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We are Alyssa and Bri, two sisters who believe God wants more for women than we've been taught. Join us as we dive into the intersection of faith and feminism, learning together as we go.
Welcome to the We Are More podcast. My name is Alyssa. And my name is Bree. We're 2 sisters passionate about
Speaker 2:all things faith and feminism.
Speaker 1:We believe that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get comfy.
Speaker 2:Happy
Speaker 1:post Christmas. Happy holidays.
Speaker 2:It's a doggy dog Christmas. That is a classic in our family. Yeah. It's It's a great song.
Speaker 1:If you haven't heard that one, it's by Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:He has a whole Christmas album. I I had heard, obviously, that one, but I had never I didn't know he had a whole Christmas album.
Speaker 2:I knew he had a whole album, and I played it at work the other day when all
Speaker 1:the people worked on. Oh, no one heard it?
Speaker 2:Well, the team the team heard it. Oh. And, yeah, they were hip hopping for Christmas.
Speaker 1:Well, today for us is Christmas Eve. We got up early. We got a coffee. And A very, very necessary coffee. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it is Christmas Eve, and we have many a thing to do today. At least 10. At least 10.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But we wanted to make sure that we recorded because if we don't record now, you guys are not getting an episode on Thursday, and I know how much you depend on us and our joyous voices. Because what we will be doing on Thursday
Speaker 2:is the day after Christmas shopping spree.
Speaker 1:We're very excited. It's one of my
Speaker 2:favorite days of the year. I know. Alyssa and I get together, specifically her and I, but whoever else wants to join us, they're allowed to, but they're not allowed to judge. That's true. We have strict rules.
Speaker 2:And we go out and we buy the clearance wrapping paper, and the tags, and the bows, and the
Speaker 1:the boxes and the packages, boxes and bags,
Speaker 2:and the decorations, and the little Christmas Christmas themed gifts that we hoard away
Speaker 1:for the next year. Like soaps and Yeah. Just silliness that you give to the people that you don't really know what to give them.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And now you've got a whole box
Speaker 1:of things to give them. Yeah. You said don't store it in your garage because little mouses will come and chew on your soaps.
Speaker 2:We've had that happen.
Speaker 1:Also, I think it's hilarious that you're like, Alyssa and I get together as though we we have to go very far or walk down the hall. Here's Brie.
Speaker 2:Oh, Alyssa and I walk down the hall, look at each other, say, Starbucks and go.
Speaker 1:And it's a no makeup sort of day. Yes. It's a get something ridiculous for lunch and dinner sort of day.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna say girly food, but, like, food that we want.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like,
Speaker 1:tacos, salsa, and margaritas. Oh, sushi. Margaritas. We could have sushi, salsa, chips, and margaritas. I love you.
Speaker 1:Weird, weird sort
Speaker 2:of day. Anyways, you can listen to this podcast while you're shopping for your 75% off wrapping paper.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Pop those headphones in and listen as you go. Yeah. I will say my my hot tip, the best place to go is TJ Maxx Marshall's, if you have those.
Speaker 2:Because pretty much anything with a Christmas tree on it is gonna be on sale.
Speaker 1:And they're full of Christmas trees over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So think in the jewelry department or in the bathroom products. You forgot
Speaker 1:the word bathroom?
Speaker 2:That's like toiletries. I don't know. It it expands more. I don't know. If you find a Q tip with a Christmas tree on it, it's on sale.
Speaker 1:Now if you wait a couple days, yes, it goes on more sale. Mhmm. So, like, eventually, Target hits 90% off on their Christmas stuff or whatever, but there will be nothing left. There's nothing. So hit it up the day after.
Speaker 1:Get the stuff that you really want, because they'll like, TJ Maxx will have some really amazing Christmas decorations.
Speaker 2:I feel like we go to TJ Maxx, we go to Michael's, or Joanne's if we're nearby. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Costco and Sam's Club are also pretty good, but they're far for us, so
Speaker 2:we don't always go there. But we could go to Sam's Club and get their sushi. So, yeah, that's
Speaker 1:what where we will be on Thursday as you listen to this. I encourage you to do the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We really like to, you know, pack a lot into 3 days. Christmas Eve, Christmas day, post Christmas.
