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“Do The Right Thing”
Exodus 1:8-22
A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M.
Donley
I want to talk this morning about
two unsung saints who get little credit, but yet are so central to the faith
that the Biblical drama could not continue without there presence. I’m talking about two people who did the
right thing, even when it could have cost them their lives. I’m talking about Shiphrah and Puah.
I first heard these names when I was
in seminary. Two cats on my floor who
kept the mice out of the kitchen carried the names Shiprah and Puah. I asked in Biblical ignorance where they got
the peculiar names for their cats.
“You mean you’re a Baptist and don’t
know about two of the most important people in the entire Bible?” I realized I was in for another lesson about
the power of women’s witness in the Bible which my upbringing had conveniently
avoided. The rather agitated woman
suggested I read the first chapter of Exodus.
I have since heard Nancy Hastings Sehested and George Williamson preach eloquently
about Shiphrah and Puah. I’m indebted to
them as this line of thinking has developed in me.
We know the setting. Four
hundred years passed between Genesis drama and the Exodus. Like a lot of places, the power shifted. The Hebrew people were foreigners and
therefore slaves to the King of Egypt, Pharaoh.
The Bible says that the more they were oppressed, the more children they
had. It is no accident that the largest
families are the poorest among us.
More children means more people to take care of you in your old
age—more options to getting out of poverty not to mention the out and out hope
that a child brings to any situation.
The Egyptians were afraid of the teaming masses of Hebrews, so they
oppressed them more and more. But it did
not stop them or break their spirit.
That’s when Pharaoh had his own stroke of genius. He signed a decree outlawing the birth of a
male Hebrew. Any male Hebrew had to be
killed.
A similar occurrence happened 1400 years later after Jesus was
born. King Herod ordered the killing of
all male children under two years of age in the hopes of killing the child whom
he feared would eventually overthrow him.
Pregnancy scared Pharaoh.
My good friend and mentor George Williamson says that pastoral ministry
is analogous to being a good midwife.
“People come to church pregnant with new life”, he says, “with
unimagined potential, with impregnated dreams and hopes that have been gestating
since the dawn of time. People stay home
from church because they are pregnant, too—too heavy with pregnancy to stand
and sit through a tedious liturgy that gives birth to nothing.”
Pharaoh told two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah to do his dirty
work for him. With all of the threats of
the powerful Egyptian army behind him, Pharaoh ordered Shiphrah and Puah to
kill all the male children. I am sure
there were threats and fines and punishments that would come down upon the
heads of the midwives who did not follow orders. But these were not ordinary women.
I think of people in Nazi Germany who were ordered to exterminate the
Jews, prostitutes, gypsies, gays and lesbians.
Their defense has always been, “We were just following orders.”
I think of the people in this country forty something years ago as they
turned fire hoses upon peaceful demonstrators in
I think of the national Guard troops who opened fire upon a group of
demonstrators at Kent State twenty years ago leaving four dead. They were just following orders.
Or how about the drivers of the munitions train who sped up to run over
veteran and peace Activist Brian Wilson, severing both of his legs as he sat on
the tracks trying to stop the train from sending arms to El Salvador to kill innocent
people. They were just following orders.
Or the woman who stays in an unhealthy marriage where abuse is the rule
of the day, but feels she cannot get out because her pastor told her divorce is
a sin, no matter how violent and destructive the relationship. She is just following orders.
Or how about the 16 people who hijacked four planes three years ago
yesterday and ran them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in
Pennsylvania. They were just following
orders.
Or the Chechen or Palestinian people who blow themselves up or the or
the Israelis who bulldoze homes, or the Sudanese and Rwandese and East Timorese
who slaughter countless people in some kind of twisted ethnic cleansing. They are just following orders.
Pharaoh gave the order to Shiphrah and Puah. BUT Shiphrah and Puah feared God. They had respect for the authority of
God. And when grafted onto that power,
they had more power than Pharaoh and all of his armies.
