Judges 4:3-6
3Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; and had been oppressed cruelly for twenty years.
4At that time Deborah was a prophetess, wife and judge of Israel. 5She used to sit under the palm between two towns on a hill in the country; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. 6She sent and summoned Barak, a military leader and said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor and be ready to fight for justice.
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Last week, we talked about the prophet’s role in transforming communities following a crisis, using the well-known prophet Isaiah as the example.This week we turn to a female prophetess. There are half as many female prophetesses portrayed in the Hebrew Bible as to male, but they were powerful, courageous, and strong. These women lived in a culture dripping with patriarchy and monarchy led by wealthy and powerful men. In bible times, women were on the margins in hugely significant ways. This morning, we will hear about the earliest known prophetesses, a woman named Deborah. She was a judge, a role much like a lawyer in contemporary society.
During these next couple of weeks, we will tell the brave and faithful stories of prophets and prophetesses, and we will connect these stories to our own story as we lean into our church purpose and vision. You can find the whole purpose and vision on your order of worship. This week we will begin with the very first line: Serve God. With Our Whole Heart.
To serve God, means:
Be in service to love.
With our whole heart
Serve outside of ourselves.
With our whole heart
Serve our community.
With our whole heart
Serve without exclusion.
With our whole heart
Serve small.
With our whole heart
Serve big.
With our whole heart
Serve justice.
With our whole heart
Serve generously.
With our whole heart
Serve with our whole heart.
Learning about female prophetesses is an act of serving God with our whole heart. Serving God is not easy or comfortable. For God to choose a woman in the ancient world to lead a people was also not easy or comfortable for anyone. It was not the norm. It would have been easy to pick one of the twelve male prophets. We know those stories because those are the stories that are told and taught more often in Sunday school classrooms: Jonah and Jeremiah and Ezekial. But, we have a different purpose here at BFCC - our purpose is to give a platform to those people who often don’t get a voice. We do this with the people of our bible and we do this with the people in our community. When we do this biblically, it means telling the stories of ancient women who were called by God. God knew that they had a story to tell, that they, too, could serve with their whole heart, even when society didn’t see it.
When we give voice to people today, it means being in relationship with and telling the stories of immigrants, children, the homeless, and the mentally ill. Like the women of the Hebrew Bible, these stories are few and far between and often left out, especially in the church. We believe building relationships and telling these stories is one way we serve God with our whole heart.
In the book of Judges, the Isrealites were stuck in a cycle. They had lost their faith. They screamed for help, so God delivered them. They changed their behavior. Then, the Israelites lost their faith again, screamed for help, heard from a prophet sent by God and changed their behavior. This happened over and over again. We have all been there, stuck in that cycle. Sometimes there was a glimmer of hope but mostly, it was an exhausting and depressing pattern. What they had been trying to do was not working. The way that God was trying to help was also not working. In fact, God was getting quite angry.
Breaking a cycle and pattern that was no longer useful often means seeking wisdom from the most unlikely place. God brought a woman out of the margins of society and placed her in the center and said, “listen to her, she has something to say. She will deliver you.” This is not simply a message about feminism, and women’s empowerment. This is a story about finding faith in a community and people that are often silenced, with a woman as the example of the marginalized. The powerful people in Deborah’s world were not doing the job. This community needed a new voice to help change their cycle of dysfunction.
God placed Deborah in their midst. The name “Deborah” means, woman of flames or fiery women. Deborah was a hot mama. She sat beneath a palm tree and went about her role as leader and judge. She was a humble and noble servant and known as “a Mother of Israel.” The people came to her out in the country and she helped them solve their problems. She served God with her whole heart and the people of Israel served God with their whole heart. It was a mutual and loving relationship.
I am doing my Doctor of Ministry work on female clergy. The U.S. Christian church, especially the protestant church, is in a decline and in a dysfunctional cycle of chaos. I begin my proposal for my final research project with: The church has been dominated by patriarchy and hierarchy for more than 2000 years. Women have been caring for the church and building community in many ways. They have rooted people in faith and have the potential to lead the church to vibrancy. I am curious about how African American, Latina, Asian and LGBTQ female clergy are leading congregations. I wonder what is possible with a different model of leadership style. I wonder what is possible when we hear the stories of those who have historically been on the margins. I wonder, like God did, if that’s just what we need to change and shift the tides of our American Christianity. Sacred texts like Deborah’s today give me a glimpse of what God is pointing to. As I say in my proposal: I am interested in experimenting with viable practices for worship that will create spaces for deepened relationship, connection, and meaning, given our American culture of toxic individualism and the decline of the church.
Our sacred text and the women of our bible have something to say about practices that are life giving, that serve God with our whole heart. Deborah does not speak it, she models it. Unlike a king or great teacher, high priest or military official, she does not lecture or hold court. She shows the people what it means to be fully authentic. She brings a non anxious presence, not getting caught up with the secular monarchy. She loves the people unconditionally for all their mistakes and dysfunction. She allows them to come to her, vulnerable, while also showing fiery strength. More than anything she holds space for them to know their true selves that are buried under cultural conditioning. She invites them to unlearn toxic behaviors, and finally, the cycle is broken and the prophetess Deborah, through serving God, delivers the Israelites to a new, more life-giving world. The profound and often hidden gifts of authenticity, vulnerability, abiding presence, humility, and creating space for deepened relationship and connection lead the people out of despair.
Deborah lived some 3000 years ago. Sometimes it is hard to understand how the stories of the bible connect to our current life. It all seems so far removed. And yet, what I can take from this story is this:
Serving God (and serving each other) means that we have to get creative. We have to think outside the box. And often, we have to release the norms of the past.We cannot serve each other or God by doing what we have always done. Our vision is to unfold God’s kin-dom, on earth as it is in heaven. We know that it is a slow process, because the moral arc is long. And yet, I think if we were doing everything right to unfold the kin-dom, we’d probably be there by now, right? As we explore what it means to serve God with our whole heart as BFCC, we have to get creative. We have to listen to the voices of those we haven’t heard from. There could be a prophetess in our midst now, showing us the next right thing, if only we will listen.