Jesus and Courageous Women by Rev. Kathy Sides (Preached at Fort Des Moines UMC )

Transcription

1 Jesus and Courageous Women by Rev. Kathy Sides (Preached at Fort Des Moines UMC ) Greetings! It s so good to see so many of my brothers and sisters here. People of faith. People of Courage. Oh, I know, you probably don t think of yourselves as Courageous. Heaven knows I never thought of myself that way. But you see, so often we think of courage as something that is lived out in big, impressive ways. Courage is seen in the person who would run into a burning building to save a life, in the person who would put themselves in harms way to protect and serve others, the person who would risk taking an unpopular stand that would put their reputation, even their very lives at risk. Those things take courage. But I have found that courage is most often lived out in smaller, more mundane ways. Courage so often is something that is lived quietly, daily; by people who don t think of themselves as courageous. Whether you realize it or not, you are courageous people! Many of you have raised children. That takes courage! Some of you women pursued an education when it wasn t popular for a woman to be educated. That took courage. If you have believed in your dreams when no one else did; if you have faced the day when your heart was full of sorrow or fear; if you have sat by the side of a dying friend or loved one; you are a courageous. If you have held to your faith in Jesus Christ in a world that so often rejects or disregards his teachings and his love, you are courageous. It takes courage to live out your faith, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus has always had among his followers, many courageous men and women. This morning I want to talk to you especially about the women. Not because they were more important than the men, but because, quite honestly, in that time and place, in that society, it took a special kind of courage to be a woman. And, you ve probably already heard plenty about the men. Peter, James, John; even those like Zacchaeus, you know their stories, but sometimes the women are lesser known. And, well, I m a woman, and so I m especially proud of the contribution of women, and I want to make sure you know about some of them. Men, I apologize if I get carried away and sometimes you feel like I m ignoring you, but just bear with me. You might learn something! Jesus has plenty of women followers. Even from the very beginning. You ve read about some of them in the Bible, some who are mentioned by name, and many others who are not. And there were so many others who were never mentioned. The fact that we women are included in the stories of Jesus you have read and heard is really quite remarkable. For a women to have been mentioned, she must have been quite important, or done something quite remarkable. 1

2 You see, back then, men were the recorders of history, and they told things from a man s view. Back then so many women, courageous or not, were pretty invisible. Women were property of their father or husband, and their role was to stay quietly at home. Most of what they did, the contributions they may have made, were never taken into account. They were just the affairs of women, and weren t really important. Sometimes when you read the stories of Jesus, they make it sound like his followers were only men, but there were women who accompanied him, too. Women who followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Women who listened to him teach, women who left their old lives to follow him, women who watched him die while many of the men hid in fear. I think women were drawn to Jesus for two reasons. One is, Jesus had a heart for those who were the marginalized, the left out, of society; the poor, the sick, those who were discriminated against, those like women, who often had no voice. People like that were drawn to Jesus, because they could sense in him someone who valued them, who knew their hearts, who knew their hurts. The second reason women were drawn to Jesus is that he gave them hope. His talk of the Kingdom of God game them a vision of a time and place where things would be different for us. Where we would be valued, not shoved aside. He included us, who were so often excluded. He made us feel free and important. He gave us dignity and worth. Jesus changed the lives of many women, so many more than you will ever know of. But some of those women whose lives were changed made it into the stories that were written down. So many of them were indeed courageous women, because they stepped out of the roles they had always known; stepped out in faith, risking the disapproving stares of men, to have their lives changed by Jesus. As I said, some are nameless, like the Samaritan women at the well. She risked talking with Jesus, when women did not talk to strange men, especially a Samaritan woman and a Jewish man. She even had a discussion with him about religious practices of Jews vs. Samaritans, something a woman wouldn t ordinarily do. But I think the thing that took the most courage is that after she had her life changed by Jesus, she dared to go and tell others, most likely others who had judged and condemned her and left her to live as an outcast. After all, she never would have been at the well in the middle of the day unless people had made it pretty clear that she wasn t welcome to go when the others did, early in the morning. But she had the courage to face that community, to share the news of Jesus, to take them to meet Jesus, so that their lives could be changed, too. A Courageous Woman! 2

3 And then there was the woman who was bold enough, courageous enough, to reach out and touch Jesus because she believed that touching him would make her whole. She was another person who would have been a social outcast. She had a condition that caused a flow of blood, so she was considered unclean. A person who touched her would have been considered unclean, so she no doubt lived her life as an untouchable, someone who had to keep their distance from others. And yet she dared to press into the crowd and reach out and touch Jesus as he was passing by. And Jesus healed her, and restored her. He called her daughter, his way of valuing her, of restoring her. A woman of faith, a woman of courage, a woman whose life was changed by Jesus. And there are so many others unnamed, and others totally unknown, whose lives were changed by Jesus. And many became his followers. Then there are the women who actually played such an important part in Jesus life and ministry that they are known by name. Women of courage. People like Mary and Martha. Mary had the courage to risk sitting and listening and learning from Jesus when it was a woman s role to cook and serve, not listen and learn. In fact, women were not permitted to learn anything but how to manage and home and family in those days. Yet Mary took a seat with the men and sat at Jesus feet to learn. Martha had the courage to open her home to Jesus, even in those last days when to be associated with Jesus meant you might very well be putting yourself in danger. And then there is Mary Magdalene. Jesus cast seven demons out of her. I suppose in this day and age you would say she had a mental illness. At any rate, she had lost her dignity, her control over her life. She would have been one who was an outcast. But Jesus healed her, restored her health and life. And she became a follower of Jesus Christ. Oh, you won t see her name listed as one of the disciples, but just between you and me, that s what she was. She was every bit as important in his ministry as Peter or John. After all, it was to her that the resurrected Jesus appeared. It was to her that he gave the charge to go and tell the others. Of course, they didn t listen at first because she was just a woman, but she was the first to encounter the risen Christ, the first to tell the story of his resurrection. So many women who found the courage to step out of the place that they had been put in society in order to encounter Jesus, in order to be healed and changed and set free by Jesus. In order to follow Jesus, even follow him all the way to the cross. Courageous Women. And I would guess that before they met Jesus, none of them would have thought of themselves and having courage. But somehow, through Jesus, they found the courage to step out in faith. 3

