Women are amazing. Whether or not they are deemed worthy of pay equity, I think women are amazing.
They serve as care givers and MPs; teacher aides and high court judges; women work as police officers, and night shift cleaners; they serve as check out operators and surgeons; they knit, sew, bake and cook; women work as farmers and farriers, vets and vaccinators, barristers and baristas.
Some are mothers and sisters and aunts and grandmothers, some are daughters and grand-daughters and second cousins once removed. And quite often a family seems to have a matriarch who serves as the glue for the whole whanau, holding their stories, remembering their birthdays, and drawing people together for special occasions.
And then there are those other amazing women – women with a cause.
Elizabeth Fry (1780) reforming prisons and psychiatric institutions of the 1800s.
Florence Nightingale (1820) social reformer and statistician, bringing compassion and cleanliness to wounded soldiers in Crimea and founding modern nursing.
Kate Sheppard (1847) campaigning for NZ women to have the vote, and heading the National Council of Women.
Mother Edith (1861), fearless founder of the Community of the Sacred Name in Christchurch, serving women and orphans, teaching, embroidering, and visiting hospitals and prisons.
Marie Curie (1867), winner of Nobel Prizes in both chemistry and physics.
Ettie Rout (1877) campaigner for NZ WW1 troops to have sexual health kits.
Mother Teresa (1910) pouring love into the destitute and dying in Kolkata.
Rosa Parks (1913) sitting at the front of a segregated bus in the US.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926) mapping the uncharted terrain of grief.
Joan Baez (1941), singer, peace activist and human rights campaigner.
Jane Goodall (1934) researching, cherishing and protecting chimps and their environment.
Greta Thunberg (2003) teen climate activist extraordinaire, and a global icon today at the age of 22.
Women with a cause.
Those amazing women span the past 250 years, but you may have met and known amazing women yourself – including women with a cause here in NZ. Women on the national stage, and women just around the corner. Women with a burning passion, a driving purpose, a desire to see change for good, and a willingness to be part of it, whatever the cost.
Our faith story includes amazing women from the past 4000 years.
Matriarchs Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel and Miriam.
Hagar and Ishmael
Wives and Mothers like Hannah, Ruth, Naomi
Legendary women like Esther the courageous queen, and Judith the wise Judge.
Queen Esther
And then the women of the gospels. Elizabeth. Mary. Pregnant with promise.
The woman with the flow of blood – reaching out to Jesus, desperate and courageous.
The Canaanite woman – begging for the health of her daughter.
The woman at the well – recognising Jesus, the water of life.
Mary Magdalene – apostle to the apostles, declaring to them she had seen the risen Lord.
The women who accompanied and provided for Jesus, like Joanna and Susanna, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph.
And then there are Mary and Martha. We are told (John 11:5) that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and (their brother) Lazarus.” And the gospel writers give us a few memorable glimpses into their lives.
In Luke 10, Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. She is the house-holder. Her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to him. Martha is busy and bustling and becomes grumpy with Jesus and Mary. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work?… Tell her to help me.” It’s not good form to target a guest, nor to involve him in a family dispute. But Jesus quietly, lovingly seeks to calm and settle Martha. He doesn’t want fuss or perfection, he simply wants to spend time with these two women, his friends.
We meet Mary and Martha again in John 11. This time they send word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is dying. When Jesus arrives, Lazarus is dead and buried. Martha goes out to meet Jesus and in grief declares, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died…” and Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again” and says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And Martha responds with a wonderful declaration of faith, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” Martha, much more than a grumpy housewife – a wonderful woman of faith.
Then Mary went out to Jesus, knelt at his feet, and also said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And when Jesus saw her grief and the grief of the community, Jesus wept. And Jesus stood at her brother’s tomb and called, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus, still wrapped in grave clothes stumbled out, alive.
It is maybe just a few weeks after that miracle when Jesus visits the home of Lazarus in the gospel reading we heard today (John 12:1-8). We can only imagine the love and gratitude of Martha and Mary toward Jesus – the one who restored their brother to life.
Martha is in her element as she busily serves Jesus and the others at table, plying him with the best food and drink available. Her utmost offering.
And Mary pours out love and thankfulness from the depths of her heart as well, pouring costly perfume on Jesus’ feet, and wiping them with her hair. An achingly beautiful and intimate expression of love.
In Christ, God’s deepest love was poured out for us. Costly, personal love.
In the midst of all our activity, our serving and our worship, may we too have moments that are simply an outpouring of our love and thankfulness to God.
And as you offer worship to the one who is worthy of all thankfulness and praise, may you find yourself renewed.
May you, as individuals and as AAW groups, grow in faith and service, in prayer and praise and purpose. May the Holy Spirit ignite fresh desire in you to unite in prayer and participate in the mission of the Church, and inspire you with ways to promote, safeguard and nurture Christian family life in this often stressed and fractured generation.
May God’s Holy Spirit work in you and through you, so that you may both be – and encourage – the amazing change-making, hope-spreading, Christ-bearing women of our communities. And together may you accomplish abundantly more than all you can ask or imagine, to the glory of God.
AAW Mid and South Canterbury Area Festival, May 24, 2025
Women growing in faith and service
Sermon by The Venerable Indrea Alexander, Archdeacon of Mid Canterbury
Readings: Ephesians 3:14-21, John 12:1-8
Used with kind permission
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