MIDWIFE CRISIS : Barbara D, Beavers
Exodus -1:7-21 Broad Street Presbyterian Chureh
November 15, 1931 °: | " Columbus, Ohio

Facing a‘crisis is never easy, Facing a crisis in which we know our response

“will go against the powers that be’can:be:deeply frightening. Such fear in the face
of authority surfaces at an early age.’ Suddenly the parents we have admired and
thought to be all knowing are seen as. "off base" and possibly "dead wrong". Such
crises with authority do not go away.. In our country we have experienced a great
many personal and corporate crises: The Anti-Slavery Movement, Labor Reform, The
Civil Rights Movement, Woman's Suffrage, the Vietnam War, the rally for the Equal
Rights Amendment. In these large issues, and. scores of smaller ones, people have
felt the. pains of bondage, have questioned the established way of doing sad and
have moved to change the existing structure.

Harvard Psychiatrist Robert Coles has written, "In this life, we prepare for
moments and events and situations that we never actually know about until they are
upon us. . We worry about wrongs, think about injustices, then all of a sudden the
issue is not whether we agree with what we have heard ‘and read and studied and talked
about with friends. Rather, the igssue-is:us.".

In recent church history - women - the issue’has been us. The arguments againgt
the ordination of women have ranged from the Biblical fact that Jesus Christ was a
male and therefore ministry in His name could. only be carried out by men, to the
argument that a-woman's voice isn't deep enough to command pulpit attention. The
arguments against women as clergy continue heatedly in the Roman Catholic Church,
where Bishops admit tradition is the only reason for the denial, to our own church
in which our newly elected moderator Robert Davidson lamented recently at a confer-
ence in Syracuse that no woman holds the position of Senior Pastor in our denomina-
tion, and 120C churches do not think they have women in their congregations capable
of serving as elders.

The crisis between the struggle for freedom and the bonds of the powers of the
world continues,..and yet today, we celebrate our denomination's decision to ordain
women elders and clergy. We celebrate that new life is in the church..,that stereo-
typed roles are being broken...that the process is birth.

Anyone who has been present for the birth of a child knows the power of the
event, After waiting month after month, slowly and carefully preparing and planning,
the actual arrival of new life bursts upon us unexpectedly. The birth event is ab-
sorbing and it commands the total attention of those present. Anyone who has been in
a delivery room knows life calls us to attention, it will not go away. We could not
turn back if we wanted to; the force of life will not be contained, The incredible
miracle is realized and one new rrecious human life is brought into the world,

This was so in our story from Exodus. For two women, midwives by occupation,
who had certainly delivered scores of new babies, the wonder of birth had not left
them. The Israelite people were in bondage in Egypt, but the story tells us that even
in their oppression, they multiplied and increased greatly. It appeared that no
powers could hold back the boundless life which God had called into being.

No power except a summons from the royal chambers...the King of Egypt. Now the
midwives were not a pesstisiour group. When called by the King, they were aware from
the start that they weren't being invited for a casual chat, or tea in the Rose
Garden. We can imagine their fear as they approached the palace.,.two poor foreign
women,..thelr knees buckled and thelr stomachs turned inside out,

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Then the decree from on high, "When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women,
and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him," The order
from Pharaoh was to kill. The midwives'feelings intensified. Their instincts must
‘nave said that they should follow this order for safety sake. To disobey a direct
command from the King was most dangerous. They were nobodies in the face of great
power, Their call had been to enable birth, to assist in the bringing forth of new
life. Now they were being told to violate this call.,.to seek death rather than
life. A midwife crisis, so to speak,

The story tells us the midwives feared God and did not do as the King ordered.
Instead, they took the next perfect baby boy and placed him in his mother's arms,

This action might have been their last,..their last duty as midwives. Death
could have resulted as the King learned of their disobedience. But the force of
bringing life into the world was greater than the fear of the King. The midwives
feared God, and placed the crisis in God's care.

The apostle Paul wrote centuries later, "I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.
For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the
pain of childbirth. But it is not creation alone which groans, but we ourselves."
Paul speaks of moments of birth; some are physical, more are social, political,
communal births. The sons and daughters of God coming into life again and again.

The two Hebrew midwives are but brief brush strokes in the Biblical story, but
without them our story might not have been told. For the most part this episode has
been lost from our study of the Bible, No one remembers the midwives at all, It is
much like our study of history in which the accomplishments of women, blacks and
minorities have often been left out, Yet the midwives are important people to God.
They even have names, Shiphrah and Puah. And without them Moses would not have lived,
Without them the exodus from bondage would not have happened. These two uneducated
and lowly women saved the Hebrew people. Two women, together in crisis, strengthen-
ing one another.,,little known and powerless in the eyes of the world...were called
to assist in the birth of the new age. The miracle of the story is that the midwives
feared God,..Pharaoh had not reckoned with such a possibility. The resources of the
two women outdid the crass power of the tyrant,

Women today remain a part of the powerlessness of the world. The guest list to
Anwar Sadat's funeral is a visible witness to who are considered the pharaohs in this
world; no women were noticeably absent. Yet women today sit where those two Hebrew
midwives sat...sit in the crisis of choosing to trust their inner direction or bow
in fear to the world's op, ressors, Into the land of plenty God has cast a o rable,
Like the little «nown, yet essential characters to the Hebrew story, Shiphiuh and
Puah, women continue to be called as agents for new life.

