Restoring Women to the Stories
Women were a big part of Jesus's ministry. Still working out the details, but needless to say, we do have to imagine them INTO the stories because the male disciples take center stage.
We are doing a lesson on the call of the disciples that broadens the "call" stories to imagine the call which some of the women surrounding Jesus surely felt. While women can certainly hold any job these days that men can, we tried to imagine the kinds of job women held in Jesus' day to add some flavor. We came up with:
- Jesus calls a weaver
- Jesus calls a young mother
- Jesus calls a potter
- Jesus calls a grandma
- Jesus calls the owner of an inn
- Jesus calls a bread maker
Jesus called the fishermen to fish for people. What would Jesus want each of those women to be "called to" in their roles?
What special vocabulary (metaphor) would he use with each call. "I will make you a baker of food for all who hunger after God," "I will make you a nurturer of all God's children." etc. etc. We made a special attempt to help children understand that these roles/jobs were NOT gender specific in our day!
