August 27, 2023
Proper 16 A – George Yandell
As we read the Exodus lesson, it’s important to realize that a lot of time has passed from last Sunday’s reading. In that reading from the end of Genesis, Joseph embraced his brothers who had sold him into slavery in Egypt. Joseph was the last of the line of remarkable patriarchs chronicled in the Genesis pre-history of Israel. Joseph, Pharaoh’s right-hand man, is long gone. The situation of the Hebrews in Egypt has deteriorated. They are being oppressed by ruthless taskmasters. The Pharaoh is anxious because the Hebrew people are reproducing at a fast rate. Male infants are to be eliminated at birth because the Hebrew population is growing so large.
Rabbi Jonathan Sachs pointed out in a Jerusalem Post article in 2010 that the story of the midwives Puah and Shifra in the Book of Exodus is “the first recorded instance of civil disobedience, [setting a precedent] that would eventually become the basis for the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Shifra and Puah, by refusing to obey an immoral order, redefined the moral imagination of the world.” History’s proud line of social activists and conscientious objectors can trace their source back to these righteous midwives’ stand against the powers of their day. The Talmud states, “It was the reward of the righteous women of that generation that caused Israel to be redeemed from Egypt.” [This paragraph adapted from “Synthesis: A Weekly Resource for Preaching”, August issue.]
The intervention by the midwives was key.
August 20, 2023
Proper 15A – George Yandell
Some of you know that Susan as a Christian is also aligned with Buddhism. She told me a while ago she had rescued a turtle in the middle of Old Burnt Mountain Road. She stopped her car, got out and carried the turtle to the edge of the road it had been aiming for. She infected me with the same urge. A week later I too found a turtle in the road, stopped and carried it over to avoid it getting crushed. This has happened for both of us numerous more times. It got me wondering, “How did the turtles process these events we intended as rescues? Did they think, ‘Whoa, what did that human mean putting me over here? Didn’t it know I had just turned around to go back home because I left the coffee pot on? NOW I have to go all the way back across the road to the side I intended.’”
Consider how Jesus treated the Canaanite woman who shouted at him for her daughter’s relief from a demon. Did you hear how Jesus ignored her? His disciples urged Jesus to send her away because she was bothering them. Jesus seems to have heeded them, saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” But she knelt at Jesus’ feet, gainsaying him with “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She persuaded Jesus to heed her request. “Woman, great is your faith!
August 13, 2023
Proper 14A – George Yandell
Richard J. Fairchild tells the story of a man who took his new hunting dog on a trial hunt one day. After a while he managed to shoot a duck and it fell in the lake. The dog walked over the water, picked up the duck, and brought it to his master. The man was stunned. He didn’t know what to think.
He shot another duck, and again, it fell into the lake; and again the dog walked over the water and brought it back to his master. Hardly daring to believe his eyes, and not wanting to be thought a total fool, he told no one about it—but the next day he called his neighbor to come shooting with him.
As on the previous day, he shot a duck and it fell into the lake. The dog walked over the water and got it. His neighbor didn’t say a word. Several more ducks got shot that day— and each time the dog walked over the water to retrieve them. And each time the neighbor said nothing, and neither did the owner of the dog.
Finally—unable to contain himself any longer—the owner asked his neighbor: “Do you notice anything strange about my dog?” “Yes,” replied the neighbor, rubbing his chin and thinking a bit. “Come to think of it, I do. Your dog doesn’t know how to swim.”
Over and over in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is seen urging his disciples toward increased faith.
August 6, 2023
Transfiguration Sunday – George Yandell
It’s fascinating to me- the growing number of home repair shows on TV. Once This Old House stood alone, now every station seems to have home make-over shows, contests between families to re-do each other’s houses, and craftspeople of all types showing the world how tools work. There’s even a DYI network. How many of you like to watch those shows?// Why do we like them so much? For me it’s a simple answer- I, for one, love to watch other people work. I get a vicarious sense of accomplishment in watching others work. I often learn some tricks of the trades from the workers, and marvel at the finesse of skilled craftspeople.
Jesus liked to watch other people work. He was drawn to watching fishermen ply their craft on the Sea of Galilee. He watched as a widow put her gift into the temple tax collection box. And he was a student of farming practices – he often crafted parables about farming and tending vines. He wasn’t afriad to coach people who weren’t doing their jobs too well, especially the schcolars and temple leaders who fell short of doing God’s justice.
Watching Jesus work must have fascinated his followers. As he toured Galilee and Judea, Jesus taught, healed, cast out demons, preached and shared meals with a motley assortment of Jewish peasants. Some think that Jesus himself was a craftsman, a wood-worker.
Work as I’m describing it is public activity.