Exodus 1:8-2:10
“Call the Midwives”
Preached Sunday, August 27, 2023
In 2012, the BBC, the British Broadcasting System, released a new show that over a decade later is still going strong: “Call the Midwife.” Has anyone seen it? Hands? Well, I highly recommend it - you can stream it on Netflix. Based on a real memoir, the show focuses on a group of midwives and nuns who live and work out of a convent in East London, in the poorest neighborhoods. The nuns are part of a nursing order, called to serve the last and the least who otherwise could not afford medical care. Young midwives partner with them to offer much needed services. The first season takes place in 1957, in the post World War II baby boom, when 80 to 100 babies were being born monthly in the East London neighborhood of Poplar alone. The show has not been afraid to touch on a wide range of social issues that would have plagued the historic residents of this neighborhood: miscarriage and stillbirths, abortion and unwanted pregnancies, birth defects, illness and epidemics, poverty and prostitution, racism and prejudice, abuse and a whole myriad of things. At times it can be heavy and challenging viewing. But the heart of the show comes from how the midwives and nuns respond in the face of all this: with courage, compassion, mercy, and love. The midwives are a steadfast presence of compassion to the residents - even in the face of societal pressures and norms, they embody the love of Christ to all they meet. Every episode, amidst the pain, focuses on some sort of love in the midst of the hardships of their world - of our world.
Today’s reading from Exodus could have been an episode of Call the Midwife except in Biblical Egypt rather than 1950’s East London.
It was not a safe time for babies to be born. Especially if they were male Hebrew children. There were two midwives, Puah and Shiphrah. Now, midwives, their job is to assist in birth. To be there for the baby and mother. To aid in the entering of life in this world. And the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, called Shiphrah and Puah to him and he told them to act against that desire to bring life into this world, their job “The King said to the midwives…When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live."
To be clear, this was a direct order from their ruler, from the government, one that they risked their lives to disobey. But they feared God more than they feared their king and so they directly disobeyed, letting the male children live.
And of course this did not go unnoticed by the king so he called Puah and Shiphrah back before him and he said, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" And these two women, I love their response, they reach down deep and draw on their courage and intelligence, and outright lie to pharaoh. They say, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” And then the text says that God blessed Puah and Shiphrah. I love this cause…yes, they lied or at least twisted the truth, and they certainly didn’t obey earthly orders, but this is a story that shows what God values. Over legalistic truth-telling and rule-following, God values compassion, justice, and saving lives.
The story in our reading continues to highlight women who acted defiantly against oppression, evil, and violence. Using courage, ingenuity, kindness, and compassion to protect the helpless. When Pharoah then orders anyone to kill a young baby Hebrew boy upon sight, Moses’s mother hid him for three months. I can barely imagine how hard this was, physically, mentally, emotionally. The first three months are what we now call the fourth trimester where the baby is still fully dependent upon the mother or caretaker to survive, just as they were inside the womb. And the mother too is in a state of recovery, still flooded with hormones, still bleeding, still barely functioning as a human outside the caretaker role. It’s a time when fear can be so front and center in the brain, and she displayed great courage and love, against all the odds, hiding and protecting her son.
And then, when it came to the time where she knew she could no longer protect her kid any longer. She devised an ingenious plan to give him a fighting chance at survival. Male Hebrew children were, under order of the King, to be put into the Nile to die. She put him in the Nile but in a basket with nothing but a prayer for his survival or perhaps a prayer that if he is to meet his death, for it to be swift and painless. I imagine every part of her was breaking under the weight of this decision. And so she sends her daughter to do what she cannot, to watch over him as he goes down the river.
And who should pick the basket up? The Pharaoh's daughter. Even though she was not a member of the Hebrew people, of this oppressed class - she still had a decision to make that would require courage to do the right thing - the thing of compassion, mercy, justice, and love. And she drew on that courage and her compassion and, in direct defiance of the most powerful man in the country, a man who would have had direct power over her life, she was courageous and compassionate and she let that child live. Not only did she let the child live, she let him nurse at the breast of his own mother - because of the courage of Moses’s sister to step forward, to dare to speak to Pharaoh’s daughter…and then, when he was older and done nursing, she adopted him as her own son.