They did not heed the orders of evil, but they stood up to the powers
of Pharaoh. They feared God. They refused to kill the male babies. When the King saw yet more male babies
running around the work camps, he called the midwives in and said, “Why have
you done this?” What follows is one of
the best come-back lines in the Hebrew Bible.
Shiphrah and Puah said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the
Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and are delivered before we get
there.” Don’t you just love it? “They don’t need us.”
The first act of civil disobedience.
It’s also called doing the right thing.
One of these male children whom Shiphrah and Puah refused to kill in
their civil disobedience was later named, by Pharaoh’s own daughter,
Moses. Thereby setting the stage for the
central theme of the Hebrew Bible of freeing the people from bondage and
following the leadings of God, not the forces of domination and evil.
They were midwives to the birth of the first revolution which was to
inspire every subsequent revolution for the next 3000 years.
They feared God. They didn’t
fear Pharaoh. So these two
unsophisticated women had a power, a dignity and an authority greater than
Pharaoh.
Oh, to have the power of the midwives.
The power to look in the face of evil and shoot it down with a logical
excuse which exposes the evil and implants a sense of hope for the people. It is that kind of Biblical hope which is
central to our faith. It’s a faith that
looks to God and not to the powers of this world.
I often wonder what would happen if everyone lived by the example of
Shiphrah and Puah. Acting with all of
their audacity and the authority and power of God on their side. Just think of what could be given birth to
without midwives following the orders of evil.
Shiphrah and Puah exposed a truth:
“These Hebrew women don’t need a midwife. They give birth on their own. They need no mediator between God and Pharaoh. They have a direct line to God already.”
So do we. Each time we do the
right thing we are aligning ourselves with God.
Each time we say yes to love, and no to apathy, we are doing the right
thing.
Each time we hold a friend who
has been left behind or is in grief, we are doing the right thing.
Each time we look into a sister or brother’s eye and telling the truth,
we are doing the right thing.
Each time we stand up for the forgotten because they are the wrong
race, the wrong age, the wrong sex, the wrong sexual orientation, or they
attend the wrong school, we are doing the right thing. Even more than that, every time we stand in
the gap and call into question actions that fly in the face of justice and
equality, we are doing the right thing.
And doing the right thing sets people free. It set’s us free. It makes us midwives to a new creation, a new
life of service and blessing for all of God’s children.
The midwives said to old Pharaoh, in so many words, “I fear God, not
you.”
I think of all of the people who audaciously followed God instead of
the powers which supported evil.
I think of the Danes who hid and smuggled Jews until the war was over
saying, “we’re just looking after our own.”
I think of brother Martin and sister Rosa and all those who committed
acts of civil disobedience because they followed a higher calling.
I think of all of the church meetings that were held in defiance of the
violence and how people got filled up every night with the power of God.
I think of all of the protestors at the WTO and the
I think of the Welcoming and Affirming movement which says that God’s
church and God’s grace is never to be closed off from anyone on the basis of
the sexual orientation.
This is the tradition that we follow.
It’s the tradition of Shiphrah and Puah who set in motion a people’s
liberation from slavery. May we encounter
and encourage the Shiphrites and Puites among us to keep us faithful to God’s
miraculous power in this world.
Sisters and brothers, throughout this year, we will be looking at our
spiritual journeys. We will take a
Biblical story and see how it intersects with your story. If you have ever been in that ethical dilemma
place where you didn’t know what to do or you don’t want to make someone mad at
you because of the truth you have to share, I encourage you to look at what the
risk of Shiphrah and Puah did for this world of ours. They give and gave us a sense of hope. You might suffer in the short run for doing
the right thing, but in the long run, audaciously doing the right thing sets
people free and exposes the scheming of those who wield their domination like
the sword of Damocles.
In the midst of all of that, may you have the courage, inspiration of
Shiphrah and Puah. May you always do the
right thing and may you give birth to a new sense of hope for yourself and your
corner of the world.
Amen.