Homily – Sunday, 27th August 2023
Reading: Exodus 1:8-2:10
If I were in the same situation, how would I have responded?
What are the challenges involved in such cases?
We heard the context of the story.
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Every refugee crisis and migrant people reality carries with it the potential of boomeranging Xenophobia. The way the powerful addresses that is through manifold ways of oppression.
Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
This is a reality in several parts of the world today. People facing oppression of varied sorts.
Oppression takes various forms today. Racial inequality, Gender inequality and discrimination, income based inequality, disability based inequality, political repression, refugee crisis, environmental inequality. The list can go on. We name it. We acknowledge it. We accept that there are people around us suffering.
Situation 1
The Ethical Moral Choices at Workspaces
The Midwives of Life and Hope
Well now that the numbers were still increasing they devised a crueller plan. 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 boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”
The angels of Life were asked to be harbingers of death. KILL was the command.
What would we have done?
But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 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.” So God dealt well with the midwives;… And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Ethical, moral choices at workplaces is something that we constantly grapple with.
Heeding to the King would have fetched “profit’ but would they be able to address the prick of their conscience.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Hope for the children in our midst,
facing a world that’s conflict torn.
All that they ask is time to grow,
And live the years for which they’re born
What does it mean to be midwives of life and hope today?
Situation 2
The Precarious Situations of Motherhood around us
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
Imagine a mother struggling to let her child live and then doing all that she could to protect the life of the child
Hiding the child alert that even the cry of the child is not heard outside.
The challenges of motherhood is worst experienced in conflict zones. But we do see them in our daily lives too
Parental Guilt on not being able to be to their children what they want to be, on not being bold enough to resist systems that deprive children of their right to life.
There are several mothers struggling through emotional and mental breakdowns.
There are several mothers facing unsafe situations and more worried about the safety of children and thus going through anxiety and fear.
If we were Jochebed, what would we have done in such a situation. We would also have thought about the best ways of sustaining lives.
Today as a church we are called to open our eyes and see the pain of mothers.
Yes the mothers among us and around us.
What can we do?
Situation 3
Siblings who can only watch helplessness that does not give up
His sister, Miriam, stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
What is our response in contexts of our helplessness?
Displacement and Loss of dear ones create a sense of helplessness that words cannot explain.
Fear, Insecurity, Trauma, human right abuses are all integral part of systemic violence and people remain helpless.
The trauma of siblings who have been separated by conflicts and have never met again.
The trauma of siblings who are left behind in conflict zones about the safety of their dear ones who have moved on.
Re-union of separated families has always been powerful themes of classic stories and movies
The Oscar winning movie- Twelve years a slave for instance depicts the pain and agony of people who were sold into slavery and how their families suffer not even able to sue the perpetrators of violence
Modern day slavery has affected several siblings.
Siblings are separated due to adoption and foster care, due to divorce arrangements but in many cases they are forcefully separated by contexts of violence and crime.
Do we see the pain of separated siblings
Do we see the helpless of siblings who are not able to do anything
Situation 4
Engagement for the sake of Life
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said.
Being able to see and hear the cry of children.
Victims of War, Violence and Conflicts
Victims of Migration and Refugee crisis
Victims of Trafficking and Child Labour
Victims of Poverty- deprived of health and education
Victims of Physical and Mental challenges
Victims of Conflict situations within families
Victims of Bullying, Discrimination and Abuse
Victims of substance abuse
Rumours of war sound everywhere,
Wondering if there’s chance for peace.
Yet for all children that we love,
We will not yield ‘til hate shall cease.
Pharoh’s daughter had compassion despite knowing that it was a Hebrew child. She decided she was going to help.
Do we see?
Do we hear?
Do we have compassion?
Situation 5
Adapting to the challenges of life
Then Miriam,his sister ran to Pharaoh’s daughter and asked, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.”
So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Grabbing the opportunities to intervene for the sake of life as it comes up is the key. One step further it is all about creating that opportunity to intervene for the sake of life
What would you have done?
Do we see the pain here?
A mother being paid for nursing her own child. When your own breast-milk is made a commodity for the use of your own child.
A mother having to nurse a child on behalf of someone. It is not about surrogate mothers but about losing the identity of motherhood.
A mother who gives up her child to someone else.
A mother who sees someone else naming the child
A mother who sees her child grow as someone elses.
Do we see the pain of mothers?
The five women therefore helps us ask- What would I have done? What would I do?
Vinod Victor
August 27, 2023
Freiburg Anglican Church 
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