Every single one of the women in today’s story resisted oppression and were faithful to God by refusing to be passive in the face of evil and injustice. Every single one of them displayed courage, ingenuity, kindness, compassion, mercy, love. At great risk from the powers that be, they still honored God by valuing what God values, by treating the least of these, and especially children, with compassion and kindness. Their small yet big acts that resisted oppression and violence and saved lives greatly pleased God. God would use their acts to bring justice to all the Hebrew people, God’s actions through Moses, the baby that these women collectively saved.
This is one of the great stories in our Scriptures. And yet, we might think, how does this apply at all to me today in the here and now? Or we might think, I could never do what the midwives and Moses’s mother and sister and Pharaoh’s daughter did - or maybe “thank God I don’t live in a world like that.” And I’d like to gently push back against those kinds of thoughts today. All these women in our story were just ordinary people, doing their jobs, in a world with so much hurt. And that could be said of us too. What these Biblical women did, all they did, is they responded to the world around them as God would have - with love, courage, compassion. They were the hands and feet of God. They were helpers. We too are called to respond to the world around us as God would - with love, courage, compassion. We too are called to be the hands and feet of God. We too are called to be helpers.
The late and great Presbyterian minister and children’s TV icon, Fred Rogers, famously said to the children watching his show: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” This is encouraging advice to give to children - look for the helpers. And after those horrible events we see on our news, I often see so many people sharing this quote on social media or on talk shows. And it can bring us comfort and we should look for the helpers. And, beyond that, we are called to BE the helpers. We are called to be the midwives. Those people that help birth God’s love, compassion, and justice. Those who are called to usher in the Kingdom of God to the here and now. To do small yet big acts to resist oppression. Having the courage to always respond in the face of evil with love.
I want to take a step back for a moment and tie what we did during our children’s moment, praying over our kids and the start of the school year, and what we’ve been talking about in this sermon - to tie them together.
In a little bit, after the sermon and during our prayer time, I am going to pray more specifically for our children. We will pray for their hearts, that there is always room for more love. We will pray for their minds, not just that they have room for book knowledge but that they would learn from each other what it means to be human and to be kind. We will pray for their hands, that they would be hands that reach out to others, helping and caring. We will pray for their mouths that they will speak words of love that bring people together, offering connection and life. We will pray for their feet, that they would go to those in need. We will pray for their eyes, that they would see the needs of others and also see the beauty of God in this world. We will pray for their ears, that they will listen to all, especially those who don’t get heard much and that they would listen to the voice of God.
Our kids are living in a world that needs help. A world of violence, of hate, a world that has a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
And so as we pray for these things for them, we also need to pray for these things for ourselves. That we would show them what it looks like to follow God in this world. We will be role models for all our children, and not just our children through birth and blood or adoption, but all the children in this community and the world - that we would show them what it looks like to be a helper.
We would show them by always having room in our hearts for more love. We would show them by learning from others. We would show them by our hands reaching out to others in caring love. We would show them by our mouths, always speaking words of connection and love. We would show them by our feet going to those in need. We would show them by always seeing the last and the least and the beauty in the world. We would show them by listening to the voices of those the world ignores and oppresses. We would show them by listening to the voice of God.
By preaching this story from Exodus today, my goal is to lift up Shiphrah and Puah as role models for us. Role models of what it looks like to be brave and courageous for God in this world. Role models for what it looks like to refuse to be passive in the face of a hurting world. Role models for what it looks like to do what is within our power to show love and compassion. To lift up these role models from Biblical Egypt so that in 2023, we would be role models for our children. That they would look to us and see what it looks like to live for God. To see what it looks like to courageously, lovingly and compassionately work for justice in our world.
For we are called to be like the midwives, to be the helpers, to show our children a better way - God’s way, a way of compassion and love. May it be so.
Amen.
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