Fourth Sunday of Lent – Mothering Sunday
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Readings: Exodus 2: 1-10 and Luke 2: 33-35
‘Only Connect’ is the title of a rather intellectual quizshow often broadcast on BBC 2 on Monday evenings, hosted by the enigmatic Victoria Coren Mitchell. I usually find myself completely out of depth as the panels master all kinds of puzzles, patterns and conundrums. The phrase ‘Only Connect’ seems to come from E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End. The full quote is ‘Only Connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.’
There are quite a few connections to be made amongst the themes of Mothering Sunday, and in the readings for today; connections which will enrich our understanding of God’s providential care for his people. We certainly have prose and passion, and examples of human love seen at its height. The first reading, from Exodus, is the heartwarming account of Moses’ rescue from the River Nile. The man and woman mentioned in the first verse of the reading are not named. But we know from other verses in Exodus and Numbers that they were called Amram and Jochebed. They had a daughter named Miriam; a second child Aaron, and a third child – Moses. As so often in life, beauty and ugliness go hand-in-hand. The joy of new birth for Amram and Jochebed is marred by the cruelty of Pharaoh. The Israelites had grown numerically strong in Egypt, and in chapter 1 we read that Pharaoh had issued a terrible edict: “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
So the woman, Jochebed, gave birth to a son. The text says that ‘when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months.’ Naturally, Jochebed wanted to protect her son; he was a fine baby – was he so cute that she couldn’t bear to throw him into the water? A verse in Hebrews adds another description. It reads: “By faith, Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Not afraid of the king’s edict – why not? Now the Greek word for ‘beautiful’ can mean ‘acceptable’ or ‘well-pleasing’. Could it be that Moses’ parents recognised something of the destiny of this baby?
Moses couldn’t be hidden for long, so Jochebed got a papyrus basket, put the child in it and placed it in the Nile. Maybe she realised the limitations of the care she could offer, and acted in faith that God would fulfil the destiny of the baby. In the story, we’re meant to make connections, which may not be immediately apparent as we’re reading in English, not in Hebrew. But it seems the word for papyrus basket – ‘tebah’ – is only used one other time in the Old Testament, and that is when it describes Noah’s Ark in Genesis.
Just as the ark would carry the people of God, and the animals on board, through the dangerous waters of the flood, and bring deliverance and new beginnings, so would Moses’ basket carry him through currents and dangers, so that he could grow into maturity and fulfil his destiny as a deliverer of God’s people.
Our story progresses, as the baby is taken by Pharoah’s daughter, who took pity on the crying child. This was a brave thing to do, in the light of her father’s edict. Moses’ sister Miriam, had been watching what was happening and offered to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. She, too, was brave in going against Pharoah’s edict. So, in a touching and beautiful postscript to the story, the child’s mother receives her son back. It’s as if her faithfulness to God was repaid by his faithfulness to her.