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The story that I just read for you from the 24th chapter of the book of Genesis, concerns the betrothal of Isaac and Rebekah.
This is the third week that we’ve considered stories in Genesis that have dealt with patriarch Abraham and his family.
Two Sundays ago, we looked at the story of the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, and, unless I’m mistaken, Jess preached, last Sunday, about the painful story of when Abraham came “this close” to sacrificing his son Isaac.
Digging into these stories to see what they can tell us, is, in a way, a journey back to the roots of our shared global culture. Adherents of the three great monotheistic religions of the world – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, (which together account for more than half of the population of the world) all trace their roots to this common patriarch – Abraham.
But the stories that surround Abraham are tough.
This isn’t easy stuff.
These stories are filled with conflict, confusion and very real trauma.
The story of Isaac and Rebekah’s betrothal appears to be an exception. This is a story of connection – one that appears to have a happy ending. A match is made! There is what sounds like a fairy-tale “happily-ever-after” conclusion when the two young folks are joined in matrimony.
But you do not have to be a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, to feel some real concern for the way that Rebekah is treated in this story. Throughout the story, the men negotiate and haggle over her as if she is a piece of property being transacted – which is pretty much what she is, at least to the men… and to God – who, in this story, is hard to distinguish from one of the guys. There is very little sense that anyone considers her to be a mature human being with desires and attitudes of her own.
To be fair, there is a passing moment when her opinion is requested, and she is asked if she will “go with this man…”
“I will,” she replies… though we don’t know if her tone of voice was enthusiastic, timid, intrigued, or downright fearful. Her acquiescence feels like a forgone conclusion, coming, as it does, after all the men have held their negotiations and agreed that they’d better go along with it. The real matchmaker here is clearly God, and no one, least of all Rebekah, is eager to cross God.
I guess it’s pretty predictable that a UCC minister should offer a feminist critique of this story. I don’t know about you, but I can’t read through it without my Holier-Than-Thou-New-England-Prius-Driving-Liberal sensibilities starting to tingle with outrage.
But there are good reasons, this year, to be righteously indignant on behalf of the female half of our species. The ladies – who represent a good deal more than half of the people in this room – have suffered some historically outrageous setbacks in the last year. The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last year has effectively taken away the bodily autonomy of women in many states, making it a crime if they choose to have an abortion.
Last month, we Christians leapt enthusiastically into the game of putting down women, when the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly voted to expel two churches that had the nerve to call female ministers. To make absolutely sure that no woman will ever get uppity again, and try to step out of the kitchen and into the pulpit, the Southern Baptists – America’s largest protestant denomination – voted (with a 2/3rds majority) to amend their constitution to specify that Southern Baptist churches must (quote) “affirm, appoint or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” (endquote)
“…as qualified by scripture…”
The NBC news article that I read about the Southern Baptist vote, quoted Sarah Clatworthy, a member of Lifepoint Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, who said
“We should leave no room for our daughters and granddaughters in the generations ahead to have confusion on where the Southern Baptist Convention stands. Let them know Scripture is our authority and not the culture.”
I wonder if Ms. Clatworthy is aware that when she expressed her deeply held conviction, she actually used words:
“We should leave no room for our daughters and granddaughters in the generations ahead…
How revealing!
God forbid (literally God forbid) our daughter and granddaughters should ever… ever feel that they have the room to express their spiritual depth to a congregation of the faithful.
Ms. Clatworthy, along with two-thirds of the voting delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention are convinced that no woman should ever be allowed in the pulpit.
But why?
What could possibly account for such a decision?
Do all those Southern Baptists really believe that women are incapable of deep spiritual discernment?
Do they believe that there is something inherent to the biological reality of being a woman – menstruation, or menapause – that determines that they cannot perceive or interpret things divine?
Or maybe they believe that God did this. Maybe they believe that God actually designed half of the human species in such a way that really the only thing they are good for is following along behind their men, who are stronger and know better.
Of course, the Southern Baptist Convention did not offer any of the reasons that I have suggested here. Some of them may have been motivated by such ideas, but they would never be so crass as to state them out loud.
