As I began this series of three messages on the theme, Designing Women, last week, I said that we were going to be looking for qualities of leadership out of the stories of those women mentioned in the roll call of faith known as the 11th chapter of Hebrews.
You’ll remember that I pointed out that the author of Hebrews, fascinated as he was by the life of faith, listed any number of people from Old Testament days who had made a mark for themselves by some very special qualities of leadership, integrity, character, and faith. He is careful to point out that all of these persons, as fine as they were, were only shadows of the one whose faithful obedience to God we would ultimately see – that is Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. But, says the author of Hebrews, all of these earlier men and women lived in faith and pointed the way for us; they are, he says, a great cloud of witnesses who now watch us and the way we live.
Now while I could preach a sermon on every character mentioned in Hebrews 11, I have chosen during these three Sundays to focus only on the women who are mentioned; there are only three, but they are powerful, significant, instructive women. And I have an idea that these women bring something special to the realm of spiritual leadership, something which their brothers do not bring.
That’s why I call them designing women; they are purposeful women, they are intentional people. They know themselves, they· understand what they are here for, and, in one way or another, they follow that design. They trace that pattern. They fulfill that purpose, in their own special ways.
Last week we heard the name of Sarah called in the roll call of the heroines of faith. And we were grateful for Sarah as the model of a woman who did understand that she had a purpose, under God, and she set out to fulfill it. The problem with Sarah, though, and with Sarah’s style of leadership, is that she nearly defeated her own purpose. She just about shot herself in the foot. Do you remember how?
Sarah just about defeated her own purpose because she fell prey to the temptation to force God to move along faster than He wanted to, and Sarah did it by using unworthy and evil methods, even though she was trying to do a good thing.
And, further, Sarah let guilt and shame and anger and rage take control of her life. Instead of pursuing the straight path, Sarah began to twist and to turn and to let her worst emotions run her life, and she just about shot herself in the foot.
And then, too, we found out that this designing woman failed some of the tests of leadership because she did not learn from past mistakes. When push came to shove, all she knew to do was to repeat the old useless, pointless strategies of the past, and she nearly defeated her own purpose.
But God was able to turn her around, and Sarah made it in, at last, to the roll call of the heroines of faith.
Today we’re going to deal with somebody who is quite different from Sarah. The designing woman whose life we’ll examine today is from the social register. You would find her in the Green Book. Imagine her as well-dressed, well-placed, elegant, literate, privileged; she’s got it all. And the reason she’s got it all is that she’s daddy’s little girl, and daddy just happens to be Pharaoh, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, emperor of the Nile. This is a daughter of privilege, and she is just about to break the law! But she is also just about to show us some very special qualities of courage and leadership.
The author of the book of Hebrews mentions Pharaoh’s daughter only in passing; actually, he is talking about Moses, the great liberator of the people of God. He really is not making much of a point about this young woman. But he does mention her, and I believe that it’s worth our time to explore more carefully this daughter of privilege, this designing woman, who could have dealt with the situation in front of her with a cynical "who cares?" but who did not. She saw, I believe, that her privileges gave her possibilities and responsibilities, and she responded.
Now the Old Testament Book of Exodus opens with a little drama that contrasts power and weakness.
There is the power of the King of Egypt to order and carry out the slaughter of thousands of innocent children; and the contrast with the weakness of tiny babies is overwhelming.
But there is also the power of a choosing, providing, caring God to work through that weakness: the weakness of an infant in a poor weak basket, the weakness of two nondescript parents and their daughter hiding in the reeds, and even the weak position of a designing young woman, the one person in all the world Pharaoh might have supposed he could have controlled: his daughter.
Out of all this weakness, however, there is soon to emerge an awesome power. Listen to the story:
Exodus 1:15-2:10
Yes, I suppose the daughter of the king was taken in, to a degree. Yes, I suppose she was the victim of a mighty good scheme. Obviously, she knew right away that this tiny squalling thing in a reed basket was a Hebrew baby; but she didn’t know right away that the little girl who approached her was the baby’s sister or that the wet nurse that appeared out of the bulrushes was the baby’s natural mother. She was taken in and she was the victim of a scheme, but I doubt she cared, once she found out. There is something about this elegant young princess, out there with her servants, that tells me we have met a woman of character.
