Serve Life: Shiphrah and Puah’s Call
Exodus 1:15-22
Rev. Loren McGrail
Holmdel Community United Church of Christ
July 28, 2024
I love this story. It’s another teaching story for me about what it means to “fear God” or choose to serve life instead of death. I first preached this in the summer of 2014 in Jerusalem at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. The pastor was away, and I was the guest preacher. It was the summer when children were being kidnapped by Israeli settlers and sometimes even tortured. One had even been burned alive. Everyone was on edge. Mohammad’s parents made me walk him back in forth from my home, the safe place he was allowed to go beyond his home which had illegal settlers living in half the house. He was so humiliated by this, but I understood the parental caution. On top Israel was bombing Gaza again and thousands of children were targeted and dying. Each week I wrote an Action Alert for the YWCA with a focus on women and children and how the international community must enforce international law to protect those suffering under occupation or being bombed in Gaza. Few were listening or doing anything to stop the violence.
Dear Ones, this was the context for this lectionary reading. It was more than appropriate. It was prophetic for all those who listened to me that warm summer day, especially for my friend who was the Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN who was in the congregation that day. I had pressed him earlier to use stronger terms than “grave concerns” to name what was happening. He told me this was as far as he was allowed to go; it was his code Red. I was thankful that my boss, God, gave me stories and language to call out and name the depth of the barbarity and terror.
I began with reading the scripture:
“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” I looked up and saw him teary eyed. I continued: “But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.” I heard a deep sigh echoing off those ancient stones. His tears were running down his face now. I started to wince as did all around him. The whole expat congregation was hearing this story with the ears of those who feel trapped and unable to save lives. There was a rustling of tissues now. I continued: “So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” Suspense. I paused because I knew what was coming next, “The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” There were groans of relief and some women even laughed because by God, weren’t these midwives clever. My friend pulled himself up in his chair with a crumpled tissue on his lap and stared into my eyes with a look of relief, profound sadness, and a deep thank you.
Dear Ones, I have never had an experience of reading scripture in church that had such a profound effect on people. I don’t expect you to respond like this, but I do invite you to reflect on what children in our world need to be protected. Saved. Not killed or starved to death. Go there now in your heart and imagine that you too have the right to refuse to obey the orders that lead to their deaths. What are the ways you will not comply? Your voice? Your vote? Your actions? What are your “grave concerns”?
What lines will you live with and what lines will you not cross or allow? Who can you team up with or join to say no death and yes to life?
Dear Ones, there are Shiphrahs and Puahs amongst us now speaking up and saying No so they can say Yes to life. One such group assembled last week in the congressional rotunda to protest Netanyahu’s arrival. They were members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbis for a Ceasefire, Not in Our Name, and other Jews of Conscience. They came to protest---to call for an end to the fighting in Gaza, an end to all military aid, and for the arrest of the Netanyahu as a war criminal. Their die-in was not just a risky civil disobedience move but a brave act of distancing themselves from their family and friends even their own faith communities in defense of a higher moral principle. They had much to lose and everything to gain. It was prophetic and similar in spirit to our brave midwives.
There was another action that happened this week that has the fingerprints of these courageous midwives and the nonviolent Jesus. It was a call to action by our own UCC leaders who issued a prophetic call for Justice and Peace in Palestine. It begins with these words by Rev. Georgia A. Thompson, General Minister and President of the UCC:
Where is the threshold at which the world will say “Enough?”
We call for the end to Israel’s war in the Middle East.
We call upon all to be courageous peacemakers in this moment.
The Call gives a brief history of conflict in the Bible up to the present and a summary of what is happening in Gaza and the Occupied Territories and our church’s ongoing commitment to peace with justice with our partners. At the end of the Call are actions we can take. I will post the link to this Prophetic Call in next week’s ENews so you can read it and be inspired to find your own way to respond to say No and then Yes to serving life.
Shiphrah and Puah call us to save children’s lives. Our church calls us to be peacemakers at this moment. I invite us all to reflect on where and how we can do this as individuals and as a faith community committed to loving our neighbors and children and the One who calls us to be peacemakers of God’s Beloved Community on earth as it is already in heaven.
