Exodus 1.15-21; Luke 8.1-3
It’s Mother’s Day … and Happy Mother’s Day to all.
Mothers come in all shapes and sizes, colors and cultures, and personalities, and experience … some even have children and grandchildren.
Women take up art and music … song and dance …
Women do research and write big books …
Women twist wires together on an assembly line …
Women serve in government, and church, and public life …
Women go to work …
in a factory … in the home …
by the stove … or in a courtroom, a boardroom, a laboratory …
a school cafeteria, a fast-food restaurant, or JPL …
By a sickbed … at someone’s side, drying some tears, even as she weeps within …
At a graveside … or at a bus stop … in the midst of a rainstorm, or in the light of a bright sun …
A diversity of choice or circumstance … some with ease, and some in hardship … but each and all, giving life to life.
Mother’s Day … a good day to celebrate women … women of the Bible … after all, we are people of the book!
In the Bible, women play a central role.
Though to hear some men go on about it, you’d think women didn’t exist, or if they do exist, it’s merely to please men, rear children, look pretty and be quiet.
Evangelical leader, John MacArthur, says: “A woman, whether she is married or single, must recognize the fact that in general, as a woman, she must have a spirit of submission to all men.”
“Women who pastor, women who preach in a church are a disgrace,” he says, “and they openly reflect opposition to the clear command of the Word of God.”
What does the Bible offer?
The women of the Bible are fiercely independent … they are prophets, they are seers, they are poets and lovers, they are wives and mothers, they are queens, they are entrepreneurs, they are soldiers … they are muses and musicians …they are all over the map … strong, creative, smart, savvy, inventive, clever, dramatic, determined, resilient, and dangerous … they are devoted, clever, cantankerous, prayerful, resourceful, and sometimes, even a little devious, to pull the wool over the man’s eyes.
From the Book of Exodus, one of my favorite stories:
There’s a “population explosion” for the Hebrew People … Pharaoh is worried, so he tells the Hebrew midwives, “destroy the baby boys at birth” … the midwives “fear God” more than then fear Pharaoh, so they tell Pharaoh, the Hebrew women are so healthy, they give birth before we get to them.
The midwives are named: Shiprah and Puah … they’re clever, resourceful, and defiant.
And then the three Patriarchs, of course, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob … but the Scriptures are clear; woman play a vital role in all it; Sarah & Hagar, Rebecca … Leah and Rachel …
We have Miriam the Prophet … sister of Moses and Aaron …
We have Deborah, a judge … she guides, rules, and helps her people.
We have Hannah, the mother of Samuel the Prophet.
An enemy commander flees the battlefield, seeks shelter with a family he thought to be a friend … Jael welcomes him to the tent … while he’s fast asleep with exhaustion, she dispatches him …
Jael doesn’t have a weapon - she has only the household tools of hammer and tent peg.
I’ll spare you the details …
Abimelech, a cruel and vicious man, wages war again and again … besieging a city, a certain woman threw a millstone on Abimelech’s head - he’s mortally wounded, but couldn’t bear the idea - a women who did him in, so he calls his sword bearer to finish him off. Better to die by the sword than a bump on the head delivered by a woman.
And who can forget the woman of Jericho, Rahab, she welcomes the Israelite spies into the city, because she honors their God, and when the city is taken, her life is spared, and that of her family … centuries later, we find her name in the geneology of Jesus.
There is Ruth, a young widow devoted to her mother-in-law … the great grandmother of King David.
There is Esther in faraway Persia, Queen Esther, who puts her life at risk to save her people.
The women of the New Testament … Mary the Mother of Jesus, a young girl with a mountain of faith, a keen mind and plenty of questions … Mary’s relative, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist … Mary Magdalene … and who can forget the woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears and hair?
A woman beset with physical needs, touches the hem of his garment … Jesus stops and blesses her with healing.
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward … and Susanna, and other women, funnel money to the disciples.
A Canaanite woman comes to Jesus on behalf of her daughter … she and Jesus engage in serious banter, about who’s in and who’s out … Jesus “challenges” her, with a wink, and she responds with cleverness, frankness, and faith … Jesus honors her.
The “immoral” woman brought to Jesus to be stoned by the mob … the Samaritan woman at the well, all alone, because of her “immorality” … Jesus responds with kindness and mercy.
Jesus is crucified … it’s the women who remain.
It’s the women who go to the Tomb early in the morning, and to the women, the first announcement, He is risen!
During the Middle Ages, two women, leaders in the early church, lost their names in translation … because monks, with the flip of a pen, thought it improper to have women in authority:
Junia, becomes Junias, …
Euodia becomes Euodias …
Newer translations have corrected this!
Throughout church history, women have played a prominent role.
But often at great cost …
Women who spoke out were forced into convents by church and family, or worse … one thinks of Joan of Arc, and the Salem Witch Trials.
Women were denied the priesthood and the pulpit … to this very day, in too many churches, women are still denied their rightful place in the sunshine of God’s love …
On this Mother’s Day, I celebrate the progress women have made in the last 150 years …
The women of our world.
All are mothers … givers of life to life.
Some have children, some have dreams.
Some have calloused hands, some have bruised hearts.
Some are celebrities and in the news.
Most go about their lives quietly, creatively, as best they can.
God be praised for each of you.
God be praised for your work and faithfulness,
your love, your intelligence,
your goodness, your wisdom …
your determination, your vision.
your skills, your abilities, your faith, hope, and love.
May burdens be lighter,
may barriers be removed,
may respect and honor increase;
may the benefits of life be yours …
may the light of Christ shine all around you.
Because you - give life to life.
You are woman!
Amen and Amen!
