Further Thoughts On the Stories Women Tell

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.

Photo:  That's my journal.  Everything in it is true.