St. Luke’s United Methodist Church
“The Leadership of Men and Women:
The Community Jesus Gathers”
Mark 14: 3-9
June 5, 2005
Janet L. Forbes

You see, I remember in our first year of marriage, we are invited for Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Bishop Mary Ann and Jeff Swenson. Following the meal, their tradition is to watch a vintage movie. Mary Ann asks Bob select and bring a movie. And I notice that she is not laughing when McClintock, played by John Wayne, pulls Katie, his wife, played by Maureen O’Hara, over his lap and spanks her. When Bob’s movie is over, Mary Ann graciously insists that Bob stay for her favorite movie, “The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman!”

Bob introduces me to this movie, Adam’s Rib. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, both lawyers. On this particular morning, the newspaper headlines report a domestic crime, a wife’s attempt to shoot her husband. The couple is on their way to work, arguing the gender implications of the impending trial.

(Video: Adams Rib)

The roles of men and women have long been a subject of debate in religious communities. The Bible and its interpretation is at the heart of the conversation. At St. Luke’s, I listen to your questions.

Why does the United Methodist Church ordain women and other Christian denominations do not?

Why can’t priests marry? Why can’t women be priests?

Why do some marriage covenants use the word “obey” in the vows?

Why do we pay attention to some statements in the Bible and not all the statements in the Bible about women and men?

This month, we will explore the biblical texts and how they affect leadership today.

In 1986, in Grand Junction, the Friendship Class of young adults wants to study the Bible. “Let’s start at the beginning!” they insist. The beginning may be a good place to start, but it is not always the easiest, I think. I want to begin with Jesus in the gospels. “No”, the planning team counters. “The Hebrew scripture, the Old Testament, the word that Jesus knew! We’ll begin at the beginning.” “OK”, I reply.

“Russ, you read the first chapter of Genesis for presentation to the class. Vickie, you read the second and third chapters of Genesis. Outline God’s actions. We’ll begin by comparing the two stories of creation.” Russ’s brow furrows, “Come again? Did you say the ‘two stories of creation’?” I discern the question beneath his question. Is there more complexity to the study of scripture than my childhood Golden Book of Bible Stories?

If you have a Bible or can find a Bible in the chair rack in front of you, open to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the first chapter.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1: 1-2)

The book of Genesis has two creation stories. They both tell us that God created all things: light, darkness, dry land, seas, plants, sun, moon, stars, birds, sea monsters, cattle, creeping things, and people. The content of the two stories is similar. However, the order in which creation occurs is quite dissimilar. For men and women, this difference in order affects leadership in the Christian community to this day.

I want to say only a brief word about biblical studies and the Creation stories. Jews, who have lived with Genesis for a long time, are amazed when Christians want to literalize this poetry. To take the imagery of the “first day” or “second day” as 24-hour periods or to look for the bones of Adam in the Middle East is to miss the essential point of this literature. Even to interpret the days as eons or ages, comparing them to certain geological time frames is to turn a faith statement into a scientific text. The Creation stories are statements of faith, not geology or biology. The stories tell us that in Creation, God acted and is continually acting to create and to bring order.

The first poem to creation is recorded in Genesis 1-2:3. After the Jews return to Palestine from exile in Babylon in the 5th century before the birth of Jesus, the religious leadership wants to record the traditions of the people. The poet tells us of all the wonderful creations of God, beginning with light, moving through the earth, seas, sky, plants, animals, and ending with human beings.

Then God (Elohim) said, “Let us make humankind (Hebrew adam) in our image, according to our likeness…” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them. (Genesis 1: 26a, 27, 28a)

In this order of things, human beings come last and they come together. Female and male they appear, formed in the holy likeness of God, and blessed by God. As far as we can tell, neither creature is subordinate to the other: both are formed at once, both have authority over the earth, both are in God’s favor. God creates man, ‘adam in Hebrew, meaning humankind, and God sees that it is very good. Afterwards, God rests, weary from work, pleased with creation.

The second account is a much earlier story, written almost 1000 years before the birth of Jesus. Imagine hearing this story by campfire, under a star-studded sky. You recite it to your children and to their children, for generations before it is written down.

Find Genesis 2:4 – 3:24. In this unfolding, creation forms very differently: we hear first of man, the species, again adam in Hebrew, then of trees, beasts, and birds, then lastly woman. Another sign that this story comes from a different period of time than the first poem is that the name for God is now Yahweh Elohim, or Lord God.