Speaker 1:I see. For us, this these couple of weeks get a little bit wild because our family gets together a ton even outside of the main holidays. For us tonight, we have an extended family Christmas, and then we leave that at, like, 7:30, and we go to another family Christmas. Mhmm. And then tomorrow, we'll do our smaller family Christmas in the morning, and then we go with the same people that we saw 2 times on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1:And we hang out with them some more because we like them. They're pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We all have a little bit of FOMO. Oh, we have a lot.
Speaker 1:That's a big issue in our family.
Speaker 2:Nobody can do anything on their own. No. And then
Speaker 1:a week later, we'll do the exact same thing on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in the week between, we'll be texting each other like, hey.
Speaker 2:Monica, do you wanna do something? I'm feeling lonely. Let's go, you know, just sit and stare at each other in my eye. Stare deeply at each other's eyes. So anyway So yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's our week.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I have until the second off, and it, every time the second comes around, I'm like, where did my vacation go? It's like, what the heck?
Speaker 1:It's because we're so busy. Last year, I had my work just took the whole week of between Christmas and New Year's off. We just sort of closed. Mhmm. And this year, we didn't, and I kind of had no warning as to whether we would or not.
Speaker 2:No. I'm very against that.
Speaker 1:And I'm so bummed. Now I'm a freelancer, so if I don't work, I don't get paid. So I you know, it's it's a double edged sword. On the one side, you wanna get paid. On the other side, I don't wanna work on the week between Christmas and the years.
Speaker 1:I wanna be a small child who gets school off.
Speaker 2:I am a small child for
Speaker 1:the past, 7 years.
Speaker 2:Speaking of small children, let's talk about Mary. I thought you were just be like, ah, Jesus.
Speaker 1:I was trying to think of how to transition out of our intro silliness into our real traffic. But so you decided
Speaker 2:no transition. No transition. Alright. Normally,
Speaker 1:I just say, so anyway. At least I tried this time. Okay. So, Mary. So today, we're gonna do we're gonna kinda wrap up our series on Mary.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be, in theory, a shorter episode, but we always say that, and it rarely is. So heaven knows.
Speaker 2:And I got 4 shots of oh,
Speaker 1:I can't speak. Four shots of espresso, so get ready. So we're gonna kind of wrap up her story. However, my husband, Nathan, told me about a Netflix movie that they just made about Mary. So, potentially, in the new year, we'll watch it and do a review of it.
Speaker 1:So we might circle back to this topic here pretty soon.
Speaker 2:We should, off topic, have a girls' night. We should have everybody over for unleavened bread and wine, watch Mary's movie. I mean, I'm in for the girls' night and the
Speaker 1:wine, but unleavened bread.
Speaker 2:Here I got some pita. Have a great time. We could get pita away. Oh my gosh. So, Mary, so today, we're gonna
Speaker 1:talk about a little bit of the later parts of her life. We're not gonna go into all of the stories, but there are 3 spots in the Bible that I wanna touch on because I'm hoping to make this shorter so that I can edit quickly.
Speaker 2:So the first story that
Speaker 1:I wanted to talk about is in acts. Woah. Watch him out.
Speaker 2:Hold it up. A c t s.
Speaker 1:Nope. I lied. Oh, she lied.
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 1:lied. It's in John. The other story is in acts. We'll get there.
Speaker 2:John.
Speaker 1:Alright. So John 2, and we talked about this story a little bit in our last episode. In John 2, and we're reading out of the NLT today. I say today, but that's pretty much what I always go to. But this is the story of the wedding at Cana.
Speaker 1:Cana? Cana?
Speaker 2:All I know is 5 men went to Cana, and and one came out, 2 came up. I believe that's it.
Speaker 1:That's a song from our youth, from our little Baptist upbringing in church.
Speaker 2:Is it 10? I think it's 10.
Speaker 1:And, also, it was, like, 10 were bad and 2 were good. Right? I don't know. Oh, we need to
Speaker 2:go back to church. Alright.
Speaker 1:I'll look up that song and report back. Maybe I'll
Speaker 2:make a TikTok. Make a TikTok. Because there's some hand motions that go along with it. There are.