Pharaoh’s daughter is not only a princess of the blood, she is also a queen of the spirit. Because Pharaoh’s daughter, designing woman that she is, knows right away to do what her heart tells her to do, and never mind the consequences.
Her father, as oppressors always will do, is not satisfied with having broken the spirit of the Hebrew people. He is not satisfied with having enslaved their bodies. As oppressors always are, he is threatened, and so he sets out coldly and with unthinkable cruelty to destroy them.
Let the word go forth: "When any of the Hebrew women gives birth to a male child, kill the child." "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile.”
She knew the king’ s decree. She understood how severe the King’s penalties could be. Without question she knew what she was doing. "This is one of the Hebrews’ children", she said; she knew exactly what she was doing. But she did it. She agreed to hire the Hebrew nurse, she took the boy to her own home and her own heart, and she knowingly, willfully defied the will of the King her father. Is this not a designing woman worthy of entry into anybody’ s roll call of faith? I think so!
I
You see, what Pharaoh’s daughter knew instantly was that there is a higher law than the king’s law, and that is the law of God. But she also had to have known that when you choose God’s law over the king’ s law or over the state’s law or over just whatever it is that folks around you expect you to do …whenever you make that choice, you will pay a price. You will endure rejection and hostility.
But I believe Pharaoh’s daughter saw that there are times when the way of faith, the way of courage, is to choose to follow God’s law rather than man’s law. And you just take the consequences as they come.
Have you ever thought about the fact that you and I are the inheritors of a whole grand tradition of law-breakers? That’s right, of lawbreakers and of jailbirds. We would not be sitting here today in freedom and in comfort had it not been for a whole long line of folks who knew, like this designing woman, that sometimes you have to do what is right rather than what the law says is legal.
You see, the New Testament is chock full of jailbirds, isn’t it? Paul and Peter and Stephen and Jesus himself -- all of them spent some time behind bars, all of them did hard time for the sake of the call of God.
And here we are on the eve once again of celebrating the birth of our nation. You and I have to reckon with the fact that what those brave men did on that fourth of July in 1776 was very much against the law, and although their language sounds distant and archaic to us now, let’s not forget that they did it because they believed they were choosing a higher law than King George’s law, God’s law. That’s what they meant when they said in their peculiar eighteenth century way that "All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights." God’s law over man’s law, and take the consequences.
And if it were not for Baptist folk who knew that sometimes you have to endure hardship and rejection for the sake of the call of God, we would not enjoy the freedom to worship as we do. How many of our Baptist forebears spent time in prison for what they and we believe! There is John Bunyan, twelve years in jail in Bedford, England, for opposing the English church. There is John Leland, imprisoned in Virginia for preaching without a license, defended so eloquently by Patrick Henry not long after the American Revolution: Patrick Henry crying out in the courtroom, "Great God, imagine it, in prison for preaching the Gospel!"
A Texan was bragging one day, as Texans, I am told, are wont to do, about being a Texas Baptist. Why, he said, in Texas, Baptists are so powerful. There are more Baptists in the state legislature than members of any other church. And there are more Baptists teaching at the universities than any other denomination has. And there are more Baptists sitting as judges than anybody else. And, I tell you, there are more Baptists in jail than anybody else!"
Well, that may not be anything to be proud of! But there is something rings true about it anyway!
Oh, the courage of Pharaoh’s daughter, to do what she knew to be right, even though the consequences might be grim. Oh, the power of a life committed to doing what God’s call requires rather than what the popular and easy thing would be!
We have seen it in recent times, when Martin Luther King and dozens of others chose God’s way over Jim Crow’ s way. And we have seen it in our time, when Nelson Mandela languished long years in a South African cell, enduring all the harshness that racism could throw at him. But I tell you, if Pharaoh’s daughter, in choosing to follow God’s call over the King’s command, grew from a princess of the blood to a queen of the spirit, then so also in those years did Mandela grow into mature faith and courage.
When you choose God’s call over the oppressor’s way, you will have to endure for a while. But the day will come when you will be enrolled among the heroes of faith.
May I add, just as an aside, that in this week marked with sex, lies, and videotape, that I’m not talking about breaking the law for your own pleasure. I’m not talking about breaking the law and expecting to get away with it. I’m not speaking about twisting the law out of the arrogance of power. I am speaking instead about choosing God’s way over all other considerations. I am speaking about enduring rejection for the sake of God’s call.
