He Said These Things to Her
Why is it still so hard for women to get equal pulpit time in so many churches?
by Dave Buerstetta
Gospel Reading: John 20:1-18
For Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011: Year A – Resurrection of Our Lord
I don’t remember reading any section of scripture that includes more running than this one. Mary Magdalene rushes into the picture – breathless from running straight from Jesus’ tomb – and announces, “They have taken the Lord!”
Run, Forrest, Lola, John, Run!
Immediately, John (you know, the disciple whom Jesus loved) and Peter (you know, apparently not the disciple whom Jesus loved) spring into action. They run to investigate [cue music] The Mystery of the Empty Tomb!
They’re like bizarro versions of Shaggy & Scooby: they take off toward the spot of the mysterious sighting and, zoinks! they, like, can’t get there fast enough. They must see it with their own eyes!
Simon (the Rock) Peter, P.I.
John is faster so he arrives at the tomb first. But it seems Peter is the better investigator. Or at least the more curious one. Peter, as we’ve come to expect from him, doesn’t hesitate. He needs to see the evidence and thus immediately enters the tomb. John quickly follows him inside and they confirm Mary’s story:
Empty tomb? Check.
Linen wrappings lying there? Check.
Cloth from Jesus’ head rolled up and lying separately? Check.
Then, just as suddenly as it came in on Mary’s running feet, all the energy in the narrative drains away with the men’s reaction: “Then the disciples returned to their homes.”
Despite their anxious running and curious investigating, they just up and leave. “Yep, tomb’s empty. Nothing more to see here. Please disperse.”
After making such an effort to get to the tomb, why are Peter and John so quick to walk away? Meanwhile, Mary stays.
That Meddling Mary
This reading really could make for a decent Scooby Doo episode. It’s got running, investigating, otherworldly visitors, and a case of mistaken identity. It even has a surprise revelation: “I have seen the Lord!”
With that revelation, it suddenly ceases to be The Mystery of the Empty Tomb and is transformed (at least for us reading it two thousand-ish years later) into Ascension! Resurrection! Good News! And the only remaining mystery is “why are you weeping?”
But what if all of that stuff, as interesting as it is, as thought-provoking and question-inducing as it is…what if all of that is for us today mostly a distraction? A misdirection, even. At the risk of stretching the analogy way, way too far, might we see Mary kind like Velma? She’s always there, often ignored, but ultimately she’s the one who gets it.
Consider: Mary goes, Mary discovers, Mary runs, Mary tells, Mary returns, Mary weeps, Mary seeks. Then Mary is called by name! And Mary sees clearly! Mary understands! Mary listens! And finally, Mary declares!
Christians often call Easter “The Day of Days” and think of it as the highest holy day in the liturgical year. This text from John’s gospel is read in each RCL year, making it the pinnacle text for the pinnacle day. This text makes Mary Magdalene the main character, the main actor, the representative of all who would follow Jesus. This text makes Mary the hero.
Mary is the first one at the empty tomb and the first one to whom the (not-quite-yet-completely) Resurrected Jesus reveals himself and the first evangelist for the Risen Lord, delivering Jesus’ message to his “brothers.” Mary Magdalene, the first Easter preacher!
The Hardest Question
Why is it still so hard for women to get equal pulpit time in so many churches?
Suggesting God has a sense of humor, the Rev. Dave Buerstetta is a life-long and ordained American Baptist who has served as one of the pastors at the Woodridge United Methodist Church (Woodridge, IL) since 1995. Striving (but mostly failing) to love God, love neighbors and love enemies makes social justice, contemplative practices, equality and sustainability some of Dave’s passions. He is more successful following other passions like baseball and hockey. (2005 & 2010 were very good years!) Being a husband and father are pretty great too. Dave and his wife, Joann, have two children and live in Naperville, IL. Dave blogs irregularly at cantleaveunsaid.wordpress.com
In the midst of women still fighting for the right to be ordained in some churches, this is so meaningful and speaks so clearly about the importance of Mary Magdalene. And, anytime you can work zoinks, Scooby Doo and a Velma reference into a blog… bravo!
