We come in the presence of God—we lay everything on the altar of God: our cherished positions about how things ought to be, ourselves as fallible, prone to mistakes—with one thing in common, a quest for transformation, so that we may be able to be God’s channel of love, grace, peace, and transformation wherever we are.
In the Old Testament text we meet our biblical foremothers in Numbers 27:1 – 8—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah.
We see these women are enmeshed in a situation that needs change. It is an old, ongoing situation concerning the community’s understanding of inheritance; understandings that have been legislated and were binding.
The legacy of these women is a relentless attitude, a daring spirit to enter the most unlikely places, to confront the most sacred legislation that bound the community, to find their voices and use their voices for change.
They begin with something that is a common value, a value they know Moses upholds: ‘Our dad was a loyal, faithful member of the community. He was apportioned lands, something that will cause his name to be remembered, because of his loyalty to this group. Moses, why should this honorable man’s name disappear because he has no sons? Give us some of his land and in this way his name will not disappear.’
We might say that’s a roundabout way to achieve justice. But for those of us who, more often than not, are swimming upstream—those of us whose experiences involve learning the art and strategy of surviving and thriving against all odds, not only against gender discrimination, but caste, class, race, economic standing, colour, disabilities, sexualities—we know the value of stepping back, seeking solidarity, putting heads together to strategize.
The word of God for you this day is: how do you step back, look again at yourselves, examine your contexts, pay attention to the assumptions and values that operate in your contexts, and see the extent to which these are consistent with discerning God’s way forward for you?
You must be careful about what you ask of God in prayer. Why? Because you might just get it. You ask for transformation, you might get it. You don’t take the name of the Lord in vain. You don’t go around saying that you are seeking God’s input, guidance or God’s intervention in something and not be serious about it.
This is so timely for our church. So timely for women to come together, to seek God’s guidance in steering our church toward a new and transforming vision of what it means to be in service.
We are different, but all of us, at some point, have been “some women” as in Luke 8:1 – 3. We have been nameless and faceless. We have been left off the lists. We have been second – guessed.
And it is this some – ness that is our strength; the point on which we might work together, in spite of our differences, our conflicting stories, and our different experiences of mission and life.
It is this some – ness that can provide a way for us to look in and be transformed.
