MAAFA | "Thank God for the Midwives" 6PM | Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III 02/01/26

1:08:09 Amen. I want to invite all of us to take a look at Exodus chapter 1. Chapter 1 in Exodus. We'll be moving to verse 8 in chapter 1. Chapter 1 of Exodus in your Bible, in your Bible app, where you can look at what is on the screen.

1:08:32 But we begin with verse 8. It reads as follows. Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Another translation. A new leader, a new administration, arose over Egypt that was ignorant. of the past and 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.

1:09:29 And in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. Another translation, they set taskmasters over them to oppress, to enslave, and force them into labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses, for Pharaoh. But the more they oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjugated the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor, they were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

1:10:41 The king of Egypt, or the pharaoh of Egypt, said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra, and the other, Pua, When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God. Let me say that again. But the midwives feared God. 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 midwives come to them.

1:11:55 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. But the midwives feared God. The midwives feared God. The midwives. The midwives. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of God's holy word. You may be seated in the presence of the Most High God. We will be in a series during this office season for February. The series is entitled, The Genius of Black People.

1:12:56 And each Sunday, we'll explore that general heading of the genius of black people. But for today, we want to, as a subheading, this simple idea of thank God for the midwives. Thank God for the midwives. If you could turn to your neighbor at this time and look at your neighbor, smile at your neighbor, and just smile at him again. And say, neighbor. Neighbor. Oh, neighbor. Oh, neighbor. The midwives feared God. Find another neighbor and say, Neighbor, I don't know about you, but I thank God for the midwives. Thank God for the midwives.

1:14:00 The midwives. But the midwives feared God. Fear is the most effective tool to gain power without principle. Fear is the most effective tool in human history to gain power without principle. Fear's power is not in the truth, but in lies manufactured to feel honest, but not truthful. fear is the most effective tool to gain power fear is the weapon the enemy has deployed to disrupt any and all sacred activity fear when dropped like tear gas clings to your soul gets in your spirit changes the scent of the atmosphere You have to wash the smell off, inhale the scent of love, and light some faith-based incense in your heart to rid your nostrils of the overpowering smell of fear.

1:15:38 When fear gets in your eyes, it will blur your vision and disrupt your balance. Fear's greatest enemy is not faith or love. But I would submit that fear's greatest enemy is a child produced by faith and love. That child, when faith and love consummate their relationship, is a child named Hope. You see, Hope is built different. She never runs from fear. When fear yells or charges at her, shout out to Representative Ilhan Omar. She stands her ground, spouting phrases or songs taught by love and faith. One could say that Hope likes to sing.

1:16:36 You've heard some of the songs that Hope sings. Songs such as this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Or maybe Hope will sing, ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. I'm gonna keep on a-walking, keep on a-marching, marching up to freedom's land. Or Hope might sing, oh, freedom, oh, freedom over me. Before I be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free. I would even say that hope is an itinerant preacher, unrestrained, loose in the world, willing to preach from any pulpit, lectern, corner, kitchen, stoop, or anybody's block.

1:17:32 Whenever hope shows up, good trouble and holy mischief are not far behind. There is a story I want to share before we examine the scripture. A story of how hope and fear were in a boxing ring historically. I believe it was in 1905 where fear made an appearance in a nation many do not even know, a nation called the Congo. A so-called king named Leopold from a European country called Belgium used fear, intimidation, and cruelty to subdue and subject a beautiful and brilliant people. Fear came packaged by Belgium under the title of colonization. Fear assumed it had subdued all hope, rooted out all resistance, nullified all opposition, stamped out all rebellion, removed all thoughts of liberation, and co-opted all plots and eliminated all subversion.

1:18:33 The Congo, according to fear, was to be the toy of an infantile, tyrannical, arrogant, ignorant, unethical, narcissist, monarch named Leopold. What fear did not know is that hope has resurrection power. Hope is always reborn. She is reborn in stories, songs, prayers, villages, poems, sermons, classrooms, on buses and kitchens and fields, and at the altar. After fear thought Hope was dead, Hope made an appearance on the 30th day of June in 1960 in the person of Patrice Lumumba. Hope mobilized an independent Congo that refused to align with America and refused to align with Russia.

