I am certain that you Bible scholars have experienced the same phenomenon as I have, namely, that you can read the same passage over and over and over again and find something that strikes you anew each time. Scripture does not change, of course, but we change. It is that old saying about not being able to step into the same river twice.
That is my experience with this pericope. In years past, I would have noted the Lord’s healing ministry, the way the word spread through the people about this wonder-worker, Jesus’ need for respite and prayer, and the like. But this time, I am drawn to the vignette that we find right near the beginning of the passage: “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (Mark 1:30-31) Years ago, I thought nothing of it, but now... She was sick in bed, Jesus healed her, she got up, and went about playing the perfect hostess. Huh?
It reminds me of the story of the fifteen-year-old boy who came bounding into the house and found his mom in bed. He asked if she were sick or something. He was truly concerned. Mom replied that, as a matter of fact, she didn’t feel too well. The son replied, “Well, don’t worry a bit about dinner. I’ll be happy to carry you down to the stove.”[1] Uh-huh.
Years ago, I thought nothing of gender stereotypes, but times change. And I have changed. When I grew up, gender roles were fairly rigid, but no more. When I went to seminary, there were very few women in parish ministry. That is not the case any longer. Gender barriers have come crashing down. There is still discrimination, but every year it declines bit by bit. Good.
The same is certainly true in the secular world. The twenty-first century has seen the Harvard-educated Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf elected as President of Liberia, Africa’s first female president. Angela Merkel has been one of the longest serving chancellors of Germany. Michelle Bachelet was elected president of Chile, the first woman to lead a major Latin American country. Since the 1990s, more than thirty women have become heads of government. In the 1950s there was just one (Suhbaataryn Yanjmaa, president of Mongolia.).
Not just heads of state either. In Iraq, women fill at least 25% of seats in the Parliament because the Iraqi Constitution has a quota requiring it. Overall, fifty countries have quotas for female representation in their legislatures. In many countries, like Sweden, political parties have adopted rules that force them to field a set number of women candidates. However, the lowest female representation by region is in the Arab world, with women making up only 8% of legislatures.[2]
Does all this gender shift make any real difference? Many voters seem to think so. A Gallup poll in Latin America a few years ago found that 62% of people believed that women would do better than men at fighting poverty, 72% favored women for improving education and 53% thought women would make better diplomats.[3] There is growing evidence that, at the very least, where women make up a significant percentage of government, they tend to hold priorities that are different from men’s. The World Economic Forum found, in a study of just three countries, that women wanted more money for health care, education and social welfare, and less for the military. Across the globe, women are perceived as less corrupt. Interesting stuff.
This is consistent with growing evidence at a grassroots level that women are better recipients of aid than men. Around the world, if you give cash to a mother, she tends to use it to invest in children’s health and education. (A man, on the other hand, will often take it and head to the local watering hole.) “Studies from Brazil show that survival possibilities of a child increase by 20% if the income is in the hands of the mother rather than the father.” So says the World Bank.[4]
There is another perceived difference between men and women. A few years ago, an article appeared in Foreign Affairs in which it was argued that “aggression, violence, war, and intense competition for dominance... are more closely associated with men than women.” The conclusion was that “a world run by women would follow different rules.”[5] That may be open to question considering that Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi, to name just a few, did not hesitate to lead their nations in war.
In the church, in my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), it was almost 100 years ago (1930) that our General Assembly passed Resolution B voting to ordain women as elders and the next year five women were elected as commissioners to that Assembly. Some men feared women would take over the church. Some women wondered why the men would think the women wanted it. Another 25 years would go by before the first woman was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. In 1956, Margaret Towner became the first woman ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the United Presbyterian Church.
Margaret left a career as a medical photographer at the Mayo Clinic to study education at Syracuse University prior to accepting the job as Director of Christian Education at the East Genesee, New York Church. She then pursued the three-year Bachelor of Divinity Degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York, believing that such training would be helpful in her work in Christian Education. She moved to First Church, Allentown, Pennsylvania and she flourished. It was suggested that she pursue ordination to the ministry, and, sho’ ‘nuff, she became the first female pastor in our denomination.
