Valois United Church

Judges 4:1-7

Luke 7:36-50

This morning we have heard a part of the story of Deborah.  This story is startling...  But like many, sometimes we just let the words of scripture wash over us, instead of letting them surprise us, shock us, unsettle us, and move us.

This story is startling.

First off, this is the period of time before Israel had kings.  Instead they had judges.  And Deborah was one of them.  
Now, amongst all the judges, can you guess how many were women?
Well, just one.  Deborah.
She was the leader of the whole nation.  Which was as unlikely as having an Afro-American be President of the U.S.

Oh, and Deborah was prophetic as well.  
How many women were prophets in the Old Testement....  
Well, the list is not quite as short, but it is very short indeed.
She was recognized as a prophet - which was as unlikely as.... well, you get the idea

And then she was commander-in-chief of the army - she told Barak, the son of Abinoam, what military strategy to follow.  But not only that, but Barak said to her that he would go and engage the enemy in the way in which she directed, but only if she went to the front lines too.  And she did.

This was one amazing woman.
And she was an amazing woman of faith.

I began to think after encountering her story.
I began to think of the stories of women of faith in the Bible.  

I thought about the story of the woman who lost the coin....
It’s right after the parable about the man, the shepherd, who lost a sheep....

Now, I’ve been contradicted - and gladly so - but in my experience far more attention has been paid to the lost sheep.  There are far more Sunday School lessons, there are more pieces of art, there are far more sermons about the lost sheep... and the rescuing shepherd-man... that there are about the lost coin and the diligently searching woman.

If you don’t believe me, try Googling.  The difference is clear.  And even in places where both parables are references, often the reference to the woman and the coin are almost in parenthesis.

Here in Deborah
and there in the parable
are stories, are faith stories with women as main characters.

But we don’t have lots of these.
And the ones we do have, have often been ignored.

Why is that?
Well, part of it is the culture of the times :  
Many people are used to hearing the note made when the story of the feeding of the five thousand is read “There were five thousand, not counting the women and children.”  Not counting them, because they did not count.

Is it any wonder we don’t have as many vibrant stories of faithful women as we do of faithful men when the women didn’t count?

Even in this morning’s gospel lesson, we meet a woman who did something extraordinary.  She took expensive ointment and anointed Jesus, washed his feet with her tears and her hair.  And in Matthew and Mark, the phrase is added these words : “what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”  Now, in John’s Gospel the act is ascribed to Mary, Lazarus’ sister, but in the three other Gospels this so remarkable woman.... does not even have a name.  She is nameless, anonymous, unknown.... although she has acted with great faith and devotion.

Well, part of that is because women did not count in the culture of the time.  
And the second part of that is that the Bible story was recorded by men, not women.  And the actions of men are remembered, for it was from the male viewpoint that the story emerged.  

That is not to condemn the writers in any way, and nor does it detract from the deep truth of scripture.

But it does challenge us to recover, rediscover the stories of women in scripture, women of faith in scripture.

There are some amazing stories - I can’t take the time to do a series of sermons on them, but think of them now.... and think about how many were, or were not, included in your Sunday School lessons as a child.

Sunday Schools have often shared the story of Moses and the burning bush, and the various plagues.  But do they focus the same light on the story of Moses’ mother and Moses’ sister who acted in ways that would have us sitting on the edges of our seats, when properly told?

And Miriam?  We don’t know a lot about Miriam, Moses’ helper Aaron’s sister, but we do have some words that are interesting, that tell us the she, too, was a prophet and that she took part in leading the celebration after the escape from Egypt.  Not just taking part in the celebration, but in leading that celebration, that celebration of faith.

And we are looking for women of faith, Ruth and Naomi come to mind - two women that we have heard about in more recent years, but did not appear in most Sunday School lessons several years ago.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

But we are not stuck in the Hebrew Scriptures - when we jump to the Gospels we hear of people like Martha and Mary and tantalizing references in Paul’s letters.

But I want to jump farther than that.
Today.

Just as women of faith have acted in amazing ways in the past,
and have shown their faithfulness and integrity throughout the centuries,
the same is true today.

You see, the truth of the matter is that God’s Spirit has fallen on men and women all the time.  But sometimes the women have been silenced, ignored, or later forgotten.

But God’s Spirit is still at work.
Once upon a time, the Boards and Committees in United Church congregations were pretty much exclusively men.  Now we recognize that God’s gifts are given to men and to women.

Once upon a time, people expected that their ministers would be men.
But the United Church realized in 1936 that women could be a part of the order of ministry.

It sort of reminds me of Paul’s discovery when he found out that Gentiles could be called to be children of God - he discovered that if the Spirit of God said “Yes”, that it was impossible for him to say “No” - but rather he had to celebrate faith wherever he found it.

And so it is -
- as we turn to scripture, we need to rediscover faith and celebrate it wherever we find it, including in the stories of faithful women.
- as we turn to today’s living, we need to affirm and celebrate faith wherever we find it, including in the lives of faithful women.

God’s Spirit has been at work.  God’s Spirit is at work.  Amen.