Desperate times/ desperate measures

Exodus 1:8-2:10/  Romans 12: 1-8
Jacob is desperate.  His family is starving in their home country and there seems to be no end in sight to the poverty that surrounds them.  What crops they can grow, no one is buying, and the rain won’t seem to come. The crops, the livestock, everything they need to live is wasting away right in front of their eyes.  The only way to survive is to ask for help.  So, they travel to a nearby country which has plenty of resources to share.  They are welcomed at first because a family member helped pave their way and because they are willing to do the work the people in the new country don’t seem to want to do.  They work hard in this new place, helping their new countrymen and women keep food on the table, and clothes on their backs, they cook and clean, work in the fields and garment shops, take out the garbage, build homes and help the economy of the new country grow.  They are an asset in this new place and life seems like it will all work out. 

As generations pass, Jacob’s family grows larger and larger but their ally in the government is long gone and the countrymen and women begin to fear Jacob’s family.  What if they are secretly terrorists, plotting with their enemies, eager to fight against them from the inside if there is a war?  What if there is another famine and there isn’t enough resources for everyone? We don’t have enough doctors and midwives as it is- how are we supposed to keep up with all their children?  Instead of welcoming them as equal citizens and teaching them to care and provide for themselves in this new place- they are treated as less than human and with fear and disdain.

The country is torn- they like that Jacob’s ancestors work so hard and do all the jobs no-one else wants to do.  They like what they contribute to society but yet at the same time they are afraid.  They want them to stay but only on their conditions and only if they can oppress them and beat them down so that they know their place.  They don’t want them to get any grand ideas that they might have a say in how this country is run, how they are treated or that they may be able to change things. So the new country decides to put laws in place that oppress Jacob’s family.  Families are separated because husbands are forced to work in other cities away from their wives and children.  They are humiliated, grossly underpaid for their backbreaking work, beaten by their bosses while the authorities look the other way or join in, some are even killed. 

Trials, tribulations and oppression only make Jacob’s family stronger. But new threats emerge.  No longer do they only have to fear the abuse and neglect of the adults, but now they fear for their children too.  The government has given its citizens free reign to murder their children without any reason- other than their race.  Even the ones who are healthy and will work hard in this new land are killed – thrown into the river to drown. 

Mothers pray desperately to have daughters- hopeful that they will be spared.  One mother’s prayer isn’t answered though and she gives birth to a son.  She sees him and loves him but knows his future is dim.  She cherishes every moment she has with him until she can no longer hide him.  The gangs will be after him soon.  They will ransack their home looking for the illegal and now vocal baby.  She is desperate and while she knows she can’t bear to watch her son die, she hopes and prays that someone in another country or land will find him, and love him as much as she does.  So, she places him in a basket and teary eyed- sends him into an unknown fate.  Praying earnestly for a future that she knows he can’t get there. 

Maybe it seems like I have just re-told our Old Testament lesson through a more generic/ modern lens and I have; but this is a story that happens over and over around the world every day.  People from one country flee to another because of religious persecution, poverty and violence. People flee not only wars of international significance but drug and gang wars that spread well beyond their local community.  In some places they are fleeing groups of citizens who claim religious superiority and vow to kills those who don’t believe the same way- leave, convert or die is the mantra.

Others seek an escape from poverty resulting from unequal international trade.  Maybe the only job someone can find in their home land is working long days for little to no pay making cheap clothing in sweatshops, or they lost the family farm which provided for them for generations because now it is cheaper to buy corn from another country than to grow it themselves.    Some emigrate as refugees, in need of asylum but others, escape secretly in the dark of night seeking safety, believing that anywhere is better than their current situation.  Many are willing to risk their own lives for safety and the opportunity for a better life.   

You can hear the modern day parallels of the global immigrant in our story of the beginning of Moses’ life.  His ancestors- the Israelites, decedents of Jacob, sought refuge in Egypt during a time of famine and poverty.  They too did the work that Egyptians didn’t want to do.  Contributing to society but hated because of their race and their religion. Today’s immigrants around the world continue to do the jobs the people in their host country don’t want-the hot, dirty, backbreaking and humiliating jobs. They are often underpaid and mistreated because their bosses know they don’t have a voice to speak.  While immigrants only make up a small percentage of the population in any country- 13% here in the US- many still fear them.  Instead of embracing their culture and the positive things they can add to society they are feared, labeled, oppressed and subjected to years of fear and uncertainty. 

The story of Moses has a happy ending.  Moses’ mother’s prayers are answered.  He is found by a woman who goes against her own father and the rule of the land to willingly take him in, adopt him into her family and raise him as her son.  It could have ended differently. Pharaoh’s daughter could have been just as cold hearted as her father and simply turned the basket over allowing the infant Moses to drown. 

Recently it has been all over the news about unaccompanied minors seeking refuge in our country… Mothers desperate to be reunited with their children or desperate to help their children escape the known violence and poverty in their home countries…I can only imagine the torment, pain and pure desperation these families feel when they place the fate of their children in the hands of strangers. 

Who will they find when they reach our shores?  Will they find people willing to welcome them in and love them as their own or, people who simply want to turn their baskets over as they are forced to return to the places where they are escaping poverty, persecution and certain death?

I fully acknowledge that the problems we face in this world are multilayered and difficult.  It is often overwhelming to even contemplate how this world could or should be different.  Maybe, you like me, hear these stories and think it is too big of a problem for me to make a difference but we are called by God to make this world a better place, to help usher in God’s Kingdom in this world. Maybe you are called to be a missionary- to help make other countries safer and help reduce the poverty and violence they experience.  Or are you called to become a foster parent to children in this community taking in a child who needs a warm, loving and stable home?  Maybe you are called to offer respite or emergency housing to foster children a few days a month. Maybe you are called to speak on behalf of a child- helping the courts decide what is best- through the Guardian ad’litem program.  Or are you called to write your congressperson to influence the decisions our government makes?  Maybe you are called to speak for those who don’t have a voice in our system to advocate for humane treatment of all people, no matter their race or nationality.  Me are all called to pay those who work for us a living wage and to treat all those we encounter not as “others” but as God’s children, created in God’s image, just like you. 

Our scripture from Romans today reminds us to not be conformed to the patterns of this world.  The status quo is not how it should be.  It may be uncomfortable or unpopular to do what is right but it is our sacrifice to listen and follow God’s will- whatever that may mean to you.  There is no “us” and “them” there are no people who are “better” and some who are “less”.  We are all part of the body of Christ, equally valued, equally useful, even though we act and look differently.  And when one part of the body of Christ cries out in pain- we all are affected.   How can we seek to mend the broken heart of Christ, our broken heart? Through love, mercy and compassion.