“Why have you let the boys live?” The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. (verse 18b — 20)
Certainly, from Pharoah’s perspective, Shiphrah and Puah were troublemakers. We would probably agree that their resistance — their refusal to participate in evil was good trouble!
God’s grace comes first, before the midwives’ trust and obedience. God acts first. God has already bound himself to this people. His intention and mission to bless and multiply is already in motion.
Shiphrah and Puah’s “no” to Pharaoh is really a “yes” to the God who is the life-giver and is opposed to death. Their “yes” and courage to preserve life is itself a work of his Spirit, joining God’s good mission.
And just as God called these women, God is also calling us today to join him, to participate in his mission. God is a calling and sending God. He calls us to him where we find and experience restored life. And he sends us out into the world, into everyday places — work, neighborhoods, family systems — as signs of his freedom. God doesn’t want to be God without us.
A Death Order and a Desperate Plan
Trying to force the Hebrews to participate in their own genocide fails. Now Pharoah gives an order to all Egyptians:
“Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live” (verse 22).
The brutality of this order from the king is unimaginable. Yet in the middle of this horror, something unexpected happens. Chapter 2, verses 1–4:
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Here we see another ordinary woman willing to defy the power of the empire to save a life. If the baby is to have any chance of surviving, his mother must give him away. What a heartbreaking choice! But the God who opposes death moves in her, and she chooses life for her son even at great risk to herself.
An Unexpected Adoption
Pharaoh’s daughter goes down to the river to bathe, and she sees the basket. Verse 6:
She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
She knows her father’s laws, but compassion moves her. She pities the small infant and spares him. She chooses life, not death.
Next, we see the baby’s sister defy the empire and Pharoah’s plan for death. Verse 7:
Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
It must have taken courage to approach the princess. What if it is discovered that it’s her mother she’s bringing — the baby’s very own mother? Verses 7–8:
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.”
Seemingly without knowing, Pharaoh’s daughter hires Moses’ own mother to be his nurse. You see in the ancient world, wealthy families often hired a wet nurse who would breastfeed and care for a child during the first years of life. The woman who had feared losing her son is now paid by Pharaoh’s household to raise him.
The princess is not part of the chosen people of Isreal, but the God who opposes death moves in her, too, and she chooses life. Last Sunday, we spoke about how people can be labeled in or out (Matthew 15:21–28). She was definitely “out.” Her father was the very one who ordered the Israelites be forced into slavery and murdered! She was a part of the enemy’s household. Yet she also defies the empire to save this baby from death.
This should remind us to reconsider before we count anyone out. Even the most unlikely people are invited to participate in God’s saving mission — in Egypt and in our world, too.
Verse 10:
When the child grew older, [his mother] took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water’
Moses’ was rescued from death. He was born into very dark circumstances. And this passage does not minimize suffering. God does not ask us to either. The Christian life is not pretending things are all good when they are not. This mindset can lead us to downplay, ignore, or outright deny the suffering of ourselves and our neighbors.
In fact, some of us learned that to admit we struggle or experience suffering means our faith is weak. But the Christian life is not pretending we do not suffer. It’s trusting we have a God in Jesus who understands our suffering, has joined himself to us, and shares in our suffering. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV).
Exodus is about people trapped inside powers larger than themselves. We too live under forms of bondage: poverty and famine, inequity, exploitation, greed, violence, war, and injustice.
The bondage of sin is larger than any one person. It takes shape in systems, cultures, and institutions. Our individual problems and the world’s problems feel bigger than us … because they are!
And that’s why this story resonates today. Isreal struggled against what looked like impossible odds.
Yet everything that happened points to divine faithfulness: Israel multiplies; people resist death orders; Moses survives.
The future deliverance begins long before the Israelites can see it. Even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us.
This story also shows us that Isreal cannot save itself. The Israelites are powerless. They cannot overthrow Pharaoh. They cannot liberate themselves.
Just like us.
We need God to rescue us, and in Jesus, he has. God the Father sent his Son to enter the human condition. Jesus was born a human and joined himself to our humanity. That’s the Incarnation.
Jesus accomplished our exodus, our “way out.” The exodus we could never accomplish on our own.
This is the good news: Jesus does not only show us deliverance — he becomes it. He carries our slavery into his death on the cross and breaks its power. The rescue is done, and the Holy Spirit makes the rescue and freedom real in our lives.
The Father sees the suffering of humanity. The Son comes down into that suffering. The Spirit unites us to Christ and assures us that we are never abandoned.
