Unlikely Saviors, Creative Response

Transcription

1 August 27, 2017 Proper 16 Semicontinuous Exod. 1:8 2:10 Ps. 124 Complementary Isa. 51:1 6 Ps. 138 Rom. 12:1 8 Matt. 16:13 20 Unlikely Saviors, Goal for the Session Through meeting Moses unlikely saviors, adults will respond creatively to God s saving and blessing acts. n PREPARING FOR THE SESSION Focus on Exodus 1:8 2:10 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective by Gary W. Charles The hidden actor throughout the first chapters of Exodus is the God who, through the agency of an Egyptian princess, draws out the child from the dangers of his watery transport. As the narrative continues, God will reveal God s self to this drawn out one in the form of a fiery bush and will use this rescued child to deliver all the children of Israel from their forced bondage. By the end of 2:10, readers have been prepared for the story that follows, of a God who hears the cries of oppressed slaves, rescues them from chaotic waters, and sends them out on the path of freedom. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective by Rebecca Blair Young In the midst of this astounding story comes the birth of Israel s deliverer, Moses. His dramatic entrance into the world reinforces the idea of Israel s being a people set apart. By using clever, well-planned tactics, the mother and sister gain the baby boy s admission into the royal household, guaranteeing Moses a place well connected to the Pharaoh, which will serve him well in Egypt s future defeat. God s plan to rescue the Israelites does not happen in spite of the Pharaoh s best efforts but in direct contradiction to them. The harder the Pharaoh works to destroy them, the more brilliantly they subvert and defy his intentions, with God s help. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective by H. James Hopkins Much of the story of the exodus lies ahead, but from a very fragile beginning Moses has reached a point of relative security. He is in the care of Pharaoh s daughter. He is being raised as a prince of Egypt. We know stories like this, of people who knew only instability finding stability. They have their own stories of being drawn from the water. They have testimonies of God working to save and to bless when the forces arrayed against them seem impressive, invulnerable, and immovable. This text offers the occasion for bringing these stories to the fore. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective by Geoffrey M. St. J. Hoare It is important to the story that Moses provenance is the house of Levi (2:1), that he is one of the enslaved people, that he is healthy and strong enough to survive at three months (2:2), but that he is raised in the household of Pharaoh (2:10) while being nursed by his own birth mother (2:9). There is a sense in which Moses, who is to lead the people out of their bondage in Egypt and into the land of promise, is in the world but not of it, not unlike his successor, generations later, who was to lead all people from bondage to sin into everlasting life. 1

2 Unlikely Saviors, FOCUS SCRIPTURE Exodus 1:8 2:10 Focus on Your Teaching Oppression is not part of the life experience of many adults. For others, however, oppression is a force that shapes who they are. Being on the margins with little access to power remains a fact of life for many women and people of color. Yet for many of these groups, creative responses to oppression are also part of the story. Today s theme challenges adults to recognize that God chooses to work in and through the most unlikely of saviors. It affords them the opportunity to recognize and respond in creative ways to situations of brokenness and oppression. Sovereign God, I give thanks for your saving grace. Grant me insight as I prepare to lead. Amen. YOU WILL NEED newsprint or board Bibles copies of Resource Sheet 1 copies of Resource Sheet 2 copies of Resource Sheet 1 for September 3, 2017 For Responding option 1: hymnals or songbooks that include African- American spirituals option 2: YouTube video White Flour, equipment to show it option 3: current stories about justice issues from newspapers or Internet news sites n LEADING THE SESSION GATHERING Before the session, for Responding option 2, plan a way for the group to view White Flour ( Welcome participants as they arrive. Invite them to tell examples of heroic, inspirational action taken by people being oppressed. Stories could be from the Bible or real-life situations, or from movies or novels. Tell participants that in today s focus scripture they will encounter some unlikely saviors from oppression whom God used in surprising and creative ways. Pray the following or a prayer of your choosing: God of salvation, thank you for the opportunity to come together and learn about your saving Word. Teach us how to love you and your people today and always. Amen. EXPLORING Remind participants that in the last session, they explored the story of Joseph and how he was reconciled with his brothers who had sold him into slavery. Invite two adults to read aloud Genesis 50:15 21 and Exodus 1:1 7. Then ask someone to read verses 8 14, the first verses of today s focus scripture. Ask: P What accounted for the change in how the Israelites were perceived by Pharaoh? P How did the status of the Israelites change? Note that beginning with verse 15, the people are no longer referred to as Israelites, but are now called Hebrews. Read aloud the first sidebar on page 3. 2

