Exodus 1:8-2:10

The story of Moses’ birth and sustenance among the reeds and rushes of the Nile can also be interpreted as an allegory of religion and culture. Though Pharaoh invents the cultural constraints against the Israelites, we are told how God provides inspiration for God’s people in the form of a little boy set adrift in a basket among the crocodiles. Though the cultural conditions may be oppressive, sometimes God’s inspiration is so subtle and so vulnerable that it flies under the radar of the “powers and principalities” that seek to subvert, distort, and deny God’s pull toward the creative vision.

According to David Ray Griffin’s major Christian doctrines class (I was lucky enough to be in his last class) and in books such as The New Pearl Harbor and his distillation of the above book in the July/August 2005 Zion’s Herald, it is the task of the Christian church to take a stance toward the American empire. We can either allow our churches to be functionaries of the empire, or we can be houses of dissent and critique in the midst of the empire. It is our legacy in the Christian church to be both of these—however, our Biblical heritage calls us to take a stand against such an Empire when that Empire is diametrically opposed to the vision of God. 

The story of Moses being set into a basket in the Nile to avoid an instituted genocide aimed at keeping an enslaved Israelite population more manageable, and then being rescued by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter to be raised in Pharaoh’s court is indicative of God’s creativity when it comes to resisting the power of the state.  Technically, Moses’ mother followed the instructions of Pharaoh to “throw the baby in the Nile .” She simply made sure he had a sealed basket between him and the water! It is creativity like this exhibited by the Biblical characters that clues us in to what the ancients knew as a profoundly inventive God. This God pulls us toward an integration of our resources to achieve a higher relationship with God and the world.

How does God call us to live with fresh insight and renewed minds toward the limitations of our own culture? In what ways is God acting with sublime subtlety to draw us toward liberation?  Process Theology proclaims boldly the freedom of humanity and creation.  God must act in ways that reverences this freedom. Therefore, we should be looking for the muffled cries among the reeds and rushes. We should be attuning our eyes and ears to the unexpected, and then be willing to act with creativity and compassion, like the daughter of Pharaoh.

Matthew 16:13-20

The Gospel passage also considers the influence of the world around us on our relationship with God. Jesus first asks his disciples about what the world thinks about him. “Who do they say I am,” he asks. They reply with the rumors—some spectacular, but none quite spectacular enough. Then he turns to them and asks, “Who do you say that I am?” The question begs for internalization. Matthew undoubtedly points the question at the hearers of the Gospel. The message is clear—it’s not what the world thinks about this man, it is about our own confession. Our culture may pigeonhole Jesus in a particular political party. It may claim that he hates certain kinds of people because of who they may love. Whatever the world claims Jesus is, this passage asks us instead to go inside our hearts and see what the Christ is to our own experience.

Jesus praises Peter’s answer not because he got the right answer on a multiple choice pop quiz. He praises Peter because he gives answers Jesus with divine inspiration, not the conventional wisdom. Jesus says, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed these things to you, but my Father in Heaven.” This is when Simon bin Jonah earns the name “Rock.” The solid conviction to follow one’s own heart over the learned opinions of the world is a foundational prospect on which Jesus can build a movement. It is on this counter cultural, self-probing revelation that the movement of Christ begins in the world. It would continue through community of believers who refused to the death to buy into the corruption of the Empire simply to “fit in.” The same temptation exists in our current cultural context. We can join the crowds flocking to easy answers about Jesus. There are plenty of people who are willing to tell us who Jesus is. However, Matthew’s witness is that Jesus is asking us individually. When I consider this question, I am reminded of the Orthodox icon of Christ Pantokrator that has one eye softened, and one eyebrow cocked in interrogation.

It is as if one eye welcomes me with a warm embrace, and the other bores a hole through my soul like a laser. My answer to the question is received by a compassionate Christ, and at the same time judged by the lasting effects that my answer puts into motion. How I answer the question either adds to God’s Vision for the world, or it impedes its growth. “Who do you say I am?” he asks. Our life, God’s growth, the good of creation depends on our answer.

Nathan Mattox is a 2005 M.Div graduate of Claremont School of Theology.He is now serving an appointment in the United Methodist Church in Waldron, Arkansas. While attending seminary, Nathan was the program coordinator for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Occidental College in Los Angeles . He is a member of the National Council of Churches Ecological Justice Fellowship and is also involved in the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He is a new father to a 4-month old son and a husband for 5 years, and is every day discovering new aspects of God in these relationships. He is the author of the weblog, “Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Optimist,” where his sermons can be accessed. 

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