Easter Sunday I gave a
sermon in which I spoke about women being good storytellers. I spoke about how it was, in each of the
gospels, the women who are the first ones to the tomb, the first to know and
share the good news. Commentaries often
note that the reason for this oddity of the gospels is to highlight and stress
the truth of the message. That is, no
one would make up a story in which women were the eye-witnesses, because women
were not believed to be reliable witnesses.
It’s a slightly off-kilter explanation, and a bit hard to get the head
around.
I said in my sermon that I
think the reason is because women are storytellers and this momentous event was
a story that needed to be told. There
are some truths that need to be told and heard as story – in such a way we can
enter into it and it becomes real to us, rather than an abstract set of facts.
While I was writing, I was
aware that men are very good storytellers.
It was somewhat disingenuous of me to suggest, as I might have done,
that women are better storytellers. And,
in fact, the lone male at our sermon roundtable remarked on it at our next
meeting. Men are equal to women in their
storytelling gifts.
What I really needed to
say, but it seemed too complex to say, is that women find their power in
storytelling.
I read this morning a NYT
piece by the author Jennifer Weiner, who writes, “Men invent, women
transcribe.” Offensive as it sounded, I
continued reading anyway. “Men’s books are windows onto universal
experience; women’s books are mirrors, reflecting the author’s own eating,
praying and loving.” Women are free to
write about their own personal experience, but weightier matters are delegated
to men. And to be even more specific, I
would say they are delegated to white men.
I see this pattern in theology. For centuries, systematic theology has been
written by white European men. And they
are good, sound systematic theologies. Yet
it must be acknowledged they are written from the perspective of a white male
dominated world.
In recent decades, however, new theologies have been emerging
from the perspectives of people who have long been marginalized – Latin Americans,
African Americans, and women, to name a few.
I have noticed that in these cases (and maybe especially in the case of
women) theology does not emerge as a fully formed system. It emerges as story. These theologies that we call liberation
theologies emerge out of personal experience.
The church establishment reacts with skepticism. And why not?
For centuries, the church has taught us not to trust personal
experience. Personal experience is
unreliable, fickle, subject to the ego and emotions, and evil. Better to rely on the traditions, which are
time-honored. Better to rely on the
scriptures which are Spirit-inspired.
Better to rely on reason, which is, well, reasonable.
But sometimes, someone knows she has a story to tell –
something which is different from the tradition and authorities of old. Sometimes someone knows he has a story to
tell which is perhaps not reasonable, but nonetheless, true. The story of the empty tomb and the risen
Christ was one such story.
Sometimes personal experience is the only reliable truth
there is in the world. I think of the
account John gives of the young
man who was blind from birth, marginalized by his “defect.” When Jesus
restores his sight, he faces intense questioning by skeptical authority figures,
who seem unwilling to believe what everyone can now see. His reply to them is, “One thing I know –
that though I was blind, now I see.” He
has only the truth of his personal experience to rely on.
Women are certainly not the only good storytellers, nor are
we superior in this way to men. But from
our vantage point, it is, perhaps, easier to see that everything anyone ever
knew in this world was known through one’s personal experience. And if the personal experience of the men who
are in charge seems more solid and true to you than the experiences of others,
then I would echo the angels who always say, “Be not afraid.”
No, women are not the only ones who can tell the story of
resurrection. Anyone who has experienced
resurrection, and trusts their experience, can tell the truth too.
