Text: Exodus 2:1–10, 15:20-21; Numbers 12:1–16

I don’t know about y’all but even though I’ve spent time with many of the women who we’re hearing about this summer, I don’t remember ever having heard about this encounter between God and Miriam: her challenge to Moses’ authority and the humiliating consequences of banishment to the desert accompanied by a disfiguring skin disease. 

But I appreciate the three vignettes from Miriam’s life that create a bigger picture of what kind of person she was. The watchful witness, a bold young girl who, with her mother and Pharaoh’s own daughter, undermines the death-order against infant boys to save her brother. The triumphant singer-songwriter, leading her people in a song and dance of joy after the escape from Egypt. The vocal prophet and challenger of authority.

I actually don’t think I’ve ever felt more of a kinship with a Biblical character than I do with Miriam right now. Although I confess, it might be true that I’ll say the same thing for every person I preach on. 

But Miriam! She’s the big sister who’s got her eye on everything, watching out for her younger brother from the time of his birth, witnessing, intervening. An artist who, even though she’s just escaped from a terrifying and chaotic situation, has thought to pack her tambourine and she organizes a choir in celebration. A leader who claims her place and demands recognition and is not afraid to challenge even God.

One of the questions that I’ve been sitting with in my personal discernment recently as I continue to find the boundaries and the center of this new role I have with you all is, “What is mine to do?” That is, what does ministry look and feel like in this particular place and time and what is God calling me to? And how do my gifts align with that? I enjoy thinking about how Miriam also held those questions and found her place among her family and community.

In our contemporary context, there are lots of tools for doing that kind of self-reflection. All kinds of personality profiles and questionnaires, including the biggies like Meyers Briggs and Enneagram, for example. Therapy or spiritual direction, which is one of the places I explore these questions. Recently I’m particularly interested in “What is mine to do?” in relation to social movements like Palestinian liberation most recently, but also in anti-racism work, in creation care and others.

I discovered the book Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection through spiritual direction, and while it’s not from Christian perspective, there were resonances with church life and ministry. The author, Deepa Iyer, categorizes 10 different roles people gravitate to within movements: 

Frontline Responders – calm in a crisis and energized by action
Visionaries – Energized by articulating possibilities, holding hope and vision
Builders – project managing and problem solving, tending the details
Disrupters – risk takers for change, putting it all on the line
Caregivers – intuitive about the needs of people and groups
Experimenters – creative and curious, learning from the past and adapting to now
Weavers – listeners who connect people and ideas, good at seeing the big picture
Storytellers – translating movement values creatively and accessibly
Healers – hold space for pain and bridging relationships
Guides – discerning and listening and mentoring

For me, the one that feels the most alive in me is ‘storyteller’ and maybe ‘visionary.’ although of course that’s going to be different for each of us. But it’s totally why I identify with Miriam as artist/singer and witness – in the two meanings of the word – seeing and experiencing a thing and then sharing it within her community. And she provides space for the community to celebrate and sing along.

Here’s where I think Miriam went wrong: Skilled leader though she way, I think as Miriam is struggling to find her place and she messes up. In this last story of the tangle between herself and Aaron and Moses and God, while I admire her chutzpah, she was a little scheming and back-channel-y in her approach. 

I think many of us who have done any work in learning about group functioning or communication know that triangling is not the most healthy way to communicate. That is, connecting not with the person where there is tension or conflict but aligning with another person. It feels less anxious to seek that support that confront the issue. Jesus is basically warning us away from that behavior in Matthew 18 when he says to go first to the brother or sister who has ‘sinned against you.’ 

And right off the jump, Miriam does not go directly to the family member with whom she has an issue – Moses – she goes to Aaron, trying to get the middle child on her side. She has complaints: Moses’ wife is a problem, Moses is taking too much power and recognition for himself. Meanwhile, the narrator assures us, Moses is the most humble of humble men. Miriam also doesn’t approach God directly when she could have come to God with her complaint and supplication.

She also (and this is certainly my older-sister prevailing sin) was trying to meddle and micro-manage. In family systems language, she’s overfunctioning. From the moment Moses was born, she has been hyper vigilant on his behalf. When he was an infant and she his first witness, that behavior saved him. 

But now she’s noticing all the things! And believing herself responsible for all the things. But she doesn’t need to do Moses’ job for him.  She doesn’t need to do anyone’s job but her own. He may be the younger sibling, but not only has he clearly proven himself up to the job, he’s God’s chosen leader.

Miriam gets punished. Bad! Patriarchy is/was real and I think she ran smack into it. I do think she was punished more harshly than necessary. That said, plenty of men in scripture also get summarily put to death for things that would make us go, huh?? 

When I mentioned this story in spiritual direction this week, my spiritual director wondered if after all that Miriam was taking on – the attention to everything, the work, being a leader – the illness was her body responding to the stress and that the time outside the camp was an opportunity to give herself a break – heal spirit and body. I said I thought that was being very generous with God’s intentions. God was putting Miriam in her place.

But there is no question that Miriam did have a place. In her family and in the community. There is a midrash – and outside-the-Bible story – in Jewish tradition of Miriam’s Well. As the story goes, because of Miriam’s leadership, wherever the people went in the desert, spring of water welled up.  While it isn’t in the Bible, speaks to her value in her community then and in the tradition.

What is in the Bible is evidence that even her brothers believed the punishment was a little over the top. They intercede with God on her behalf. The three siblings are a team – often named together and remembered in history as leading alongside each other. And this nomadic community know that they are a team and they will not move on without her. 

In this team, Miriam’s particular place in her community was as witness – in both the senses; a watcher and a teller – she speaks through word and music. And if according to the list from Deepa Iyer she is a storyteller, Moses is the visionary and disrupter – the one out front and getting in the face of power. Aaron is the builder, attending to details. And also the healer – the one in the middle making peace and smoothing things over. 

I happen to identify a lot with Miriam, overfunctioning big-sister that she is. I have some of her gifts and some of her faults. However Miriam’s place will not be the place that all of us find. As individuals and as a church, we’re called to discern what is ours to do in the work of God’s Reign. Maybe you are a caregiver or healer. Maybe you build and attend to details. 

I wonder how each of you think of your gifts in relation to this congregation. In relation to the work of caring for the world where God has placed us. I wonder about Evergreen in the same way. With Miriam, in her triumphs and failures, may we continue to listen for God’s invitation to find our place in the movement to share God’s love and liberation.

—

Image: Marc Chagall, Miriam and the Prophetess