Sermon | Free to give

Scripture | Exodus 5:1-23; 23:19

Sermon: Joel Miller

Mitzrayim.  That’s the Hebrew word for Egypt.  And, it’s almost indistinguishable from the word meaning a narrow place, or a strait.  A place of constriction.  The rabbis have long made the connection between the two, sometimes using the words interchangeably: “Egypt,” and “the narrow place.”  Mitzrayim.  To be in Egypt, is to be confined to the narrow place.  To be delivered out of Egypt is to be delivered out of the narrow place. 

Last week, when we read about Moses talking with the burning bush/divine voice, it included these words from God: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt, Mitzrayim, The Narrow Place…and I have come down to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”  Exodus is a story that moves from Order, to Disorder, to Re-Order.  It’s also a story that moves from narrowness to spaciousness.   

For those of us who have never lived in Egypt but find ourselves often stuck in the narrow place, it’s a way of finding ourselves more directly in this story of Exodus.  The narrow place can be anywhere.  And during this pandemic we’ve gotten a dose of this as our physical world has narrowed.  For those who have been working from home, it can just as easily feel like we are living at work.  Even as the places we go have narrowed, we have tried to not let the same thing happen to our minds, to our hearts.  The spacious place, the open and broad good land, can also be anywhere, outside, or within us.   

Exodus is a narrative, so there’s a pretty big gap between the two readings for today.  Exodus chapter 5, and Exodus 23:19.

In chapter…

Sermon Text: 

Today’s scripture is about how to talk to a plant.

Step one, go out in the wilderness.  Some sheep for companionship are optional. 

Step two, when a flame of light reflects just so from the leaves of a bush or tree or from a blade of grass, then it’s time to turn aside and walk toward it, that’s the one.

Step three, when the plant calls your name, you say “Here I am.”

Step four, take off your shoes and settle in.  You’re not going anywhere for a while. 

Feel your feet pressed onto the ground.  Feel it holding you up.  Know that the plant has pressed its feet even further than yours, deep down into the earth.  There are things, wondrous things, going on down there you’ll never see or know.  

Now you’re ready to listen.

Plants like to talk about responsibility and freedom.  You’re listening, and it speaks: “Your people are in misery and they need you.  You must lead them.  You will lead them out of bondage into a broad and beautiful land.  A land of abundance.”   

To a plant, responsibility to one’s purpose, and spacious freedom are the same thing.

You may not like how serious this has become so quickly.  The plant is not particularly concerned about your feelings on this one.  It’s met your kind before. 

For your part, you need a little more.  A little more…assurance, clarity…What is it that you need?  A name, you need a name.  “When they ask who sent me, what should I tell them?”  You know, asking for a friend.  “What’s your name?” you say.

The plant has an answer.  It has to do with God. 

Plants like to talk about God.  Or, plants are messengers for God.  Or, if you prefer, God is speaking out of the plant.  “I will be who I will be” the God/plant says. …

Sermon Text:

Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top.
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall,
And daddy will catch you, cradle and all.

It feels like several lifetimes ago, but this was one of the bedtime songs I would sing to our girls.  If I remember correctly – and the girls have confirmed this memory – I would hold them up in my arms, Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top.  Provide some in-house wind: When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.  Add some suspense by rocking them, and then letting go: When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall.  And offer a peaceful resolution, having just quickly moved my arms down a couple feet, ready to receive what gravity quickly brought into them: And daddy will catch you, cradle and all. 

If I also remember correctly, this was a terrible method of calming the girls down for sleep as they would inevitably scream “Again, again” each time. 

From a lyrical perspective, you likely notice a change from the traditional lyrics.  Not only was the updated version more fun, but it’s less bizarre and, shall we say, less troubling, less violent, than singing When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all.  That image is enough to keep an adult up all night.

Adapting and altering familiar stories, songs, language, is something we do all the time.  Consider the older, also more violent, endings to some of our familiar fairy tales, and consider how those fairy tales have been further adapted in movies like Shrek, Into the Woods, and Hoodwinked. 

This is what Jesus is up to in his telling of today’s parable. 

It begins: “Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a…

Sermon Text:

In Matthew 20 Jesus tells one of those parables that starts out “For the kingdom of heaven is like…”  The main characters in this parable are a landowner and laborers.  The laborers are hired at different times during  the day to work in the landowner’s vineyard.  At the end of the day each laborer gets paid the same amount, even though they put in different hours.  The message of the parable is summed up at the end: “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” 

What first catches my attention about this parable is that all of the laborers are already in last place in the workforce.  They aren’t full-time employees of this vineyard owner, but day laborers. 

A typical story of a first century day laborer would be something like this: They were former landowners who had been forced into debt by heavy taxation, a poor growing season, or poor health.  To get out of debt they would have sold their land to wealthy landowners, now supporting themselves by selling one of their few remaining assets – their labor.  Many such laborers moved to urban centers to hire themselves out, a day at a time, to whoever needed their work.  Day laborers were vulnerable to abuses and had little control over their day to day work situation.  For a day laborer, the regular practice was to gather in the morning at the marketplace, the town square, and wait for someone to come and give them work for the day.  If it was harvest or planting season, there was a good chance they would be needed.  If it was in between these seasons, labor was in lower demand and they could wait hours or all day without anyone hiring them.    

In the parable, the landowner goes out early…