4 And me? What part did I play in the life of Jesus? Well, I played a role that took a special kind of courage. Courage I never knew I had, courage that could only have come from God. For you see, I was the mother of Jesus. If you had asked me that night before Gabriel came if I had the courage to do what I did, I would have said NO WAY! I m just an ordinary woman, I m not a Courageous Woman. But somehow, day by day, I found the courage to live out the role that had been chosen for me. That day that Gabriel came to me, I was terrified. But I said yes to what he asked. Did that take courage? I don t know. I had been raised to be a dutiful girl, and dutiful girls did what they were told. No wasn t a word in my vocabulary. So when an angel of they Lord told me that God had made plans for me, I never thought to say no. I think it would have taken more courage to say no than to do what I did. So, in the beginning, maybe it wasn t courage that compelled me to say yes, maybe it was habit, and fear. But if I didn t have courage at that moment, I would certainly need it later. It did take courage to go to Joseph with the news of what had happened. I knew it sounded so unbelievable. And I knew at the very least he could decide not to marry me, and at the worst he could have me stoned. But God gave me the courage to tell my story. And God gave him the faith and the courage to believe me, and to live his life as the earthly father of the son of God. You see, there were some men of courage, too! And, it took courage to face the long trip to Bethlehem, and to give birth to my first-born in a stable with animals and Joseph in attendance instead of my mother and aunts, as I had always imagined. But none of that took as much courage as I would need later. It took so much courage for me to let my son grow into the man God had sent him to be, when my mother s heart wanted so much for him to live a quiet life close to his mother. And believe me, I had lots of conversations with God to that effect. But somehow, God gave me the courage to let him grow, and let him go. I was so proud of him, but there was so much I didn t understand. And it took courage to believe that God knew what he was doing with my son. It took courage to watch as the anger and hatred against him rose. It took so much courage to watch him set his face toward Jerusalem when all I wanted was for him to run back to Nazareth and to be safe. And to live. Where did I find the courage to stand and watch him die on that cross? I ll never know. The hardest thing in the world is to watch someone you love die. How does a mother bear to watch her son suffer and die? I can t begin to express the pain I felt that day, the helplessness, even the anger that God had seemingly abandoned my son. My faithful son. 4

5 But how could I not be there, how could I not watch. I was his mother, and though it broke my heart, I had to be there for him, had to believe that somehow, my presence would give him strength and comfort. So I was there, and I watched hour after agonizing hour. And there were others who stood with me. Women who found the courage to leave the hiding place of the disciples and risk being seen weeping, mourning his death. Oh, I don t hold it against the ones who weren t there. The men who hid in fear. The world was turned upside down, and for so many, all they could think to do was to protect themselves, to hide in terror. But they found their courage later. Jesus knew that God could still do great things with them. And many of them later found the courage to take the message of Jesus to so many people. And some even found the courage to face deaths like his because of their faith in him. Jesus changed the lives of so many, and through him many women found new life, new courage to become more than they had dreamed possible. In those early days, when people began to follow Jesus, people began to form themselves into communities of faith, persons who were followers of the way as they called themselves back then. And because of the way that they had seen Jesus treat persons, they treated one another with respect and dignity, just as he did. They valued one another equally, as he did. Women had a voice, a place, a value, in those communities. We thought that things had changed, things were being made new, the way God intended them to be. But, unfortunately, though the years, things changed. People began to fall back into old habits, old ways. They forgot to keep living by the example of Christ. Within the church, woman gradually began to lose their voice, they were gradually silenced through the years, their gifts and contributions to the community discounted. And so once again, it took women of courage to step forward and try to reclaim the hope and vision that Jesus had brought. And it s been a long road, but thanks to Courageous women like you gathered here, things have begun to change again. Through the courage of women, women have found their voice again. The church is beginning to value and respect women in new ways. So many of you enrich the church with your gifts: your intelligence, your diligence, your faith. Why, I hear you even have a woman pastor here! But there is still a long way to go before we are truly living the way Jesus did, treating others the way Jesus did. And so it still takes courageous women like you (and courageous men, too), to have the faith to live as Jesus lived, and to call others to commit themselves to living that way, too. 5

6 I know, some of you don t think you can make a difference, but you can. I didn t think I could make a difference, but I did. I found the courage to do what God would have me do. Am I so special? No. There were so many times when I wondered why God chose me. Why, out of all the people he had to choose from, would he choose me? Was it as simple as being willing to do what I was asked? I don t know. But I do know this, if you do what he asks, your life will be changed. It s like this: Whatever He Say To You from The Witness How did I arrive? How did I come to be? The one he chose to bless, out of all the rest, Why did he choose me? What do I possess, what secret do I know? What wonders have I done to move the one from whom all blessings flow? Just these words, they re all I have to give Just these words, they are the way I live - And the water will turn into wine, Sight will come to the blind So whatever he says to you, do it. What more can I say, Or what more could I do, To show you how to give your life So God can live his live in you. Just these words, they re all I have to give Just these words, they are the way I live - And the water will turn into wine, Sight will come to the blind So whatever he says to you, do it. Do it. Just do it. 6