Out of the Shadows: Preaching the Women of the Bible

By Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff

The story of the Bible us most often told as the story of men, from patriarchs to prophets, kings, disciples and apostles. But women are there, sometimes in the background, sometimes striding powerfully onto the stage. Their story is moving, prophetic and good news for the congregations to whom we preach.



Out of the Shadows seeks to enable preachers to see these often marginal characters in a new light, offering ideas about how to communicate their stories with power, resonance and punch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SCM Press
• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9780334060710

Kate Bruce

Kate Bruce is an RAF Chaplain, well known for her writing and teaching on preaching.

Book preview

Out of the Shadows

Praise for Out of the Shadows

‘This is intelligent writing which opens doors for imaginative preaching and roots this life giving ministry in prayer.’

The Rt Revd Alison White, Bishop of Hull

‘An important, accessible and comprehensive account of the too-long silenced voices of women of the Bible. Including the women you know, the women you thought you knew and the women you hadn’t heard of or had long forgotten, this book seeks them out and brings them out of the deep shadows imposed on them. This is a book for everyone seeking to challenge their own bias, conscious or unconscious, and is particularly urgent given the public conversations around violence against women and the dismantling of patriarchy. I commend it to you with urgency, it will challenge, inform and gently but surely change the way you think, speak and write about these women of faith.’

The Revd Kate Bottley, Priest and broadcaster

‘I have long believed that the women in the biblical narrative have been overlooked. Sadly they are pigeon-holed to only being suitable for women’s fellowship talks, a few comforting tales to entertain between the sessions on the holiday photos of the minister’s tour of Greece, and the nice person from the children’s charity. They are often skirted over in the lectionary without the preacher giving them the rigour of academic integration that other biblical texts in our tradition have been afforded. In the twenty plus years I have known Kate Bruce, and through Kate, Liz Shercliff I have admired her dogged determination to never let a text go, without affording it that interrogation, with her sharp mind, honest questioning heart and insightful wit, Kate’s beauti­fully crafted use of language shines light where there once was darkness. All this is evident in abundance in Out of the Shadows and I wholeheartedly commend this book to all who are seeking more than a cursory glance at the women in the biblical texts. You will not be disappointed.’

The Revd Alison Wilkinson, Wesley Study Centre, Durham

‘What an absolute gift Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff have gifted the preacher. How boldly and vibrantly the women of scripture speak through their insightful telling of their stories. How dynamically they spring to life. In Out of the Shadows, they write of Woman Wisdom being an inspirational ally for the woman preacher. This book, in its entirety, is a confident, wise and powerful ally that all preachers will want to turn to, again and again. It will sit firmly on my writing desk, very close to hand.’

Jenny Cornfield, Freelance charity consultant

‘This book is stuffed with scriptural sleuthery, homiletical skill, and pastoral sensitivity. Kate and Liz show preachers how honouring women’s stories leads to encountering God’s Wisdom.’

The Revd Matthew Allen, Diocese of Blackburn

Out of the Shadows

Preaching the Women of the Bible

Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff

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© Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff 2021

Published in 2021 by SCM Press

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The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Authors of this Work

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Contents

List of Abbreviations

Foreword by Mark Oakley

Introduction

1. Woman Wisdom: An Empowering Voice

2. Eve: The Long Shadow of Blame

3. Sarah: The Shadow of Ownership

4. Five ‘Lowly’ Women: The Shadow of Marginalization

5. Jephthah’s Daughter: The Shadow of Control

6. Ruth: The Shadow of Racism

7. Abigail: The Shadow of Neglect

8. Huldah: The Shadow of Oversight

9. Vashti and Esther: The Shadow of Control

10. Mary the Mother of Jesus: The Shadow of Tradition

11. Elizabeth: The Shadow of Childlessness

12. Martha and Mary: The Shadow of Misinterpretation

13. Haemorrhaging Woman: The Shadow of Shame

14. Mary Magdalene: The Shadow of Denigration

15. ‘A’ Woman Anoints Jesus’ Feet: The Shadow of Prejudice

16. Women Witnesses in Luke: The Shadow of Dismissal

17. Women in Acts and the Epistles: The Glorious Gathering of Women

Appendix: Sermon Series Suggestions

Bibliography

List of Abbreviations

RCL: Revised Common Lectionary

CW: Common Worship Lectionary

OT: Ordinary Time (RCL)

CW, PS: Common Worship, Principal Service

CW, SS: Common Worship, Second Service

CW, TS: Common Worship, Third Service

This book is dedicated to

the Right Revd Mariann Edgar Budde,

Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

A courageous and inspirational spiritual leader.

A woman of wise words, speaking truth to power.

