Holy Mothers (and One Unholy Grandmother) –

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The Four Most Important Women Who Never Lived
Wisdom
The Virtuous Woman
Israel: An Adulterous Wife
The Church: Bride of Christ

Women Who Expected Miracles
Hannah
The Shunammite woman
The Syro-Phoenician woman
The woman with a hemorrhage

UMW in Bible Times
Women who supported Jesus’ ministry
Dorcas
Lydia
Phoebe
Lois and Eunice; Apphia
Priscilla

Other Mothers

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The Four Most Important Women Who Never Lived

Proverbs 8, Wisdom

After I sent you the TOME on the Trinity, Pastor Clyde very kindly gave me a book on the topic, The Trinity and the Kingdom, by Jurgen Moltmann.  Herr Professor Doctor Moltmann is a very distinguished, very scholarly, very German theologian.  This is the hardest book I have read since Honors Physics back in 1968.  I understand about every tenth sentence, and that’s the English.  Whenever he gets to a really important concept, it’s in Latin.  Who knows what that means? Nevertheless, once in a while there is a sentence so beautiful, so insightful, and so clear that the rest of the work is worth it.
 
The lady we are studying today, Wisdom, is a personification of the wisdom of God.  Normally we see Wisdom personified as a woman.  Moltmann makes some interesting points about her.  He says, “Proverbs 8 talk about the Wisdom of God as if it were a person with its own consciousness and will.  It is more than simply one of Yahweh’s ‘characteristics.’” Wisdom is “God’s beloved before time began.”  In the book Wisdom (my favorite of the apocryphal books), Wisdom is also called “the image of his goodness.”  Moltmann says that in some ways Wisdom seems to be identical with God’s “Spirit,” but at the same time it is separate.  To me, one good indicator of this separateness is what Wisdom says about her own beginnings:  she was the first of God’s acts; she was set up; she was brought forth.  Note the difference between Wisdom and Jesus, who “was with God and was God” from the beginning. 
 
Mostly I love the way Wisdom calls us out of ignorance and trouble, like a mother calling her children.
 
Proverbs 31:10-31, The Virtuous Woman

The perfect wife is far from subservient; she is far from chattel.  Instead, she plans, buys and sells property and goods, works, directs other workers, teaches her kids by word and example, runs her household, and supports her husband in his business affairs.  She is way above my standard, but this is good, because she sets an example that I can aspire to.  She is far more precious than jewels.

Jeremiah 3:8-9, 5:7. 7:9, 13:27, 23:23; Ezekiel 16:17,32, 23:37; Hosea 4:13-14, 5:3, 6:10, Israel: An Adulterous Wife

Israel, as we all remember, was the name God assigned to Jacob after they wrestled all night.  Nevertheless, God’s people “Israel” is often personified as a woman, generally as the adulterous wife of God.  (On two occasions, Israel is personified as a son; Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1.)  How does a personification – or, for that matter, a nation – commit adultery?  By whoring after other gods.  Remember in John 8 when Jesus accuses the Jews of doing the works of their father?  In the discussion, it’s clear that he is talking about evil works, and they immediately respond, “What the heck are you talking about? We aren’t the children of adultery!”  This can be a bit of a puzzle if you don’t already know that they are “the children of Israel,” and when Israel worships other gods (e.g., idols made out of stone or wood) it’s considered to be whoring and adultery. 
 
Revelation 19:5-10, 21:1-4, 21:9-14, 22:16-17, The Church: Bride of Christ

Just as the Old Testament personifies Israel as the wife of GOD, the tradition of the Church is that the New Testament (in Revelation) personifies the Church as the bride of Christ.  The bride is New Jerusalem, the purified and holy city of God.  Note that the Church and the United Methodist Church are not synonymous.  In fact, the Church is not any denomination.  Instead it is the entirety of the body of Christian believers, what used to be routinely called “Christendom.”  Now you more often hear “Christians,” but that loses a lot of the meaning.  “Christians” denotes a group of individual believers; “Christendom” is the body, or perhaps the bride, of Christ, and we’re all in it together.

