Sermon Tone Analysis

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*The Moses Footprint*

/Exodus 1:8–2:10/   |   8~/24~/2008

New parents love to save mementos from baby’s first year.

What did Moses’ baby book have in it?

If you have any new parents in your congregation, you’re probably noticing that the amount of stuff that is now “needed” to care for those little bundles of joy has increased exponentially — and the means by which to record all of this has become a hi-tech business.

Baby “stuff” is a big business.

Back in the day, baby books were a favorite means of logging all the “firsts” that a child goes through — first day home, first favorite toy, first book, first time the child says something that can be misconstrued as “dad,” etc.

Today, you take pictures or DVDs of little Acacia or Makenna on a digital camera, upload them to an Internet server, or Facebook, or Myspace, or YouTube.

No books, no more.

Now you have a virtual digital diary of everything baby did — the good, the bad and the ugly — from day one.

But photos are not the only way to fawn over baby.

Some parents keep a lock of hair or the baby’s hospital wristband as a memento.

But, like everything else in baby-dom, things have become even bigger and better.

Now, along with pictures of baby’s first squinty-eyed days of life, you can also have a cast made of baby’s footprint.

You mix a pre-made, nontoxic and nonstick dough, stick baby’s foot in it, then let it dry for 24-26 hours after which you can frame it and hang it on the wall for visitors to marvel at (making sure, to remove baby’s foot from the dough first, of course).

While it’s certainly great to gather up all those memories in a book or in a footprint sculpture, we also know that it’s the /stories/ that moms and dads tell that really leave a lasting impression on kids when they’re old enough to hear about their births.

Maybe it’s that story about the harrowing trip to the hospital or the way the child looked, all naked and small and helpless.

If the child is adopted, it might be a story about the day he or she became a long-awaited member of the family.

It could be a funny story or even an anxious one as parents recall their joy and fear over this new life that has suddenly come.

Kids want to hear those stories when they get older because in some ways it’s those stories that shape their future while their parents recall the past.

A child who hears such stories knows that he or she is valued and loved.

Knowing where we came from in many ways helps us know where we are going.

In any case these stories become verbal footprints of the subject.

If that’s the case, let’s imagine the kind of stories that Moses’ mom told him when he was old enough to hear them and find out the details surrounding his birth.

The circumstances of his birth were, in a very real sense, a foreshadowing of what was to come.

It’s in this story that we learn that this child, who would grow up to defy a world power and lead a ragtag group of slaves to freedom, comes by his rebellious streak honestly.

Let’s go further and imagine that the mother of Moses kept digital footprints of Moses in an online blog.

*Moses’ Digital Footprints:*

*First “Footprint”* — We might imagine that the first post in Moses’ online baby book might have been a news article from the /Cairo Chronicle/ about Pharaoh’s order to the midwives to kill off all the male children born to the Hebrew slaves.

This Pharaoh seems incessantly paranoid, so much so that he’s willing to guarantee the end of his cheap labor force in order to preserve his hold on power.

Two of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, realize that Pharaoh is a few bricks shy of a pyramid and defy the order, blaming their failure to do the nasty work on the “vigorous” constitution of the Hebrew women, who give birth before the midwives can get there.

Moses’ birth is thus made possible because some women who don’t even know him decide to honor God instead of human power and paranoia (1:15-21).

Moses would learn to do the same.

*Thought:* /God used unlikely people to do God’s will./

*Second “Footprint”* — Next in the log might be a few hieroglyphics of mom Jochebed, dad Amram and sister Miriam with the baby — etchings that look like they’d been hammered out at night or when no one else was around (see Exodus 6:20 for the names of Moses’ parents).

For three months, they kept the baby under wraps — maybe snapping a couple of early-morning pics at the Sphynx or those obligatory naked baby pictures of the little guy bathing in the Nile in the fading evening light.

Jochebed recognized that the boy was “a fine baby” which, on the surface, appears to be the kind of thing any mother would say.

Look at the Hebrew, though, and you see that the word /ki tov/ is used to describe the baby — the same word that God uses to describe creation as “good” in Genesis 1. Josephus, writing centuries later, tells of a midrashic story where Amram was told by God in a dream that the baby was going to be Israel’s liberator (Antiquities II, 212, 215-216).

His parents saw that something special was happening with this boy.

At some point, though, they could no longer keep the growing boy a secret, leaving Jochebed to hatch a desperate and dangerous plan to preserve the boy’s life.

*Thought:* /God gave Moses a family who believed in him./

*Third “Footprint”* — Click on the next link of the memory log and you might see a piece of papyrus as a reminder of the basket that Moses was put in and set adrift down the Nile.

Interestingly, the same Hebrew word for this “basket” is used for “ark” in the story of Noah in Genesis (2:3; Genesis 6:14).

Once again, the writer seems to be telling us, God is saving his people from the watery chaos of human corruption and taking them forward to a new life.

You have to imagine Jochebed tearing up in the telling of this part of the story — all the fear and desperation coming to a head there at the river-bank.

*Thought:* /Moses was saved because God had people who were creative and were risk-takers./

*Fourth “Footprint”* — Miriam would make an entry as a proud big sister, the one who followed the basket~/ark down the river and saw Pharaoh’s daughter coming down to the water for her bath, finding the basket and the baby.

Remember that her paranoid father had ordered all the Egyptians to throw the Hebrew baby boys into the river when they found them (1:22).