Midwives who remind us not to underestimate the power of the least. Midwives
who remind us that title and position do not mean ministry. The story gives me a
vision of women throughout time, women of all ages and colors and nationalities.
Forgotten, faceless and often nemeless midwives who have encouraged and enabled new
life.

I see Biblical women like Ruth and Naomi. Ruth, married to Boaz, to them a
child is born and given to Naomi, the grandmother. The story tells us "Naomi took

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the child and laid him in her bosom and became his nurse." And that gives me a vision
of a long progression of faceless people who enable humanity to come to life: baby-
sitters, preschool teachers, nurses, grandmothers, aunts, foster parents, neighbors,
who throughout time have taken children to their bosom, loved them, and made them
their own. I see a picture of the strong Hebrew Judge, Deborah, and those women who
through time have not worn judge's robes but who have been trying to mitigate, to
settle disputes, paid and unpaid, in schools and in homes, working to bring people
together.

I see Lydia, the first businesswoman, The disciple in Acts tells us, "One who
heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple
goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what
was said by Paul, And when she was baptised, with her household, she besaught us
saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay! ,"

This story helps me see the women throughout history who have said again and
again, "Come stay with us"...Women missionaries in China, Korea, South Africa and
around the world, who have opened their homes to strangers from time to time. The
marchers during the Civil Rights protests in the sixties were pictured in newspapers
and magazines. Yet I see the effort of hundreds of women in shanties along the way,
opening their paper thin doors, saying, "Come in and stay with me, let me give you
bread, let me wash your tired feet."

I see Miriam, sister of Moses, leading the Hebrew people across the Red Sea
and she reminds me of pioneer women, heading west with few possessions but much faith,
traveling month after month to forge a new life on this land, Pioneer women who with :
rags and handmade floss made quilts and embroidered designs to make their stark world
more lovely, who while risking change linked the beauty of home to home,

I see Rachel, urn balanced high, coming to the well early in the morning and
she brings images of all the market women in developing countries coming with weights
so heavy on their heads,.,coming to market to supplement the meager family income.
The vision of women around the world includes Asian women carrying sick children in
their arms, walking day after day to reach a clinic called Hope to those dying.

I see thousands of washer women, taking the early bus to help begin someone
else's day, the bundles of clothes, lysol burned hands, hardened knees, cleaning
other folks’ houses because for them there are no job options..,.but they have a
dream in their hearts, a vision to make a better life for their children. They pay
the fees for the bachelor degrees of their sons and daughters. Midwives, who hold
their heads high because they fear God...and a new generation is being born.

The forgotten ministries of women throughout history continue. In recent times
by women of advantage in a society rich by the standards of the world. Women with
husbands and fathers to provide for them who have seen privilege is meaningless
without responsibilizy. Woncen like Lucretia Mott, Quaker, wife, mother, radical
reformer, anti-slavery leader and advocate of women's rights. Labeled the Black
Man's Goddess for her pioneering role in the anti-slavery movement and labeled
“Ynsexed Woman"' for her activism for women's rights, Her life was devoted to
freeing persons from the chains of bondage by advocating legal change to enable
full rights for all human beings.

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Wome: Like Elizabeth Blaciwell.,.first woman doctor in anerica, a twentieth
century midwife. She spplied to twenty medical schools, was accepted at one with
the stipulation she dross like a man. She refused. She finally achieved her goal
but expressed her innev crisis in this way, "I understand now why this life has
never been lived before. It is hard, with no support but God's purpose, to live
against every species of social opposition."

And in 1980, midwife Sonia Johnson was excommunicated from the Mormon Church
fer working for the Equal Rights Anendment. The issue was not simply the ERA but
that Sonia Johnson challenged the Mowuon Church, secret lobbying against the ERA,
She challenged the power of Pharaoh,

Today we continue to sit where the midwives sat. So as we are all ministers,
we are all midwives with Christian responsibility in the world, Men and women
wait in crisis. The metaphor of the midwife is for us all as partners in ministry.
We are Like midwives who call in question the status quo, the stereotypes, the
prejudices that bind us all, who challenge the injustice of the powerful, the
oppression of the poor, end who risk for new life in the church and in the world:
people williug to take an unpopular stand, for ministers of Christ must follow
the Crogs.

"See what love has been given us that we should be called Children of God.”
Let us celebrate today and thank God there are midwives among us.

Amen.