Speaker 1:There are some good ones. So, anyway, so this is a wedding that Mary is at, and I think kind of the implication is that this is probably someone who is related to Mary because she definitely has an authoritative role in this situation. So Mary's there. Jesus is there. And it also says Jesus' disciples are there.
Speaker 1:Jesus has already gone through, called all 12 of his disciples.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And they're getting ready to go out on their public ministry. They haven't gone yet. They're still hanging out with Mary. They're still learning, I guess, is a good way
Speaker 2:to put it. Bonding. Bonding. Good. Doing trust exercises.
Speaker 2:Holding hands.
Speaker 1:Falling backwards to see who will catch them. Usually, it's Jesus. So they're at this wedding together, and this scene is hilarious, and I'm gonna describe it as though, like, as though you're reading a book.
Speaker 2:Like real life. Like a mother and son interaction.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Because I think we gloss over Mary in this story so often, and I've heard this story preached a lot. And I think we we put her on the back burner. Like, she's just sort of she's part of the story, but she's not that important part of a store the story.
Speaker 2:She's not actually doing the miracle. Exactly.
Speaker 1:But I think, based on reading through this today, that she is a critical part of this story, and here's why. So it says verse 3 says, the wine supply ran out during the festivities. That's a bad time. That would break my heart. So Jesus' mother told him, they have no more wine.
Speaker 1:And I want you to picture this. She she sees Jesus across the room. She cuts straight across
Speaker 2:the room. There's no pleasantries. Nope. There's no like, hey, Jesus. By the way no.
Speaker 1:She's like, hey. Yeah. They're out
Speaker 2:of wine.
Speaker 1:They're out of wine. And, again, we talked about this last week. This implies that she's already seen Jesus do miracles. Now the Bible calls this Jesus' first miracle, his first recorded miracle, but that doesn't mean it's the first one he's ever done.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Because there is no reason that she would say that to him or expect anything out of him if she didn't know he could already do it.
Speaker 1:Right. So she comes up to him. She grabs his arm. She says, they have no more wine. She just looks directly into
Speaker 2:his eyes.
Speaker 1:Into his eyes. His disciples are all around him, and they're just they've never seen a miracle, remember
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Probably. So they're just, like, looking at
Speaker 2:each other awkwardly. They're like like, oh, that's the tea. Okay.
Speaker 1:And Jesus says, according to this version, and there's obviously different, translations that word this differently, but verse 4 in NLT says, dear woman, that's not our problem. My time has not yet come. So Jesus is looking at her, and he's think of the the look you give your mother when she wants you to do something you just don't wanna do.
Speaker 2:The slowly closing of the eyes.
Speaker 1:Yep. You sigh. You're like, no.
Speaker 2:It's like, imagine this. Mother. You just sit down on the couch. You were just up. You were going about some kind of business.
Speaker 2:You just sit back down on the couch. You're like, and just as you sit down, your mom goes, by the way, can you do this?
Speaker 1:And he says, this is not my problem.
Speaker 2:Also, like we talked about in the last episode, dear woman is a term of endearment. He's not being sassy. Yeah. He's like, mother.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And when I've heard this preached because some of the translations just say woman. They don't say dear woman. And so when I've heard this preached, I have kind of heard it as, like, Jesus was getting
Speaker 2:Sassy.
Speaker 1:Sassy Yeah. And being a little bit disrespectful. But you can't say that Jesus was being disrespectful.
Speaker 2:Because I call my mom woman, and I'm being disrespectful.
Speaker 1:But this would have been a term of endearment. He wasn't being disrespectful. He was just saying, like, hey, mom. This is not something that I need to deal with. Yeah.
Speaker 1:My time hasn't come yet. Leave me be. Yeah. I don't wanna deal
Speaker 2:with this right now. You don't know I can do this.
Speaker 1:Shit. And, yeah, you could think of that. Like Mhmm. Jesus is surrounded by these disciples. And, yes, he's fully god, but he's also fully human.
Speaker 1:Maybe he is a little embarrassed, a little shy. Like, this is the first time Mhmm. That he's gonna do something like this.
