Invisible people roll past us, walk among us, even speak to us . . . and what’s even stranger, we are sometimes invisible to them. This isn’t a fantasy movie, but instead, a strange fact of our existence, one that Passover urges us to challenge and change. For we can all be free only when the invisible becomes visible. We also celebrate Palm Sunday and the Transgender Day of Visibility this morning.
And we are honored to welcome the people of the Unitarian Free Church, Blaine, Washington, who are joining us this morning.
Worship leader: Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Special music: Aaron Lington, saxophone, Victoria Lington, piano
The full order of service is at bit.ly/uucpa_oos_20210328.
Video of the entire March 28, 2021 service with copyrighted and private information removed.
Transcript:
Readings
Exodus 1:1-12
The last chapters of the book of Genesis told how the Israelite Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, became an advisor to the king of Egypt, the pharaoh, and, through his wise counsel, helped Egypt prepare for a long famine so that the country prospered. Our first reading picks up the story, with the first twelve verses of the book of Exodus.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
From the memoir Redefining Realness, Janet Mock
“Living by other people’s definitions and perceptions shrinks us to shells of ourselves, rather than complex people embodying multiple identities.
“I can’t help but marvel at the resiliency of trans people who sacrifice so much to be seen and accepted as they are. Despite those sacrifices, trans people are still wrongly viewed as being confused. It takes determination and clear, thought-out conviction, not confusion, to give up many of the privileges that [we do] to be visibly [ourselves.]”
Sermon: Making the Invisible Visible
Passover, you probably know, is the festival of freedom. During this weeklong holiday, which began last night, Jews tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: how their ancestors were enslaved there and how, through God’s miracles and Moses’s leadership, they gained their liberation.
Something else that runs through the story is a theme of invisibility and visibility. It’s a theme that arises in two other celebrations this week: Palm Sunday, which is today, and the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which is always on March 31. And this matter of visibility and invisibility has everything to do with freedom.
As the story of Exodus begins, the Israelites have become uncomfortably visible to the king of Egypt, the pharaoh. They have been in Egypt (we learn later) for many generations, several hundred years, and it seems they have b...
