The Bible is, among other things, a collection of stories of women in a man's world. How did women fare in a world of strict hierarchy? A world where they were placed near the bottom of the dominance chain? Where their value was measured primarily in terms of their marriageability and reproductive function? How did women fare in a world where the concept of God was changing from those religions that included the Goddess to one that was singular and masculine? In a book that tells of the story of a chosen people and the beginnings of a religion based on mutuality and care for the oppressed, how do we hear the voices of the women across the centuries?

It might seem that women were incidental in the Bible, or just not there ... but in the first book of the Bible, Eve is present in the Garden, and in the final moments of the story of the resurrection of Jesus, it is the women who discover the empty tomb.

With the focus of the Old Testament stories about Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Job, Moses, David and Solomon, we sometimes forget about the presence of women. With the focus of the New Testament on Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul, it is easy to overlook the discipleship of the women.

This morning let us celebrate the women of the Bible. Let us hold up their names, be reminded of their stories, and consider their significance. For the spirit of the Divine often spoke to and through the women. The Giver of Life had a special need of women. And Jesus, in his relationships with women, set a model for the early Christian church. One in which women were leaders and preachers in equal standing and influence.

One of the beliefs of early monotheism was that life was a gift from God. That the gift of life resides neither in male or female, but in God. And so our heroes and heroines in the Bible act for life, choose life, affirm life. They move away from human sacrifice, from fighting among their own tribe, from slaying children and abandoning widows. They turn toward a God who blesses them with life in abundance. Theologian Phyllis Trible answers the question, "What kind of book is the Bible?" with these words. "The Bible is a pilgrim wandering through history to merge past and present. Composed of diverse traditions that span centuries, it embraces claims and counterclaims in witness to the complexities and ambiguities of existence."

The Bible holds many things in tension. The use of metaphor as a way of understanding the Bible is critical to current feminist hermeneutics. Theologian Sallie McFague compares metaphor in poetry to hypotheses in science. Truth of a hypothesis is a matter of fit, between the body of theory, the data and the hypothesis. A metaphor is apt because it fits the assumptions of a poem, or the system of doctrines or of life as lived. Tension is critical in metaphor... at its most meaningful it is a new or unconventional interpretation of reality. Metaphor moves us from the standard interpretation to the figurative. Old metaphors give way to new ones.

A powerful new metaphor in feminist Biblical studies is the image of God as male and female. This is also an old metaphor, which early Christian mystics like Hildegaard of Bingen held dear. To free ourselves from the constraint of imaging God as a father only, we can move to imaging God as Father God/Mother God. In doing so we will also reclaim the Bible as a story in which women are as important as men. In imaging God to include the female, we will empower and affirm women's contributions and their lives in new and more meaningful ways. There is still a need in our culture to affirm and empower women. Though we hear less of the women's movement, nothing of the ERA, concern for the self-esteem and actualization of young women and girls is still a serious one. In a recent NY Times best seller, Reviving Ophelia, Dr. Mary Pipher charts the risks for girls' mental and emotional health in our society ... where so many messages thwart their natural curiosity and intelligence and competence ... too many girls in their early adolescence abdicate their talents and their ambitions.

It is good to look to the canon of western civilization and bring new metaphors to old stories and myths to reclaim the role of women in light of what we know today. In this task, a shift to consider God as including the feminine is very powerful. Holding an image of Father God/Mother God, let us come to new relationship with a concept of a God that is compassionate and caring and acting with and on behalf of humanity in history.

For the atheists and agnostics among us, let us explore the mystery of the Bible as stories of past generations with lessons to teach. As Phyllis Trible writes ... "Life and Death is the subject of the narrative in Genesis. Life means unity, fulfillment, harmony and delight. It is not a paradise of perfection or purity untouched by loneliness, responsibility, or finitude. It is fulfillment within limits. Death is the loss of life. It means discord, strife, hostility and danger. It is disintegration, the breaking of harmonious limits. As a result, imperfections become problems, distinctions become oppositions, hierarchies become oppressions. The creator in Genesis offers both death and life, and instructs that we choose life.

So, keeping the image of Father God/Mother God in our minds and hearts, let us greet some of the women of the Bible.

First Voice: How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.

Second Voice: I would be silent now, and joyously expectant... that I may receive the gift I need, so I may become the gifts others need.

Chorus: In the beginning

Narrator: God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helpmate for him." So Eve was made as Adam, in the likeness of God.

Chorus: And with curiosity and freedom Eve did act. So Desire and Travail were woven fine.

Narrator: "You are dust, to dust you shall return." Thus was humanity born in freedom.

Chorus: And the generations were counted though some women were barren and some were not.

Narrator: And Sarah said to Abraham,

Sarah: "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave girl ... it may be that I will obtain children by her."

Chorus: But there was trouble in the household when Hagar conceived. She looked upon her mistress with contempt.

Sarah: "You treat me with contempt, thereby you must leave this house."

