What if…?

AM: Psalm 80 • 1 Samuel 16:1-13 • 1 John 2:18-25
PM: Psalm 33 • 1 Samuel 12:1-5 • Acts 20:17-35

The Bible, and Christian tradition, are full of stories about people being chosen by God for leadership of God’s people. In this morning’s Old Testament lesson, we hear how Samuel was instructed to line up the sons of Jesse and anoint the one whom God would choose as king. Today is also the feast day of St. Matthias, who was chosen by casting lots to replace Judas as one of the twelve disciples.

Sometimes God’s choices for leadership are surprising. David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons and an unexpected pick as king, was off tending the family’s sheep while his seven brothers were paraded in front of Samuel, and he had to be rushed home and anointed. Matthias appears only once in the Bible, and that was when he won the apostolic lottery. We never hear of him again.

About the third time I read the passage about David’s selection from 1 Samuel a thought crossed my mind: what if “David” had been a girl? What if God’s pick to lead God’s people was female? But the historian in me quickly responded, “that would have been well-nigh impossible in that day and time, for the following reasons...”

I am thankful to be part of a church in which women and men have dared to ask, “what if?” when merely to ask the question of women in leadership ran contrary to received interpretation of scripture and to popular culture. Doing so put them in the good company of John Robinson, a radical Separatist pastor, who in 1620 admonished the Pilgrims who were about to set sail in the Mayflower, “I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of his Holy Word.”

For us, Pastor Robinson’s words offer a compliment and a caution. As Debie Thomas reminds us, “I worry that we who attend egalitarian churches will assume our work is finished. I fear that in our enlightened bubbles we will forget that for many women, these questions of justice, inclusion, empowerment and belonging still sear and burn.”*

* “A God Who’s One of Us,” Christian Century, January 27, 2021, p. 35. Debie Thomas is director of children’s and family ministries at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California.

Written by Bob McMath

Bob is glad to be back washing dishes at Community Meals and is looking forward to serving as lay reader again soon.