Apparently, however, even Pharaoh’s daughter thought her old man to be a bit daft.

She recognized the baby as a Hebrew and decided to raise him as her own — once again setting the pattern of defying authority that would mark the baby’s life.

Miriam sees this and thinks quickly herself, offering to go get a wet nurse for the baby who is the boy’s own mother.

Jochebed gets her boy back for a time, but only until he was old enough to live with his adoptive mother in Pharaoh’s court (2:10).

Cecil B. DeMille and /The Ten Commandments/ notwithstanding, we don’t know if Moses ever talked to his birth mother again after he was taken to live in Pharaoh’s palace.

Tradition holds, though, that even as a child, Moses carried some of her pluck.

Another Midrash says that the child Moses was once sitting on Pharaoh’s lap and took the crown off the despot’s head and put it on his own.

Paranoid Pharaoh decided to test the boy’s loyalty by putting the crown and a bowl of hot coals in front of the boy.

If he chose the crown again, he would be killed.

The story goes that an angel guided Moses’ hand to the coals and, taking one, he touched his lips with it, which resulted in his famous speech impediment.

*Thought:* /The staunch defiance of five women in the face of unyielding tyranny marked Moses’ birth and childhood.

All of us have needed help; all of us need to help./ \\ \\ The bottom line for the writer of Exodus was that here was a child who, from the get-go, was destined and prepared to leave his footprints all over the place: in the palace, in the gardens of Goshen, in the wilderness and among the people of God.

His baby footprint would grow ever larger, eventually leading a whole nation through the trials and tribulations of desert wandering on its way to promised freedom.

He would usurp the authority of a world power, lead his people for 40 years and hold them together by the force of his God-connected character.

He would replace the ruthless and arbitrary rantings of despots with a code of law that we still use today.

All this because his family refused to accept the fate that the world had laid out for him and, instead, placed him in the hands of God.

/God’s hand of providence preserved Moses for the mission that God had prepared him for./

God will do no less for us.

*Possible Preaching Themes:* \\ • Importance of risk-taking, committed parenting.

\\ • Finding God’s will and way in the midst of difficult circumstances.

\\ • The importance of stories in shaping the lives of children.

\\ *An Alternative Sermonic Approach:* \\ There are a lot of ways you can go with this text, but since this is a Sunday that is close to the start of the school year (and many schools may have opened classrooms this past week), this might be a great time to talk about seeing the potential in our children and to remind parents and guardians that they have an important role in shaping the future of these little ones.

Biblically speaking, the towering figures of history — particularly Moses and Jesus — were born under dangerous and uncertain circumstances, but to parents who were willing to take all kinds of personal risks in order to help them realize their God-given potential.

(You might want to draw some of those parallels in the sermon, too.)

Notice, however, that in the Moses birth narrative, God is only peripherally present.

It’s really up to the midwives and the family to do what’s right for the child.

The lesson we can take from this is that what parents (and church families) do, what stories they tell, what lengths they’re willing to go to in loving their children, will have a lot to do with children’s view of themselves and their future.

\\ Moses would leave a large footprint on history, but it all started with that first tiny casting of life and courage made by his family.

How can we help the parents in our congregation move the footsteps of their children in the right direction?

\\ *Participation Pointers:* \\ • From Linda Bird Wright: “I would show a freeze frame of a shot from /Prince of Egypt/ that pertained to each of these ‘footprints’ in Moses’ life.

I would leave them up while I talked about each ‘footprint.’

As the next point began, I would put up the next frame, again freeze it.

And continue on down the line.

At the end I would then have a slide show of 21st century events: a newborn baby picture, baptism picture, perhaps a scouting award such as God and Country, maybe a confirmation picture, then move on to a sporting event in high school, and end with a graduation picture: either college or high school.

I would show them rapidly, singly at first, then at the end as a collage of pictures on the screen.

At that point I would ask the questions: ‘Where are your footprints taking you?

Where is God calling you to serve, to learn, to help build the kingdom of God? Listen, listen for the still small voice of God and make those footprints count.

Amen.’” \\ • From Alan Kimber: “Begin with a brief ‘Brag Moment.’

Mothers (and more especially grandparents can be asked to share ‘What’s in your wallet?’

This, of course, is an invitation to share photographs of kids and tell stories about them.

(This may get out of control.)

\\ • Kimber also points us to the Methodist supplement to the hymnal, /The Faith We Sing/, which includes a wonderful hymn (2051) “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry” by John Ylviskaer which would fit with this theme of God as the constant peripheral presence.

\\ *MOVIE LINK* \\ The Text: Exodus 1:8-2:10.

\\ The Movie: /Prince of Egypt/.

\\ The Scene: When Moses’ mother lets him go on the river, having faith that God will care for him.

*Animating Illustrations*

In the Disney animated film /The Prince of Egypt/ (1998) Jochebed, Moses’ mother, sings to her infant son as she wraps him in a blanket and places him in a basket in the river \\ “ Yal-di ha-tov veh ha-rach [/My good and tender son/] \\ Al ti-ra veh al tif-chad [/Don’t be frightened and don’t be scared/].

\\ My son, I have nothing I can give \\ But this chance that you may live.

\\ I pray we’ll meet again \\ If he will deliver us.

\\ Hush now, my baby.

\\ Be still, love, don’t cry.

\\ Sleep as you’re rocked by the stream.