3 Unlikely Saviors, The name Hebrews most likely refers to a stateless underclass. They were an easy target for a new king seeking to create a new national solidarity among his people by finding a scapegoat for any perceived problems. Have one volunteer read Exodus 1:15 22, and ask another to read Exodus 2:1 10. Engage the group in a two-part fishbowl exercise. Place four chairs in a tight circle in the center of your space. For the first exercise, recruit persons to take the parts of Pharaoh, Shiphrah, and Puah. Ask each of them to take a chair, with the rest of the group observing. Each character is to talk about what he or she did, why he or she chose to do it, and how he or she felt about what was happening. Encourage the group to imagine how others surrounding the main characters might have been affected. At any point during the conversation, someone else can join in, taking whatever role he or she chooses. The person should enter the conversation by sitting in the fourth chair and waiting for a break in the conversation among the three others. For example, someone might enter the discussion as a Hebrew mother who has given birth, or as an Egyptian expressing feelings about killing Hebrew babies. Continue the exercise with part 2, using the characters of Moses mother, Miriam, and Pharaoh s daughter. Others who might join the conversation are Moses father and Pharaoh s daughter s attendants. Systematic oppression can render persons strong and willing to express feelings, or wounded and unwilling to open up, or any of a range of emotions in between. Be sensitive to the life experiences of adults and how they relate to this Scripture. EASY PREP Distribute Resource Sheet 1 (Focus on Exodus 1:8 2:10). Ask someone to read aloud the Where? excerpt. Invite the group to name and discuss the subversive tactics used by the major players in the story. P What would have been the actions one might have expected each to take in the face of oppression? P What was surprising about whom God used, and how they were moved to act? As a transition to Responding, have someone read aloud the So What? excerpt. Distribute Resource Sheet 2 (The Moses of Her People). Invite the group to read the story of Harriet Tubman. Discuss: P In what ways was Tubman an unlikely savior for her people? P What were the forces arrayed against her? P How did God use her to save and to bless? RESPONDING Choose one or more of these activities depending on the length of your session: 1. Experience Music Music has always been a powerful force for communicating themes of opposition to oppression, as well as creatively providing solidarity for those who resist. Through music with themes of justice, adults can strengthen their resolve to be agents of God s saving action. Remind the group that African-American spirituals often served as secret code among slaves, a means of communicating information that was too dangerous to speak directly. One example of an African-American slave song in which the words had a double meaning is Steal Away, a song with both a call to encounter Jesus and a summons to slip away from slavery to freedom. Nat Turner reportedly used the song to call together his followers. Distribute hymnals and sing two or three African-American spirituals, or read the lyrics as poetry. Then invite participants to check the subject index for hymns about justice and salvation, read the 3

4 Unlikely Saviors, words and report to the group how the hymn might sustain them and strengthen their resolve to work for justice. 2. White Flour Seeing the true account of one creative response to the forces of oppression, participants can generate other ideas for responses that allow for God s acts of salvation and blessing to break through. As a group, view the video clip concerning the book White Flour, This book by David LaMotte tells what happened when members of a white supremacist hate group held a rally in Knoxville, Tennessee, on May 26, Discuss: P What do you think about the tactic of meeting hatred with humor? Acknowledging that humor is not always appropriate, and that systemic oppression cannot be easily defeated, invite participants to generate a list of possible actions they could take to creatively respond to situations of oppression. Ask adults to choose one creative action they might take in response to a current oppressive situation, and look for ways to implement it. 3. Address Oppressive Situations in the News By reading the daily news, adults can identify situations of oppression and commit to prayer and creative action. Distribute copies of two front-page stories from your local newspaper or downloaded copies of recent Internet articles. Ask participants to work in pairs, with each person summarizing one story. Discuss: P Where is God s saving power evident in this story? P How might we act as unlikely saviors through whom God can work? Ask participants to commit to praying for the people affected by the story, as well as taking steps, such as writing a letter to the editor or posting a comment on Facebook. CLOSING Ask a volunteer to read aloud the What? excerpt from Resource Sheet 1. Ask each person to respond with one insight from the session that was surprising or thought-provoking. Tell the group that in the next session they will encounter the story of how God called Moses to be the agent of salvation and blessing for the Hebrew people. Close with the following prayer: Gracious God, we thank you for using unlikely agents for the salvation and blessing of a baby, and through him, a people. We thank you for his successor, the baby born in Bethlehem, who was to lead all people into eternal life your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 1 for September 3, 2017, or it to the participants during the week. Encourage participants to read the focus scripture and Resource Sheet 1 before the next session. 4