Speaker 2:Maybe he had planned something out in his head. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Some to Some big guilt or miracles
Speaker 2:or something, and, you know, his plans got thwarted.
Speaker 1:Yeah. This was not it. Yeah. And so after Jesus says this, I just I picture I'm picturing this in my head. Right?
Speaker 1:Jesus is like, no. Not my issue.
Speaker 2:And she should've planned better.
Speaker 1:She just stops and she looks at him. A hand goes on her hip. An eyebrow gets raised.
Speaker 2:Oh. And it's
Speaker 1:a full minute of direct eye contact.
Speaker 2:Uninterrupted eye contact.
Speaker 1:And then she doesn't say
Speaker 2:a word to him. She makes him uncomfy. Yep.
Speaker 1:And then she just turns to the servants, and she says, do whatever he tells you to do.
Speaker 2:She didn't say anything to him. No. She was just like, you're gonna do this. A lot can be communicated through eye contact. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I just find it the whole story is so hilarious to me. And you cannot look at this story and tell me that this woman was submissive and demure. No. She is telling him what he's going to do Mhmm. Whether he likes it or not.
Speaker 1:Yep. Whether it was part of his plans or not. Mhmm. Now most of us now most of us are not Jesus' mother who raised him. Most of us yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say 99.999
Speaker 1:percent of us aren't. It's quite true. But imagine you are standing there with Jesus, and you have something that I mean, it's not a life necessity.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But it's important to you. And you're like, Jesus, can you take care of this for me? And he says, no. I really can't. And you say, too bad.
Speaker 1:Do it anyway. Now I'm
Speaker 2:not saying I'm not advocating this.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying you should
Speaker 2:go out and do this.
Speaker 1:But that's what she does here.
Speaker 2:Although, people do say to pray expectantly.
Speaker 1:That's very true. But in this case, like, she she is telling him what he's going to do. This is a strong and confident woman.
Speaker 2:Yeah. She's like, I know that you're god. I am fully aware, honey. Honey, I'm fully aware. But you are my son, and you will do as I tell you.
Speaker 1:Yes. That is a powerful woman. That is a woman that god chose not Mhmm. Just because she was a virgin. Woah.
Speaker 2:I didn't know we were pulling out the v word.
Speaker 1:God chose Mary because of this right here.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Because if this had been a fluke, if this had been not something that god wanted representative for other women, it wouldn't be in the Bible. Right. It might have been a moment in her life, but we don't see every moment in her life. Right. We simply wouldn't have recorded this.
Speaker 1:If this wasn't what god wanted us to see, it wouldn't be here.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:This is held up as an example. This is a good moment. This isn't a sinful moment. No one's turning to Mary
Speaker 2:and being like You shouldn't have said that. Yeah. You should watch the way you speak. Be quiet, woman.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No one is saying that to her here. She is powerful. She is in control, and she is taking charge of a situation Mhmm. As a woman in a society where women were not respected.
Speaker 2:Because I think when I've heard this preached on too, it would be, like, a bad sign of the family hosting the wedding Mhmm. That they ran out of Right. Wine. Right.
Speaker 1:Like, that's that's bad juju. Well, because it would look like they were poor. Right. Like, they couldn't afford it. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And that very well may have been the case.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And so Mary's sitting here thinking someone probably in her family is now gonna look bad to all of society. Mhmm. Maybe that reflects on her, but my guess is based on the story that she's concerned for the bride and the groom, for their family. And, also, they would usually start
Speaker 2:out with the good wine Right. And then transition to, you know, your Boone's farm because then people are already a little bit drunk. They're not gonna notice, but Jesus turned the wine into the, like, the best wine. Mhmm. So I feel like that's a sign.
Speaker 2:God wants good things for us.
Speaker 1:Good wine. Good wine, not
Speaker 2:the Boone's farm. He wants that Apothec red. I don't know if the most people are out there like, that's the good wine. $10 bottle. No.
Speaker 2:He wants a
Speaker 1:Caymus for sure. So the end of this story
Speaker 2:I don't know what to do with you.
Speaker 1:So the end of this story, I think, is important too. If you have not read the story again in John 2, and it's the first section there. And, so the rest of the story goes that there are 6 stone jars. Jesus tells the servants, fill them with water. They're, like, 30 gallon jars.
