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Did Jesus Have Women Disciples…and other questions
Were any of Jesus’s disciples women? Yes. Dorcas (Greek), also called Tabitha (Aramaic), lived in Joppa, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We find Dorcas’s story beginning in Acts 9:36. And the author introduces her as “a disciple.” This reference to Tabitha is the only time in the NT that we find the feminine form of the Greek word, μαθήτρια. The plural masculine form of the word, “disciples,” appears many times in the NT, including in contexts where women are included in a group. So Tabitha is certainly not the only woman disciple in the NT. But in this case she is singled out. She lived with widows, ministered to widows, and clothed them with lovely…
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Re-Introducing Five Women
Florence. Ever since the third century, an area in the north of Florence was dedicated to Christianity; up to the Middle Ages it represented the city’s most important religious center. From the 500s on, a building complex there included three churches, one of which was Santa Reparata. Around 800, Sta (Santa) Reparata became the new seat of the bishop. “Raparata” is a name known to few Americans, but her story is well known in Italy. A Christian martyr from third-century Palestine, she was the patron of the city of Florence (Firenze) up until the late Middle Ages. Today people can visit the remains of the church named for her—underneath the Duomo…
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Lost in Translation: Are Women Really Missing?
Jesus Wants Male and Female Disciples Years ago, during Vacation Bible School, I learned a little song based on Jesus’s words to his fisherman-followers. It went like this: I will make you fishers of men, Fishers of men, Fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men If you follow me… Men, men, men, men. Four times. I must have unconsciously internalized that, because I heard this: the male Jesus told his male followers to go find other males and invite them to follow the Lord. These words of Jesus to which I’m referring are recorded by Matthew (4:19). The English Standard Version (ESV),…
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Don’t Bring Toxic Shock to Your Workplace
Are you kind to your Christian friends on Sunday but mean to your co-workers on Monday? Do you tend to talk about other women behind their backs, especially the other women in your workplace? Are you emotionally miserable and take that out on others around you? You might be the one bringing “toxic shock” to your workplace, a poisonous condition that is lethal to relationships and to your purpose as a Christian at work. Toxic Shock Syndrome Years ago, a condition called “toxic shock syndrome” suddenly appeared in the news during the late ‘70s. Toxic shock syndrome is a potentially fatal condition caused by the release of toxins from the…
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Women’s History Month: Meet Some Female Martyrs from the Early Church
When I spoke to a class of seminary students recently about women in public ministry in the early church, someone asked me to share some names and narratives about our foremothers. It seemed fitting to provide a sampling here during Women’s History Month. (Some day I hope we will simply learn “history”; but until women are included in the telling of history, we’ll continue to need a special annual focus.) You can find all the women listed below in the mosaics of Ravenna’s “new” (6th c) Basilica of Sant’Apollinare. I’ve included a summary of the stories that usually accompany them, as well. You will notice a theme of women exercising…
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Welcome the Outsider
Of the four Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—Luke devotes the most real estate to women. And he does so as a larger pattern of highlighting Jesus’s ministry to “outsiders.” Luke’s original audience would have seen themselves as insiders, and he pressed them to be like Jesus and open their sphere of community. Here’s a sampling: Widow bereft of her son. A widow lost her only son. Few were more vulnerable than widows. Especially those who had no male relatives. But Jesus raised him back to life and restored him to his mother (Luke 7:11–17). Widow who gave her mite. Jesus commended the actions of a widow who put all she had in…
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Women and the Workplace: A Critical Crossroads
All of us have experienced change and transition recently. But whether yours has been a season of loss, new beginnings, or both, one constant remains: you have been created for, and called to, purposeful work in your everyday workplace.
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The Bent-Over Woman Jesus Healed
Recently, I dug deeply into a story about one of the lesser-known women of the Bible—the woman Luke describes as “bent over.” And I loved learning more about Jesus’s interaction with her. But first, the backstory: Jesus and his disciples are walking somewhere on a Sabbath, and they feed themselves by taking some heads of grain in a field. And what do the religious leaders do? They object, because Jesus and his team have done “work.” When this happens, Jesus reminds his listeners of a story in the Scriptures about how a priest gave David and his hungry men leftover consecrated bread on the Sabbath. And Jesus concludes by declaring…
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Cultivating Friendships & Female Allies
Listen to the nightly news, read just-released statistics, talk to a few friends––and you’ll hear over and over again the hard realities of mandated isolation, increased challenges in daily life, and mounting obstacles as working women navigate the lingering effects of this pandemic. Now more than ever we need to forge bonds of sisterhood with the women in our circles.
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Sharper in Real Life
This month, I am honored to feature the writing of a woman who has come into my life in the last two years. Today, she shares the joy, freedom and growth that we experience through friendship. I remember the first time she came to my home. I was hosting a birthday party, and her daughter was at the top of the guest list. Though I didn’t know her well, we worshipped together, and I knew we had things in common: we loved music, we married sports enthusiasts, and we were each parenting teenagers, newborns, and a few in between. We greeted loudly that Saturday morning: giggly girls hugging hello, baby…