Devotion: Sheroes
Sheroes
Please take a moment to read John 2:3-5
Last Sunday we began a new worship series at Sheridan, “Sheroes.” I’m very excited about it. We will be exploring female heroes, both in the Bible and history. I hope you will also reflect on the sheroes in faith from your own life.
To start the series, I gave what is somewhat of a theological treatise on feminism. I was well-schooled in theology by the Lutheran legend, Dr. Phil Hefner. Dr. Hefner taught us to look at the overarching meaning of the Bible and to not get bogged in the individual words that are used. Honestly, this is the best way to look at the Bible in most every circumstance, but especially regarding the role and influence of women. What we fail to understand in our reading of the Bible today is that it generally pushed culture forward, towards compassion.
An easy example is from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Most of us hear this as taking an equal punishment from the offender when having been wronged. The place of this rule in Jewish Law was actually to prevent excessive punishment. It was a move towards compassion, because it was common to murder as revenge. Most of us agree, if we were the victim of someone accidentally knocking our tooth out, we wouldn’t be up for doing the same to the other with our own bare hands. Yuck! Progression is the right thing to do. It is God’s way.
We see this same type of progression when it comes to the voice and authority of women in the Bible – especially in the Gospels. There are many passages that strictly talk about men as leaders and pastors, however Jesus always included women in his ministry. As a matter of fact, he never failed to do so. This was part of God’s progression in the time of a very patriarchal society.
As a my theology professor, Dr. Hefner, would say, God strategically put women at the most precious of places in our faith. God put women as the first witnesses to the resurrection. The voice of women is the most important voice in the most important moment in our history. This cannot be denied.
I believe the Bible was written to pull a patriarchal culture forward, despite using words that assume the male dominance of the day. It is clear, God chose the voice of women when it truly counted. For God placed them in the one place that carries the greatest weight – the empty tomb.
Thank God for sheroes.
Jesus, at the wedding at Cana, your mother called you into ministry. Her voice began it all. And at the empty tomb, the voice of women spoke of your resurrection. Their voice began it all. Open our ears to hear the voices of the sheroes in the world, and in our life. Amen.
Written by Pastor Greg Bouvier
Pastor Greg heard God’s call to Sheridan in 1999 and that began a journey which has become his life’s work. Having played a variety of roles as pastor of Sheridan, Pastor Greg was called as the Senior Pastor in 2011. He leads the staff and his primary focus is on the creation of culture, the overall direction of worship and partnering with our amazing team. Pastor Greg has been married to Rose for more than 30 years and together they have two servant-hearted grown children.