First Parish Unitarian Universalist"Letter from Prisca"
Sermon by the Rev. Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
November 5, 2000
Reading
"Contact Lenses" by Audre Lord (from The Black Unicorn, p. 94)
Lacking what they want to see
makes my eyes hungry
and eyes can feel
only pain.
Once I lived behind thick walls
of glass
and my eyes belonged
to a different ethic
timidly rubbing the edges
of whatever turned them on.
Seeing usually
was a matter of what was
in front of my eyes
matching what was
behind my brain.
Now my eyes have become
a part of me exposed
quick risky and open
to all the same dangers.
I see much
better now
but my eyes hurt.
Sermon
Sometime in my early twenties, I ceased thinking of myself as a Christian, even though I continued to feel a strong affinity for the teachings of Jesus (a few of which we heard earlier). And I still do.
Perhaps some of you traveled a similar path. For me, there were several reasons. First, I had come to realize that I did not believe in an omnipotent God, out there somewhere, who would intercede in our affairs to help us do the right thing. God seemed more real to me as the God within, as the force of love if we are open to it, giving us the hope and energy to do God's work, the work of love and justice, in the world, so I wasn't sure it was even right for me to use the word "God" for that.
Also, I had come to realize that I did not believe that Jesus died for my sins...or anyone else's sins. Rather, I understood that he died because his ministry threatened the Roman authorities and some Jewish leaders. Furthermore, I had trouble with what seemed to be a glorification of suffering in the Christian message: with the idea that we are sometimes punished for our own good and that we should suffer obediently like Jesus–a disastrous message, it seemed to me, for battered women and abused children, for the politically oppressed.
Finally, I was exasperated with the sexism throughout--from the male image of God to the lack of female images in the Bible.
In short, taking liberty with Audre Lord's metaphor, "It hurt, so I shut my eyes."
Now, one of the best things about Unitarian Universalism, it seems to me, is that it can help us see better the religious traditions from which some of us may be refugees, like wearing contact lenses. Unitarian Universalism is open to the potential to truth in all religions. And it relies, as we say in the statement of Sources on the back of the order of worship, first of all, on our own "direct experience of… transcending mystery and wonder." Therefore, with our own personal spiritual experience as the basis and frame of reference, we can be open to the truths of any religion, including one that we may have rejected.
For me, a new view of Christianity came from studying the Christian Scriptures with feminist scholars during my theological school years. I came to see some of the differences between what I was taught about Christianity, on the one hand, and on the other, what Christianity might actually have been about in the first century after the death of Jesus. My eyes were opened to seeing the Christian story in a new way.
Now I see the world at the time of Jesus and in the decades after his death, as much more exciting, far more complex, and more intriguing than I earlier would have guessed. I see the early Christian church more as a movement, like the twentieth century civil rights movement or the earlier abolition movement in our country–heady times, with a lot of foment and change. A time when individuals made a difference, as leaders and as participants; a time when large numbers of un-named people's lives were changing also.
Because of feminist Biblical scholarship, I came to see the early Christian church as being peopled and, even, led by women as well as men. I see it as full of conflict, with the church in Corinth doing things and seeing things differently than, say, the church in Rome or Ephesus, conflicts about which we have only the sketchiest knowledge, because what made it into the official Bible, or "canon" as the scholars call it, represented only its own side of the arguments.
I began to think about questions like--what if Jesus decided that age thirty was too early to die, only three years (maybe less, some scholars say) into his ministry and tempered himself for strategic reasons? what if he didn't talk back to Pilate? what if he was released and lived to old age as a wise leader and revolutionary? what if he continued to build a stronger movement, one in which the believers were more secure in their new ways, less likely to jump on the resurrection as proof of the rightness of their new beliefs, and more likely to work on living in the present in the love of God?
Perhaps you have your own "what ifs" to ask about the Christian story.
I also found myself wondering about what was left out of the official Bible. During the long years leading up to 367 A.D. when the list drawn up by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was accepted as the official canon of the church, what did they reject? What other viewpoints were represented in the documents that didn't make it? Were there other letters carried between the different early Christian communities? Were there women authors? Were any of these early missionary and church leaders married?
How might the trajectory of the early church have been different if it had been spread and led by people who were stable community folks, married with kids–not the itinerant preachers and organizer-types, men for the most part, unmarried as far as we know? Why are children so invisible in the New Testament-- who was taking care of them–how, what and by whom were they taught about this man Jesus, or were they?
