When others ask me what I studied in college, I often squirm a bit. I anticipate some sort of impending judgment depending on where I fall on their “Success-O-Meter.” Well, I studied history and theology, so generally, I land pretty low on the “Success-O-Meter,” but I believe I rate fairly high on my “Fulfillment Meter.” So, why study history? Why study something so unlikely to bring a big paycheck and impressive title? Well, as Christians, I think it is our duty to appreciate history, because God is inherently historical. God created the world, and uses historical events to reveal himself. Most importantly,God became a part of our history through Jesus Christ. Indeed, all of history has been seen and touched by God, whether we are familiar with the historical details or not. Part of the duty of a Christian historian is to uncover those voices that have been hidden because of neglect or prejudice. Here at CBE, Women’s History Month is an opportunity for us to do just that!
The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month is “Lost Histories: Uncovering Women of Faith.” This year, our guiding Scripture passage is 1 Peter 2:4–5, which says, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” As this passage reminds us, Jesus himself was rejected and ignored by people, as were many of the women we will meet this month. We will encounter an African-American woman who fought racism by becoming a powerful preacher. We will travel to the Communist bloc and meet a woman who was bold enough to be ordained as a Catholic priest, in order to serve God during desperate times. We will even look at one of the first women God used to preach the good news of Christ. Like archaeologists, we are just beginning the work of dusting off the “living stones” in God’s spiritual house. It’s going to be an exciting journey, and I look forward to hearing from some of you who as you meet new heroes of the faith or become reacquainted with familiar companions.
Participate in Women’s History Month with us! Here’s how:
Each weekday during March, CBE will feature a different woman from the history of the church. If you don’t already, now’s an excellent time to follow CBE on Facebook and/or Twitter. We’ll post a clue about the woman of the day, and then you can follow the post to CBE’s Women’s History Month page to view her full profile.
Each Thursday in Arise, we’ll do an in depth study of a different woman from Christian history.
We will have a timeline featuring each woman of the day in 2014. Each day, we’ll add the woman of the day to the timeline. As the month goes on, the timeline will fill up, and at the end of the month, we’ll be able to see all of the women featured during 2014.
If you have a small group, consider using CBE’s Women’s History Month Curriculum or other bookstore resources on women in history during the month of March.
This month, we are all historians, uncovering the stories of women God has used to shape hearts and advance his kingdom. As Christian historians, we see history through the eyes of Christ, who welcomed marginalized prostitutes and defenseless mothers as agents of his gospel, emboldened by the Holy Spirit. Their stories have always been there, but the shroud of patriarchy has blinded us from them. By bringing the lives of remarkable women into light, we defy the power of patriarchy. God has been working through women ever since the world began, and the lives of these women are proof. Let’s open our eyes and see something new this March. Not the same-old history of the past, but a living history, the work of the One who was, and is, and is to come.
