Midwives of the Kindom

 Midwifes Are Uniquely Built for Chaos.

Could the Gospel for us this morning BE that we are uniquely built for chaos?

 

Professor Kimberly Russaw of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, shared the phrase and idea of midwives being uniquely built for chaos. As she reflects on the Exodus text she notes the contextual chaos that the midwifes, Shiphrah and Puah, lived and worked in: unsettled times, crushing slavery, oppressive authority, government regulations, stressed work environment, suffering and death.  All of this on top of the regular chaos, potential complications, and the unknown of delivering babies into this world.

Russaw also notes that in this moment, for Shiphrah and Puah, their job stands in opposition to what is at hand, despite hardship and chaos, their vocation is all about life and living.

 

Birthing life is a task of courage, embracing the unknown, being as prepared as possible and ready to act, managing the situation moment by moment, being patient, making informed and quick decisions, deescalating stress, supporting and caring for the mother, directing extra hands and helpers, being willing to move through a mix of emotion – everything from joy to grief.

Along with other gifts, these midwifery skills are what make midwives uniquely built for chaos.

 

We may not be midwives in the sense of delivering babies, but are we not in the vocation of birthing the kindom of God? Do we not have skills for birthing life into a suffering and hurting world? Can we identify ourselves, this church community, as midwives of life – love, hope, grace- uniquely built for this time of chaos?

 

On Thursday evening the congregation was invited to hear a presentation that proposed a possible partnership that would birth something new in this neighbourhood on the church property. This conversation came after a day of council members and myself doing a site-tour and a neighbourhood tour. Our guests took an hour to read through the vision wall – the Together We Know process that we have all been invited to participate in. Our guests saw the work that has been done, reflected back to us what we deem important --- they understood this community’s ethos, values, and heart and welcome for displaced persons. They saw that we are church who is a part of God’s mission, a part of what God is doing in the world. Birthing life into the immediate neighbourhood – engaging through the yard, the invitations, the words on the front stairs, the picnic table; birthing life through the resettlement and welcome of those from farther afield.

Our guests reflected back to us, skills of midwifery:

courage, an openness to articulate the current moment and entertain possibilities, know the risks and act, seek information, distill a direction, sit with an array of emotion, pray;

being prepared by putting everything on the table. We are uniquely built for chaos.

 

And this is good, for are we not being called to birth a new thing, to birth life into the neighbourhood, living faith relationship – the Gospel is about proclaiming and delivering life. Amidst chaos, suffering, and death, God is with us always, even to the end of the age.

Birthed, delivered, again and again.

   

German theologian Meister Eckhart, in a Christmas sermon preached in the 1500’s, asked: what good is it to me if Mary gave birth to Christ 1400 years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.

 

Meister Eckhart’s theology expresses that the scandal of Christianity is not only that we should be born again but that God would be born again is us.

Essential to his theology is that the Word can be born within us. The soul is wholly receptive and pure potentiality. The soul is greater than memory, reason, will, and being – a place beyond God that only God can enter. When God becomes one with soul, eternal Word is birthed within, through the outpouring of the self-giving love of Creator. What happens is an unfolding of the Trinity. This flourishing of Trinity is life birthed – Word is delivered – life and living through God being reborn in us and overflowing life into the world.

 

As I thought about mothering and midwifery, from the story in Exodus, I thought about the individual mothers giving birth and bringing life into a chaotic world. I thought about Shiphrah and Puah as midwifes, two named women who were likely the leaders of a guild of midwives. The midwives not only delivered babies, they are remembered as the women who birthed a nation, because of their actions saving a whole people from genocide.

I believe the story reflects our current times. Individually each of us is here and participating because God has changed us. In each of us God is being born again and again. Because of this we birth Christ into the world, sharing life - love, forgiveness, mercy, grace- with those around us. Yet, this is not the end of the story; in fact it is a very small part of it. We are open to something more – that is because we have joined in community with particular values, ethos, openness, and a holy desire - a mission; together not only can we birth life with those immediately around us, as a community we are a team of midwives with skills to deliver a whole big picture project, life to not just one neighbour, but life to a whole neighbourhood for generations to come.

 

The midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, were true to themselves, their hearts, their believes; their vocation was about life and living. The Bible says, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, God gave them families.

We know who we are as a community – if you need a reminder or are visiting with us take a look at the vision wall- we know who we are. As a community, our vocation is about life and living.  As we move into making decisions about what will be birthed here, let us hold this promise – God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, God gave them families.

 

Midwifery in these times is not an easy task, it takes courage and all the skills mentioned earlier. Midwives are uniquely built for chaos – as Christ lives within and God is birthed again and again, so are we - midwives, uniquely built for the chaos of these times.

Meister Eckhart’s words bless us this morning – commissioning us for midwifery in this time and place:

Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it.

The Parable of the Teacher-healer and the Canaanite Woman

 

We are confronted this morning with an uncomfortable Gospel.

Commentaries and interpretations of the text take various routes to describe Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman. Dubbed, troublesome for modern hearers, Jesus is labelled racist, sexist, patronizing, and complacent in dehumanizing people through religious perspective, societal norms, and systemic injustice.

Today I am inviting us to consider a different avenue to enter the text.