So the Lord God (Yahweh Elohim) caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman (ishsah) and brought her to the man (ish). (Genesis 2: 21-22)

We hear that the man and woman are naked and not ashamed.

Following this comes the familiar serpent story: the serpent, a subtle creature, beguiles the women, and she eats forbidden fruit. She gives fruit to her husband, who also eats; they see their nakedness, and are ashamed. Yahweh Elohim, angry at their sin, sentences the woman to increased pain in child birth and to the rule of her husband; the man is told that he shall toil all the days of his life. '‘You are dust," says the Lord God, "and to dust you shall return." God then drives the woman and the man, now Eve and Adam, out of the garden of Eden.

The contrast between the two stories is striking. In the one, woman is equal to man; in the other, she is subordinate. In the Priestly account, the scholarly reference to Genesis 1, creation is simultaneous; in the Yahwist version, Genesis 2 and 3, women comes decidedly after man, even though the term for “man” is again ‘adam, or humankind. In the first story, God blesses the people, calls them good, and then takes time to rest. The second story is filled with fear, anger, and strife: God takes no holy time of rest, and the people are not called good.

The stories present us with a choice. We have to decide their meaning. How do we understand the serpent tale? Could the woman, really, have been the origin of so much discontent? Many of the writers through history apparently think so. Many of the biblical texts that we will explore during this sermon series are told through the eyes and heart of those who truly believe women to be subordinate to man. She is somehow less than he.

Both creation stories were in Jesus’ Bible also. He began ministry as a rabbi or teacher of scripture. In his culture, woman were openly despised. He knew the saying, “Rather the words of the scripture be burned than entrusted to a woman.” Rabbinic quotes concerning women were pointed: “Ten gab of empty-headedness have come upon the world, nine having been received by women and one by the rest of the world.” He knew the daily prayer of Jewish men: “Praised be God that he has not created me a woman.” Rabbis were not to speak to women in public. They could not even greet a wife, daughter, or mother.

Jesus, however, believed, preached, and lived a new vision of God’s way in the world. While his Jewish colleagues were yearning for the intervention of God, Jesus was proclaiming the news of its reality. When he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, Jesus answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is! Or “There it is! For in fact, the kingdom of God is among you. (Luke 17:20)

Consequently, Jesus’ actions were quite unacceptable to those used to tradition. Jesus broke the mold: touching the unclean, healing the crippled, teaching the curious. He gathered around him a community of the unsung, unknown men and women of Palestine, thereby changing our lives forever.

In all four Gospels, a story is told of a women who anoints Jesus. The details vary. In Mark and Matthew, the place is Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper. In Luke, the location is omitted, and Simon becomes a Pharisee. In John, the place is Bethany again, this time at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Mary, a faithful friend, shows her love by anointing Jesus for burial. In Mark and Matthew, the head of Jesus is anointed, In Luke and John, the feet.

Despite their differences, all four Gospels reflect the same basic story: a woman anoints Jesus. The incident angers people; yet Jesus approves. If the original story had been the anointing of a guest’s feet, it is unlikely that such a commonplace gesture would have been remembered and retold as the proclamation of the gospel. Therefore, it is much more likely that the women actually anointed Jesus’ head.

Since the prophet in the Old Testament anointed the head of the Jewish king, this blessing of Jesus must have been understood immediately as the prophetic recognition of God’s anointed one, the Christ. A women, by holy ritual, names the Messiah. This, my friends, is a dangerous story.

Yet, no more dangerous than the kingdom itself. Persons, created in the likeness of God, invited to live in the fullness of that image. New life is the gift to all whenever Jesus turns away evil, heals the sick, tells stories about the lost who are found, the uninvited who are invited, and the last who will be first. To a common table he bids us come, the poor, the sinner, the tax collector, men, women, children, all of us who fear that we do not belong.

As I ponder the stories of God’s creation, I plan to stay as close to Jesus, my teacher, my savior, my Lord, as possible. I will read his Bible through his eyes. I will come to his table and feast anytime I am invited. I will continue to invite others to this odd community.

And when I doubt, when I am invited to think less of myself because I am woman, or a man, or poor, or broken, or confused, I will recall this story, remembering the one who risked breaking out of tradition to join the community that Jesus gathers.

“Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be remembered.”