Speaker 1:Okay? So this is gonna take some time. Mhmm. The servants fill them with water, and Jesus says, now dip some out. Take it to the master of ceremonies, who I'm not the most clear on who this would be.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking like the DJ.
Speaker 2:Master of the house, quick to catch
Speaker 1:your eye. Blah blah blah baby bubble baby bap bap. I keep saying that song several times.
Speaker 2:I don't even know the words.
Speaker 1:I really? I couldn't tell. Well It's not it's not the bride or the groom. It's not the father or the mother.
Speaker 2:It's the wedding planner.
Speaker 1:It's yeah. Something along those lines because this person says, in surprise, a host always serves the best wine first. Mhmm. But, essentially, here, you've used the or you saved the best for last. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's what has happened here. So then I wanna skip down to verses 11 and 12, and I'm gonna read them real quick. I wish you would. I will. It says this miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory.
Speaker 1:And his disciples believed in him. So let's stop at verse 11 there, because I think both of these verses are important to Mary's story. Mhmm. Obviously, important to Jesus' story as well, but important to Mary's story. Right.
Speaker 1:And his disciples believed in him. Now when Jesus called his disciples, they had to have probably had some level of belief in him. Right? Because otherwise, you're not gonna drop your fishing nets and go.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna be like, you're not just gonna not be fishers of men. Come
Speaker 1:on. But they probably didn't have full faith. I mean, you can even see later on that they still don't have full faith.
Speaker 2:We've all seen the Santa Claus when they say believing isn't seeing. Seeing is believing or strike that reverse.
Speaker 1:But now they've seen. Right? So they they have doubts. They have serious doubts more than likely.
Speaker 2:Now it
Speaker 1:doesn't say that, but they're human.
Speaker 2:Right. They're human. Like, think about you and me. Like, obviously, they believe enough to drop their entire lives and follow Jesus. Or they're straight up crazy.
Speaker 2:Or they've, you know, done the drugs. But but this is a whole new level of belief.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Because they've seen what he can do now.
Speaker 1:But remember that they were going out they were headed out to public ministry. Mhmm. Now, I'm not gonna say immediately after this, they were headed out on the path. But soon after this story Right. They were headed out to public ministry.
Speaker 1:Jesus in this story was not going to do this miracle. Mhmm. This was not the plan. Now you can argue that Jesus is fully god, so he knew that this would happen, etcetera, etcetera. But based on his words Right.
Speaker 1:He was not planning to do this. Mhmm. So him and his disciples would have gone out into public ministry with his disciples having major doubts. Mhmm. Likely.
Speaker 1:Instead, because of Mary, because of the woman who started this story to begin with, who birthed Jesus to begin with,
Speaker 2:pooped him out.
Speaker 1:That's not how it works, boys and girls.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I've never given birth.
Speaker 1:But you've watched it. The people know. You pooped it out. Anyway, because of Mary, who started Jesus' life in the first place Mhmm. Now she's gonna start his ministry on a positive note where his disciples have a new level of faith and trust and belief in him.
Speaker 1:Everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And Mary knew better than anyone. Everybody needs a drink. And she's like, this is gonna happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah. She had enough faith in Jesus. Yes. But she also had enough faith in herself Yeah. To step into this situation and say, this is how this is gonna go down because I believe that this is what god would do for me.
Speaker 1:Because I know that my god cares Mhmm. About even the littlest things for me. She took control Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Which is something that we tell women not to do Right. All of the
Speaker 1:time. I can think of a thousand of examples where Christians say that they're waiting on god to give them direction. Mhmm. And so they just stand still. Right.
Speaker 1:They do nothing because they think god is going to direct my path. That's in the bible. Right? But god can only direct your path if you're walking. If you sit your butt down and do nothing,
Speaker 2:he can't direct you anywhere. You have to make some kind of step. Yes. And then god will tell you
Speaker 1:if it's right or wrong,
Speaker 2:but you have to keep taking steps. And I've learned that in my life, and you've learned that in your life. Even a miracle needs a hand in Don't make me break out the song again. Wait. Would that be
Speaker 1:the 3rd time this episode?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's very Christmas coated. It is. The older people don't know
Speaker 1:what you're talking about. No. The older people do. Christmas coated? Oh, sorry.