As you know, I have been on vacation. As I like to do, I spent a lot of time reading- enjoying historical stories, mysteries, adventure, saga, drama, poetry… Each book was read in slightly different ways based on the genre. I read poetry in a rhythmic kind of way so that I ‘feel’ the words, which is different from a mystery where I concentrate on collecting facts to figure out the puzzle before the narrator tells me.

Instead of reading today’s text as an historical story about Jesus, let us explore the text as if Matthew is telling a parable – a short story to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or a moral, spiritual lesson.

A man who was a teacher and healer, went away to a foreign district, that of Tyre and Sidon

In the parable the teacher is confronted by a local woman of that place who gets in his face, yelling at the teacher to have mercy and heal her daughter. The teacher ignores her.

The teacher’s followers, called disciples, come along and ask the teacher to dismiss her – do something- because she is bothering them.  …

 

Hearing the Gospel as a parable, gives the brain and heart a chance to step back from a traditional interpretation of Jesus’ stories where Jesus’ character is seen as flawless, and troublesome passages, like this one, get cleaned up in the preaching of the text. Our understanding of Jesus can disrupt our ability to hear the Gospel being proclaimed.

 

Fenton Communications writes about the power of parable as a communication form. The power of parables is the “Parable Effect.” The parable effect is “the magical quality that allows a reader or listener to be transported into the mind of the protagonist – essentially turning on the empathy switch in our brains. Parables have the power to change the minds of those who fear change.”

 

I will admit that I fear change. My deepest fears are around change that is thrust on me or society as a whole. Changes that are out of my control. Chaos that can not be ordered. Change that happens without room for input or choice.

 

The Gospel at the heart of the parable of the teacher-healer and the woman is a truth that confronts the deepest fear of the hearers. The parable addresses change. Change, in this case, includes choice, order, control. Specifically, the parable pushes for change in ‘the religious,’ and in the culture and system they have created. It pushes for change that is brought about by adhering to and living the covenant, as highlighted in Matthew 22: 37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ’love your neighbour as yourself.’ Herein the parable proclaims the Gospel, a gospel of good news of the kindom of God.

 

The parable addresses change.

The parable does so by placing a mirror in front of the modern hearer, in front of the disciples, in front of the audience of the time. The parable points fingers at the righteous who have fallen short of living into the covenant by making choices that do not bring God’s kindom to fruition. The parable builds on previous teachings where listeners have been encouraged to expand their understanding of covenant living.

 

Here the disciples come to the teacher – Jesus- urging him to send the woman away because she keeps shouting after them. The teacher’s response, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’’ The teacher is pointing fingers at the disciples. As a parable goes, can we interpret that the comment is not directed at or about the woman? Rather, disciples, see in the mirror that you are included in the lost sheep of the house of Israel? If Jesus is sent to you, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to whom are you, a disciple, sent? Jesus points to the disciples; the woman is the disciples’ responsibility.

This is not ‘new’ for the disciples to hear. The same finger was pointed at the disciples a few weeks ago in Matthew chap. 14. At that time, late in the day, the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd away so they could go buy food.  Jesus tells them, “They need not go away, you give them something to eat.”

Disciples, do you still not understand? Covenant  - Law- righteousness, is about living the commandments. And for instances where the covenant has been broken – like with this women, those places of broken relationship -areas of racism, sexism, socio-political barriers, difference of religion, or broken systems that breed suffering and injustice; get on with reconciliation. Disciples this is on you. Jesus has come to you, to teach you, to make you uncomfortable, so that your head and heart change; so that you might change the world.  You are to bring near the kindom of God.

 

And if this was not truth enough, the parable continues by pointing fingers at the larger audience -the original hearers of Matthew’s Gospel - who are of the ‘house of Israel.’ The parable casts Wisdom in the guise of the Canaanite woman. Everything in her words returns the people to God’s covenant and living as covenant people. Pointing fingers she says, Even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. There are only crumbs -pieces- no wholeness. And this lack of wholeness falls on the shoulders of the people. You, you people, you acting better than others, it is on you that God’s kindom is far away.

The alternative Hebrew scriptures in the lectionary for the summer are from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet who cast God’s vision of what God’s kindom in fullness is. When the house of Israel is living in wholeness they will be a light to the nations, a place of healing and peace for themselves and all nations; people from the ends of the earth will come and bask in shalom, in peace, HEALED and WHOLE.

When followers of Jesus, disciples who have learned from the teacher-healer live in covenant and in right relationship others will bask in shalom, in peace, HEALED and WHOLE.

 

The truth – the point of the parable – is the Gospel at work doing exactly what the Gospel is meant to do -setting a mirror before those who align themselves with God, who venture into relation with God and thus, loving their neighbours….. so the disciples, the house of Israel, us -  are changed …. that is why this parable hits hard, why we cringe when the finger is pointed at us, because the Gospel has touched us such that injustice stirs us. We have changed by virtue of following Jesus’ teachings and healings, embracing covenant living.

 

In Matthew chapter 28, the Gospel finally solidifies for the disciples that the crowd, that the Canaanite woman are not Jesus’ situations and relationships to fix, send away, deal with; such circumstances – the kindom in the world- is through their hands and witness, their responsibility; that loving God and loving neighbour is the Gospel they proclaim  - we proclaim -(vs19-20) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.