Heroines of the Faith
By Charles Rush
May 7, 2000
Exodus 1: 15-22
rhaps you saw the article in the Atlantic Monthly this month that
reported that our young women are doing far better than in school than
our academic intellectuals would have us believe. They do better in
school, speak up more often in class, develop career plans with college
more often, and those who are in the 'at risk' category are far more
likely to avoid serious trouble than are their male counterparts. If
that is indeed the case, good for them. This sermon is for our
daughters especially but really it is a sermon for all of who need
models of bravery and faithfulness.
I say it is for our daughters because there is a lingering
chauvinism in the scriptures. We get far more hero's than heroines.
There is a line in the story of the feeding of the 5000 that points
this out. After they distributed the loaves and fishes and everyone
was fed, the bible says "Now there were 5000 present that day, not
counting women and children." It raises a question; why not count the
women and children?
Sociologists have suggested that at events like these women and
children outnumber men on the order of 5 or 6 to 1. 5 or 6 to one
sounds about right to me, having stood for the Thanksgiving Parade and
the fireworks on the 4
th
of July many times. Therefore, it seems to me, that out of respect for
our daughters, we should perhaps refer to this story from now on as the
feeding of the 30,000.
We all know why only the men get mentioned. They are the ones with
money and power. Like then, it is not too much different today.
Perhaps you saw the article in the Wall Street Journal this week that
described people who have over 40 million dollars in assets. There
were some surprising statistics, not the least of which is just how
many people are in this category. I read this to my wife, who said,
"Honey, a million dollars just ain't what it used to be." And some
things weren't so surprising, like the fact that the vast majority of
people in this category are men.
Well money and power are important but character is more important
still. And faithfulness is more important still. And that is what our
story is about this morning. Character and faithfulness are eternal.
These we will take with us to the grave, whereas our money and power
are only a 50-60 year lease.
Our story is that of the Exodus. We all know this story. Any
child will tell you that it was the time when Moses led the Israelites
out of slavery in Egypt and defeated the army of Pharaoh. Described
like that it is a story about a hero who defeats an evil overlord for
God. But the story is a little more complicated than that.
In the first place, I intentionally included a long passage of
scripture this morning read so ably by Moses, God, and our narrator.
God comes to Moses in a burning bush that does not burn up. It is like
the flames that were lit in the temples of the Ancient World that
signaled the divine presence.
Moses, you may recall, was in the wilderness because he was hiding
out. He had killed an Egyptian when he was angry and he was wanted for
murder charges. So he was hiding out in the desert. God comes to him
in some profound experience of awe.
What do you think that would be like? Secretly don't you wish that
something like this would happen to you as well? Wouldn't you like a
direct encounter with the numinous? How do you suppose you would
respond? We are told when Moses came down from Mount Sinai his face
shined with the divine effulgence. When St. Thomas had an experience
like this, he stopped writing his voluminous Summa Theologica and
stopped talking as well. When the Buddha was in full communion, he
reached serenity, even peace and inner quietude. How bout Moses?
What we get here in scripture is the longest kvetch in all the
Bible. It is a full chapter (ch. 4) of complaints and whining and
listing reasons he can't do the job and worry. He wants guarantees; he
wants support; he wants assurance. Come on, already. I can get my
teenagers to wash the car with less harangue. God gives him miraculous
powers with the staff. That is not enough. Moses says he can't
speak. God gives him his brother to actually do the talking. Even
after all that, what does Moses say? "I'm going home to my people and
think about it. I'll get back to you." Time goes by; time goes by, no
Moses. God has to go down to Moses with his people and tell him to get
back to Egypt or else.
This is not a shining response of faith. Neither is it what you
would expect for someone who has just encountered the awe of the
Creator of the Universe. On the other hand, I'm glad it is in the
Bible because it reminds us of two things. First, it is all right to
fight with God. You have issues with the way things are, take it
upstairs. God can handle it. Secondly, it is a healthy reminder that
when God moves authentically, it is challenging, there are not enough
resources, and it usually requires daring courage. Don't say "Yes"
casually. In fact, most of the prophets in the Bible balk at God after
they are called to speak to the people. They don't want to do it
because they know it is risky. I think the same thing in prayer each
and every week I put on this stole. It is a burden.
Back to our daughters. What a contrast with Moses we have in the
story that we just read. We have two women, ordinary women, who were
midwives. Their names are Puah and Shiprah. Every child should know
about these women.
One day they get a visit, not from God, but from Pharaoh. God
brings blessing, Pharaoh only brings threat of bodily harm. Pharaoh is
worried about the increasing birth rate of the slaves in Egypt. There
are too many of them. He is also worried that the Egyptians are
increasing fast enough. His solution? Genocide.
