Rev. George Miller
August 21, 2022
Tobit 1:1-8
Time is an interesting concept- things that seem like yesterday occurred
a lot further back than we realize.
For example, 51 years ago “All In the Family” debuted while Ike &
Tina Turner sang about “Proud Mary.”
Then, there are historical events that are closer than they seem.
Edith and Archie Bunker appeared on TV just 51 years after women won the
right to vote.
We are just as far from “Proud Mary” as “Proud Mary” was from women winning
the right to vote.
102 years; sounds long ago. It’s
not. Jack Spenser is 99. Today, there are 92,000 people over 100. Chances are we all knew a woman who was born at
a time before they could legally vote.
Think of just how young our nation is.
1776 was just 246 years ago. In
terms of nations, we’re just babies barely out of diapers. No wonder we can be so messy at times- we’re
still learning.
The book I just read, “Founding Mothers,” was a great way to hear how
that learning process took place.
It features the words of women who lived during our nation’s birth, all
of them trying to make sense out of nonsense, surviving, doing all they can to maneuver
in a world that didn’t want to grant them equality.
One way the women maneuvered was in the marketplace. Tired of severe taxation, the women expressed
their power through their purchases.
Way before men tossed tea into the sea, women used their pocketbook to
shun British goods.
They refused to buy ribbons and fabric.
Had Boston merchants sign an oath to not import British goods.
They stopped wearing fancy foreign gowns to public events. Churches held “spinning clubs” in which the women
would discuss politics, while creating skeins of wool to be woven into clothe.
They sipped “Liberty Tea”- their own concoction of herbs and flowers.
Their protests became visible in unique ways. In 1775 there was a funeral in Charleston. Since all proper mourning clothes came from
oversees, the women made do with what they had.
Instead of wearing black, as expected, all the city’s women showed up in brightly
colored technicolor dresses.
This was considered the 1st visible act of public defiance
against the British.
Abagail Adams wrote to her husband John, telling of a merchant who was hoarding
all the coffee. About 100 women assembled,
marched down to the warehouse, demanded his keys.
He refused until one of the women grabbed him by the neck, tossed him in a
cart, tipped him over. They got the keys,
opened the warehouse, hoisted every sack of coffee into their carts, drove off,
as the menfolk just watched.
Abagail and the women learned how to make cornstalks into molasses, which
they then used to make rum, making the soldiers very happy.
Women fought on the front line, acted as spies, started industries, raised
money for the troops, ran plantations, yet their men still thought theydidn’t know
enough, were educated enough, to vote or have a role in politics.
Seems like the world has always been messy, and that no matter how much
women do, endure, or have gone through, there are always Archie Bunkers to get
in the way of Edith.
Case in point is Tobit, today’s scripture,
a story full of messy situations, messy folk, and women who try their
best to overcome great odds.
Like Judith, which we studied last year, Tobit is one of the Books of the
Apocrypha. It is part of the Catholic
Bible, but not part of Hebrew Cannon or the Protestant Bible.
Tobit is a newer writing, composed about 200 years before Jesus, which is
one reason it wasn’t included in the Hebrew Cannon.
Another reason is that Tobit was always seen as fiction, a faith-based novella
featuring a giant fish, a faithful dog, deadly demon, lying angel, and pooping
pigeons. Talk about messy.
Tobit offers a glimpse into a difficult, deadly time for God’s people,
featuring numerous scenes of people praying and discussions about ethical living.
Tobit features Sarah, the daughter of Raguel. She’s been married 7 times, and all 7 times
her husbands died on their wedding night due to a demon. She takes her anger out on her servants, who
in turn make fun of her.
They ridicule her for being a husband killer, literally telling her to
drop dead. She thinks of suicide but
changes her mind after prayering to God.
There’s her mother, Edna, who wisely questions visitors, keeps track of
the extended family, bakes like no one’s business while also offering words of
courage and comfort to her daughter.
There is Tobia, the son of their cousins Anna and Tobit.
Anna is a hardworking woman, who gets a job when the family encounters challenging
times. She takes in laundry, doing such
a good job, she gets a bonus.
There’s Tobit- a faithful Jew who was kidnapped as a child and taken to
Nineveh. There he deals with the
hardships of being a stranger in a strange land, but through faith, luck, and a
mind for business, he amasses a large wealth of money.
Tobit is presented as the perfect, purest person who ever lived. He tithes, he gives to the needy, he keeps
kosher, he buries the dead, he prays.
But as discovered on Tuesday, how you see Tobit can depend on who you are
and how far you’re willing to let your imagination go.
Tobit could be played as Andy Griffith, or like the dads from “Modern
Family.” Or he could be a real Archie
Bunker.
Tobit is just a tad chauvinistic. He
attributes all he knows about faithful living and God his Mom, Deborah, but since
his Dad is dead, he calls himself an orphan, as if Mom didn’t matter.
His wife Anna creates huge feasts for him, but he has no problem leaving
the table to tend to some need.
Then there’s the issue of Anna getting a job to support the family. See, due to some unfortunate pigeon poop in
his eyes, Tobit has gone blind and broke.
So Anna does what needs to be done- she gets a job. She excels at it. Not only does she bring home the bacon, she brings
home a goat that she got as a bonus.
This sets Tobit off. He assumes
she stole it. He refuses to believe
her. He demands she return it. He is enraged, flushed with chauvinistic anger.
Do you know what Anna, the wife, says to her bratty husband? “Where are all your self-righteous acts of
charity now? Where are all the people
you just had to help. Ha! You’ve just
shown your true self now!”
And this, this thing sets Tobit off into a series of tears, moaning and
groaning. Tobit prays to God because his
life has become so miserable.
Yes, he endured being kidnapped, losing his eyesight, but having his wife
support the family, be dang good at it, and not apologize about it- that is too
much for poor, poor Tobit to bare.
“Oh God,” he cries, “release me from the face of the earth, for it is
better to die than to live.”
Oh, boo-hoo, Archi Bunker. Your
wife got a job and a bonus, get over it!
…So here is where we stop today’s reading. What’s been fascinating to me is that I had
no idea how Tobit could tie into Women’s Equality.
Then Bible Study came along, and Diane, and Lisa, two bold women, put a
whole different spin on Tobit than I imagined.
That’s the beauty of studying scripture together- hearing other voices
from other lived experiences “see” what’s in the text and watching their
response.
Just like studying history, how nations came to be, you think it’s all about
the men, but you discover that there are women there as well, doing just as
much, and they’ve always been there.
-Adam was a no body until Eve.
-Abraham needed Sarah.
-Moses could not survive without his mother, sister, or Pharoah’s
daughter.
Tobit would’ve been destitute without his mom, Deborah and his wife, Anna.
America would’ve been lost without wives like Abigial, daughters like
Eliza Lucas, not to mention all the enslaved women who have gone unnamed.
All the women who refused to buy tea.
All the women who talked politics and spun wool to make their own clothes.
All the women who hoisted sacks of coffee out of warehouses and wore brightly
colored clothes of defiance.
All the suffragettes in their purple, white and yellow who
-wrote letters, used song
-marched, faced arrest,
-starved themselves
-Did everything and anything they could to secure the right to vote.
Though history has always been messy, and filled with far too many
Archies,
we are thankful for every woman who has done whatever was needed
to keep the dream alive,
to fight for freedom, and
to place their faith,
and their actions,
in a better tomorrow.
In God’s name we say “Amen.”
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