Foreword

I was a fortunate student at university. I was taught by the theologian and philosopher Dr Grace Jantzen. She had recently published her book on Julian of Norwich and was working on her new study of power, gender and mysticism. She had a mind that was blade-sharp, and she was kind, funny and wise in equal measure. She once told me off for referring to her forthcoming seminar. She said she only had ‘ovulars’, places to receive and create. This was true. She had a strong dislike of the testosterone poisoning that affects too much academic debate, preferring classes of students that built ideas together rather than demolished each other’s thoughts. The question she would ask each of us, after we had asserted our latest brilliant thesis, is a question I have returned to many times during life: ‘Who benefits from such thinking?’

One lecture of Dr Jantzen stays in my mind clearly. At the end of it, a male student asked her if it was possible for a man to be a feminist? ‘If you’re willing to be called my sister,’ she replied. Well, thirty years later things are a little different and much more thinking is given to issues of gender, identity and privilege. Whether a man is able to be a sister, or whether it is desirable for him to want to be one, are questions to be debated elsewhere. All I know is that reading this book made we want to learn from, and have life enlarged by, the intellect, experience, courage and faithfulness of the women in the Bible, women who are, like many still in this world of ours, often forced into the shadows. Whether this makes me a sister, a brother, a student, a disciple, a friend or a colleague to them, I’m not sure. I do know I’m a human being alongside them and that I’m in their debt for all they bring to exercise and shift my mind and heart.

The same is true for the two women authors of this book. It is a beautifully practical book, full of insight and signposting for those who want to share the stories of the women in scripture. This is important because, let’s be honest, sermons need a shake-up. If the church isn’t to slip into a coma, we need resonant, imaginative and provocative preaching. We need sermons that are events not texts, and ones that give glimpses of how our experience in, and as, a world might be inseparable from the beauty and mystery of God. In frosty times, this is a book that gets the engine humming again.

The tragedy for many of us is that we tend to only receive the amount of love from others that we feel we deserve. We meet people in this book who knew the reckless love of God for them and were able to achieve great things because of it. Exploring the experience of the women in the scriptures, expressing contemporary women’s experience of God today, and helping men learn urgent and sacred truths from both, this book is there to help you recover a faith in love that both undoes you and remakes you. Its pages remind us that justice is as important as compassion, and questions as satisfying as answers. I suggest you read it and then get to work. ‘Who benefits from such thinking?’ Everyone does.

Mark Oakley

Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge

Introduction

KATE BRUCE AND LIZ SHERCLIFF

‘Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what is right …

I have good advice and sound wisdom;

I have insight, I have strength.’

(Woman Wisdom, Proverbs 8.6, 14)

Here is a book that celebrates some of the women in the Bible (not all, as we couldn’t do justice to them all in a single volume). We hope to equip and encourage preachers to bring these wonderful women out of the shadows, shine a spotlight on them, and let them stand centre stage as they have so much to teach us.

We begin with Woman Wisdom, inspired by her voice and knocking at her door. Woman Wisdom is creative and intelligent, a woman of insight and strength. She sits at the crossroads and calls out with good advice and sound wisdom. She is an empowering voice; a worthy orator. Seeking her wisdom led us to listen again to other women of the Bible, inviting them to step from the various shadows that obscure their presence and gifts.

We want to inform, inspire and encourage women and men through what follows. Each chapter explores a woman in the scriptures, sometimes more than one. In each case we make a note of where (or if) the characters appear in the Lectionary¹ – making the point for lectionary preachers that if we don’t seek out these women deliberately, in many cases we will never meet them at all, or else encounter them in a highly selective way. We make a note of any of their words recorded in scripture; there are very few, so they are to be highly treasured. We explore the background to these characters, sometimes offering a different viewpoint from the more traditional interpretations. Our goal is to free us up to look again, think again and see these women in a new light, allowing their stories and situations to disrupt and challenge, encourage and inspire.

We then offer a sermon suggestion, which we hope will feed you, as well as inspire sermons tailored to your particular context. This is followed by some homiletic points, drawing attention to noteworthy aspects of the suggested sermons. This could be a source of discussion for teachers and students of homiletics, offering reflective learning points. It doesn’t matter if you agree or not; it matters that we help each other to think and develop.

Each chapter ends with a collect prayer inspired by our work with the particular woman/women featured, a reminder that all our preaching is rooted in the communicative love of the triune God – without whose help we labour in vain.

We hope that the sermon series suggested in the Appendix might be useful to you as you consider how to bring the women of the Bible to your congregations as sources of empowerment, validation and encouragement.

Note

1 We refer to readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), with additional references from the Common Worship (CW) Lectionary where these do not appear in the RCL. A list of abbreviations can be found on p. vii.

1. Woman Wisdom: An Empowering Voice

LIZ SHERCLIFF

Woman Wisdom in the Revised Common Lectionary (Sundays)

Woman Wisdom’s Words in the Bible

‘To you, O people, I call,

and my cry is to all that live.

O simple ones, learn prudence;

acquire intelligence, you who lack it.

Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what is right;

for my mouth will utter truth;

wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

All the words of my mouth are righteous;

there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.

They are all straight to one who understands

and right to those who find knowledge.

Take my instruction instead of silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold;

for wisdom is better than jewels,

and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

I, wisdom, live with prudence,

and I attain knowledge and discretion.

The fear of the L

ord

is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate.

I have good advice and sound wisdom;

I have insight, I have strength.

By me kings reign,

and rulers decree what is just;

by me rulers rule,

and nobles, all who govern rightly.

I love those who love me,

and those who seek me diligently find me.

Riches and honour are with me,

enduring wealth and prosperity.

My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,

and my yield than choice silver.

I walk in the way of righteousness,

along the paths of justice,

endowing with wealth those who love me,

and filling their treasuries.

The L

ord

created me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of long ago.

Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth –

when he had not yet made earth and fields,

or the world’s first bits of soil.

When he established the heavens, I was there,

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep,

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always,

rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the human race.

And now, my children, listen to me.

happy are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it.

Happy is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favour from the L

ord

;

but those who miss me injure themselves;

all who hate me love death.’

(Proverbs 8.4–36)

‘You that are simple, turn in here!’

To those without sense she says,

‘Come, eat of my bread

and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Lay aside immaturity, and live,

and walk in the way of insight.’

(Proverbs 9.4–6)

The Story of Woman Wisdom

Forty-nine named women speak in the Bible, uttering just over 1 per cent of the total number of words.¹ Most of their words are never read aloud in churches, and many are forgotten. But every year, at traditional Easter Vigil services, Woman Wisdom speaks. The verses are selective. It is not immediately obvious that this is a woman speaking. Nevertheless, in the wider context of Proverbs 8 and 9, it seems indisputable that Wisdom is not only anthropomorphized, but is personified as a woman. Christians in the first century noticed this fact, and put much store by the depiction of Woman Wisdom as God’s confidante and co-creator² – it does, after all, make sense of ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness’ (Genesis 1.26).

Woman Wisdom holds a significant role in the Christian story. In Proverbs, Woman Wisdom is the personification of an attribute of God, who is the first-made of God’s creative activity. Proverbs 8.24–25 speaks of Wisdom being ‘brought forth’, which presents a feminine picture of God either as mother or midwife.³ The following verses (26–31) establish Wisdom as a ubiquitous presence during creation, from specks of dust to the expanse of the sky. The birthing metaphor is continued when Wisdom speaks of an almost parent–daughter relationship – God’s delight in her, and her own rejoicing in God.

The Jewish tradition depicted her as God’s breath, image, power and spirit; the source of life; an instructor who descends to earth to impart wisdom and understanding. New Testament documents saw Jesus as Wisdom incarnate: John 1.1–18, Colossians 1.15–20 and Hebrews 1.13 portray Wisdom/Word/Christ as having agency in God’s creation. In Colossians and Hebrews, Jesus, rather than Wisdom, is the image of God. Contemporaneous Hellenistic Jewish thought identified Sophia (the Greek for wisdom) with Logos (the Word) and the Word became the means by which God created the heavens and the earth. Matthew 11.25–26,⁴ Luke 10.21–22⁵ and John 1.1–5⁶ are examples from the Gospels of where Sophia, Logos and Jesus are incorporated. Philippians also presents an early form of Christological statement that presents Christ as pre-existent and co-equal with God. The first letter to the Corinthians specifically states that Christ Jesus ‘became for us wisdom from God’ (1.30). The Corinthian church, however, included women prophets and focused on Sophia as the source of life.⁷ Later Christian writings, for example the codices found at Nag Hammadi, contain stories of Sophia and radically retell the creation story by amalgamating Sophia and Eve.⁸ However we read these interpretive developments, Proverbs 8 gives us, at the least, a Woman Wisdom who is both created and co-creator.

By contrast with the public position Woman Wisdom takes up in Proverbs 8, much Christian tradition has airbrushed her out. There she stands, however, at the centre of commerce, community and local politics, at the city gate – which is consistent with the ‘strong woman’ of Proverbs 31.⁹ She calls out to the naive, to scoffers and to fools to listen to her instruction. She promises to reveal all her understanding to those who will listen, to provide for those who seek her. She is a tree of life. In contrast with the tree in Genesis 2 and 3, guarded by cherubim and flaming swords to keep human beings away, the tree of Proverbs 8 can be held as a means to health, prosperity and joy. She is a desirable bride, a speaker of truth, an empowerer of those who govern.

Woman Wisdom’s story is shrouded in mystery. Her character and work are complex, her origin and relationship with God enigmatic. And yet, her call to prudence, her position at the heart of human affairs is clear and her plea to learn prudence and acquire intelligence is full of transforming possibilities. She is an inspirational ally for the preacher.

An Empowering Woman

Visiting a cathedral in Spain some years ago, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two