1:19:36 Hope showed up, and an entire nation pushed out fear. But one must know there's a problem with fear, that fear is more like a virus than an entity, not unlike the flu. It can be defeated for a season, but returns next year resistant to the vaccine you employed last year. Fear once again mutated and began to spread in the Congo with the assistance of the CIA that helped to coordinate the assassination of this mighty and creative leader named Patrice Lumumba. and place a colonized Uncle Tom by the name of Mbutu to be head of the Congo and change the name of the country to Zaire.

1:20:38 Even when hope wins, fear is always waiting to return. Fear is the most effective tool in human history to gain power without principle. And may I, for a moment, on this day, share the story from Scripture where fear appears as a guest star, or should I say, as a supporting actor, throughout the pages of biblical and human history. As a matter of fact, fear shows up as an antagonist in this Scripture. We read this day. May we reexamine the text before us through this rhetorical lens. The word states, a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. A new leader had come to power, but Scripture offers words that speak to us today.

1:21:39 This king didn't know Joseph. This king did not know this famous black Israelite African Hebrew by the name of Joseph. This king did not know who was part of the previous administration. Everyone knew Joseph. Joseph was the advisor to the previous administration. He was the reason Egypt did not fall into famine. You know the story, do you not? that Joseph was sold by his brothers, and he ended up in Egypt and became second in command and advised the Pharaoh that a famine's coming, and we've got to create a storehouse to ensure that this nation is taken care of, that Egypt did not fall into famine because of his work.

1:22:35 Can you imagine the popularity of this man named Joseph who didn't look like the current leader? Can you imagine a person who does not fit the traditional Egyptian description was the most popular leader in the land? Could you imagine that even after he stepped down, wherever he'd go, there'd be a crowd. People were excited because he was the first one in his community to ever ascend to that level. He was the first in his community to rise to that office. And the scripture says the new administration did not know Joseph. This is strange. They didn't know Joseph. How could this be? Was it willful ignorance? Or was it something else? an attempt to erase the work of a previous dynasty, a previous administration. The king was ignorant of Egyptian history, but the real issue should be placed at the feet of the advisors around him. According to Egyptian history, the Egyptian mystery system, which was their priesthood system for a small group of men, according to George G.M. James and Stolen Legacy, we come to the understanding that the priests in Egypt, in the mystery system, it was their job to advise the Pharaoh so that there would be a continuity between administration and administration.

1:24:07 But this king says he didn't know Joseph. Or maybe this king was jealous of Joseph. I don't know. Scripture doesn't say. But it doesn't make any sense that one of the most powerful people on the planet doesn't know his own history. So let us deal shrewdly with the Hebrews, he says. Scripture states that their numbers threaten our power. There's too many of them in this country. we've got to exert some control over them because there's so many of them around here now according to the scripture only about 70 Hebrews came into Egypt now there's over a half meaning that every Hebrew who is in Egypt, outside of the original, that being Joseph and his brothers and their family, were born in the country, meaning that they are citizens of the country, but they are not treated as citizens.

1:25:27 The king, the pharaoh, is worried that because there's so many of them, that it may upset the power balance. Because you know those Hebrews don't vote for me. the king this pharaoh had a policy rooted in fear to start talking to his constituency and saying aren't you worried about all these hebrews around here the king was trying to stir up division in communities he said that if another nation attacks us, they'll join in with them. Because you know, they're not really Egyptian. They may live here. They might have been born here, but they're not real, I mean, Egyptians.

1:26:30 We want their cheap labor. We want them to build the nation. We want all of that. As a matter of fact, we want everything they produce so we can co-opt it. We like their rhythm, but we don't want their blues.

1:26:52 We want their cheap labor to build our nation, But fear, we fear their spiritual, political, economic, social, and educational power. This king creates a policy of genocide. Genocide. Get rid of all those black and brown babies. Those boys. The king has a policy against children. The king has a policy against babies. He wants to get rid of the babies. I'll quote my father once again that I heard him say years ago, there's something wrong with a grown man who's afraid of a baby. The administration, this dynasty, crafted an entire story, pushed the misinformation into the psyche of the people. Fear came knocking at the door, telling Pharaoh, these people are the problem.

1:27:54 If you allow them any degree of power, they will unseat you as a leader. If they get the right to vote, you will be out of power. If they get access to books, you will be out of power. If they start building their businesses, you will be out of power. If their churches and synagogues start teaching liberation theology, you will be out of power. If they start building HBCUs, those are Hebrew colleges. you will be out of power fear came knocking at the door for fear is the most effective tool to gain power without principle fear showed up and thought it had subdued and rooted out all resistance nullified all opposition stamped out all rebellion removed all thoughts of liberation co-opted all plots, eliminated all subversion. But as I stated, hope has resurrection power, and hope is built different. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one whose name was Shipra, the other Pua, when you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them in the birth stool, if you see a son, kill him. But if it's a daughter, let him live. But scripture says, but they feared God.