Speaker 1:That was a Gen z term. It was. And you're not even Gen z.
Speaker 2:I know. Who am I? She's elderly. I'm elderly. I told my hairdresser yesterday.
Speaker 2:I was like, you gotta cover up these grays, girl.
Speaker 1:You gotta do it. And she's like,
Speaker 2:girl, I know. You're completely gray. That's kind of her. Kind and loving. She didn't say that.
Speaker 1:But then okay. So verse 12, and then we'll move on to our next story because we're already at 25 minutes.
Speaker 2:Wow. Go us.
Speaker 1:So it says, after the wedding, he went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples. And this is just a small note, but I think it's really important to point out that Mary, like the disciples, dropped her nets Mhmm. Dropped everything, walked away from her family. She likely has grandchildren at this point. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Walked away from her role as probably just a mother at this point because I think we as a general rule, the belief is that Joseph had probably passed away. Yeah. So walked away from her role as a mother and grandmother. That's all Jesus.
Speaker 2:Also, that was such, like, a family centric culture. Mhmm. It wasn't just that she was a grandmother. Think, like, your aunts, your uncles, your, you know, your cousins. Like, your whole that's part of who you are Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Is being part of that big family and walking away from that.
Speaker 1:Yep. And we tell women all the time, your greatest role is to be a wife and mother. And here, in theory, one of the greatest examples of what god wants women to be Mhmm. Walked away from it Yeah. To follow Jesus, to go into public ministry
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:To preach and teach.
Speaker 2:She be preaching, she be teaching. Do you want us to hashtag that?
Speaker 1:Preaching and teaching. I'm very young today. Alright. Now we're actually going to move over to act. So Mary is just pretty quickly mentioned here.
Speaker 1:Mary is mentioned several times throughout the New Testament. These are not the only moments, but this is one that I wanted to highlight real quick. It's a shorter story. At this point in acts, it's acts 1, and Jesus has been crucified, and he's been, there's 40 days after Jesus was crucified where he appears back to the disciples sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think in my mind, I had thought he kind of was with them all the time, but he wasn't. The Bible says he appeared sometimes. Ghosted? Yeah. And so the 40 days are up.
Speaker 1:He's ascended back into heaven.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And now everybody doesn't know what to do. There are it says a 120 believers gathered together.
Speaker 2:That's a good amount of people.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of people.
Speaker 2:That's the size of maybe the wedding that they were at.
Speaker 1:I would guess that one was bigger. But there's a lot of people. So it gives it says, here are the names of who was present.
Speaker 2:Oh, is it gonna list a 120 of them? No. Not all of them. Okay. Good.
Speaker 1:It says Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. So not Judas who betrayed Jesus, different Judas. Unfortunate naming choices.
Speaker 2:I know. I think that we forget that There's 2. 2 Judases.
Speaker 1:I know. Think of this poor man. My gosh. There's no getting past that. And it says they all met together and were constantly united in prayer along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.
Speaker 1:So I just I wanted to point this out, and this is, like, the quickest mention of her in verse, so it's act 1 verse 14 where she's mentioned. And they're about to choose a new A new disciple. Yeah. Well, kinda. A new disciple to replace Judas because, obviously, he's gone.
Speaker 1:He died, a little graphically. And so they're choosing a new one. I'm not entirely sure why it's really important that there are 12 of them. I'm sure that there's probably a biblical reason. There's a
Speaker 2:lot of interesting number of things in the bible. Because they need a full dozen to fill up an egg carton. So there you go.
Speaker 1:There you go. But I think it's really interesting here because it's easy to imagine that after Jesus dies so when Jesus is being crucified, he asks John to take care of his mother. And I think it's easy to imagine that John took Mary back to her hometown. She settled down, and he checked on her every now and again. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right? That would kind of be my
Speaker 2:And she lives happily ever after. Yeah.
Speaker 1:She did her thing. She did exactly what god had asked of her. Now it's time to retire. Mhmm. It's time for a break.
