Midwifery and Other Subversive Acts

This week’s lectionary is from Exodus: it is the story commonly referred to as “Moses in the Bulrushes”—how the baby Moses was sent down the river in a basket by his mother to escape death. As I read it, I have been looking at all the subversive acts done by the enslaved Hebrew women. Pharaoh, seeing the captive Hebrews increase in numbers, calls on Puah and Shiprah, two Hebrew midwives, to kill any male babies they help deliver. Being faithful to God and their people, they do not carry out the order and when asked by Pharaoh why there are so many male babies, the women said that the Hebrew women had a strength not found in Egyptian women and had their babies before the midwives could arrive. Pharaoh sees the increase in numbers of male babies and orders his people to throw any male Hebrew child in the Nile.

Moses’ mother could no longer hide the child, so wraps him up in a basket and sends him down the Nile…directly towards Pharaoh’s daughter! Moses’ sister Miriam was right there waiting, and seeing Pharaoh’s daughter totally smitten by the baby, steps in and asks if she needed someone to nurse the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter sent her off to find someone, and Miriam knew exactly who to get—her and Moses’ mother! 

Because of the actions of the midwives and Moses’ sister and mother, an enslaved people would be led to freedom.

Such subversive activity! 

I have been wondering about where I have accepted oppression, injustice, and death-inviting policies, with no thought to the harm done to myself or others. I wonder if I could have the strength and faith of the two midwives, who refuse to turn birth into a death sentence and instead lie so that others could live?

On Friday, author Debby Irving of “Waking Up White” helped us see how we have unquestioningly accepted policies and practices in our communities and in our country that have enslaved and oppressed siblings of color, how we have been provided a partial view of history that empowers whites and disempowers non-whites. 

I give thanks for those brave souls throughout history who responded with subversive actions to create spaces for liberation and life when injustice and death seemed to have the upper hand. It is because of their faithfulness that many of us have the opportunities we have now.

At this moment in history, you and I are being called to become midwives. In the face of unjust social rules that destroy the souls of others, we are being asked to do the subversive work of justice and dismantle oppressive structures that deny the image of God in others. Jesus himself—no stranger to subversive acts—calls us to love God and neighbor. In a world where love is seen as weak and where we are taught to be suspicious of strangers, love, indeed, becomes a very subversive thing, because it always leads to right relationships, deep connections, and justice.

Let the midwifery begin!

Be well! Stay safe! Wear a mask!