Women Who Expected Miracles

Expectant faith plus crumbs heals a woman’s daughter.

1 Samuel 1, Hannah (7/16/2008)

Miracles are a bit of a theological sticking point.  Unbelievers won’t acknowledge a miracle when they see one with their own eyes.  The modern Catholic Church is strongly inclined to accept only a certain kind of miracles, miracles of healing, as evidence in the canonization of saints.  Many Christians believe in the “miracle on demand” system, whereby any prayer for a difficult or even impossible result should be granted, and they are disappointed or angry when a miracle does not happen.
 
I think I mentioned before in these emails that, having been the recipient of a miracle, I’m obliged to believe in them.  I don’t understand them, though.  Neither did John Wesley, who said,

• “Sir, I understand you well. The drift of the argument is easily seen. It points at the Master, as well as his servants; and tends to prove that, after all this talk about miraculous cures, we are not sure there were ever any in the world. But it will do no harm. For although we grant, 1. That some recover, even in seemingly desperate cases; and, 2. That we do not know, in any case, the precise bounds between nature and miracle; yet it does not follow, therefore, I cannot be assured there ever was a miracle of healing in the world. To explain this by instance: I do not precisely know how far nature may go in healing, that is restoring sight of the blind; yet this I assuredly know, that if a man born blind is restored to sight by a word, this is not nature, but miracle” (Works, 10:22). [emphasis added]

God isn’t a hired man; we can’t just say, “Do this, do that,” and expect this or that to happen.  Often when we have no control over a situation and no human means of bringing about a desired result, we are disgruntled when God doesn’t step in to do our will.  But sometimes, unpredictably, God’s grace bursts upon us and gives us more than we could ever have hoped for.  I believe this is why we call them “miracles.” 
 
Note that Hannah stops being sad before she becomes pregnant.  After Eli blesses her, she expects that her petition – difficult as it may seem – will be granted.
 
2 Kings 4:8-37, The Shunammite Woman (7/17/2008)

Yesterday I cautioned against the “miracle on demand” mindset, and we must always remember that God is not our errand boy.  The flip side of the same coin is that our expectant faith appears in some inexplicable way to be crucial in God’s ability to do a miracle for us.  Jesus referred to this expectant faith several times.  “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28).  “Everyone who believes in me ... shall never die.  Do you believe this?” (John 11:26).  “Your faith has made you well.” (Matthew 9:2, 9:22; 9:29).  

Without faith, miracles are extremely difficult, even for Jesus, who couldn’t do many miracles in his own hometown (Mark 6:5-6).  Why is this?  One of my repeated prayers is this:  “God, please don’t show me a sign, because I probably wouldn’t believe it.”  John Wesley’s explanation of Jesus’ lack of miracles in his hometown is much the same.  He explains the words of Mark 6:5, “He could do no miracle there,” in this way, 

• “Not consistently with his wisdom and goodness. It being inconsistent with his wisdom to work them there, where it could not promote his great end; and with his goodness, seeing he well knew his countrymen would reject whatever evidence could be given them. And therefore to have given them more evidence, would only have increased their damnation.”

The Shunammite woman knew that through Elisha God could work a miracle.  She had no child until he promised her that she would bear a son.  Then the child died.  She told no one, because she fully expected that through Elisha, God could and would work another miracle. 

Mark 7:24-30; Matthew 15:21-28, The Syro-Phoenician woman (7/18/2008)

The Syro-Phoenician woman should be an example to us all.  She wasn’t Jewish, but she had heard of Jesus. (Everybody had heard of Jesus. He was followed around by the paparazzi so much that he couldn’t get a moment’s rest.)  She knew that he had healed many, many people.  Her daughter was very ill, and Jesus was passing through her area.  She went to him to ask for his help.  He didn’t even answer, but she kept pestering him until the disciples said, “Give her what she wants and send her away!”  They just wanted to be rid of her.  Jesus told them, “I was sent to the Jews, not the Gentiles.”  She begged for his help.  Then he made what sounds to us like a remarkably harsh statement:  “It’s not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.”  Actually, he used a word that means “little dogs,” like lapdogs or puppies.  But she was so quick-witted and so full of faith that she immediately responded, “True!  But I’m only asking for crumbs!  Crumbs from you will heal my daughter!” 
 