1:29:15 My Lord, I wish I had a witness here today. They did not do as the king of Egypt commanded, but they let the boys live. The midwives feared God. One must understand this. The role and purpose of a midwife is to bring forth life, forth a miracle. A midwife is a minister. A midwife is one who's been called and ordained for a sacred vocation and purpose. A midwife was ordained by God. The midwife handles what is holy. The midwife brings forth from the labor pains the joy of new birth. The midwife takes a personal spiritual oath before God. It is my job to protect the mother and to protect the child. It says the midwives feared God.

1:30:12 But there's a problem in the text I discovered that I need to lift up for you. It says the midwives feared God. And this is not a good translation from Hebrew to English. Because when we hear fear, we think somebody's scared. The midwives were scared of God. No, the Hebrew word is Yira. Yira in Hebrew, which it is translated from in this text, is not scared of God. Yira means I am in awe and have reverence of God. The word fear in Hebrew is a different word, but Uram means awe. It's not scared, but reverence.

1:31:05 And awe and reverence is based not on your knowledge of God, but your encounter with God. You can only have awe of God and reverence of God when you've had an encounter with God. and that encounter marks your very soul. You are awed by God because of the encounter with God and that is why in English we have the word awe because the word awe is simply a sound that doesn't even sound like a piece of vocabulary because it is actually you breathing saying awe. That's what awe is about and when you have an encounter with God that you cannot describe with the human vocabulary. You have had an awe-inspiring moment, and it puts a mark on your very soul.

1:32:02 And when someone tries to ask you what happened, you can't tell them exactly. All you can do sometimes is just shake your head and say, if you had been there with me and seen how God moves, And I don't know if there's anyone who's ever had a year with God. You've had an awe-inspiring moment with God that God has moved in such a way.

1:32:32 Year-ah. Awe or reverence. You are awed by God. By an encounter, your words cannot be explained with English. all causes you to inhale and then exhale. And I love the way that our elders would do it. Sometimes they just make a noise and say, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. When God awes us with an encounter, not with your knowledge, the encounter, not the knowledge of God, puts a mark upon your soul. And the midwives had an encounter with God. It is Howard Thurman who says when you have these moments of yirah, when you have these awe moments, this is when you begin to work out what is called your life's working paper.

1:33:35 Your life's working paper is what every person in this room will spend the rest of your life working on. You see, life's working paper is truly where you place that line in the sand. What is it that you will not compromise? What is it that is so near and dear to you, you will never step over that line? But as Dr. Thomas said last week, you don't know until you know, until you have the experience with that which you didn't know, and now you know where you are not going to go. And that means that there are certain things in your working paper. And what was happening with these women is that they were experiencing a moment where they had this all experience with God. And their working paper said, there are some things I will not do. There are some places I will not go.

1:34:33 There are some things I will not say. There are some people I will not partner with. There are some things I cannot, I cannot support whatsoever. I can't do it. My life's working paper says it so. And here you have these women, Shipra and Pua. And I like the way, I like the way that Wilda Gaffney, scholar of Old Testament, says it in such a beautiful way. Talking about Shipra and Pua, because she says with her scholarly lens, she says, now wait a minute now. You must look at this, that Pharaoh is talking to two midwives. There are over a half a million Hebrews, which means these two midwives cannot service all of the Hebrew women. She says this. She says, Shipra and Pua were head of the midwives guild. And so what they did is that they went and talked to all of the junior midwives, all of their mentees, and said that we got a policy that came down.

1:35:36 They said they want to destroy all the boys. But you know that we have been ordained by God to protect the mama and protect the child. And there are some things that we cannot do. But if you want to stand with Pharaoh, you need to turn in your ordination papers right now. Because for this guild right here, we shall stand by our God. And we will not in any way support unethical, immoral action against our own people. We will not do it. The beautiful aspect of Shipra and Pua, it is two women. They are not by themselves. They are partnering together because they have a partnership together. Because you've got to understand this. When we are experiencing challenge, you always need to partner with somebody who's got principles. Shipra and Pua have their own circle of trust, a circle of principle, a circle of accountability, a circle of moral courage, a circle of prayer.