Towner’s ordination did not bring her equality with males. There was and, sadly, still is, a “stained glass ceiling” in the church that denies full equality. Perhaps typical was a remark at the presbytery meeting following Margaret’s official entrance into ministry: one man asked, “What do we do now, address everyone as brethren and sistern?”[6] Why not? As anyone with eyes can see, the number of women ministers in mainline congregations has increased exponentially in recent years and there is no indication that the trend will change anytime soon.
So saying, I would love to report that the church has taken the lead in ensuring gender equality. Not really. There are still some parts of the church that have a problem with that, and that even with the contrary witness of scripture. In the Hebrew Bible, we have the creation of Eve as a “helpmate” or partner (not simply assistant) to Adam in the Garden. Wags (short for Skalawags) have pictured the angels asking God, why this new creation and God responding, “I saw my first result and figured I could do better.” Uh-huh. There are lots of great names in scripture —Rebekah, Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, Ruth, and Queen Esther. In the New Testament we have Mary, of course. Women were the first witnesses to the resurrection. In the early church we find faithful ladies like Dorcas and Lydia. Quite frankly, from the first day to this day, if it were not for the women, there would be no church. It is that simple.
Think of some of them. Think of Anne Hutchinson, a heroine for her insistence on religious freedom in America.[7] Anne emigrated from England with her family in 1634 as part of the Puritan movement that was dissatisfied with the Church of England. They were searching for religious freedom in the new world, but the freedom on these shores was not as free as some might have hoped. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was organized as a rigid theocracy that demanded strict adherence to a code of conduct and did not tolerate dissent of any kind, and certainly not from a woman, because it was widely believed that women did not have the native capacity for spiritual discernment (they should keep themselves only to be wives and mothers).
Anne Hutchinson must have been a remarkable individual because she attracted other women from the colony to her home-based religious discussions and Bible studies. Governor John Winthrop in his diary called her an “American Jezebel.” He believed women should not be behaving like this. Anne and her family were banished from Massachusetts for her boldness and settled in what is now Rhode Island, then moved to Long Island. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of courage who surely qualifies as a heroine of the faith.
Another woman of great courage was Sojourner Truth. Born a slave named Isabella around 1797, she became a crusader for emancipation for the slaves and new rights for women. She was converted in a dramatic fashion when she says the Spirit of Jesus came to her to express his love and say to her, “I know you! I know you!” When given her freedom in New York in 1827, Isabella went to New York City where she worked cooking, cleaning, and caring for the sick. Then God gave her a new name, Sojourner Truth, and she traveled throughout the country speaking against the sin of slavery.
Often clergymen challenged her right to speak to men — women were to keep silent. Once confronted by some males in the audience, she replied:
“Some say woman can’t have as much rights as a man cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman. Men had nothing to do with him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, all women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again and now that they are asking to do it, men better let’ em.”[8]
You go, girl! There are other heroines. There was Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India near the end of the 19th century who founded the Dohnavur Fellowship, which became a haven for homeless children, especially girls who had escaped from temple prostitution.[9] She was even given “temple babies,” infants that were born of the temple prostitutes, to raise in her “home.” Amy Carmichael was an inspiration and heroine to, not only those girls she rescued in India, but who knows how many others through her extensive writings.
There is Donaldina Cameron in San Francisco. In 1882, Congress passed the first of three Chinese exclusion acts which prevented all but a few privileged classes of Chinese men from sending for their families in China. Single men could not send for Chinese wives, nor did the law permit them to marry non-Chinese wives. The small ratio of Chinese women to men bred a rampant prostitution market. To meet the demand, Chinese girls and young women, mostly from Canton, were bought, kidnapped, or coerced into coming to America. Once in the country, these girls were sold for one of two purposes — those in their teens were pressed into prostitution; little ones were sold for household servants called Mui Tsai’s. As they got older, they were frequently sold into prostitution as well. It was the rescue of these Mui Tsai’s and prostitutes that was Donaldina Cameron’s mission. She is credited with breaking the back of the Chinese slave trade in the US and the rescue and education of nearly 3,000 girls — an amazing woman.[10]
In our own day we were blessed by the presence of another incredible heroine of the faith. She was called Agnes by her Albanian parents but the world came to know her as Mother Teresa, a name she chose as she became a nun in honor of St. Teresa of Lisieux, patron saint of foreign missionaries.[11] From what has been called a “life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God” on a train journey in September, 1946 came a unique ministry to the poorest of the poor in India.