Even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us.
Go Deeper:
The word for “basket” is tebah — the same word used for Noah’s ark. The waters that once threatened humanity carried an ark of salvation; now the river that threatens Hebrew boys bears up the tiny ark of the one who God will use to lead his people out of Egypt. It looks like a desperate mother and a fragile basket; faith sees God preserving life through a little ark on the waters. And from the riverbank, it looks like loss and risk. But the God who delivered Noah, is still the God of Moses. The same Lord who brought one family through the flood will bring Israel through the waters of Egypt’s violence.
Cory Rice—Year A Proper 16
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR078-Rice-YearA-Proper16.mp3
Program Transcript
Cory Rice—Year A Proper 16
Anthony: Let’s transition to our final pericope of the month. It’s Exodus 1:8 –2:10. It’s a long one. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 16 in Ordinary Time, August 23. Cory, we’d be grateful if you read it.
Cory: Yeah. And I did notice that you gave me the long one. Here we go.
Anthony: It was on purpose.
Cory:
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, 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.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” 2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket …
Anthony: Yes, that’s an easy word, isn’t it?
Cory:
… for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses] “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Anthony: How about we just take a break and allow you to breathe? And I want to tell our listening audience Cory earned his money here today. We’re not paying him anything, but he earned it by that text. Oh my. I did not realize it had all of that in it, so thank you for enduring it.
But there’s a lot happening here, and one of the things I’m just struck by, Cory, first of all, is that God allows human beings, his children, to tell his story. And I don’t know that we always do it justice, but we get to tell the story.
And this narrative is marked by oppression and fear under Pharaoh. So, how does God’s grace operate through the courageous and often overlooked actions of individuals, in this case, the Hebrew midwives? And what does this suggest about the ways God advances liberation in and through us? As you said earlier, we’re not the source, we’re the resource.
Cory: Yeah.
Anthony: How does he resource his liberation through people like these women?
Cory: Man, If we’re looking at those three, the Hebrew midwives and Moses’ mother, Pharaoh’s daughter, those specific three, one of the most beautiful things to me about this story is that God’s liberating work often moves through ordinary people who choose courage over fear, specifically these women, even in a culture that didn’t honor them.
And so, the midwives resist empire. Moses’ mother protects life. Pharaoh’s daughter shows compassion across enemy lines. I think those three things are, like, the big takeaways that I have in this story, and liberation begins through those small acts of courage and compassion. And so, I think that matters because we often look for God only in dramatic moments, at least I often did.
When I was searching and that was … “Give me the dramatic moments,” the parting of the sea — all these — the raising of the dead, and all these things while overlooking quiet faithfulness, because the quiet faithfulness is super steady. It’s consistent. It’s not intense. It’s not super sexy.
And I think grace frequently moves loudest through hidden people making humanizing choices in dehumanizing systems. We see this all throughout Scripture. We also see this all throughout our current life right now. So, that’s what I would have to say on that.
Anthony: Yeah. We, in Grace Communion International that hosts this podcast, we follow the Christian calendar, and we’re in a season called Ordinary Time, which is the longest season on the calendar. And I sometimes wonder if this season feels like, “you guys should’ve given me a better name. Ordinary sounds boring and mundane.”
But it does mean that ordered time where we learn the rhythms, the light rhythms of God and Jesus, that we, as we join him, we see him in the most common things, like you were mentioning, the everyday things.
To me, it’s one of the beauties of sharing the Eucharist or communion together. Like bread, it’s just so commonplace. Wine, you find it everywhere. But it is in the common acts of courage that we see the goodness of God manifest. And I think this season has a lot to teach us in that way, that it’s not in the ministry highlight reel. And I used to be wired in such a way, Cory.
Cory: Right.
Anthony: That’s what I wanted people to see, the highlight reel.
Cory: Oh, yeah.
Anthony: I’m sure I’m the only one that has dealt with that. But that’s facetiousness. I know we all do on some level.
Cory: Yeah.
Anthony: We’re trying to project. And this is why theology’s so important, that once I realize there is nothing to prove and nothing to protect in Christ, I can lay all those things down, accomplishments, all the accolades, and just be like, “Here I am, Lord. You know me.”
What else would this text have to teach us? If you were preaching this text to your congregation, what else would you say?
