St Paul’s Canterbury , 25^th August  2013, Pentecost 14

First in a Series of Brief Homilies:

Women Heroes of the Hebrew Scriptures

The Rt. Rev'd John Bayton, AM

Miriam

The First Reading from today’s Lections challenges us to consider our own vocation as Baptized Believers. We aim to do that in the context of the first of Sir Stanley Spencer’s great paintings “Christ in the Wilderness” During the Vicar’s Long Service Leave I intend to preach a brief Homily at 8 o’clock on some of the great women heroes of the Old Testament. Today we will look at Miriam.

The account of her remarkable life is found in the Book of Exodus. When Pharaoh demand that all boy-children should be thrown into the Nile Jochabed, mother of her little boy hid him for three months. But the time came when she could not hide him any longer, she bought a papyrus basket, such as women used for shopping, lined it with tar, put him in it and floated him out amongst the reeds near Pharaoh’s palace. Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe in the river and saw the basket. The little boy’s sister, Miriam asked her if she could get one of the Hebrew women to nurse him. This she did and two years later Miriam took him to Pharaoh’s un-named daughter and he grew up in the Palace as her son. She called him ‘Moses” –Mosche = “I drew him out of the water”

Thus Miriam becomes the savior of the Hebrew Race. This is her Vocation “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”.

Exodus 15 designates her ‘a prophet’ and as the narrative of the Exodus unfolds she certainly takes on this role.

Strangely enough she is not mentioned as Moses’ sister in Exodus, only in Numbers 26. However she is clearly one of the three – Moses, Aaron and Miriam, who have distinct leadership roles and incidentally like Moses and Aaron, quite likely a legendary character. ‘Miriam’ is not a Hebrew name – it derives from the Egyptian –‘mer’ meaning ‘love’.

There is no doubt at all in my mind that her vocation as ‘prophet’ also included the cultic ministry of priesthood. How is that? Because the cult of the Torah (10 commandments etc) is distinctively patriarchal and male- dominated. What was there of Women’s cultic worship? Again, quite distinctive. Miriam had her liturgy – singing, dancing and storytelling . It is these three that keep alive the moth of the tribe… ad lib. You will remember when after the passage of the Red Sea when Pharaoh’s hosts were drowned, it is Miriam who leads the Israelites in thanksgiving for their deliverance - read Exodus 15.

There was great animosity between the Patriarchal cult and the cult of the Women. In the book of Numbers, this animosity reaches its peak when Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses.

God comes down to speak with them to say. .”I reveal myself to prophets in visions and in dreams; but not with Mosses to whom I speak face to face. Miriam is turned into a leper. She is healed but we hear no more of her until the Israelites come to Kadesh where she died and was buried.

Why is she important in the context of vocation? Because she was prophet-priest, leader of the Israelite women, the one who had the courage to face the Daughter of Pharaoh and save Moses for his vocation.