I began to wonder... how would women's feelings about Christianity be different if we could see ourselves in the Biblical characters? Or men's, if they knew of more strong women in the Bible?
For two thousand years, Christian men have been able to identify, by virtue of their gender, with Jesus, the twelve disciples, and most of the other leaders mentioned in the New Testament. Christian women have been left with only a few, somewhat passive, female role models whose characters are not well developed in the scriptures. None of this is to say that women cannot identify with Jesus' because he is male or that men do just because he was a guy, but just to speculate about how things might have been, if they'd been different.
Of course, people, customs, ways of life and prevalent beliefs were different then, but since all of what made it into the Bible is attributed to itinerant preachers, single, we assume… one wonders what perspectives the married men, married and unmarried women, parents, slaves, the disabled, and the ailing would have contributed if they had told the stories? "I see much better, but now my eyes really hurt."
Today I invite you to join me and my imagination on a creative exercise to give a voice to Prisca, one of the women leaders of the early Christian church. She and her husband Aquila are mentioned only briefly in the Christian Scriptures, yet it is clear that they played a significant role in the spread of the Christian message in three different major cities in the Roman Empire.
First, listen to what is said about them in the writings attributed to the Apostle Paul,
From the 18th Chapter of the Book of Acts (v. 1-3, 18a, 19a and 24-26): After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Prisca, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together --by trade they were tentmakers. After staying there for a considerable time, Paul said farewell to the believers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Prisca and Aquila. When they reached Ephesus, he left them there...Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Prisca and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.
Other references to Prisca and Aquila (and note how her name is mentioned first, contrary to social custom at the time) inform us that after the Edict of Claudius was revoked, they returned to Rome and led a house church there. And, we learn that Paul regarded them very highly because it is written in Romans 16,
Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus, and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Now, imagine, if you will. Imagine, if we had as much information about Prisca and Aquila as we do about the missionary efforts of Paul. Imagine what it was like for a woman as active as Prisca to see Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in which he told women to be silent in worship and if they had questions, to raise them to their husbands at home. What a put-down, what an acquiescence to the status quo of their times, compared to the liberating message of Jesus who had welcomed both women and men among his followers, whose message was that we were all children of a loving God and that we were to love our neighbors–all of them– as ourselves.
What might Prisca have written in reply? It is known, by the way, that there were literate women who could read and write at that time; it is also known that there were scribes who would do your writing for you if you didn't know how; so this is imaginative foray isn't totally unrealistic. In fact, scholar Elizabeth Moltmann-Wendel in her book The Women Around Jesus gives evidence for her speculation that Prisca was the author of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Scholars think that Paul wrote First Corinthians while he was in Ephesus, where Prisca and Aquila were leaders of the church. What if he shared the letter with them before it was sent off with a believer travelling to Corinth? What if there was no opportunity to give Paul feedback before he left on his next journey? What if Prisca then wrote to him in response to First Corinthians? What might she have said? What if her letter was recently found in a jar in a cave in eastern Turkey?
Listen now as she writes her letter, in a form similar to those of Paul, in the language of the early Christian communities … (start of letter)
"Prisca, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to Paul. Greetings from Aquila as well and all those who gather in our house in the name of Christ. To Stephanus, Fortunatus, Achaicus, Crispus and the people of Chloe's house and all the men, women and children of Christ in Corinth. We plan to travel through on our return to Rome shortly, as we hear that Nero lifted the decree of Claudius, and we will greet all of you with the holy kiss ourselves.
Paul, you remember that we read over your letter to the Corinthians but that there was no time to discuss it with you before it was taken by our brethren ahead of you to Corinth? I was troubled, very much troubled, by questions the letter left in my heart. I have pondered them, prayerfully, and talked about them quietly with the most active of the believers here in Ephesus. Together we drafted this letter which I now write.
You know, brother Paul, that the love of Jesus has grown here like a beautiful flower, opening in new and amazing ways every day. Especially among the women, who saw in me a leader who is a woman like themselves. They heard about Mary, Martha, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman and the many other women who heard the teachings of our Lord and followed him. Women in Ephesus have been inspired by what they have heard. They have become believers, telling others about the Good News and teaching the children in their households. In Ephesus the church has been built by both women and men. We all believe that Jesus' message of love was meant for us all to hear, for us all to teach, to preach and so on, each according to our gifts, as you so eloquently said in the letter to Corinth.