Do we believe that even crumbs from Jesus will heal us?  Do we understand how much more than crumbs he wants to give us?
 
I’m referring you to both Mark’s and Matthew’s versions.  Matthew normally uses Mark’s exact words, but in this particular case he may be writing out of his own memory.
 
Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48, The woman with a hemorrhage (7/21/2008)

These days we hear a lot about “inappropriate touching,” and certainly there’s touching, and then again there’s “touching.”  The crowd was pressing around Jesus.  Everybody wanted to get close to him.  We think of Jesus as this holy person who was admired by everyone at a respectful distance.  Wrong.  Well, he was holy, but forget the “at a distance” part.  Think of the Pope without security staff. 

Anyway, one woman in the crowd was determined to get near him.  She kept saying to herself, “If I can get close enough to touch even the hem of his coat, I’ll be cured.”  She certainly didn’t want him to know she was touching his coat, because she was unclean (having the hemorrhage), and if she touched him, he would be unclean, which would be a real nuisance for a holy man.  (Jesus didn’t care, but she didn’t know that.) She was about to do some inappropriate touching.
 
Aack!  She got caught!  How?  In the pressing crowd, Jesus felt her touch on the hem of his garment.  You know how the lights dim when some big piece of equipment turns on in your house?  There’s this instant when the power from the main line hasn’t quite caught up with the overall demand.  Miracles take a lot of power as well as a lot of faith.  He had the power, and she had the faith.  Zap!

UMW in Bible Times

The mission of women in the Church has its roots in the Gospels and its fruit in today’s world.

Matthew 26:10-13; Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:55-56; Luke 8:1-3; Women who supported Jesus’ ministry (8/1/2008)

The purpose of the United Methodist Women is “to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative, supportive fellowship; and to expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the church.”  We shouldn’t be surprised that all three of these ideas go back to the earliest days of the Christian faith.  Today and next week we will read about women in the early church who became free in Jesus Christ, who supported each other, and who participated in ministry.  Today we look specifically at ladies who supported Jesus financially and emotionally.  Several Galilean women provided for Jesus and his disciples financially during his active ministry.  All the men disciples except John cut and ran after his arrest, but several of the women stayed at the cross to support both Jesus and his mother Mary, and it was the women who returned on Sunday morning to prepare his body for final burial.

Acts 9:35-42, Dorcas (8/4/2008)

Have you tied a knot in one of the prayer quilts that hang each week in the Welcome Center?  Have you requested a prayer shawl for a friend who is ill?  These quilts and shawls, not to mention baby blankets, children’s sweaters and hats, and other items are made by ladies at St. John’s for people who need love and encouragement, or maybe just something warm to wear.  These quilters and knitters are following in the footsteps of Dorcas, a Christian lady who also made garments for people who needed them.  Dorcas is also a special woman because she died and was raised back to life through the intervention of Peter.  Peter must have been a powerful pray-er!

Acts 16:11-15, 38-40, Lydia (8/5/2008)

Lydia was a dealer in “purple goods,” either the very expensive purple dye made from snail shells, or the cloth dyed with it.  Thus it is normally assumed that she was wealthy.  When she became one of Paul’s converts, she insisted that Paul and his group come to stay with her.  Now, Paul always prided himself on supporting himself without taking a dime from his converts; Lydia’s church at Philippi is the only exception.  So in addition to being wealthy, Lydia must have been persuasive and stubborn.  Clearly she was also a leader among the converts of Philippi, because before leaving town, Paul went to visit Lydia and the (unnamed) brothers. 
 
Note that the first few verses are part of the famous “we” passages of Acts, showing that Luke was with Paul on this trip.  And while I’m on the topic of infant baptism, note that Lydia’s “entire household” was baptized along with her.  Those denominations that do not accept infant baptism have not yet convinced me that there were wealthy households in the Middle East with no infants present.

