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A REVIEW
OF God in Her Midst:
Preaching Healing to Wounded Women
By Allison
Young
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 God
in Her Midst:
Preaching Healing to
Wounded Women
by Elaine Flake
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A woman who has been sexually abused feels as
though she is impure or sinful. A woman who has experienced
domestic abuse is taught that she must return to and submit to
her husband. A woman is told that her body has been a source of
“stumbling” for men in the church. A woman who struggles with an
eating disorder is looked at shamefully because of her “sin.”
At times, the church, which is supposed to be
a place of healing, has been a place of pain. Christians, who
are supposed to be a source of love, have been a source of
judgment. The Bible, which contains God’s word of hope and
healing, has been misused to maintain women in a place of
vulnerability. That which was intended for good has been used to
bring harm. Elaine Flake, being sympathetic to the situation of
those who have experienced pain and wounding, shares in God
in Her Midst a biblical message that affirms the experiences
and dignity of women who have been hurt. The powerful biblical
examples she shares reveal the healing and liberating message of
the Bible.
Affirmation for the African American Woman
Elaine Flake’s hope for the church is that it
would be a source of healing for all people. Flake preaches from a
theological perspective that speaks to the
concerns of women, particularly
African American women. She interprets
Scripture to bring healing and affirmation to those who are
wounded. God in Her Midst begins with a discussion of the
theological framework from which she works, while the majority
of the pages consist of Flake’s own sermons intended to bring
healing and to uplift African American women and, indeed, any
woman who has experienced pain or wounding.
In order to be a source of healing for
African American women, the church must affirm their experience,
which, Flake notes, is one that involves racism, sexism, and
classism, as well as physical and sexual violence. Biblical
interpretation and preaching must be sensitive to
their circumstances and stories, as well as to the
experiences of all people who have lived through or with pain.
Flake states that it is necessary to discard understandings that
are oppressive or hurtful to already wounded people. Rather, the
church must be a place that affirms women and their experiences,
while serving as a source of healing, encouragement,
empowerment, and liberation. In order to illustrate how
Scripture affirms women, Flake highlights the stories of many
biblical women, often misunderstood by traditional
interpretations, in a way that is sensitive and empathetic to
their experiences. These biblical women prove to be a source of
encouragement for hurting women.
Biblical Examples: Stories of Hope and Despair
One woman in particular with whom African
American women can identify, Flake notes, is the woman with the
flow of blood (Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). Besides physical
ailments, her infirmity caused her to be considered “unclean” by
the standards of Jewish law, which resulted in isolation from
society, rejection, and poverty for the twelve years she
suffered this condition. She represents those who have been
marginalized, excluded, segregated, or degraded. In an act of
desperation, she broke the religious law and defied what was
considered appropriate female behavior at that time in order to
move through the crowd and touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. In
so doing, she was healed and received affirmation from Jesus.
Women who have by victimized by abuse, rape,
harassment, or other forms of objectification, and those who
carry shame, guilt, or suffer in silence from an action
committed against them may find solidarity with Tamar (2 Samuel
13:1-20). Tamar was a virgin who was raped by her brother Amnon,
who then cast her away after the violation in an attempt to
implicate her as the seducer. While deeply grieved, Tamar
encountered her brother Absalom, who told her to remain silent
about the rape and not take it to heart in order that peace
might remain within the family. As Flake notes, this is not an
uncommon response given to victims today. Tamar went on to live
in Absalom’s house where she remained in her silence, but those
who have experienced shame and those who have been victims do
not need to remain in that place of silence and unspoken shame.
God can heal the wounds of shame, so that women may live in
their God-given reality as women who are fearfully and
wonderfully made.
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Her story is a
reminder not to become prisoner to past hurts and
their damaging effects on relationships, but to move
forward to the freedom, healing, and new life which
God is offering. |
God wills that women be whole and emotionally
healthy people. Unhealthy relationships can wound and deter
women from reaching their God-given potential. Rather than
dwelling in a place of bitterness or woundedness, God has
offered healing and abundant life. Lot’s wife, possibly due to
anger with Lot who had offered their daughters to be raped by a
violent mob in order to protect his guests, hesitated when
fleeing the city of Sodom (Genesis 19). Rather than moving
forward, she looked back. As a result, she turned into a pillar
of salt, permanently separating her from her family. Her story
is a reminder not to become prisoner
to past hurts and their damaging effects on relationships, but
to move forward to the freedom, healing, and new life which God
is offering.
A “Contradiction of Context”
In what Flake calls a “contradiction of
context,” many women have been wounded in the very places in
which they would expect to receive healing, in the church and in
the home. Women who have been divinely gifted have been hindered
from reaching their full potentials because of woundedness,
discouragement, opposition, and fear.
Yet God has
provided the strength to overcome. The Daughters of Zelphehad
challenged the law which did not grant inheritances to women,
but to the nearest male relative, by requesting their deserved
inheritance of their father’s land: a request which God honored
(Numbers 27:1-7). They are women who stood up against opposition
and took hold of that to which they were entitled. God has
enabled women to move out of their situations of woundedness to
embrace the healing, power, and renewal offered through Jesus
Christ, through whom we have been freed to become the women God
created us to be.
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Women who have
been divinely gifted have been hindered from
reaching their full potentials because of
woundedness, discouragement, opposition, and fear.
Yet God has provided the
strength to overcome. |
A Tool for Transformation and Renewal
God in Her Midst is a powerful and
creative book for both women and men, African American and
otherwise. Flake raises a needed awareness of the experience of
pain and woundedness among women. Her sermons, in a voice of
clarity, empathy, and conviction, affirm women’s experiences and
encourage all of us to take hold of the transformed and renewed
life promised through Jesus Christ, our true healer, comforter,
and source of strength.
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Allison
Young is currently 