Speaker 1:Go hang out with your grandkids. Chill. But she doesn't. Nope. She's right here with the 120 of them who are putting their lives on the line for this.
Speaker 1:Several of the people mentioned in this passage are about to be crucified, are about to give their lives for this cause. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And they know this. Yeah. Because they've seen their leader go through it,
Speaker 1:so why shouldn't they? And yet, Mary is here. Mhmm. Mary is here in the thick of it. She's important enough to name.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Now it also says several other women. So remember, we've talked about how there were many women that also followed Jesus alongside his disciples.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So
Speaker 1:this was some of those women, probably additional women as well, all ready to go on this journey, all ready to disciple, teach, preach, lead Mhmm. A movement. They were going to lead a movement. They were gonna start the church.
Speaker 2:And it's important enough to mention, there are women there. Mhmm. This is a call for women to complete as well. Right.
Speaker 1:These were the leaders of our church today.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:When we tell women, you can't be elders, you can't be deacons, you can't be the lead pastor, you can't have pastor in your title, whatever your church happens to say, and I've been at churches that say all of these things. When you say that, look back here. These 120 people, which included Mary, the mother of Jesus, and several other women, these 120 people went out and they started our church. They started the church of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Do you wanna drop your mic after that?
Speaker 1:I do. Can I would you guys like that sound? Thump thump. Without them because this is only a 120 people. Right?
Speaker 1:A 120 people to spread this through the whole world. So if you take out Mary or any of these women let's say the women make up a small percentage. Let's say that there's only 12 total women. They only make up 10%. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Those 12 total women, everywhere that they went and spoke about Jesus and spread the message of Jesus, all of those places no longer have the gospel
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:If these women are gone. And that's only if it's 10%.
Speaker 2:Because really what they should be doing is going and cooking bread for the hardworking men. Right. Right? That really furthers the mission.
Speaker 1:The impact, the long term impact of these women. Mhmm. The long term impact of Mary, not just because she birthed Jesus. She is known for birthing Jesus. Yes.
Speaker 1:And that's an important piece of her story, but it's a piece of her story.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:She is more important
Speaker 2:than her birth story. Well, like, any person out there, your life doesn't boil down to one singular moment. Mhmm. Like, yes, there are bigger parts and smaller parts, but she has a full life. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not just birthing Jesus. Like you said, she's preaching and teaching. Mhmm. She's traveling.
Speaker 1:I think women, today, we we still hold this today, and that's why this is the part of her story we focus on. We are reduced to our children.
Speaker 2:It's like what we talked about in our bridgerton episode, where the the main girl Daphne says, you have no idea what it's like to be a woman, what it might feel like to have one's entire life reduced to a single moment. Mhmm. It's that's just not reality for women Right. Anymore, or it shouldn't be.
Speaker 1:It but I think it is in so many ways because I remember I was in therapy one time, and this was significantly one of the worst things a therapist has ever said to me, and I've been in a lot of therapy. Okay? And you need it. She's not wrong. But this was many, many years ago, and I remember telling her, like, I just feel like I'm built for more than this.
Speaker 1:Like, I there's something important I'm supposed to do, and I don't know what it is. And I had had my daughter at that point, and she goes, well, maybe she's meant to do something really important, and you've already done your important thing by having her. And that never sat quite right with me.
Speaker 2:Well, it makes you feel like I wanna say, like, either a vessel or a cow.
Speaker 1:It makes you feel reduced. Yeah. I'm not trying to say that raising your children isn't important. I'm not saying that who they become isn't important. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But the sum of my life should not be, I gave birth to these people.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And that's not something to tell someone Yeah. When they're like, I feel like I was meant for more, and they're like,
Speaker 1:no. You're not. She might be, but you're not. Too old. Also, I was, like, 25 at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I I think women deal with this all the time that we are our children. Yeah. Instead of being who we are, instead of having a purpose on our own, we are our children. And yet, you see examples in the Bible constantly, absolutely all the time Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Of women walking away from those duties
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And walking toward what God is asking of them. Now I'm not saying those two things can't combine. I'm not saying you can't be a great mother, plus also do what God is asking of you outside of that. But remember that there's a plus also. