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Twinbrook Baptist Church Rockville, MD Third Sunday in Lent March 11, 2007 Pastor: Kip Ingram Kip@TwinbrookBaptist.com |
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Kip: The sermon today will be in two voices, alternating, if not hopefully in dialogue. Although this may seem a little strange to you to see my wife Carla standing up here next to me during the sermon, in a sense it may not be all that different from other Sundays. Whenever I stand in this pulpit, I am always bringing many voices and perspectives with me, those that have shaped me over the years as well as over the previous week. You can be sure that the voice of my wife is one perspective which I often bring to this place, because her voice has shaped who I am over the time of our relationship in significant ways. She is one of my best sermon listeners, and I know there are times when she would love to respond to what I have said. So I have asked her to share the pulpit with me this morning because of our emphasis this month in worship on women in the ministry of Jesus. Recognizing that Jesus gave voice to and heard the voices of many of the women around him, it just made sense to me that this place should also be one where a woman´s voice is heard. Perhaps Carla has her own feelings about doing something like this? Carla: I am reminded first of a time from our past when we were gathered with some friends from college - most of the men were preachers- and we were discussing the role of women in ministry. The use and rewording of an old quote by Kip's former youth minister stopped me dead in my tracks. ”A woman preaching is like a dog walking on its hind legs” he said, ”it can't be done for very long or very well.” Good thing this is just a dialogue! A woman's perspective seemed to me a daunting possibility. How could I possibly voice what is in the collective female heart and mind? What if I don't see things the same way that other women do? I never read ”Men are from Mars” - what if I'm from Pluto and not Venus? But I have experienced being a woman from the exhilarations of romance and childbirth to the difficulties of discrimination and child-rearing. So, it is from these experiences that I will try to speak. ”Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.” Kip: This person who appears before Jesus has several strikes against her already. She is sick, with a crippling kind of sickness, which she has had for 18 years. So she is already marginalized for her illness. But the society of that time has another strike against her, and it is because she is a sheBbeing a woman carried some big challenges in the cultural world of Jesus. Now, you have heard me talk many times from this pulpit about typical views of women in the day of Jesus. I have talked about how they were limited to restricted roles, considered unclean at certain times, had little or no voice in legal disputes, and were basically considered little more than property for the male head of a family. I suspect the typical response to this is something like: ”gee, I´m glad women don´t have to live in those days with those circumstances anymore. We´ve come a long way, and women are much better off now in our society.” And I agree, we can all give thanks for this. But when we stop here with the comparison between Jesus´ time and ours, we miss out on the challenges of our own day. The point is not just to look back on the ancient world and say ”I´m glad I´m not there,” the point is to look at our own world and ask what are the biggest challenges for being a woman today? This could include challenges in the way women are portrayed in the media, how they are expected to maintain their appearance and feel about their bodies, how they are paid for equal work with men, what opportunities they have for leadership, what traditional and non-traditional roles they play in the family, and many other things. Carla: Challenges for women today - where to begin? Did you know that March 8th was International Women's Day? Amnesty International began a campaign in 2004 to end violence against women. Throughout the world 1 out of every 3 women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. More than 60 million women are "missing" from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide. 85% of the victims of domestic violence in the US are women. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties of small arms and light weapons in times of conflict. The battering of women results in more injuries requiring medical attention than auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined. The list could go on and on from genital mutilation to gang rape as an act of war to statistics of women and mothers on welfare. In light of these acts of terrorism against women, other challenges such as equal pay for equal work and the sexual stereotyping of women in the media seem almost benign. In much of our world, women are still second-class citizens - not given equal rights if any rights at all. But what about a woman like me - who has the right to vote, who made it through 42 years of life without having had to endure any type of abuse, who was able to get a college degree and find a job in the career field of her choice? What do I have to complain about? I can start with the very fact that our society must even contemplate the question "Is America ready for a woman president?" What does that say about the prevailing and underlying beliefs in our own seemingly advanced society? We tell our children that that can do and be anything - but do we really mean it? If all women were one woman, it makes sense to me that she would be stooped low, bent if not broken. ”She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, . . .” Kip: When Jesus saw her. I wonder what he saw? Did he see her as a hurting and desperate child of God? Did he see her for the potential healing and strength she could have? One thing is for sure, he looked beyond the typical way his society would see her. In a sense, her society had already discounted her and written her off, because she did not fit in with the expectations for functioning which existed. Mostly likely, her only real choice in such a society was to remain at the margins and suffer in silence. I wonder in thinking about our own society today. How are women often seen? How should women be seen? Carla: Well, I have to go back a bit to the fact that she had this ailment for 18 years. In 18 years I grew from child to woman. In 18 years I married, raised 2 kids and mourned the death of my parents. 