Embedded deep within the Bible--
and just a little hidden sometimes,
by the Prophets
and the Kings
and the Warriors
and the Priests
and the Fishermen
and the Scribes
and the Pharisees
and the Levites
and the Apostles
and the Elders
and the Stewards...
are the stories of women who
hoped in the Lord--
the stories of women who waited
and watched
and gave thanks.
Embedded deep within the Bible
and just a little hidden sometimes
are the stories of women who believed.
It can be easy to miss them--
it can be easy to pass them by,
or to fail to see
how remarkable they really are.
Sometimes,
their stories take up only
a line or two of text
with just a hint
or a suggestion
of what really happened.
Sometimes,
like the sinful woman
who bathed Jesus with her tears,
the women are talked about
but never actually speak.
Sometimes,
like the woman at the well,
or the widow with two mites,
or Simon's wife,
we never even know their names.
But in a world
that often dismissed their words
and lost their names--
in a world
where women could not legally testify,
God asked each of them
to become a witness.
God chose
time and time again,
to use a woman's words,
a woman's voice
a woman's resources
a woman's life
a woman's body--
to help tell our most amazing story.
Mary's "yes"
Elizabeth's hope.
Martha's leadership.
Joanna's generosity.
Magdalene's proclamation.
And Anna's sight.
Old and widowed,
forgotten by the world,
who was she to recognize the Lord?
Yet, somehow,
Anna was open enough,
or maybe she was empty enough,
connected enough,
hopeful enough,
to look at Mary and Joseph and the baby
and see--
not just a peasant child--
but the Savior of the world.
Luke calles her "prophetess."
Now, that doesn't mean
she had a set of parlor tricks
like mind reading,
or conjuring,
or fortune telling,
or re-arranging the first letter of every other Scripture verse
into a code to predict the future.
Rather, a prophetess
is someone who knows
that the way things are today
are not the way things have to be.
A prophetess
is someone who looks at brokenness
and knows it can be made whole.
A prophetess is a person--
like you or me--
who believes that God's fingerprints
mark our lives;
and then angles a lens
so that others might see God's presence
with new eyes.
Anna knew
when she saw Jesus
that everything had changed.
Everything she and her people longed for--
freedom, hope, salvation, healing, life--
was already here among them.
Anna looked around at a world
where people could be enslaved
and saw the One
who would set both the captives
and the masters
free.
She gazed out at a world
littered with broken shards
and saw the One
who could make all things whole.
Anna knew that her voice,
her witness,
her vision,
was important
and so she spoke out in praise and thanksgiving,
whether anyone was listening
or not.
(Here the preacher could offer concrete examples of transformation, Good News, and new life that have meaning for the community. It is an opportunity to invite people to embrace their call to give thanks to God; to become witnesses to the truth of the Christ child--even if the world says their words don't matter. )
No wonder Anna gave thanks!
No wonder she became a witness,
even when her world said,
"Your words don't matter. "
Anna didn't care.
She knew everything had already changed.
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