Cory: Man, okay. I would I would focus on, and probably to speak to a lot of our listeners who have what we talked about earlier about coming out of legalism and whatnot, is oppressive systems, especially in church cultures, are always going to be driven by fear. And the kingdom of God obviously moves differently because it’s within, and it’s always revealing. Romans 14:7 or 17:14 is, it’s righteousness, peace, and joy. And I think, if you are holding on to any type of view of God or lens of God and it’s baked in any type of fear, then you know that’s not from the Spirit, because perfect love casts out all fear.
And I would ultimately say that lastly this story points to Christ even before his physical appearance because Christ is the true deliverer, who enters humanity’s oppression not to condemn humanity, but to liberate humanity. And I think if we can take anything from that story, that should be the story of our lives as we walk into people’s oppression and help liberate them because we are a resource of the source of Christ within us.
Anthony: I’m going to take that line with me. He’s the source. We’re the resource. And thanks be to God that he allows us, and allows not even the right word, in the overflow of his love, he just desires to be with us. Isn’t this the story of the Old Testament with the people of Israel that just kept messing things up, murmuring, and frustrated, and complaining and he just continues to be with them because this is the God who just refuses to be God without us.
And so, we get to join him in what he’s doing. And in this season of Ordinary time, friends, I want to leave you with this quote from one of my favorite contemporary theologians. Her name is Julie Canlis, and she says, “All of life is spiritual: work, bearing children, hobbies, friendship, repairing gutters, commuting. This is our worship, the offering of our everyday stuff to God.” Amen and amen.
Cory, thanks for being with us. You are a joy. May God continue to bless you, your family, and your participation in his ministry. I want to thank our team behind the podcast that make it possible, and as is our tradition here in Gospel Reverb, we want to end with a word of prayer, and we’d be delighted if you’d pray for us.
Cory: Yeah. I would love to. Before, before I jump into that, since I’m going close on prayer, I want to highlight that first conversation we had around Matthew 14 and Jesus multiplying the bread. I think the disciples were so rattled by prayer. They’re Jewish and they know how to pray, and this is one of the questions they asked Jesus on how to pray, because in a moment where he breaks bread and feeds 5,000 men, the only thing he said in prayer were thanks. And I think that’s a perfect way to close, in just a state of thankfulness.
And so, Jesus, we’re just thankful. I’m grateful for who you are, and I’m grateful that you continue to reveal your union. May people look within to find Christ instead of externally, because that’s where you are. And we love you; we thank you, and may your love continue to rule and reign in the lives of people as we love people the way that you have loved us. In Jesus’ name.
Anthony: Amen.
Program Transcript
Cory Rice—Year A Proper 16
Anthony: Let’s transition to our final pericope of the month. It’s Exodus 1:8 –2:10. It’s a long one. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 16 in Ordinary Time, August 23. Cory, we’d be grateful if you read it.
Cory: Yeah. And I did notice that you gave me the long one. Here we go.
Anthony: It was on purpose.
Cory:
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, 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.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” 2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket …
Anthony: Yes, that’s an easy word, isn’t it?
Cory:
… for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses] “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Anthony: How about we just take a break and allow you to breathe? And I want to tell our listening audience Cory earned his money here today. We’re not paying him anything, but he earned it by that text. Oh my. I did not realize it had all of that in it, so thank you for enduring it.
But there’s a lot happening here, and one of the things I’m just struck by, Cory, first of all, is that God allows human beings, his children, to tell his story. And I don’t know that we always do it justice, but we get to tell the story.
And this narrative is marked by oppression and fear under Pharaoh. So, how does God’s grace operate through the courageous and often overlooked actions of individuals, in this case, the Hebrew midwives? And what does this suggest about the ways God advances liberation in and through us? As you said earlier, we’re not the source, we’re the resource.
Cory: Yeah.
Anthony: How does he resource his liberation through people like these women?
Cory: Man, If we’re looking at those three, the Hebrew midwives and Moses’ mother, Pharaoh’s daughter, those specific three, one of the most beautiful things to me about this story is that God’s liberating work often moves through ordinary people who choose courage over fear, specifically these women, even in a culture that didn’t honor them.
And so, the midwives resist empire. Moses’ mother protects life. Pharaoh’s daughter shows compassion across enemy lines. I think those three things are, like, the big takeaways that I have in this story, and liberation begins through those small acts of courage and compassion. And so, I think that matters because we often look for God only in dramatic moments, at least I often did.
When I was searching and that was … “Give me the dramatic moments,” the parting of the sea — all these — the raising of the dead, and all these things while overlooking quiet faithfulness, because the quiet faithfulness is super steady. It’s consistent. It’s not intense. It’s not super sexy.
