The Collect of the Day
Grant, O
merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy
Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Exodus 1:8 is a significant shift in the text. The memory in Egypt of
good relationship with the children of Israel is gone, and a new Pharaoh
determines to enslave them. The term “Hebrews” seems to have arisen in Egypt as
a way of naming the outsiders, literally “those who crossed over,” i.e., came
from another place. The midwives Shiprah and Puah can be celebrated as
responsible for the survival of these Hebrews.
Their story of cunning disobedience will be repeated many times over in
the Scriptures. The name “Moses” is
clearly of Egyptian origin (“to beget a child”), but is given a Hebrew
etymology of “he who draws out.”
1:8 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 became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard
service in mortar and brick 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 boy, kill him; but if it is a
girl, 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
boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall
let every girl 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 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 she took him as
her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the
water.”
Psalm
124 is one of the “Songs of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134), pilgrim songs sung on
the way to celebrate festivals in Jerusalem. This psalm begins with a
wonderment: “What if…”, referring to the escape from Egypt. Verses 6-8 resolves this “if” into a
“blessing.” God is the God who saves. The last verse is the opening versicle
and response of Compline (BCP, p. 127; see also p. 523).
1 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
let Israel now
say;
2 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
when enemies
rose up against us;
3 Then would they have
swallowed us up alive *
in their fierce
anger towards us;
4 Then would the waters have
overwhelmed us *
and the torrent
gone over us;
5 Then would the raging
waters *
have gone right
over us.
6 Blessed be the Lord! *
He has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a
bird from the snare of the fowler; *
the snare is
broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the Name of
the Lord, *
the maker of
heaven and earth.
“Listen” is the imperative of this passage: Listen and look to the
stories of your ancestors (vv. 1-2). As a plea to those who have lived in
exile, listen and look for a new creation (v. 3). Listen for a teaching and a justice that
turns the governance of empire on its head. Listen for the rule of the Lord,
which results in deliverance and salvation rather than exploitation and fear.
51:1 Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you
that seek the Lord. Look to the
rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who
bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him
many. 3 For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort
all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like
the garden of the Lord; joy and
gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4 Listen to me, my people, and give heed to
me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light
to the peoples. 5 I will bring near
my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the
peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look
at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will
wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my
salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.
Psalm 138 is a
song of thanksgiving by one who has been in crisis. Now that the crisis has
been averted, a vow to praise in the temple is being fulfilled. Israel’s
thanksgiving is for the Lord who
rules over all (so-called) gods and kings and the nations they serve.
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *
before the gods I will
sing your praise.
2 I will bow down toward your
holy temple
and praise your Name, *
because of your love
and faithfulness;
3 For you have glorified your
Name *
and your word above all
things
4 When I called, you answered
me; *
you increased my
strength within me.
5 All the kings of the earth
will praise you, O Lord, *
when they have heard
the words of your mouth.
6 They will sing of the ways of
the Lord, *
that great is the glory
of the Lord.
7 Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; *
he perceives the
haughty from afar.
8 Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, you keep me safe; *
you stretch forth your
hand against the fury of my enemies;
your right hand shall save
me.
9 The Lord will make good his purpose for me; *
O Lord, your love endures for ever;
do not abandon the
works of your hands.
Chapter
12 begins a new section in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. Having said
all that he has said before, this is what living in covenant with this God from
whom nothing can separate us (8:39) looks like.
The appeal includes the necessity of discernment, humility, giftedness
as part of a body, and the exercising of those gifts for the body’s good. In addition,
Paul sees both grace and faith not as some easily defined, static things, but
fine-tuned in each individual and tied to the gifts given us for the good of
the whole.
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the
will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to
everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to
think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith
that God has assigned. 4 For as in
one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually we are members one of another. 6
We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us:
prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry,
in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the
exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence;
the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Our Gospel reading is the well-known
story of Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, as someone beyond the
prophetic person that the disciples say others see him. The name “Peter” (Greek
“petros”) and the word rock (Greek “petra”) are related in a play on words that
we miss in English. Keys were a symbol of authority (for example, Isaiah 22:22,
“the key of the House of David). This text is very much behind both the
tradition that Peter was the first Bishop of Rome (or “Pope”) and the power
that the church has to “bind or loose.” In Greek these are judicial terms which
mean “forbid or allow,” probably referring primarily to Peter’s (and the
church’s) teaching authority. Matthew is the only Gospel writer who uses the
word “church” (Greek “ecclesia,” “assembly”). This is the first time of four.
It shows that in Matthew’s experience, a distinctive community has formed. In
its use throughout the New Testament, it never refers to a building or an
institutional structure, but to a people gathered for a particular purpose.
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