April 19th, 2011 at 11:29 amPatti, thanks for reading. I’m glad it was meaningful for you.
It astounds me that we do still have to fight for women to be treated, well, like the full human beings they are. I know people can throw a couple of proof texts at me, and I could do the same with this text or Jesus with the woman at the well, or…
But for me it boils down to this:
Do you have a mother or a sister or a wife or a daughter or a niece or a granddaughter or an aunt or a grandmother? Or do you have a female friend or teacher or neighbor? Do you have at least one woman in your life that you love and care about? Do you have at least one woman in your life who loves and cares for you?
If so, why would you ever let a government or a person or a church or a denomination or anyone or anything at all, tell you that woman is anything less than fully human? Why would you let that person or institution treat her poorly, like she isn’t worth as much to the world simply because she is a woman?
I truly do not understand that.
April 19th, 2011 at 2:30 pmI also notice that when women are in charge of things, generally things, well, go better. Whether we’re talking about ham dinners or politics women, like mary in the story tend to have a more human and pastoral approach to things and are less egotistical. Of course there are major exceptions…too!
April 20th, 2011 at 3:30 pmTom, I’m a little uneasy with such broad generalizations about women, but I think I know what you’re getting at. The first 14 years of my ministry were with a woman as Sr. Pastor. People, especially those for whom that is a foreign concept, sometimes ask what that’s like…I don’t think it’s like anything, it just is.
Maybe it just seems like things go better when women are in charge because there have just been so few times and places when women have been “allowed” such responsibility. Maybe it seems women have a different style because our sample size of experience with women leaders is too small?
Whatever the reasons, more women in positions of leadership and power seems like a good thing for everyone.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:46 pmDave, I don’t really have anything new for you since you and I are both advocates for women as equals in all things, including the pulpit. I do appreciate the Scooby-Doo references… that just might make it into this week’s sermon! With references, of course. Now go get a new mug shot!
April 22nd, 2011 at 8:00 pmC’mon now, Wallace, that picture isn’t so bad, is it? And it is new: just took it right before these posts went up! The one I was gonna use was like four years old…besides, Joann liked this one.
Maybe what I need is a new mug!
As for your sermon this week, please use whatever intrigues you or moves you.
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:48 pmThanks, Dave. I’ve been preaching for 30 years, mostly in California where I’m from. I remember in the early years having people say that I was the first woman they had ever heard preach, and feeling the weight of that. What if it wasn’t my best sermon ever? What if I’d been up with a sick kid the night before? I don’t imagine you guys have heard that comment very often, that you are the first man someone had ever heard preach, but imagine how it would feel.
April 23rd, 2011 at 1:51 pmThat tapered off over the years as more women went to seminary and were called to California pulpits. However, I have now moved to the Midwest and am serving as an interim senior pastor in a mid-sized city. And guess what? The Good Friday ‘seven last words’ community service featured seven guys in the pulpit. Felt like the bad old days… So I appreciate it when a Midwestern guy raises the question. Thanks.
Wallace made me LOL but I guess I have a new running icon earlier that Joan Benoit. Thanks for all of the above.
April 23rd, 2011 at 2:05 pmKaren, thanks for your comment. But much more importantly, thanks for your witness. You’re right, I cannot know how that felt for you to break the gender barrier everywhere you went. But I can empathize. And I do.
The first 14+ years as a pastor were working with women senior pastors. I learned a lot from them; including a lot about what it was like for them to go through the kind of pressures and comments you mention. It blows my mind and makes me very angry that women were treated like that. And it down right baffles and exasperates me that we’re still having this “debate” in 2011. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s just flat out wrong.