1:36:44 And that is why you got to be careful who you put in your circle. Some people aren't worthy of your circle. Some people should not be in your circle. Some people are your fans and not your friends. And you got to be careful about having a fan over a friend. A fan just wants to be next to you and cheer you on all the time. But a friend will call you on the carpet and tell you you are better than this. I've been with you all this time and I know what you can do. You need some friends and not some fans. Shibra, Pua, they are partnering together. They are, they are, they fear God. But here's the other thing, they refuse.

1:37:39 They refuse to take hold of the policy of this administration. let me say it like this so that I am crystal clear there are those who feel that they must be silent in this moment there are those who say that I just want to preach the gospel. I don't want to talk about what's going on. And all I can say is, have you read the gospel?

1:38:27 Have you lifted up and looked at what Jesus did? Who did Jesus stand with? And who did Jesus love? And who did Jesus lift up? I'm here to let you know, I will not be silent in this moment in history that God has called us as a people and as a community to be a moral voice in these moments. We cannot be silent. For our ancestors were not silent. Our grandparents were not silent. Our parents were not silent. We shall not be silent. We shall continue to lift up the gospel of Jesus Christ and call out immoral, unethical behavior wherever it is in this nation. Be careful about being silent.

1:39:34 Because Shipra and Pua choose life even if it's their own death. I will choose life even if it's my death. Most of us will not choose life. We choose safety. Safety is not life. If it takes your soul, you ain't safe. You may be safe, but a person that is soulless is nothing but a zombie.

1:40:12 That means you have all the movements of humanity, but you're missing something inside of you. And in these moments, we must choose life, even if it means our own pain. I'm reminded of Pastor Martin Moeller that during World War II, during the Holocaust, he wrote a poem. And I give an OM3 remix to his poem. He says, first they came for the communist. And I did not speak out because I'm not a communist. Then they came for the socialist. And I did not speak out because I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionist. And I did not speak out because I'm not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I'm not Jewish. But if I may give a remix.

1:41:07 The remix goes like this. Then they came for the Palestinians and I did not speak out because I'm not Palestinian. Then they came for the Mexicans but I did not speak out because I'm not Mexican. Then they came for the Somalians but I did not speak out because I'm not Somalian. Then they came for the Haitians but I did not speak out because I'm not Haitian. Then they came for the Dominicans but I did not speak out because I'm not Dominican. Then they came for the Ghanaians but I did not speak out because I'm not Ghanaian. Then they came for the Jamaicans but I did not speak out because I'm not Jamaican. Then they came for the Muslims but I did not speak out because I'm not Muslim. Then they came for the undocumented but I did not speak out because I'm not undocumented. Then they came for black people, but I did not speak out because I don't see color. Then they came for me and there was nobody left to speak out.

1:42:06 We are called. We must choose life in this moment. But I must bid you good day on this first Sunday of my offer and just offer a few examples of some midwives. There are some midwives that have birthed freedom into our lives. Some of them, we don't even know their names. But if I can call a couple of names that changed life for everybody in this building. A name you've never heard of by the name of Nancy Ambrose. You don't know who Nancy Ambrose was. She was born an enslaved African down in Florida.

1:43:00 But Nancy Ambrose taught herself how to read. And when she started reading, the first book she picked up was the Bible. She started reading about how good God is. And she loved reading about Jesus. But she had an organic theological womanist eye. And when she started reading from gospel and then started reading Paul, she had some issues with Paul. Because Paul said, slaves, be obedient to your masters. And Nancy Ambrose said, I ain't obedient to nobody but the master. She started reading some more Paul and Paul said women should be silent in the church. She said, that ain't me. I ain't being silent nowhere. And so she passed on her teachings to her grandson. And her grandson took hold of those teachings all the way to Morehouse College. When he graduated in 1923, went on to Colgate Seminary, and after Colgate made his way to India and had a conversation with Mohandas K. Gandhi.

1:44:07 But when he came back to the United States, he decided to sit down and write a book called Jesus and the Disinherited. because Nancy Ambrose's grandson was Howard Thurman. And because she put her theological power in Thurman, Thurman was able to write down Jesus and the Disinherited. Because he wrote Jesus and the Disinherited, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. picked up the book and started reading it. And that became the theological foundation of what we know as the Civil Rights Movement. If a midwife named Nancy Ambrose had not existed, we would not have the movement as we have it today. You're still missing what I'm saying. Can I give you somebody else you never heard of? By the name of Lucy Craft Laney. Lucy Craft Laney started a school in 1883 in Augusta, Georgia for kindergartners and then built a school all the way up to high school.

