Text used – Judges 4:1-10
- September 1853. A Congregational church in South Butler, New York. Antoinette Louisa Brown. The significance? Brown was the first woman ordained to ministry in the United States. She was ordained to her position at the Congregational church in South Butler in Sept. 1853.[1]
- Pains me to say it would take the Presbyterian Church (USA) more than 100 yrs. to catch up:[2]
- Denomination voted to begin ordaining women in 1955
- Rev. Margaret Towner → 1st woman ordained in the PC(USA) on Oct. 24, 1956
- Ordained by Syracuse-Cayuga Presbytery in New York
- Served congregations in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin
- And while that sounds all well and good, let me say this about Margaret Towner’s early ministry. Despite being ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament … when she returned to that Pennsylvania congregation following her ordination, she was never asked to lead worship or preach in that church. And, despite going on to serve as everything from a Christian educator to an associate pastor to a solo/head pastor, Towner wasn’t paid equally with her male peers until her very last pastorate where she served as one of three co-pastors in a six-congregation parish in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
- Towner also went on to serve the PC(USA) as a vice-moderator of the 193rd General Assembly (1981-1982)
- Just a side note: Margaret Towner is still alive
- 98 yrs. old
- Retired and living in Florida
- Other denominations
- First woman ordained in the Episcopal Church: Jaqueline Means – Jan. 1, 1977
- First woman granted full clergy membership in the United Methodist Church: Maude Jensen – 1956
- First woman ordained in the Lutheran church: Elizabeth Platz – Nov. 1970
- And yet still today, friends, there remains vicious controversy over women standing exactly where I’m standing and speaking exactly as I am speaking today.
- Meme that cycles its way through female clergy circles (conversation style):
- Him: What do you do?
Me: Oh, I’m a pastor.
Him: Well, I don’t believe in lady pastors.
Me: Dude, I’m literally standing right in front of you. - And that’s the tamest version. As I was poking around and looking for sermon fodder for this morning, I found a picture online with the caption, “The perfect lipstick for women preachers.” Friends … it was a picture of a tube of superglue.
- Him: What do you do?
- This attitude that women can’t be ministers is, of course, attributed to none other than Paul (love/hate relationship with Paul)
- Multiple comments against women learning, speaking, and preaching
- And yet we also know from the Bible – particularly from the book of Acts – that many of Paul’s contemporaries were women: Lydia, Phoebe, and the women of Rome, just to name a few.
- Also ignores the rich tapestry of important and influential women passed down through Jewish history → touched on a number of those women a few years ago during our summer series on Women of the Bible
- Meme that cycles its way through female clergy circles (conversation style):
- Pains me to say it would take the Presbyterian Church (USA) more than 100 yrs. to catch up:[2]
- One of the women that we didn’t actually talk about during that summer series is the focus of today’s Scripture reading: Deborah, the judge.
- Let’s talk about the book of Jdgs for a minute
- Not a book that we encounter much at all through the Revised Common Lectionary → In fact, this is the only passage from the entire book of Judges – all 21 chapters! – that makes its way into the whole 3-yr. RCL rotation.
- Scholar’s description of Jdgs on the whole: The book of Judges is one of the most exciting, colorful, and disturbing books of the Bible. It contains stories of political intrigue and assassination, lies and deception, rape and murder, courage and fear, great faith and idolatry, power and greed, sex and suicide, love and death, military victories and civil war. The book portrays a major transition in the biblical story of Israel. Before the book of Judges, Israel was under the leadership of Moses in the wilderness and then Joshua in the initial conquest of the land of Canaan. After the book of Judges, Israel was ruled by kings … The turbulent transition between Moses and Joshua, on the one hand, and the kings of Israel, on the other hand, is portrayed in the book of Judges.[3]
- Let me be totally clear: Judges is not an easy book to read. There are a lot of difficult passages in Judges – very violent, bloody, the-spoils-go-to-the-conqueror passages in Judges. Many of what literary-feminist scholar Phyllis Trible calls the “texts of terror” can be found in Judges – texts that detail horrific stories and tie them to the name of God. And there is serious struggle in that. Very serious struggle.
- Reality: even today, thousands of years later, people are still perpetrating horrific acts and justifying blatant hate using God’s name → So have we really come so far? Or is it possible for us to learn a lesson about God and humanity even through the brutality and sadness and intensity of these stories?
- Cadence/rhythm to the book of Jdgs: Israel disobeys God → God sends an enemy → Israel cries out in distress to God → God sends a judge/deliverer to bring the people back → people follow God faithfully … for a time → And then the cycle begins again.
- “Judges” in Heb. = more than just arbiters of justice and legal matters → “judge” synonymous with “ruler” → So the judges whose tales are chronicled throughout the book of Judges were leaders, decision makers, and warriors as well as those charged with maintaining religious life and practice among the people. Suffice to say judges were incredibly important people.
- Let me be totally clear: Judges is not an easy book to read. There are a lot of difficult passages in Judges – very violent, bloody, the-spoils-go-to-the-conqueror passages in Judges. Many of what literary-feminist scholar Phyllis Trible calls the “texts of terror” can be found in Judges – texts that detail horrific stories and tie them to the name of God. And there is serious struggle in that. Very serious struggle.