The reason that they gave for reasserting their “men only” policy is because they believe that the policy is “qualified by scripture.”
This rule must be upheld because it says so in the Bible.
Okay…
So let’s look at the Bible then.
Today, we happen to be focused on a story that concerns a woman. The woman is Rebekah.
As the story is told, a servant of Abraham is sent off to get a wife for Isaac. Abraham wants Isaac to marry a nice girl from his own people – not any of these local women! But Abraham does not give the servant any real strategy for how to actually find the right woman – so the servant comes up with his own plan.
The servant speaks to his own heart – he does not say it out loud, but we assume that God can hear him.
He will go to the well where Abraham’s people go to get water. He will ask each woman to give him a drink, and the woman who gives him a drink, and offers to water his camels – that woman will be the right woman.
So this is pretty interesting.
The servant has set up a scheme that he asks God to follow. If the scheme takes place as he has outlined it, that will constitute proof that God has approved of that specific woman.
The servant sets the plan that God is to follow.
And God follows it exactly.
Rebekah comes to the well. When the servant asks her for water, she gives it to him and offers, also, to water his camels.
The servant, astonished, reveals all this to Rebekah’s brother Laban, who agrees that God has ordained the whole thing, and that Rebekah should go and marry Isaac.
So…
This story seems to be evidence, from the Bible, that women should be content to follow the well orchestrated plans of men. Women should be quiet and accept the fate that is handed to them. They should not presume to do anything that is suggestive, in any way, of God’s intent in the world.
But wait.
This interpretation – the one that makes Rebekah an obedient, docile pawn in a game that is too complex for her little mind to grasp – this interpretation, depends upon an assumption.
It depends upon the assumption that it was God who made Rebekah offer to water the camels.
In this interpretation of the story, God puts words into Rebekah’s mouth in order to fulfill her destiny to become Isaac’s wife.
But I do not think it was God who made Rebekah offer to water the camels.
If it was God who made Rebekah offer to water the camels, then Rebekah has no free will. Rebekah, then, is just a puppet on a string, making an offer for no reason, other than that God put the words in her mouth.
No.
That interpretation would undermine the very reason the servant chose this method of finding her.
The reason the servant dreamt up this way of finding a good woman, was because this offer – the offer to water the camels – shows that the woman is compassionate. She is real. She is deep. She naturally does something that is like God. She is in touch with the divine spark that is deeply woven into her body and soul.
There is only one person, in this story, who actually acts with divine intuition.
It’s not the servant.
It’s not Rebekah’s brothers
It’s not even God.
It’s Rebekah.
***
Last week I was not in this pulpit. I was not here because I was attending the 34th General Synod for the United Church of Christ in Indianapolis, Indiana.
According to the United Church of Christ Center for Analytics, Research and Data, The United Church of Christ has 4,700 churches and 745,230 members. That, I’m afraid, does not come close to the 16 million members of the Southern Baptist Convention.
At the 34th General Synod of the UCC, we elected a new General Minister and President, who will be at the head of our denomination, and set the tone for our church for years to come.
Her name is Reverend Karen Georgia Thompson.
A few moments after she was overwhelmingly elected, Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson said:
“As I stand here before you as your newly and duly elected General Minister and President, I stand here as a Jamaican immigrant woman, a mother and a grandmother, a sister and a friend to many,”
Notice that when she celebrated her achievement, Rev. Thompson did not give a list of the credentials that allowed her to be there.
She did not offer a list of the long string of achievements that have led to her election.
She did not say that, from now on, no men will ever be allowed to preach in the pulpits of UCC churches.
No.
Instead of wielding power, she emphasized relation. She spoke of being a Jamaican immigrant. A woman. A mother, A Gramdmother. A sister. A friend.
She acknowledged her heritage, and the relationships that make her who she is.
She acted with divine intuition, watering the camels that were brought to her.
I am proud to be a minister in this church…
The United Church of Christ…
Where
No matter who you are, or where you are in life’s journey, you are welcome here – in this pulpit!
Amen.