And I think grace frequently moves loudest through hidden people making humanizing choices in dehumanizing systems. We see this all throughout Scripture. We also see this all throughout our current life right now. So, that’s what I would have to say on that.
Anthony: Yeah. We, in Grace Communion International that hosts this podcast, we follow the Christian calendar, and we’re in a season called Ordinary Time, which is the longest season on the calendar. And I sometimes wonder if this season feels like, “you guys should’ve given me a better name. Ordinary sounds boring and mundane.”
But it does mean that ordered time where we learn the rhythms, the light rhythms of God and Jesus, that we, as we join him, we see him in the most common things, like you were mentioning, the everyday things.
To me, it’s one of the beauties of sharing the Eucharist or communion together. Like bread, it’s just so commonplace. Wine, you find it everywhere. But it is in the common acts of courage that we see the goodness of God manifest. And I think this season has a lot to teach us in that way, that it’s not in the ministry highlight reel. And I used to be wired in such a way, Cory.
Cory: Right.
Anthony: That’s what I wanted people to see, the highlight reel.
Cory: Oh, yeah.
Anthony: I’m sure I’m the only one that has dealt with that. But that’s facetiousness. I know we all do on some level.
Cory: Yeah.
Anthony: We’re trying to project. And this is why theology’s so important, that once I realize there is nothing to prove and nothing to protect in Christ, I can lay all those things down, accomplishments, all the accolades, and just be like, “Here I am, Lord. You know me.”
What else would this text have to teach us? If you were preaching this text to your congregation, what else would you say?
Cory: Man, okay. I would I would focus on, and probably to speak to a lot of our listeners who have what we talked about earlier about coming out of legalism and whatnot, is oppressive systems, especially in church cultures, are always going to be driven by fear. And the kingdom of God obviously moves differently because it’s within, and it’s always revealing. Romans 14:7 or 17:14 is, it’s righteousness, peace, and joy. And I think, if you are holding on to any type of view of God or lens of God and it’s baked in any type of fear, then you know that’s not from the Spirit, because perfect love casts out all fear.
And I would ultimately say that lastly this story points to Christ even before his physical appearance because Christ is the true deliverer, who enters humanity’s oppression not to condemn humanity, but to liberate humanity. And I think if we can take anything from that story, that should be the story of our lives as we walk into people’s oppression and help liberate them because we are a resource of the source of Christ within us.
Anthony: I’m going to take that line with me. He’s the source. We’re the resource. And thanks be to God that he allows us, and allows not even the right word, in the overflow of his love, he just desires to be with us. Isn’t this the story of the Old Testament with the people of Israel that just kept messing things up, murmuring, and frustrated, and complaining and he just continues to be with them because this is the God who just refuses to be God without us.
And so, we get to join him in what he’s doing. And in this season of Ordinary time, friends, I want to leave you with this quote from one of my favorite contemporary theologians. Her name is Julie Canlis, and she says, “All of life is spiritual: work, bearing children, hobbies, friendship, repairing gutters, commuting. This is our worship, the offering of our everyday stuff to God.” Amen and amen.
Cory, thanks for being with us. You are a joy. May God continue to bless you, your family, and your participation in his ministry. I want to thank our team behind the podcast that make it possible, and as is our tradition here in Gospel Reverb, we want to end with a word of prayer, and we’d be delighted if you’d pray for us.
Cory: Yeah. I would love to. Before, before I jump into that, since I’m going close on prayer, I want to highlight that first conversation we had around Matthew 14 and Jesus multiplying the bread. I think the disciples were so rattled by prayer. They’re Jewish and they know how to pray, and this is one of the questions they asked Jesus on how to pray, because in a moment where he breaks bread and feeds 5,000 men, the only thing he said in prayer were thanks. And I think that’s a perfect way to close, in just a state of thankfulness.
And so, Jesus, we’re just thankful. I’m grateful for who you are, and I’m grateful that you continue to reveal your union. May people look within to find Christ instead of externally, because that’s where you are. And we love you; we thank you, and may your love continue to rule and reign in the lives of people as we love people the way that you have loved us. In Jesus’ name.
Anthony: Amen.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Where in your life right now does it feel like God is unseen or silent — and how does this passage challenge that perspective?
- What does the courage of these women teach us about trusting God in situations where doing the right thing is costly or risky?
- Where else in the Bible do we see a ruler trying to destroy baby boys — and what happens next?
- How does knowing that “even when we cannot see Him, God is at work to rescue us” change the way we face fear, suffering, or uncertainty this week?
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