Sun. Oct. 16, 2011 (Elsie Goerzen)

Throughout her teaching and work concerning domestic violence in society and in the church, Elsie Goerzen (MCC-BC and CBI) has drawn inspiration from the life and teaching of Jesus, especially from how he related to women and the marginalized in his society. On Oct. 16th, Elsie focused on the story (Luke 13.10-17) about "the woman bent over" -- crippled and essentially a voiceless outcast. In synagogues, women sat behind screens during worship (so they did not 'bother' men), and they were to be silent. When out of the home, a woman was to be accompanied (thereby protecting the honour of her husband), and any man wishing to talk to her was to speak through her chaperone. Touching was out of the question. In Luke 13, an unnamed but crippled woman attended synagogue, possibly knowing Jesus would be there. At one point, Jesus began breaking one taboo after another. He called directly to the woman (not through someone else), contacting her over the dividing screen. He healed her, right then and there, on the Sabbath. She then broke the rules by praising God (rather than being silent). Today, too many women in church and society are marginalized by rules, social practices and legal practices which can be used against the poor (including women). Elsie reminded us that we have the opportunity to be like Jesus, or we can live with 'screens' in our lives. St Paul challenged believers to overturn the traditional prayer of male Jews (giving thanks he is not a Gentile, not a slave, and not a woman). Paul followed Jesus by arguing that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. Easy words? [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, October 16th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.