This IS Possible!

While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’

—Mark 14:3-9

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’

—John 8:3-11

No one wants to think about violence in a family setting, but it is a problem that refuses to go away, and has been such a problem for as long as human beings walked the earth, if scripture is any indication—Cain rose up and slew his younger brother in a fit of jealous rage in the very first family! Sadly, being in a family is no guarantee that there can be peace, security, or safety, regardless of where you live, with whom you live, or how you live. Violence reveals the very thin partition between love and hate, and the more intimate the love, the more telling the violence can become. 

The evidence is as close as the morning paper, there in The Augusta Chronicle’s crime sheet. It is also revealed on the sports channel as yet another athlete gets drug into public view, having beaten up someone close to them. Loving someone can hurt.

Now another inescapable truth is that the likelihood of it being a man attacking a woman is still geometrically more prone to be the case, although there are notable exceptions. That reality is also biblical. Sometime, peruse the story of Tamar and her brothers (cf. 2 Samuel 13). That is about as awful a story as you are ever likely to hear—brothers abusing their sister. Then, run over to the tail end of the book of Judges where there is another woeful tale of rape and its consequences (cf. Judges 19-20) wherein an entire tribe of Israel nearly gets obliterated because of violence against a woman. The simple presence of these tales in scripture lets us all know how vital it is that we pay attention to such stories as we seek to be implements of the Kingdom of God on earth.

As Jesus walked the earth, he came with an admonition—care for the Least of These. Those who would be disciples are charged to always and forever keep a keen eye for those who suffer at the hand of the powerful, the tyrannical, and the oppressive. We are to help the helpless and guard the weak, lifting them into blessedness, if the Beatitudes are to be believed.

This morning, we heard two stories about women under duress, both violated by the men of their communities. Both are unnamed. That is important—only “real” people have names. The community basically ignored these women, or, at best, treated them with contempt. The first unnamed woman anoints Jesus, claiming him as messiah—savior of the world—and the world’s neglected. She is from the street, something Mark feels no need to elaborate upon because everybody gets it. She can find no place in the world save as a feeder for hungers. She is nothing, beneath contempt. Yet, she is a child of God—a beloved child of God—whom Jesus assures us will be remembered far longer than many self-appointed sanctified saints of God—she gets it, so Jesus forces all his would-be disciples to accept her. The second was caught in flagrante delicto—in the very act of adultery. The violence against her is profound—and it has nothing to do with the hands full of rocks—the real violence is that she alone is made into a spectacle. Where is the man? Boys will be boys? Oh, you know how it is…Sounds kind of like a story flowing out of the University of Louisville this week. Jesus will have none of it, would-be disciples! No one can condemn her. The actual work is redemption. 

And that is where both of these stories drop straight into our laps. That work of redemption is OUR work.

Salacious stories keep websites like TMZ awash in visitors—we cannot seem to get enough of women being taken advantage of, women in trouble, women denuded of dignity, respect, and even their most basic humanity. In the East, there is a stalwart aphorism—this because of that. With this issue, until we gentlemen change the way we are, the problem will continue. This because of that.

Nobody likes to painted with broad strokes, and most of us men feel our defensive hackles rising to be lumped in with miscreants and abusers. But we cannot forget something else that completely defined Jesus’ walk among people—he refused to delineate between them—if one was broken, everyone shared it until the break was repaired. That was certainly true as he dealt with the women in our stories this morning. He lifted them for all to see until every man saw them for who they were—the beauteous, blessed children of God that God made them to be. In that recognition came the ability to transcend and transform things as they were. You cannot hurt, harm, or hinder someone you know to be a treasure. Such is the reasoning Jesus wants in play—see the Least of These as God sees them—beloved, cherished children—act accordingly. 

Well, we have work to do. We have work to do to ensure that every person—every man, woman, and child—knows their truest and deepest identity as children of God. That means not taking things for granted. That means not simply shrugging and accepting things we know to be wrong, misguided, or mistaken. It means gaining a voice to speak for those who can’t, to act for those stilled, and to listen for those crying. 

It means following Jesus, closely and completely, each and every day.

It means hearing St. Paul as he closed his letter to the Philippians—

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

The Apostle could only make that bold pronouncement when he felt the absolute support of the community of the Philippians caring for him, lifting him, and walking with him. 

Today, there are women and children needing that support of this community. Be that community.