A little lower than the angels

In my reading this week in preparation for preaching I was reminded by one writer of the “Butterfly Effect” and its relationship to our first reading today. The term is from meteorologist Edward Lorenz, and describes an aspect of chaos theory which describes how a small change at one place a non-linear system results in large changes to a later state of that system. A butterfly flapping it's wings, for instance, can have an effect which may lead to the development of a hurricane. The Butterfly Effect in physics is an apt image upon which to call in considering the story of Shiphrah and Puah, two courageous woman who served as midwives to the Hebrew woman living in the land of Egypt. Their story deserves more attention than it gets. We've been reading the saga of Joseph and his exile in Egypt and the developments that follow. That saga of the Bible explains why the Hebrew people are living in the land of Egypt. Today's part of the story tells us that the a...

Proper 15, August 14, 2011 I read a story this week in the Seattle Times about a young 28-yr-old cab driver from SeaTac running for King County Council. The hitch in the story is that this young man came here from Somalia and is Muslim. He was recently naturalized as a citizen and is part of the change that is going on in South King County which is making white people the minority. The comments section of the story shows that there's tension around all of this in South King County. Some people there are clearly nervous and afraid. This young man experiences some people saying “go away”, and some people saying “welcome”. In one of the comments, a Renton resident opined that anyone not born in the United States, no matter if they are a US Citizen, should be allowed to run for office. The point is that there's tension in the air, and that reflects tension felt all over this country around the issue of immigration. We're caught up in concern about boundaries...