Gifts of Women

Preached at Hanover Street Presbyterian Church

On June 13, 2004

By the Rev. Thomas C. Davis, III, Ph.D.

Texts:

Esther 4: 10-17

Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai,  "All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king has but one law: that he be put to death.  The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life.  But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king."  When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"  Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:  "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me.  Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.  I and my maids will fast as you do.  When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.  And if I perish, I perish."  So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.

Matthew 15: 21-28

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."  Jesus did not answer a word.  So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."  He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."  The woman came and knelt before him.  "Lord, help me!" she said.  He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."  "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith!  Your request is granted."  And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Sermon Text

No, this isn't a late Mothers' Day sermon.  For the topic of this morning's sermon, I'm following a suggestion from our General Assembly.  During the long stretch of Sundays between Pentecost and Advent, when there are no special religious holidays to observe, the G.A. designates a number of special emphasis Sundays.  This Sunday is "celebrating the gifts of women" Sunday.

I don't know why the G.A. chose this particular Sunday for that, because it seems to me every Sunday would be fine for celebrating the gifts of women.  Women have been essential to the church's life and mission since it's beginning, and I don't mean just as worker bees.  Women have been church leaders since the start.  You wouldn't think that to read some remarks in our Christian scriptures, such as 1 Corinthians 14: 34:  "In all congregations of God's people, women should not address the meeting.  They have no license to speak, but should keep their place as the law directs."  Now, in order to understand what was really going on in the very early Christian congregations, you have to read between the lines.  Paul wouldn't have told women to sit down and shut up if they hadn't already been standing up in church meetings, and speaking their minds about how things ought to be done.  The first letter of Peter, chapter three, says that women should be subject to their husbands.  They shouldn't dress up in fine clothes, or do up their hair, or wear jewelry to attract attention.  They should ornament themselves with a sweet and gentle (read subservient) disposition.  That's was how the women of the past dressed themselves, continues the text at chapter three, verse five.  They were tender and obedient to their husbands, like Sarah, who was obedient to Abraham, and called him "lord." 

We must read between the lines to discern what was happening when such texts was written.  We would not likely find such warnings against women leaving their traditional subservient place in society, if they hadn't already been exercising their God-given gifts for leadership and asserting themselves against the patriarchal strictures of their time.  The truth is that in the very early days of the Christian movement, women were beginning to resist patriarchy.  They were standing up in church meetings and speaking out, sometimes criticizing their menfolk, no doubt; for something revolutionary had been loosed in the society of Jesus:  the idea that all people are one in him, so that distinctions of gender, and nationality, and social station no longer could be used to justify rankings of authority.  "There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female," says Galatians 3: 27-28.  Scholars believe that that text was part of a baptismal liturgy.  Imagine the power of those words if you were being kept in your place!  About to be baptized in the name of Jesus, you heard the almost unbelievably good news that you were entering a new society, one in which your gifts by the Holy Spirit would be respected, honored, celebrated!  No longer would there be arbitrary distinctions, because everyone was spiritually equal in this new society.  Halleluiah!  The prophet Joel's vision at long last was coming true (2:28-29):  "You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, that I am Yahweh your God, with none to equal me.  My people will not be disappointed any more.  After this, I will pour out my spirit on all humankind.  Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy . . .Even on the slaves, men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days."  Halleluiah!  Such wonderfully good news! 

But alas, the church did not abide such a revolutionary vision.  All too soon, even as the Christian scriptures were being written, the old bosses of the ancient patriarchal cultures in which Christianity was born reasserted and reinforced their authority.  Annoyed and worried, they warned uppity Christian women:  Enough!  This is unseemly, what you're doing!  Sit down and shut up!

