P is for Puah

 This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, July 28 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text is Exodus 1:15-22. 

P is for Puah. She is one of the two Hebrew midwives mentioned in today’s story in Exodus. “Exodus calls only a handful of women by name: Shiphrah (the other midwife) Yocheved, Zipporah, and Elisheva. But there are other women: Israelite, Egyptian, Amorite, Hittite, Hivite, Perizzite, Jebusite and Canaanite women without whom the story of Exodus…the story of God…our story cannot be told” (Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash). 

During that time and throughout much of the time of scripture's writing, women were considered to be nothing. Yet, the names given to the two midwives are significant:

Shiphrah means “beauty” and Puah can mean “to gurgle or murmur”- like a baby, (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible). It was clear that these women were well-loved, despite their gender. 

Here we have two gutsy gals. Don’t you love the way they go head-to-head with Pharaoh? Although commanded to kill the boy babies, they persisted because “…the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live” (v. 17). Their disobedience to Pharaoh's commands could cost them their lives. “But the midwives feared God.” They were more afraid of God than they were of the Pharaoh, even though their lives were in his hands.

The humble, the unknown, are used by God to accomplish great things. In this case, these two midwives obeyed God and disobeyed the king of Egypt. And they told something that may well have been true, but also could have been a little white lie. The women claimed that because of the strength of the Hebrew women, they gave birth before they could get to them. “They use Pharaoh’s own racist and discriminatory views against him by calling the Hebrew women ‘brutish, animalistic…not refined, like the Egyptian women…'” (Wilda Gafney, Hebrew Midrash). “There probably was enough truth in what they were saying to be believable, but they clearly had no intention of honoring the king by participating in murder, and they saw no reason to give him a straightforward answer. God honored their actions” (NET notes). As midwives, their primary concern was to preserve life and obey God.

The midwives are shown to have more power than Pharaoh. They are smarter than Pharaoh. There is humorous irony that the weakest is smarter and more powerful than the strong. It’s interesting that the midwives are named but Pharaoh is not

(Walter Brueggemann, Exodus NIB). 

Twice we are told in this passage that the women feared God. Because of that, God gave them families. What a gift! For years, they had helped to create the families of other people, and now God honors them with families of their own.

God does things in unexpected ways through unexpected people. In fact, the name “Hebrews,” refers to a “group of marginal people who have no social standing, own no land, and who endlessly disrupt ordered society” (Eric Fistler and Robb McCoy, pulpitfiction.com). The low-class folks are the feared, excluded and despised. 

The work of midwives is to help bring new life into the world. Can we look at members of the body of Christ as midwives of the faith? Can we, will we allow God to use us to bring new life into the church, into the world? 

We all have questions these days. How can we bring young people back into the church? Why can’t we once again have a vibrant Sunday School? Where is everybody? Why is recreation more important than God in people’s lives?

Despite their money and toys, the people of Bemus Point have needs that money cannot satisfy. They need Christ in their lives, in their children’s lives. They need help clarifying their priorities. 

Parents are overworked, stretched so thin with running here and there for their kids, that by the time Sunday comes, they’re spent. Can we help them see that life does not have to be lived this way? 

God offers abundant life. God is the life we need to manage our day-to-day lives on earth. God in Christ is what our neighbors need. Can we help them understand that? Can we bring to birth new people of faith in our neighborhoods, in our circle of friends?

Let’s think about our roles as midwives of faith in the coming weeks. The Hebrew midwives did that, no matter who told them not to. They were gutsy gals who stood fast in their faith and obedience to God. Without them, there would be no Jewish people today, no Jesus and no church. Because of them, there is. Because of God working in us, the church can be revitalized. Amen.  

picture