August 23, 2026 (Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost) - Deacon Chuck Stewart

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Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Please be seated.

A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. It had been several hundred years since Jacob and his sons and families had been invited to come to Egypt in the midst of a famine in Canaan. Though they lived separately and did not assimilate with the Egyptians, the Hebrew people flourished. They became so numerous that Pharaoh began to be concerned that they might rise up in rebellion.

This oral tradition, passed down to us over the centuries and millennia, is the story of a people who had been enslaved, rising up and escaping with the leadership of a man chosen by God who was known as Moses.

The story of Moses and of God's people is perhaps a message to all enslaved people.

There is a version of the Bible authorized by men in London, England, in 1807. The title was, and I quote, Select Parts of the Holy Bible for the Use of Negro Slaves in the British West India Islands. This edited version of the King James Bible is more commonly known as the Slave Bible.

This version of the King James Bible is heavily edited in many parts, leaving out chapters and even whole books. Almost the entire book of Exodus is edited out. I would presume that the men who created this publication didn't want people who were enslaved to read about how the Hebrews escaped Egypt.

Moses, however, would not have been able to lead God's people if he had not been saved from the wrath of Pharaoh by five brave women.

We know the names from the biblical account. They were the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah; Moses's mother, Jochebed; Moses's sister, Miriam; and Pharaoh's daughter, Bithiah.

Five women, all of whom had absolutely no power, stood up to one of the most powerful men in the world.

We know their names. We don't know his name. We don't even know who he was.

In the story of God's relationship with God's people, there are several critical turning points in the history that has been passed down to us over millennia. There were times when God's people might have been wiped out. Perhaps God would have found another people.

We don't know if Abraham had actually sacrificed Isaac on that altar on the mountain thirty chapters ago in Genesis. That would have been the end of the line. And again, Jacob and his family might have not survived the famine in Canaan, but they were saved, came to Egypt, and thrived.

And now five brave women, brave women, we are told, change the course of history.

Although unnamed, the attendants of Pharaoh's daughter were also part of the actions that defied Pharaoh. They didn't turn the princess in for her illegal act.

And as an anthropologist, Margaret Mead has said, never underestimate the power of small groups to change the world, for that is what these women did.

These women of different status, different faiths, different ethnicities entered into an unspoken pact to save the life of a child, in this case, the life of a child who would lead God's people out of enslavement.

These women, faithful to their belief in a higher power, faced their fear of punishment and probable death, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, and they let the Hebrew boys live.

In another era of immoral government, Nelson Mandela said about fear and courage, quote, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. For the brave man is not the one who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

It was during the time of another oppressive regime that Jesus was preaching and healing persons of various diseases in the area around the Sea of Galilee. The people were under the heel, the boot of the Roman Empire.

Jesus chose to ask his followers in Caesarea Philippi, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

Caesarea Philippi was an unusual location. Perhaps there was a temple there where there was a temple to the goat-footed god Pan, and nearby was a temple to Caesar Augustus, which was built by Herod the Great. In the backdrop of all this, against these pagan religions of the Greeks and Romans, Jesus asked the key question in the face of all this earthly power displayed: “Who do you say that I am?”

The disciples start repeating things they had heard. Some say, some think he is John the Baptist; some say Elijah, some Jeremiah, and one of the other prophets.

Peter, never the sharpest knife in the drawer, gets it right this time.

“You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus came back. Quote. “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah. You didn't get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on the secret of who I really am. And now I'm going to tell you who you really are. You are Peter, a rock.”

This is a good start.

In the following verses, Jesus tells him to keep it all quiet and then shocks them all with the first prediction of his crucifixion.

This was not the Messiah they had hoped for. This was not the Messiah they expected.

Jesus would not overthrow the Roman government. Jesus would not renew the kingdom of David.

The message is not easy. Creating a kingdom on earth will be hard, and it still is hard.

The disciples were left to spread Jesus's word to the world after Jesus ascended. We all do our part.

Peter ended up being a pretty good preacher after all. The disciples spread the word of the message from Jesus around the world. Some were martyred for their preaching.

Shiphrah and Puah defied Pharaoh and did their small part in saving a people from extermination.

Every part of the story matters. Every piece of the body matters. Christ is at work through all of us.

We may never part the sea. We may never stand before Pharaoh. We may never be a bishop and get to preach to a new president. We may never be named a rock of the church.

But we can teach horticulture to elementary school children. We can feed the unhoused. We can work against gun violence. We can hold the hand of someone we barely know as they die.

And that is enough.

As complicated and long and difficult as our story is, God is with us. God alone can save us. We do not have to.

Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Amen.