Embedded Files
Pharaoh's Daughter:
Feb 26 - Mar 4, 2023
Marco Ambriz & "Joey" Alan Le, Ph.D.
Icebreaker: What funny quirks or mannerisms have you picked up from your parents or other family members? Or what skills or talents have you inherited from them?
Subversive Witness 3 Pharoah's Daughter - 20230228.pdfIntroduction
Introduction
The second chapter of Subversive Witness is a story of hope. The actions of the Pharaoh’s daughter demonstrate that the Spirit can transform even those who descend from families who have devoted themselves to ideologies of supremacy and who have thrived from systematic oppression and injustice. In her, we see that the gospel has the power to break generational cycles of bigotry (Gilliard 32).
Sermon
Sermon
Pastor Marco Ambriz defines systemic sin as “unjust behavior that is protected by a social structure, often with legal or financial rewards/consequences for upholding it.”
In your own words, how would you explain how an individual’s personal sin can extend to a systemic and structural level?
Check out NBC’s video: “The Legacy of Redlining in the Bay Area: Explained.” In your opinion, is the practice of redlining an example of systemic sin? If redlining was banned in 1968, why is there still such dramatic inequity today, over fifty years later? How did these redline laws and financial rewards affect conditions for housing, education, health, etc.?
Learn more about the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Proposed Resolution to Repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. Do you believe that Christians today should take responsibility for the legalized theft of land, labor, and resources from indigenous peoples five centuries ago? What can be done to right that wrong?
Systemic Sin
Systemic Sin
Dominique Gilliard identifies a common area of conflict within communities:
[Immoral] leaders use propaganda to convince the masses that there is a common enemy, an us versus them, and that if we can get rid of or keep them subjugated, then we will flourish, thrive, and enjoy abundant life. The vilified group is almost always depicted as dangerous, a drain on the economy, or uncivilized, and sometimes all three. Leaders who exploit their power in this manner have legacies marked by greed, coercion, and violence (22-23).
Have you ever seen this dynamic at work in your own context? In your social circle, or on your news outlets, who are the “bad people”? How can we tell when something we hear is propaganda?
In this way, sinful ideologies can form as unjust legislation:
When marginalized people are politically diagnosed as a social albatross, it becomes acceptable—if not patriotic—to vilify them, infringe on their human rights, and become apathetic toward their plight. Thus these leaders strategically enact sinful legislation that systemically targets, oppresses, and scapegoats the most vulnerable. They then begin to sedate the morality of the majority by clandestinely deploying propaganda—which becomes more overt over time—that demonizes the least of these (22).
Is it possible for something to be lawful, and still be immoral? Any examples? In your experience, what groups of people have Christians scapegoated or demonized? How did they justify their actions?
Gilliard maintains that the enslavement of the Hebrews and the murder of infant boys were not solely the fault of the Pharaoh. The people are also culpable. Pharaohs need consent (24). Even if the people knew their neighbor was being dehumanized, oppressed, exploited, and massacred, they remained silent and complicit (22).
Do you think this is true – that unjust governments need the people’s compliance, and therefore, that makes the people complicit? Why or why not? What responses do Christians give when they do not want to be held responsible for the denigration of their neighbors?
Exodus 1:6-22; 2:1-10
Exodus 1:6-22; 2:1-10
In unpacking Ex 2:5, Gilliard helpfully supplies a gap in the story, presenting what the Egyptian princess was likely taught to believe about the Hebrews.
Miriam knew that Pharaoh’s daughter had been raised in a house of bigotry. Pharaoh’s daughter had been discipled by her father to see Hebrews as subhuman and disposable; their only value lay in their free labor. She had been trained to see Hebrews as her enemies and was warned that if they were not contained, ruthlessly overseen, and hegemonically governed, all the privileges and comforts she had become accustomed to would end (29).
What red flags indicate that people have been indoctrinated or conditioned to believe in something?
EX 2:6 SHE TOOK PITY ON HIM. Proximity transforms perspective:
As Moses’ life hung in the balance, Pharaoh's daughter found herself confounded by the power of proximity and its ability to transform her vision and the ways in which she had conformed to the pattern of this world (29).
There is hope that people can choose love and compassion despite how they have been indoctrinated. Have you ever experienced the power of proximity? How did it change you?
2:9 TAKE THIS CHILD AND NURSE IT FOR ME. In sparing Moses’ life, Pharaoh’s daughter broke her father’s law and order (see Ex 1:16, 22) (31). When is it right and moral to disobey the law of the land? Share some of the ways that the act of love is risky.
2:10 SHE TOOK HIM AS HER SON. Raising a Hebrew boy as her own son would shame the Pharaoh. By rights, the Pharaoh could have disowned his daughter, cut her off from his wealth and privileges, imprisoned, or even killed her (31).
2:10 I DREW HIM OUT OF THE WATER. Pharaoh’s daughter acted subversively.
This story is good news. It demonstrates that the gospel has the power to break generational cycles of bigotry. It bears witness to the fact that the Spirit can transform those most ensconced in bias and immersed in injustice. And it shows that freedom and liberation are possibilities for everyone, even those who descend from families who have devoted themselves to sinful ideologies of supremacy and have enacted systemic oppression and social injustice. It affirms that God is truly with us amid our suffering and that oppression, death, and sin truly do not have the last word. When God seems to be silent, our sovereign Savior is still at work, moving to make a way out of no way (32).
Reflecting on the sinful patterns that you inherited from your family or culture, how has the Spirit of God healed and transformed you? How could this biblical story give you hope as you fight for the causes you care about?
Reflection Questions
Reflection Questions
How does Ex. 1:6-22; 2:1-10 help you define and understand privilege?
Have you seen political leaders use propaganda to scapegoat, villainize, and/or dehumanize vulnerable people? If so, when?
What do you believe keeps good people silent and complicit when they know their neighbor is being dehumanized, oppressed, exploited, and/or massacred?
Systemic sin can be challenging for some members of the body to see. Where do you see systemic sin in Exodus 1:6-22; 2:1-10?
Have you seen God trouble the waters of belonging, bringing people together across lines of difference in unexpected ways? If so, where and when?
Assuming things about people and writing them off can be easy. How does Pharaoh's daughter challenge us to resist these temptations? (37)
Works Cited
Works Cited
Gilliard, Dominique DuBois. Subversive Witness: Scripture's Call to Leverage Privilege. Zondervan, 2021.
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