August 24 Exodus 1, Rom. 12:1-8
The Bible is directed toward underdogs. Today we read of Israel enslaved, the unlikely Peter getting slotted for leadership, and the shared leadership of communities on the very margins of society in Romans. They are great examples of moral transformation.Puah and Shiphrah are midwives to help bring life into the world. they may be Egyptian midwives serving the Hebrews. The Pharaoh want them to be midwives to the death of infant boys born into slavery. They make an ethical decision to save lives, and they lie about it to buy some time.At one level they are powerless, but at another level they exercise what power they have to throw obstacles in the way of state genocide.Power does turn to violence as a policy tool. The weaker in society can be its victims. In an autocratic system, who is to stop the policy? The two people whose names are kept here, evne while Pharaoah goes unnamed, resist evil.In so doing they are transofrmed from midwives to freedom fighters.(Shiphrah means pleasing and Puah means splendid)
Transformed by renewal of mind v. being conformed-build up the whole body-spiritual worship-rational-=ethical. mind= praxis, imagination and whole person Important in our fragmented and compartmentalized age when I was in seminary, I was assigned Christian Science for a church history class. i learned that this line in this chapter is of central importance to Mrs Eddy and her followers over the years. Certainly we live in an era where we assign astounding power to mental attitude in a weak version of Christian Science thought. We praise positive mental attitudes as a key to health, a key to success. After seminary, I lived near Amish communities who sometimes cited this verse as a warrant for refusing to engage in what they called English styles of dress.
What does being transformed mean? The same basic material is there but it seems different.
being conformed to an Egyptian mindset v, slave mindset v., a Godly mindset. What does it mean the renewal of our minds? We’ve always done it that way before means that we do not go about re-inventing the wheel, but it can also be a deterrent when change is necessary. Sometimes transformation can be instantaneous. Our American brand of churches emphasize this constantly. While we tend to honor this type of experience, we tend to emphasize the more slow=going process of time as God works in and through yus daily.In a fine episode of Star Trek, Captain Picard laments his youthful extremes and the time wasted. He is shown in a dream sequence that he would never have been the remarkable man he had become had he not undergone steady transformation in curbing his youthful excesses into maturity. George Washington spent a lifetime controlling his temper and learning to project a public face of utter rectitude.Be not conformed. One of my items of disquiet in the clergy response to Ferguson has been an utterly secular recording of some on the political left. Yes, of course, the message of the church can oppose or dovetail with the common view of life. At the same time, it seems that the church should also have a more independent voice that can add something different to the varying voices out there and within.Far too often, we try to fit the faith into our existing points of view.
Be transformed Paul says. We are more the recipients of transformation than we are its agents.
Still, he seems to speak of an inner transformation. the Spirit works within the raw material of our lives it form us into people carrying the banner of Christian.
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