He tells them to kill the boys. Why? Because boys grow up to
become threats to the Empire. They become terrorists, soldiers. Why
let the girls live? Because the Egyptians took some of them in
marriage and as concubines.
The Bible says that these were "God-fearing women". They were in
awe of God. They were God inspired. The scripture says simply "They
did not do what the King of Egypt told them to do." We don't have a
chapter of kvetching. They do not list out all the dangers they are up
against. They know perfectly well they could lose their lives. They
do not need in signs of power, any miraculous protection. They do not
need anyone to stand in for them to do their job, while they just
watch. They do not have to go to their people and think about the
situation. They do not have to be sought out again. Scripture says of
these God-fearing women, "They did not do what the King of Egypt told
them to do." They disobeyed human authority. And I might add, they
lied about it to Pharaoh. The scriptures say, "So God made the
mid-wives prosper."
What living symbols these women are. "They symbolize birth,
deliverance, freedom, life truth, passage. What do they do? They
bring forth life, they liberate, they mediate between one world and
another, they comfort... They confront evil face to face. They keep
their faith... They disobey authority. They rebel. Thus the Exodus
starts [right here]. The birth canal is opened up for a people to be
born and drawn through" (McKenna, p. 42). You may be interested to
know that there is a passage in the Talmud, probably remembering these
two women, that says that God was like a mid-wife in the Exodus,
parting the waters and birthing a new people in freedom."
And the story continues with one particular family. A mother has a
male baby. What to do? If it is found, the Egyptians might kill it.
They might come to harm themselves. This mother calls her sister.
They find the spot where the Pharaoh's daughter comes to bath each day.
They leave the baby in the reeds, then they sit back, watch and wait.
How like God they are in that simple action. To simply watch and wait
to see what will happen.
The amazing thing is that the Pharaoh's daughter not only finds the
baby but decides to keep it and raise it. It is one of the puzzling,
beguiling things of the Bible that God regularly gets the enemies of
God to advance the divine cause unwittingly. First, these two midwives
disobey the Pharaoh, then this mother and sister disobey the Pharaoh.
Now the Pharaoh's own daughter directly disobeys the command for the
entire empire and even brings Moses to be raised in the Pharaoh's
house. Pharaoh's daughter joins the conspiracy (conspire literally
means 'to breath the same air'). "She is a mid-wife too though in
another way. She saves him just as surely as him mother and sister,
and she introduces him to a new world, another culture, language, race,
religion, and life. She names him- she who has no name in the
story... She opens the way for him to become the liberator, the leader
of his people. She gives him access to the culture. Eventually he
would use everything he had leaned to set h
Once again, this is not a story about a man, Moses. This is a
story about 5 women and a man who started a revolution. 2 midwives,
two sisters, and one daughter of the King. "These women are a source
of a new approach to life, to living with evil and surviving danger.
They are courageous. They have nothing but each other-and God- to
stand behind them. They are ingenious, they plot and plan, they check
out ahead of time, they think imaginatively and creatively, and they
cross boundaries of race, religion, economics and politics. They make
bridges where there were none before... Evil must be confronted, must
be resisted; avenues must be opened up so that newness, life, birth,
revolution, and liberation can be brought forth. Power must be used
for good, for life, for the future, even in oppressive situations.
Coalitions, crossing boundaries, and pushing privilege on behalf of
others- risking, trusting to intuition, and treasuring life, even among
strangers- these are the ways of transforming reality, of
I might remind you that when Moses becomes fully grown, he sees an
Egyptian overlord beating an Israelite. He gets so mad, just like
young men will do, that he loses his temper, and kills the overlord.
He has been given all this privilege and opportunity but he
squanders it in a minute committing murder, so that he has to flee and
hide. And who hides him? His mother Jochobed and his sister Miriam.
God had to find him in the wilderness because of the overcharge of
testosterone in youth.
This story is a reminder that successful revolutions are not simply
a matter of guns and cunning, although that has its place. They are
also spiritual. It is the simple and profound dignity that comes over
ordinary people who refuse to live in fear of physical pain from a
tyrant any longer because they have claimed their identity and their
reason for being from a higher source. Someone once said that when
Rosa Parks sat down, the whole world stood up. And that is right.
I think Puah and Shiprah give us one good picture of what the
Spirit of God looks like when it visits people. They refused to obey
the orders of Pharaoh. They had a quiet dignity that said "I'm mad as
hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." They had great courage and
they faced it as a matter of course. So my daughters, don't you take
it anymore either. You are better than that, called for a higher
purpose. Mid-wife in the new world. The old one is passing away
before your very eyes.
Amen
.
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