April 23rd, 2011 at 2:45 pmJoy,
April 23rd, 2011 at 2:46 pmGlad we made you laugh!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Careful with questions that leave your faith in the Bible open to question. One could also ask, Why is not half the Bible written by women? It is not. I’m unsure of the exact percentage, but it’s small. There is far more to this than a simplistic female versus male modern agenda.
I’m very careful not to ascribe oppression of women to my grandparents. In fact there are two opposing views which I don’t believe. I don’t believe that grandma luxuriated over tea and cake with the ladies’ guild while grandpa slaved away to keep her. Nor do I believe that grandpa oppressed grandma and made her into a doormat, not my grandma.
Don’t forget that it is our generation that has the highest divorce rate in history. Maybe other generations could teach us a thing or two. I’d rather look upon my elders with honor than self-righteous disdain.
April 23rd, 2011 at 5:55 pmCatholics have used John 20:1-18 to point out that Peter was the first into the tomb and thus deserving of being first Pope. Protestants have used it to show John’s greater faith than Peter’s and thus Peter did not deserve the title of first Pope. Women’s movements have used the same passage to show that Mary Magdalene was the first with the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and thus a woman was the first evangelist. Quite frankly these ideas are disgusting. The political domination of Rome over the Church, the Protestant rebellion against Rome and the social ambitions of modern women have little to do with the real story here. How dare we trivialize or taint the resurrection of our Lord with human politics! Jesus is alive and in him we Catholics, Protestants, men and women are alive too.
April 23rd, 2011 at 6:26 pm[...] by two recent happenings. First, a blog article posted by the Rev. Dave Buerstetta called “He Said These Things to Her.” Second, a 6th grader in my congregation shared his personal experience of women in [...]
April 23rd, 2011 at 8:00 pmGrant, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
I must admit though, I’m puzzled by a couple of your remarks. What gives you the idea that I’m looking at “elders with self-righteous disdain?” And what the heck does the divorce rate have to do with, well, with anything at all written here?
I loved my grandparents very much. They were almost stereotypical Nebraskans: hardworking farmers who loved Jesus very much and were leaders in their church. Yet, somehow the faith that was passed on to them never challenged their bigotry toward African-Americans. Or Catholics. That’s not self-righteous disdain that makes me say that. It’s just simply the truth. It makes me sad.
And it makes me want to teach our faith in a different way; a way that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity and humanity of every human being. It makes me strive to live as a follower of God in the Way of Jesus and to teach that Way. Because the Jesus I’ve met in the gospels, the one whom I love and strive to serve, consistently broke down and through cultural barriers that oppressed people, especially women.
And when women are told they are not worthy of being pastors or of teaching the faith (unless of course it’s to preschoolers) simply because they are women, that is oppression. And Jesus self-declared purpose was to set the oppressed free. Because I love and follow Jesus, that’s my purpose too. Albeit, one I fail miserably at quite often.
April 23rd, 2011 at 10:11 pmGrant, one more thing: I don’t think it’s “tainting” anything to recognize that Jesus’ life, death, teachings & resurrection happened in the midst of human politics, were affected by those politics, often were reactions to those politics, and had political implications.
Much of the language about Jesus and the church were borrowed from Empire. Why? Because the way of Jesus is a radically new way to do and be kingdom. It was human politics that put Jesus on the cross! He challenged Empire with his way and Empire killed him for it. The “real story here” is already full of politics!
I will say thought that we agree that real and true life, abundant life, the good life, is found in following God. For me, I know God through Jesus.
April 23rd, 2011 at 10:31 pmbig Thank You to all who read and all who commented this week!
I had a blast! Hope you did too.
Happy Easter to all! Christ is risen!
April 24th, 2011 at 9:52 pm[...] I'm really double dipping here. This is a post from my stint as guest blogger at The Hardest Question. It's also a revision of my usually-weekly letter/post/thing for my [...]
April 29th, 2011 at 8:25 am