But, Paul, in certain places your letter to the Corinthians is ambiguous regarding the place of women in the Jesus Movement. What did you mean? If you meant to limit the activities of women, we challenge you to answer us: did our Lord limit the activities of women? If you did not intend to limit women, we ask you to clarify your intent because your words give power to those who would silence women everywhere. In the letter, you tell married women to raise questions to their husbands at home, but surely wives are not to place their husbands above God! And what about women who have not married or live as married with another woman-- they shall speak in worship and not I? Don't be absurd! You are creating divisions among believers when Christ came to make us all free! As a married woman, I will not be limited anymore than I will allow other women to be hidden as if non-existent.
Paul, some of us think that your admonishment against women speaking in worship is probably your response to the tension which arises from time to time because neither women nor men are accustomed to the new ways of life we now have in Christ. Listen to us when we say that we believe tension to be a necessary and even beneficial aspect of building the Jesus Movement. By instructing either the women or the men to be silent, you will stifle growth. Rather, we all--both men and women--must nourish our ability to be silent together in worship, so that we may more carefully listen for the voice of God in our midst. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us together if we worship in spirit and in truth. There is no truth when the truth of some believers, but not of others, is submitted to silence.
Paul, as you know, Aquila and I feel we have been blessed by barrenness. It has freed us from the responsibilities of family life, freed us to work for Christ. But, happy we are that every Christian marriage is not barren! As our community struggles to live in the present in the love of Christ, even as we wait for His return, we see that the children among us give us great joy, and are our greatest hope as Christians. For these children have known no other life but that of the Christian life. Won't they be far wiser and stronger than we who were taught the old ways first? And, who do you think teaches the children the stories of Jesus? Who do you think teaches them to pray? Who leads them in worship in their homes? Women-- their mothers, nurses, aunts, step-mothers-- women teach the children! If we lose the women because you have banned them to silence and to submission to their husbands-- after we have taught them that we are all loved by God the same!-- we will lose them and their children. This will be a loss to our community, and to the movement started by Jesus.
As a woman myself, though I am not a mother, I can appreciate why the love of Christ touches women so profoundly. It is because they suffer greatly. You know, it is custom for the father to decide the fate of newborns and so some female infants are exposed to die or be rescued and raised as foundlings. Girls are often denied adequate food so their brothers will be well-fed, and some are married off before they are even women. As women, they face childbirth with both hope for life... and dread of death. Paul, think of how many women die in labor, how many of their babies die before their first year. Most married women are seen as the property of their husbands, as things, not as people and unmarried women are often not seen at all! Is it any wonder that so many women are moved by Jesus' love? by the hope of the resurrection? by His message that we are all the children of a loving God? Let us not shrink from this great need among God's people. Let us minister to it with the love of Jesus.
I, together with Aquila, have been a faithful disciple of Christ. You found us in Corinth, Paul, leading a house church there. You lived, ate, worked, prayed and taught with us. We left our community there to join you in building the church in Ephesus. We planted the first seeds there while you traveled, then you returned to water and nourish them at our sides. I taught Apollos who has become an eloquent disciple of Christ. Now we prepare to return to Rome where we hope to spread the Good News and gather believers in our home anew. We trust we will continue to experience the Holy Spirit as love in our midst, sustaining us in the times of conflict which cause growth as much as the times of joy, for the glory of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I, Prisca, write this with my own hand, and with all my heart, mind and soul. Aquila and the others have added to my words and join me in saying the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you."
(end of letter)
As Unitarian Universalists, our living tradition draws from Christian teachings, among other sources. In addition, our history began in the Christian context, even if we are no longer limited to that context.
Therefore, I believe it is helpful to develop fresh perspectives on Christianity and gain new insights about it. We can be encouraged and even empowered by imagining credible versions of the story of the early Christian church other than those that made it into the official Christian Bible. Versions that include women, even in leadership roles... versions that acknowledge controversy and conflict as positive, growth-enhancing aspects of community life... versions that bring out for both women and men Jesus' messages of love, freedom and justice which we still proclaim today…versions that expand upon the teachings of Jesus rather than establishing a religion about him.
It's like wearing contact lenses. We see much better now, our eyes may hurt sometimes. But we are the wiser for our better vision. Amen.