Women in Lead Roles

Gospel: Luke 2: 36-40

By and large all ancient religions saw men as the ones who received messages and missions from God.  Women did not have direct access to God and only received mission through a man.  But the Gospel of Luke presents us with three women - Elizbeth, Mary, and Anna - as women who receive direct messages from God and whose missions are central to the coming of Jesus into the world.  

Elizabeth receives the mission of giving birth to John the Baptist who will be the forerunner to Jesus the Messiah.  She believes in spite of her husband, high priest, disbelieving.  Mary receives the mission to be the mother of Jesus, and in spite of all the peril it entails she accepts this mission with great faith.  Today we meet Anna, a female prophet in the temple who provides to Mary the prophecy of Jesus' destiny on earth.  

Anna forms the second bookend to this section of Luke's Gospel and provides great contrast to the first bookend.  Luke begins the story of Jesus' infancy in the temple with Gabriel announcing to the high priest Zechariah and he disbelieves the message.  The infancy narratives in Luke end with Anna, a woman of great belief who has direct access to God, giving prophecy about Jesus in the temple.  Mission and ministry are not distributed by gender. God can and does work through everyone so that the Word might be born among us and brought into the world.