Romans 16:1-16, Phoebe goes to Rome. (8/6/2008)

One of my sons is named “Madison.”  This is an old and honorable BOY’s name.  Madi-SON, get it?  He is named after a great-great-grandFATHER.  After the movie “Splash,” girls started being named Madison, but my son is quite a bit older than that.  It irritates me when people just assume that my Madison is a girl. 

We have the opposite problem with Biblical names.  If we don’t know whether the bearer is male or female, we tend to assume that they are men. For this reason, we often make incorrect assumptions about whether women were important in the early Church.  Of the 29 people Paul mentions or greets individually in Romans 16, ten are women: Phoebe, Prisca/Priscilla, Mary, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, the mother of Rufus, Julia, and the sister of Nereus.

Phoebe and Junia are especially worthy of note. Phoebe was a deacon (often translated “servant” in this passage), and an emissary of Paul.  I can never decide whether to be amused, puzzled, or annoyed that exactly the same word is routinely translated “servant” for Phoebe and “deacon” for several men (e.g., 1 Timothy 3:8).  And Paul refers to Junia as an apostle! Some translations transform Junia into Junias, the masculine form of the name, but the earliest manuscripts (and many later manuscripts) have the feminine form of the name. The difference between the two names in Greek is about like “Frances” and “Francis,” so we shouldn’t be too judgmental about whoever it was who turned Junia into a guy.

2 Timothy 1:5, Lois and Eunice; Philemon 1:1-3, Apphia (8/7/2008)

If women have one role in the Church that has always been recognized, it is as a role model for children and others in the congregation.  The business of ensuring that the next generation is raised in the Faith has traditionally belonged to women.  Two excerpts from a family history that I just completed eloquently illustrate the importance of women as role models:

[Elizabeth French Myers] ever lived an earnest Christian life, and I well remember seeing and hearing her testify one Sunday morning in a Methodist love feast in the old Round Church that stood on the corner of our farm. I will never forget that scene, though I was only a small boy of four or five years, sitting beside my father on the men’s side of the church, as was the custom of those days. The great tears were rolling down her cheeks while she was telling how the Lord saved and kept her with all the care and burden of her large family. That scene and that testimony kept me from skepticism and infidelity many years later after I became a man, when many times I have said there was nothing in religion, but about that time that Sunday morning in that old Methodist Church, sitting beside my father, and Mother testifying over in the Amen corner of the women’s side of the church, would loom up before me, spoiling all my efforts at unbelief.  Mother died as she lived, and the last words she ever uttered were “Meet me in Heaven.”
—from the memoir of the Rev. Madison Dero Myers

[Catharine Shurger Blickensderfer] was a woman of more than ordinary strength of mind and ability, exercising great influence in the forming of a substantial and solid character in her children, all of whom became persons of influence in the communities in which they dwelt. She was a sincere and active Christian, the family connecting themselves with the Moravian church immediately after their arrival in America, first at Philadelphia, and subsequently at Lititz, where she is buried.
—from a family history by Jacob Blickensderfer

Acts 18:2-3, 18-19, 24-28; Rom. 16:3-5a; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19, Priscilla (8/8/2008)

Priscilla and her husband Aquila were a team of powerful workers for the Lord and staunch supporters of Paul.  They are never mentioned separately.  The church in Ephesus, and apparently also in Rome, met in their house.  Remember Paul saying, “I do not allow a woman to teach”?  I guess this applied only to public worship, because note that Priscilla and Aquila jointly “explained the way of God more accurately” to Apollos. 

Here is some total speculation that I found interesting and maybe you will, too.  Only God knows who wrote Hebrews; however, three names put forth by scholars are in today’s passage:  Priscilla, either alone or in company with Aquila, and their associate, Apollos.  Here’s an argument that Priscilla may have written Hebrews.



Other Mothers
Founders of the Nation
Women in Charge
Women Related to Jesus

Copyright 2008, 2011 by Regina L. Hunter.  All rights reserved.