II
But now think with me, too, about Pharaoh’s daughter and her sudden understanding that when you have power, any power at all, you can use it for the cause of compassion and of justice.
The essence of what Pharaoh’s daughter did there at the side of that swamp was to decide not only that she would disobey the king her father, but also that she would do something positive with the power she had. She would do something in the name of justice and compassion.
You see, Pharaoh’s daughter had three choices. There were three things she could have done with the Hebrew baby boy. She could have had the decree enforced; or she could have looked the other way and pretended to see nothing; or she could have acted to save the child. And that last choice was the choice she made.
The king’ s daughter, I say, was a princess of the blood, but this designing woman became a queen of the human spirit because she saw that she had a chance to act with compassion, she had a chance to act for life, and she did it. She used her power for justice and compassion.
Last week when I introduced this series I said that I did not intend for you to try to identify these Biblical women with any of the characters on the TV show, Designing Women. The truth is, right now, however, that I do think about one of those characters. If you see this show, maybe you know the character named Suzanne Sugarbaker.
You see, Suzanne Sugarbaker is defined, totally and completely, by the fact that she is a former "Miss Georgia". Nothing else matters to her quite so much as this title. Though it all happened a long time ago, when she was years younger and many pounds lighter and hadn’t discarded four husbands, still Suzanne thinks of herself primarily as "Miss Georgia." Nothing has ever been quite the same as walking down that runway and getting that crown.
And so, according to one episode of the show, Suzanne still shops for clothes thinking about how they will look on the runway. And Suzanne has even been known to wear her tiara to bed!
Suzanne is absolutely obsessed with her position, you see, and it makes her intolerant, it makes her greedy, it makes her the laughing stock of her co-workers. For Suzanne, that fading glory is all she’s got, and she’s got to hang on to it, or she’s nothing!
Contrast the princess of Egypt with the princess of Georgia. Pharaoh’s daughter sees instantly that she must do what her heart tells her to do. Pharaoh’s daughter sees right away that you cannot cast aside a life just because it’s going to be inconvenient! Pharaoh’s daughter knows that she has some power, and she elects to use it for life, for justice, for compassion. And thus she comes to the roll call of faith’s heroines.
This morning, as men and women of faith, we ought to applaud those who take stands for justice and for life. We ought to applaud those who use the power they have (and sometimes it seems as though it isn’t much), but they use the power they have for life. You may not agree with the abortion protest movement, but you have to give them this much: they will use what power they have and will endure the hostility of a whole lot of other people to stand up for life as their hearts and their consciences tell them to do it.
Just as others of you may not have agreed with the Vietnam War protesters or the folks who stand against capital punishment or those who work for the environment, but give them this much, at least: they will use the knowledge and the money and the time and the energy, they will use the power they have to take a stand. And they will endure the slings and arrows of the crowd. But, like Pharaoh’s daughter, they will know the special joy of doing something for justice and for life with the power God has given them.
This is not a series of messages on women’s liberation or on feminism. If it were, I would have to mention that it seems that most of the violent things in this world are planned and executed by men, and women bury the results for a while, and then get up enough power to change things. But since this is not a sermon on the power of women, I won’t say any of that.
Women and men, as children of God, we are not powerless!
We are not powerless! God has made us richer than Pharaoh’s daughter; and in this free land God has made given each of us more spiritual power than we know what to do with! Stand today for life and for justice, and use what you have, even though it might be unpopular.
III
For, you see, today we have set before us a Table, a Table on which are set the emblems of one who experienced rejection, the ultimate rejection; one who was, as the prophet says, despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
But the meaning of that rejection is that He saw God’s will and purpose, and chose God’s way over any more convenient and more comfortable way. Jesus the Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured this cross, this rejection, despising the shame … He endured it all for the sake of God’s call.
He too was a prince of the blood. Before all time, together with the Father, all things were His, and without Him was not anything made that was made. All things are His, and yet He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant. He put aside His crown, He threw off the "Miss Georgia" tiara, He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross, so that we might have life. Jesus Christ took a stand for life; He took it on a cross, yes, rejected and hurt, but He used the power He had for life, for us.
Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name. His is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, for He endured all things for the sake of the call of God.