Narrator: And so Hagar left with her son, Ishmael. Then God spoke to Abraham, saying, "Your wife, Sarah, will have a son."

Sarah: And Sarah, who was of advanced age, laughed!

Chorus: In the city of Sodom, there was depravity, stealing, godlessness. And the angels spoke to Lot.

Narrator: "Leave this place. Do not look back!"

Chorus: Lot's wife, having followed Lot so many times without question, turned with longing.

Lot's Wife: "I must have one last look."

Chorus: And she turned into a pillar of salt.

Narrator: So many blessings come to the firstborn. Thus brother turns against brother, sister against sister.

Chorus: Although Jacob fell in love with the beautiful Rachel, he was tricked into marrying the elder sister, Leah.

Rachel: "Why must my sister, Leah, marry first? It is 1, Rachel, whom Jacob loves. I will wait another seven years, while Jacob earns my hand as well."

Narrator: And so the sisters shared one husband, and many children were born.

Chorus: Wives! Sisters! Daughters! Concubines! Mothers! Prostitutes! Queens! Widows! Judges! "We Were There! We Were Always There!

1st Voice: The Pharaoh's daughter rescued Moses from the reeds.

2nd Voice: Miriam, the prophet, took up a tambourine and led the women in dancing.

3rd Voice: Judith, a beautiful widow, went to battle and slayed the general of the Assyrian army.

4th Voice: Queen Esther saved her people with cunning and courage.

1st Voice: Deborah sat under a palm tree and the Israelites came to her for judgement.

2nd Voice: Delilah overpowered Samson by cutting off his hair.

3rd Voice: Ruth, an outsider, followed Naomi, and love made them strong. Ruth clung to her.

Ruth: "Where you go, I will go. Your people shall be my people ... your God my God."

4th Voice: Hannah prayed from the heart in the temple, where only men's voices had rung out. Hannah prayed in silence, directly to her God, and her prayers were answered.

1st Voice: The Queen of Sheba, a rich and wise Queen with beautiful black skin, had enough gold to share with King Solomon.

2nd Voice: Jezebel, true to her tribe's tradition, worshipped Baal, and for this she was violently murdered.

Chorus: In the Hebrew Bible, "We Were There, We Were Always There."

Narrator: The role and place of women in the New Testament changed along with the language in which the gospels were written. Perhaps, because the sect that followed Jesus was made up of fishermen and those who worked with their hands, there were few women of position among them. The women remained in the background. Preparing meals, listening, watching and waiting. Serving their God and the rabbi Jesus whenever possible.

Chorus: In the days of Jesus and the early Christian Church, "We Were There. We Were Always There."

1st Voice: The angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, "Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with god. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus."

2nd Voice: And Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

Narrator: And Mary set out with haste to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who had also conceived in accordance with what was spoken by the angel. And when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth exclaimed to Mary,

3rd Voice: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord."

Chorus: And in those places where Jesus taught and performed miracles: "We Were There. We Were Always There."

4th Voice: There was the widow's son at Nain, where Jesus showed his compassion by bringing her son back to life.

1 st Voice: And in a single day Jesus raised Jarius's daughter and the woman who touched the hem of his garment in faith was also healed.

2nd Voice: And Jesus said to the woman who anointed him with oil, "I tell you wherever this good news is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."

3rd Voice: Even a Canaanite woman who was not of the house of Israel, had faith enough to move Jesus, and he healed her daughter.

4th Voice: And two sisters, Mary and Martha, invited Jesus into their home. And Mary sat at his feet as a disciple, learning from the master, rather than serving him as her sister, Martha, did.
1 st Voice: And in the Temple, the widow's offering was more generous than those who were
much wealthier, and Jesus blessed her.
Chorus: And at the crucifixion, "Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Narrator: And at the empty tomb Jesus met them and said, "Greetings." And they came to him, took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, there they will see me." And the women carried the word in faith. Down through the generations, women have kept the church strong. They have cleaned the goblet, washed the altar cloths, made the candles, scrubbed the floors. They have prayed the rosary, shielded the heretics, fed the hungry, nursed the children. Down through the generations, women have been faithful in their commitment to the church. Dressing the children for Sunday School. Singing in the choir. Preparing the dead for burial. Often staying in the background, watching, listening, waiting. It is a blessing and a joy that we Unitarian Universalists were among the first in the United States to ordain women. That more than half of our current seminary students are women. That women are called to serve large- and middlesized churches. That the spirituality that grows within our association has happened concurrent with an increase of women in the pulpit. That we continue to find meaning in the old holy books and that we embrace the new metaphor of Father God/Mother God as a guide that embodies the masculine and the feminine, as a vehicle of liberation for all. May we continue to celebrate the gifts and talents of women and affirm for our daughters and our sons a strong, proud feminism. For it is written, And God created humankind in his image; In the image of God he created them Male and Female he created them.

AMEN/BLESSEDBE.