21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 16), Year A

And because the midwives feared God, [God] gave them families.
~Exodus 1:21
 
Pharaoh’s daughter said to [the child’s mother], “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.”
~Exodus 2:9
 
It isn’t magic that impossible situations are transformed into new streams of possibility in God’s economy. It happens all the time. It is the way of God’s kindom.
 
“We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,” Romans reiterates. But when they are put in motion—whatever those gifts, those currencies are, they all work toward wholeness and abundance. Eric Law calls this the cycle of blessing: “In God’s creation, everything gets recycled, including that which we consider to be waste.”
 
The Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah acted with nerve and cunning to disrupt Pharaoh's destructiveness and clear the path for deliverance. Peter rose to an occasion he did not see coming, naming with suddenly clear judgment who Jesus was and in return discovering his own true identity. What blessings, what currencies do you have in hand? Do you know what it takes for them to make for life?
 
Enter into worship. Sunday, 10:00am, online or in-person.
 
Readings: Exodus 1:8-2:10 † Psalm 124 † Romans 12:1-8 † Matthew 16:13-20
 
About the Art: Palmer, Samuel, 1805-1881. Magic Apple Tree, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58401 [retrieved August 18, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Magic_Apple_Tree.jpg. See commentary at https://thevcs.org/be-transformed/fruitfulness-and-transfiguration. 

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