Homily, August 23, 2026, Rev. Holly Cardone

The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

August 22, 2026

Anyone who says the Bible is boring, is not reading the Bible I’m reading.

The birth story of Moses is a great example of intrigue, jealousy, and conspiracy. We have an angry and jealous Pharaoh whose slaves are multiplying and getting stronger than he is comfortable with. Infanticide. A couple of midwives who are sneaky and deceptive but loyal to God. A brave mother, a hidden baby and a tar-coated basket.

If that’s not enough then we are introduced to a compassionate princess, a sister who is watching out for her brother, and the mother who is at the ready to be of service to the newborn.

In any great story, you can’t leave out any pieces because all the pieces matter. In this story, every detail, character and twist, adds up to a central theme: God will use us in the great story of redemption and reconciliation.

The midwives are so important to the story the writer gives them names, lest anyone forget the part they played in the saving of baby Moses. Shiphrah and Puah. Not unlike the political climate today when you have a leader terrified of losing his position of power that he has people doing terrible things to the people of the land to hang on to that power, Pharoah was so scared of the Israelites and their strength in numbers that he asks Shiphrah and Puah to kill the boy babies when they are delivering the babies of the Hebrew women. Shiphrah and Puah are Hebrew. There is every reason for them to be terrified of their king and blindly do what he is asking them to do. But they don’t. Instead, they decide to engage in a quiet, courageous act of civil disobedience. And then lie about it when Pharoah asks why they have allowed the boy babies to live.

They do this because the story says they “fear God.” In this setting, the word fear doesn’t mean terror or dread, it means awe, reverence, and moral seriousness. In other words, Shiphrah and Puah, chooses to do what God requires of them, to save the boy babies, and not what the Pharoah demands of them, to kill the babies. They are instruments of God’s goodness in the world.

These two midwives change the course of history for the Hebrew people. What if they had done what the Pharoah commanded. There would be no Moses. No struggle with his own complicated identity, and no leading his people out of slavery.

Then there is the mother who hides her son and the sister of the baby who just watches. The Pharoah’s daughter who finds the basket where the baby has settled amongst the reeds. Then the sister takes her turn in playing her part in the story of God’s salvation of God’s people; to find a wet nurse for the baby and return the baby back to their mother.  Even the basket has a back story, a vessel, like Noah’s ark, that carries people through danger and into freedom.

God brings salvation through ordinary people, ordinary decisions and ordinary objects. Each action in the story is but a small piece of the whole, but each piece is essential.

Just like we can’t see the whole story while we’re living it, neither could they. We can read the story in the nice and tidy way it’s told because we know what happens. But they didn’t. For the midwives, the mother, the sister, and the princess there was fear, ambiguity and real sacrifice. It’s hard to be human in a broken and damaged world.

The midwives show us that we aren’t responsible for the whole story and certainly not the ending. We aren’t in charge of redemption, God only asks that we do our part, in our corner of the world, toward the realization of the kingdom of God on earth. By the grace of God, we aren’t in charge of the ending of the story, God just wants us to stay faithful, courageous and active in doing our part.

A thousand years later, Paul says something like this in Romans. Every human has their own unique gift and place in the story of God’s relationship with us and redemption of us and the world. We can’t do any of it alone. We need each other. And where two or three are gathered, God is right in the middle. We each have our part to play in the story, and only we can do the part that God is calling us to do. Which means that this path, the path of the midwives, the mother, the sister, the princess are paths of surrender. It’s only when we surrender that our part becomes clear.

In the Gospel reading we are reminded of the people who played parts in the story of the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” Some say Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. All voices crying out in the wilderness. But Jesus isn’t a side character in the story of reconciliation for the Jewish people or for us. He is the main character.

He says to his disciples, “But who do you say I am?” And Peter says, “The Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” This is a very bold statement Peter makes in the city of Caesarea Philippi. Even the location plays a part in the story. This is a city where there are temples and shrines to Ba’al, to the Greek god, Pan, god of the wild and shepherds, and a temple to August Caesar, who it was thought was the incarnation of Zeus. The city itself is another character in the ongoing story of the redemption and reconciliation of the world to God, and Jesus is the one who teaches a whole new way of being in the face of power, greed, and violence.

Just like the story of Baby Moses, the story of God, Jesus and humanity does not end with a tidy ending. Jesus is arrested, tortured and murdered. Peter denies ever knowing Jesus. His friends all scatter. But lucky for us Easter Sunday follows Good Friday.

We live in a world just as complicated as the one in Exodus, marked by fear, oppression, and violence, but also by courage, compassion, and grace we didn't see coming. Even now, there are midwives among us choosing the fear of God over the fear of man.

It’s frustrating that we can’t see around corners, predict what is going to happen, or control how the story ends. But we can be sure that God has a place for each one of us in it. And around the corner, regardless of what might happen, or how the story ends we all have parts as midwives, mothers, sisters and princesses.

Amen