5 August 27, 2017 Unlikely Saviors, Adult Resource Sheet 1 Focus on Exodus 1:8 2:10 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective by Gary W. Charles The hidden actor throughout the first chapters of Exodus is the God who, through the agency of an Egyptian princess, draws out the child from the dangers of his watery transport. As the narrative continues, God will reveal God s self to this drawn out one in the form of a fiery bush and will use this rescued child to deliver all the children of Israel from their forced bondage. By the end of 2:10, readers have been prepared for the story that follows, of a God who hears the cries of oppressed slaves, rescues them from chaotic waters, and sends them out on the path of freedom. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective by Rebecca Blair Young In the midst of this astounding story comes the birth of Israel s deliverer, Moses. His dramatic entrance into the world reinforces the idea of Israel s being a people set apart. By using clever, well-planned tactics, the mother and sister gain the baby boy s admission into the royal household, guaranteeing Moses a place well connected to the Pharaoh, which will serve him well in Egypt s future defeat. God s plan to rescue the Israelites does not happen in spite of the Pharaoh s best efforts but in direct contradiction to them. The harder the Pharaoh works to destroy them, the more brilliantly they subvert and defy his intentions, with God s help. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective by H. James Hopkins Much of the story of the exodus lies ahead, but from a very fragile beginning Moses has reached a point of relative security. He is in the care of Pharaoh s daughter. He is being raised as a prince of Egypt. We know stories like this, of people who knew only instability finding stability. They have their own stories of being drawn from the water. They have testimonies of God working to save and to bless when the forces arrayed against them seem impressive, invulnerable, and immovable. This text offers the occasion for bringing these stories to the fore. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective by Geoffrey M. St. J. Hoare It is important to the story that Moses provenance is the house of Levi (2:1), that he is one of the enslaved people, that he is healthy and strong enough to survive at three months (2:2), but that he is raised in the household of Pharaoh (2:10) while being nursed by his own birth mother (2:9). There is a sense in which Moses, who is to lead the people out of their bondage in Egypt and into the land of promise, is in the world but not of it, not unlike his successor, generations later, who was to lead all people from bondage to sin into everlasting life Westminster John Knox Press

6 August 27, 2017 Unlikely Saviors, Adult Resource Sheet 2 The Moses of Her People Harriet Tubman was an enslaved woman who ran away successfully. She was from Maryland and became known as the Moses of her people. Over the course of ten years and at great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses where runaways could stay on their journey north to freedom. Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, as Araminta Ross, she was scarred for life when she refused to help the overseer punish another young man who was enslaved. When the young man started to run away, the overseer threw a heavy iron weight, missing the young man and hitting Ross instead, causing a severe head injury. She was unconscious for days and suffered from seizures and severe headaches for the rest of her life. In 1844, Ross married a free black man named John Tubman and took his last name. She also changed her first name, taking the name of her mother, Harriet. In 1849, worried that she and the other slaves on the plantation were going to be sold, Tubman decided to run away. When her husband refused to go with her, she set out with her two brothers, using the North Star to guide her to freedom. Her brothers became frightened and turned back, but she continued on and reached Philadelphia. There she found work as a household servant and saved her money so she could return to slave-holding states to help others escape. Whenever Tubman led a group of slaves to freedom, she placed herself in great danger. Because she was a fugitive slave herself, there was a bounty offered for her capture. At one point, rewards for Tubman s capture totaled $40,000. And she was breaking the law in slave states by helping others escape. If anyone ever wanted to change his or her mind during the journey to freedom and return, Tubman pulled out a gun and said, You ll be free or die a slave! Tubman knew that if anyone turned back, it would put her and the others escaping in danger of discovery, capture, or even death. Tubman made nineteen trips to Maryland, helping some 300 people escape to freedom, including her own 70-year-old parents. A devout Christian, she succeeded by using creative tactics, such as using the master s horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey or leaving on a Saturday night (since runaway notices couldn t be placed in newspapers until Monday morning). Yet she was never captured and never failed to deliver her passengers to safety. As Tubman herself said, On my Underground Railroad I [never] run my train off [the] track [and] I never [lost] a passenger Westminster John Knox Press Adapted from information at and