1:45:09 had a $10,000 grant from the Presbyterian Church. It was an amazing school that people did not think would be possible, a school for formerly enslaved people. But what Lucy Craft Laney did, she said, anybody who works here is going to be my mentee, and I'm going to teach you how to empower black children to be the best educator that you can be. I'm going to teach you how to make a dollar out of 15 cents. I'm going to teach you what to do when you have a little resources and how you can build something big. And one of her mentees was a woman by the name of Mary McLeod Bethune. There wouldn't be a Bethune-Cookman College if there hadn't been for a midwife by the name of Lucy Craft Laney. You're still missing what I'm saying. There's a woman by the name of Nanny Helen Burroughs. Nanny Helen Burroughs formed the Women's Conference, the Women's Convention.

1:46:06 It's separated from the Baptist convention because the Baptist convention did not want sisters speaking. So Nanny Helen Burroughs said, we'll form our own convention. And there they organized their own convention and told the brothers, if you won't let us speak, we'll build our own convention. But we'll hold back our resources from your convention because your church can't operate without us and you can't exist without us. And in 1900, before the National Baptist Convention, she gave this message, how sisters are hindered from helping. She said, brothers, you are so worried about your hoop, you're missing on the focus of voter rights and what's happening in this country. And there she organized with a woman by the name of Ida B. Wells and Mary McLeod Bethune. And then they organized the women's movement for suffrage for black women.

1:47:03 and we have a modern civil rights movement because of a midwife by the name of Nanny Helen Burroughs, I stopped by here to say thank God for the midwives. I thank God for every midwife. I thank God for those who birth other possibilities into our life. We give God thanks for every midwife. And I don't know if there's anyone here that you are grateful for a midwife in your life. A midwife who brought possibility. A midwife who birthed love. A midwife who brought hope into the present and into the future. But I must bid you good day. But there's one more thing that I did not mention about the story about the Congo.

1:47:59 You see, I said the story ended with Patrice Lumumba being assassinated and the country being taken over by this person by the name of Mobutu. But I forgot to tell you what happened recently at the African con. The African con was the Africa World Cup is what they called it, where all of the African nations compete together in what we call soccer, but the rest of the world calls football. And there, the Africa World Cup, I have to say, Senegal won the Africa World Cup. It was a beautiful thing. But the Congo was participating in the African World Cup. There was a young man by the name of Kuka Mouladinga. Kuka Mouladinga had been inspired by Patrice Lumumba. At every single match, he would dress up as Patrice Lumumba.

1:48:54 and he would find a stool and then he would just stand for two hours like this. He was emulating Patrice Lumumba when he became the prime minister of the Congo. But what was so beautiful that just about every African nation, whether they won a match or lost a match, they would turn toward the Congolese crowd and they would stand there as a team and raise their hand to acknowledge the fact that we stand with you and we thank God for you. You see, a midwife knows that you bring hope into a situation and hope is built different because hope has resurrection power. As a matter of fact, when you try to bury hope, hope will be resurrected. They told me they tried to bury hope on a Friday at Calvary, but something happened. They thought hope was dead on Friday. They thought Hope was dead on Saturday.

1:49:58 They thought Hope was dead on Saturday night, but something happened. They tell me early on Sunday morning, Hope got up with all power in Hope's hand. Hope got up. So I bid you good day. May the Lord bless you real good. But I want to say, can you thank God right now for the midwives in your life. Can you thank God right now for the people who birthed possibility? Can you thank God right now for every midwife who brought hope? Thank God for the midwives. Fear will show up, but hope has resurrection power.

1:50:59 And hope refuses to be defeated. When faith and love hang out together, This baby named Hope keeps showing up. up. God is looking for people who have the tenacity of Shipra and Pua.

1:51:29 Who have the ethics of midwives. Who have a life's working paper to say there's some things I'm not going to do. I've got to protect the mama. I got to protect the child. I got to protect the community. There's certain things I cannot join in.

1:51:50 People who have a moral compass that no matter how much you put on the table of money, you say, that ain't enough money in the world for me to stand with this unethical, immoral.