18 years is a long time in any life. It is long enough to forget what it is like to look someone in the eyes - to have someone really see you. To have someone look you in the face and really know you for who you are is a challenge for women. We are constantly bombarded with images of youth and beauty - and even in ads where aging is celebrated, it's still about beauty. How many women have I heard say ”I can't go anywhere until I put my face on”? Well honestly, most days I don't feel so beautiful, but I do feel confident, capable, competent, skilled and sometimes even funny. Does anyone see that in me if I don't look my best? And the days when I feel stooped, depressed, sad, insecure, anxious - will someone look me in the eye then? Or will they only see my curved spine and look away? Or is it easier if they just don't see me at all? When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ”Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.” Kip: Like so many people he encounters in the gospels, Jesus has something to offer this hurting woman. He invites her over and offers her the gift of healingBher body finds a new sense of life and she stands up straight. You also get the sense that her healing is about more than her body, for her soul, her dignity, her joyful trust in her maker, all of this has been made whole. She begins to praise God. Jesus offers all people the kinds of gifts they each need, depending on who they are and their situation in life. I wonder what women say that Jesus has to offer them specifically? Carla: I was 8 years old when I accepted Jesus. I can still recall that moment vividly. It took the prodding of my imaginary friend, Cindy, to get me to step into the aisle of my church to walk toward the minister - but the experience was real. Through the years in church I have been disappointed with people, with theology, with discrimination both racial and sexist, with closed-mindedness, with fundamentalist politics, and with myself - but never with the message of Jesus. In Christ there is no Jew, no Greek, no male, no female. I find that true. Jesus' encounters with people, including this woman, were always healing for individuals who needed light in some darkened areas of their lives - where their stooped posture created shadows that they could not overcome. Jesus offered me what he offered this woman - not just healing - but unconditional love and acceptance that can look me in the eye and say ”no matter what you do, I will always love you and want the best for you.” Jesus offers me love that allows me to stand tall and say no to the idea that I deserve less because I am a woman. I can't find a story about Jesus that doesn't offer this message. This is what Jesus offers me as a woman - and you as a man. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ”There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, ”You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame. Kip: As soon as Jesus brings healing and wholeness to this woman, he is criticized by the religious leaders of the day for doing it. Beyond their specific criticisms, you get the sense that the religious leaders are really upset because Jesus is upsetting the order of things by touching and honoring the life of this woman. Nevertheless, the religious leaders do appeal to a biblical argument against the healing of this woman. The biblical command is that the Sabbath should be a day of rest, and Jesus was working on the Sabbath by healing this particular person. But think about what´s really happening here. This woman now praising God has been made whole in front of the religious leaders, her amazing experience has unfolded right in front of them. Yet they are denying her experience and criticizing it with a biblical appeal of sorts. It doesn´t take much, though, for Jesus to point out their hypocrisy by saying that they usually work on the Sabbath by taking their animals to water, yet they can´t find it in their hearts to rejoice with a woman who has been set free from her bondage. Do you hear the radical point Jesus is making? He is saying: you make exceptions for an animal but you won´t make exceptions for a woman! For Jesus, it´s not just being biblical that matters, it´s how you use the Bible in treating other people that truly counts as faithful. Well, these religious leaders weren´t the last to use their religion to discount and hurt women. I wonder how women sometimes might feel hurt by the way religious folk have treated them? Carla: Well, sure. I don't want to discount the hurt that women have endured at the hands of a church structure that may hold on to old ideas or even compare them to dogs on their hind legs - but what I do want to point out is that many women have found places of healing with Jesus. Notice who got healed in this story - the woman who was bent so low that Jesus had to raise her up as opposed to the religious leaders who had their heads raised so high that they were unable to see and experience the presence of God in their own church building. I don't think it is a man versus woman story. I think it is a story that says whatever it may be that keeps you bent low, you can bring it to church with you and Jesus will meet you there. It is a lesson for us to learn with all of the issues that we have been trying to keep out of church: racial division, sexual discrimination, homosexuality, addiction and recovery, and many others. We can hold our heads up in the air and pretend that these things are not there - refuse to see the stooped woman - or we can be like Jesus and see people for who they are, love them and work for healing in all of our lives. We can allow all people who enter this place to experience the uplifting and honest love of Christ as we meet them, look them in the eyes, and see them for who they are. Together we can work with Christ to heal our world. ”When he [Jesus] said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.” Kip: Well, the gospel story ends on a hopeful note. The entire crowd finds itself rejoicing at what Jesus has done for this woman and others. I also find myself hopeful when it comes to this issue. In my lifetime, the place of women in the church has changed in significant ways. And I have found myself changing along with it. The traditional setting I grew up in has given way in my life to a deeper understanding, appreciation and celebration of the gifts of women in my life and in my churches. This has come about for me because of a faithful combination of understanding the liberating work of Jesus and following attentively the lives of faithful women around me. I´m still learning and growing and making mistakes along the way, but I am hopeful for a greater community of faith that honors and encourages the gifts of all its members. I wonder what women are hopeful for when it comes to their own journey of faith? Carla: I am hopeful that there will come a time when I am no longer caught between labels such as ”little lady” or ”feminazi”. I am hopeful for a time when our daughters and our daughter's daughters can live without fear of abuse just because they are women. I am hopeful that our churches can become places of healing for all people. And I'm hopeful that coffee hour will be prepared by men and women who love this church and good snacks. I'm hopeful that we will experience the love of Jesus in such a way that makes us aware and care for the well-being of the women and men around us and around the world. |
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