“There is a terrible hunger for love,” she wrote. “We all experience that in our lives — the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God.”
The work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity received much international notice and acclaim, the most prestigious, of course, her receiving of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The comment was made when she received it that “her labor made her so worthy that, in reality, she gave honor to the prize, rather than the other way around!” As time went on, she confessed her own doubts and struggles with faith, but she persevered, and her work has wonderfully survived her. She was truly a heroine of the faith.
And then there was the mother-in-law of Simon Peter - in bed with a fever. Jesus came, took her by the hand and lifted her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve. Good lady.
These are true heroines of the faith. There have been so many. No doubt, you could name several that might be known only to you. Fortunately, for almost a half century now, I have been blessed to be married to one of them. Thank you, Christie.
An old story: Three guys were out having a relaxing day fishing. Out of the blue, they caught a mermaid who begged to be set free in return for granting each of them a wish. Now one of the guys just doesn’t believe it, and said, “Okay, if you can really grant wishes, then double my IQ.”
The mermaid said, “Done.” Suddenly, the guy started reciting Shakespeare flawlessly and analyzing it with amazing insight.
The second guy was so blown away that he said to the mermaid, “Triple my IQ.”
The mermaid said, “Done.” The guy started to spout out all the mathematical solutions to problems that had been stumping all the scientists of varying fields ‒ physics, chemistry, and more.
The last guy was so enthralled with the changes in his friends, that he said to the mermaid, “Quintuple my IQ.”
The mermaid looked at him and said, “You know, I normally don’t try to change people’s minds when they make a wish, but I really wish you would reconsider.”
The guy said, “Nope, I want you to increase my IQ times five, and if you don’t do it, I won’t set you free.”
“Please,” said the mermaid, “You don’t know what you’re asking... it will change your entire view on the universe... won’t you ask for something else... a million dollars, anything?” But no matter what the mermaid said, the guy insisted on having his IQ increased by five times its usual power. So, the mermaid sighed and said, “Done.”
And he became a woman.[12]
We love you, ladies. God bless you for who you are and all that you do.
Amen!
1. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), 378.
2. “Woman in National Parliments,” Archive.ipu (February 1, 2019). archives.ipu.org/wmn-e/ classif.htm/
3. Johanna Godoy, “Latin America: Signs of Progress,” Gallup (March 8, 2019). news.gallup. com/poll/247199/latin-america-signe-progress-change-takes-time.aspx.
4. Daimen de Walque, “Should Cash Transfers be Systematically Paid to Mothers?,” World Bank Blog (July 6, 2016). blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/should-cash-transfers-be- systematically-paid-mothers.
5. Francis Fukuyama, “Woman and the Evolution of World Politics,” Foreign Affairs (September 1998). foreignaffairs.com/articles/1998-09-1/woman-and-evolution-world-politics
6. James H. Smylie, “Women Ministers (1955-1966) and Margaret Towner,” The Presbyterian Outlook, (February 6, 2006)..
7. Anne Adams, “Anne Hutchinson: Advocate for Religious Freedom,” History’s Women. http://www.historyswomen.com/womenoffaith/AnneHutchinson.htm.
8. Bill J. Leonard, Word of God Across the Ages, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981), 71.
9. “Amy Carmichael: Founder of Dohnavur Fellowship,” History’s Women. http://www.historyswomen.com/womenoffaith/amy.html.
10. Vicki Thomas, “Cameron, Donaldina: Missionary, Social Worker and Youth Advocate,” Encyclopedia of San Francisco, 2003. http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/c/ cameronDonaldina.html.
11. Anne Adams, “Mother Teresa: Compassionate Servant of God,” History’s Women. http://www.historyswomen.com/womenoffaith/MotherTeresa_000.htm.
12. “Mermaid Granst a Wish…,” Kent.Edu. math.kent.edu/-mtackett/chuckles/mermaidwish.html.