- Deborah = even more than “just” a judge
- Text today tells us she’s a military leader
- Context (within the rest of the book of Jdgs and the rest of Scripture) tells us she’s the only female judge AND the only judge also called a prophet
- Interesting Heb. transl. tidbit from today’s text – v. 4: Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was a leader of Israel at that time. → Heb. “wife of Lappidoth” could also be transl. “woman of fire”[4]
- Especially interesting when paired with the fact that her assistant’s name is Barak = transl. to “lightning”
- I mean, come on! With Fire and Lightning leading the charge, how could the Israelites being anything but victorious?! It sounds like something straight out of the Marvel Comic Universe, doesn’t it?
- And ultimately, victorious is what they are.
- Today’s Scripture = beginning of Deborah’s story
- Ending = the rest of ch. 4
- Deborah and Barak and the rest of the Israelite army indeed march on General Sisera and his forces → Sisera and his army panic and flee → Barak and his army slay Sisera’s entire army except Sisera himself → Sisera takes refuge with an ally → Jael, wife of his ally, dispatches Sisera in his sleep using a tent stake and a hammer
- Brings about Deborah’s prophecy that we read today: Barak replied to her, “If you’ll go with me, I’ll go; but if not, I won’t go.” Deborah answered, “I’ll definitely go with you. However, the path you’re taking won’t bring honor to you, because the Lordwill hand over Sisera to a woman.”[5]
- Deborah and Barak and the rest of the Israelite army indeed march on General Sisera and his forces → Sisera and his army panic and flee → Barak and his army slay Sisera’s entire army except Sisera himself → Sisera takes refuge with an ally → Jael, wife of his ally, dispatches Sisera in his sleep using a tent stake and a hammer
- Culminates in ch. 5 → Deborah’s victory song praising God
- Last sentence of ch. 5: And the land was peaceful for forty years.[6]
- Let’s talk about the book of Jdgs for a minute
- Crucial question asked by one scholar: Neither Barak nor the narrator report being surprised that the prophetess, judge, and military leader Deborah is a woman. Are we?[7]
- Brings us back around the to the issue of women in places of power and leadership
- Corporate world = glass ceiling
- Church world = stained glass ceiling
- Article from the Society of Human Resource Management published online just at the beginning of this year (Jan. 26, 2023): This month, for the first time in the Fortune 500 list’s 68-year history, more than 10% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women. The Jan. 1, 2023 start dates of five new Fortune 500 chief executives brought the number of female CEOs up to 53, pushing the tally over the long-awaited threshold.[8]
- Gender wage gap in 2023 = $.17 meaning women still earn just $.83 for every $1 men earn[9]
- Plenty of other ways we dismiss, downplay, and denigrate the work/contributions of others
- Wage gaps based on race are significantly higher, especially pay gaps that factor in both gender AND race
- Wage gaps based on ethnicity: experiment about giving employers identical resumes but changing the names at the top → one name is “ethnic sounding” name (something Somalian or Hispanic or identified with any other cultural group) vs. other name is more “white” (e.g. – Sam Pope)[10]
- Wage gap based on sexual orientation and gender identity[11]
- All of which speaks to the reality, friends, that as a society, we still think there are some types of people who inherently “can” and a whole lot of people who inherently “can’t.”
- Scholar speaking of today’s Scripture reading addresses this: The judges stories and the portraits of women begin as healthy, strong, and faithful. The first women we encounter all have names. But increasingly, as Israel and the judges begin their decline, the fate of women will decline as well. The many women characters become nameless. Women gradually lose their independent power and become objects and victims, first inadvertently and willingly, but then more intentionally and unwillingly. … In the ancient world as well as our own, the health and well-being of women provide and important barometer to measure the core health and values of a society or community.[12] → And that, friends, might be the greatest lesson we can learn from our Scripture reading this morning. In today’s passage, we see God working through a strong, powerful, capable, independent, fiery woman – someone who would probably have been discounted … shushed … maybe even punished had she tried to take any type of leadership position later on. But God worked through her in ways that changed the course of Israel’s history … in ways that were both undeniable and compelling.
- Conclude with today’s question: Who do we dismiss as people who can’t do God’s work today? Amen.
- Scholar speaking of today’s Scripture reading addresses this: The judges stories and the portraits of women begin as healthy, strong, and faithful. The first women we encounter all have names. But increasingly, as Israel and the judges begin their decline, the fate of women will decline as well. The many women characters become nameless. Women gradually lose their independent power and become objects and victims, first inadvertently and willingly, but then more intentionally and unwillingly. … In the ancient world as well as our own, the health and well-being of women provide and important barometer to measure the core health and values of a society or community.[12] → And that, friends, might be the greatest lesson we can learn from our Scripture reading this morning. In today’s passage, we see God working through a strong, powerful, capable, independent, fiery woman – someone who would probably have been discounted … shushed … maybe even punished had she tried to take any type of leadership position later on. But God worked through her in ways that changed the course of Israel’s history … in ways that were both undeniable and compelling.
- Brings us back around the to the issue of women in places of power and leadership
[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoinette-Brown-Blackwell.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Towner.
[3] Dennis T. Olson, “The Book of Judges: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 2. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 723.
[4] Lisa Wolfe. “Commentary on Judges 4:1-7” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-33/commentary-on-judges-41-7-6.
[5] Jdgs 4:8-9a.
[6] Jdgs 5:31c.
[7] Wolfe.
[8] Emma Hinchliffe. “Women Run More Than 10% of Fortune 500 Companies for the First Time,” https://www.shrm.org/executive/resources/pages/women-fortune-500-2023.aspx.
[9] https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/gender-pay-gap/.
[10] https://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/employers-replies-racial-names.
[11] https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-among-lgbtq-workers-in-the-united-states.
[12] Olson, 782-783.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made 