We have good evidence that for a while at least, women neither sat down nor shut up.  When he was imprisoned, Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians that he wanted two women, Euodia and Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.  We might suppose that they were strong minded and outspoken women, because in the same sentence Paul thanked them for helping him as he was fighting to defend the gospel.  We know from the book of Acts that a woman named Lydia gave hospitality to Paul as he went church planting.  Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth, which was worn by nobility.  Therefore, she was likely prosperous.  Women of prominence are elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament.  Scholars believe that through the generosity and hospitality of such affluent women, groups of seekers began to meet in homes, to read the Hebrew Scriptures and to learn about how Jesus had fulfilled the prophecies.  Finally, we have archaeological evidence.  In the catacombs of Rome, where Christians hid from their Roman persecutors, there are pictures painted by those brave and faithful refugees.  One of those pictures shows a person kneeling, and another person standing over the kneeler, placing her hands on his head, in a gesture of blessing.  I say "her hands," because the person standing has breasts.  The person standing is clearly a woman, a woman in a position of spiritual leadership within that refugee community of Christ.  Yes, for a while women did exercise their gifts for church leadership.  However, the egalitarian spirit of the very early church soon gave way to patriarchy and hierarchy, as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and came to resemble that empire more and more.

Of course, feisty women didn't go away.  Courage is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and women continued to receive that gift, and use it, down through the centuries.  Women the likes of brave queen Esther, who outwitted the villainous Mordecai, who was plotting to have her people exterminated; and the Syro-phonician woman, who hung in there when she asked Jesus for help, but he refused and even insulted her.  Oh no, such women do not go away.  They continue to stand up, speak out, insist on fair treatment.  Sometimes their courage and persistence pays off, as in this morning's scriptures.  But sometimes they lose their battles.  Over the centuries some got burned at the stake, or beheaded, or at the very least ridiculed, ostracized, and left to starve.  They didn't go away, though, and their spirit finally rang out with furious indignation in the 1800s to claim at long last the glorious prophetic vision of equality under God.  I love the voice of Sojourner Truth, the slave woman who lived in our Civil War era, and fought back against the tyranny of centuries.  I love her "ain't I a woman" speech:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter . . .That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.  Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!  And ain't I a woman?  Look at me!  Look at my arm!  I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!  And ain't I a woman?  I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well!  And ain't I a woman?  I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me!  And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it?  [member of audience whispers, "intellect"]  That's it, honey.  What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights?  If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman!  Where did your Christ come from?  Where did your Christ come from?  From God and a woman!  Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!  And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Thanks be to God, the women did eventually turn things right side up again, and the men did eventually let them.  At long last patriarchy is crumbling, not over the whole globe to be sure, but there has been enough progress to give one renewed faith in the realization of Joel's vision.

This morning I've been celebrating especially the gifts of courageous women, feisty women, the provocateurs, the leaders of movements.  But there are a score of other gifts that more ordinary women bring to the ongoing work of Christ, and have for centuries.  Women have been painstaking nurturers, reconcilers, healers, counselors, sustainers of the spirit, providers of hospitality.  They have been fine musicians, sculptors, writers, painters, dancers, singers, poets, actors.  In recent times fewer and fewer careers have been closed to them, so that today we see women fire fighters (Alice almost cried when she saw a woman driving a huge fire truck in Philadelphia), police women, women astronauts, women scientists, architects, engineers, doctors; yes, even women soldiers.  Except perhaps for that last one, Sojourner Truth would be beaming with joy.

Each month I meet with some older women in this church to study the Bible.  Last time I was with them, I asked what it was like to have lived during a time when our denomination didn't have any women elders, into the present time, when there are more women elders than men, and almost as many women studying for pastoral ministry as men.  What was it like to live through those dramatic changes?  They told me that those years didn't feel much like a struggle.  They just hung in there, doing what they could, day by day, and God eventually worked the changes.  They helped me to realize that it isn't just the provocateurs who bring change.  It's the patient, persistent, relentlessly loving and trusting women who don't give up and don't go away who eventually bring change for the good.  Every person's gift counts in the coming of God's kingdom, not just the gifts of the leaders, but especially the gifts of the worker bees.  Today we celebrate all the gifts of women.  Thank you, God, for the feisty, courageous, outstanding women.  But thank you too for the women worker bees, the ones who support so many of our church's ministries of service and compassion.  For without them, your kingdom would be much more slow in coming.