Preaching like Cyril on Moses' rescue by Pharaoh's Daughter

Here is an attempt of mine to preach like Cyril. Make of it what you will.

Redeemer Classical School, Exodus 2:1-10, September 7, 2023 A+D

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pharaoh and the disobedient midwives are in the background of Moses’ birth. At the end of chapter 1, Pharaoh demanded the baby Hebrew boys be thrown into the river.

In Exodus 2 we meet the mother and sister of Moses along with the daughter of Pharaoh and her handmaids. All those women conspire together, like the midwives before them, to save Moses and thwart Pharaoh.

Two passages jump to mind: “We must obey God rather than men” and “ I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” And a third: “Judgment is upon this world and the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

The rulers of this world rage in vain. They are ultimately impotent. Pharaoh struts and postures but he cannot command midwives. Satan paces to and fro. He seeks someone to devour but the chain around his neck is fixed to a cross sunk deep in the bedrock of creation. He can harm us none.

The Holy Spirit draws us to Himself out of the drowning waters of Holy Baptism through Christ’s Bride the Church. Pastors serve as midwives pouring on water and saying the Name. In the Church, Christ provides for us many mothers, sisters, fathers, and brothers. The Lord setteth the solitary into families.

Moses was drawn out of the river that Pharaoh meant to drown him and that river will come crashing down on him and his chariots, red with blood. But that which drowns also floats arks full of believers. The sea is red not only with Pharoah’s blood but also with Christ’s. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, became a part of our world to be made subject to Satan, prince of this world. And when He died, when He finished the ransom on the cross, bought the world back at that terrible and nearly unspeakable price of His own life, forgave our sins by substitution and forgiveness, then water and blood poured forth from His side - a miracle that converted a centurion who put Him to death and showed the power of Baptism, of water mixed with Blood.

So it is that Baptism both drowns us according to Pharaoh’s command and yet saves us, floating us down like Noah to Pharoah’s compassionate daughter. This it does through the resurrection of the crucified One. His conscience is clear and He testifies on our behalf before His Father for us, silencing the accuser, and putting us into the church as a babe is set to a nursemaid. Thus does He say to the woman caught in adultery, “There is no one to accuse you,” and to His disciples “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it,” and to the Samaritan woman, “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”

Pharaoh, Herod, the devil and whoever stands against us have nothing won. Like unto Moses before us, in the way of Jesus, God has drawn us to Himself by Word and Sacrament. The Kingdom ours remaineth.

In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.