embracing the awkwardness

this morning was mbcc's version of taize. i loved it, and it was hard. as shawn encouraged us to... it was an opportunity to embrace the awkwardness, and find God in it.

as my contribution to th service, since it was my turn to "preach," my offering to this contemplative service was my loosely defined version of lectio divina, where we look for visual things in the text. we read the text three times, with a few minutes of silence in between. it was different... and if any of you mbcc-er's out there have comments, i would love to hear them. i personally enjoyed the insights folks shared.

here are the scriptures we used and a bit of the thoughts i prepared for this morning:

EXODUS 1:15-21//

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

"When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? 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.

ROMANS 12:1-2//

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

my thoughts...
Many women in the Bible are not names, but the midwives in our story from Exodus are—Shiphrah and Puah. They probably didn’t know their own significance, or expect to be recorded in the annals of their people’s history, but here they are. Shiphrah and Puah simply gave their lives to God, bringing children into the world. They probably didn’t know it, but one the children they helped to bring to life at their own potential peril was Moses—the future liberator of their people. Without the effort of these women, these midwives, there would be no Moses. Without their faithful response to God, their living sacrifice, the transformation of their minds, their people would have stayed enslaved in Egypt. They were partners with God in the covenant, partners in building the kingdom. Their living sacrifice was part of a much larger divine movement towards the kingdom of justice.

Their sacrifice, their transformation, though potentially dangerous, did not kill them but bring more life into the world. God blessed them with families. They continued to live—albeit in a new and more faithful way. As Shiphrah and Puah did, God calls us in to a new life of service, a full life. A life where the ways we serve renew us and sustain. God doesn’t desire that we be burned out, exhausted, or deadened by serving. God was us to be changed and transformed by our service. God wants our growth, our health and our happiness. God wants our sacrifice to be one that promotes life—both in ourselves, and others.

We are often ignorant—as Shiphrah and Puah probably were—of the ways that we contribute to the building of God’s kingdom—but we must be transformed in even the smallest ways, because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will make change, we will be transformed, we will serve God.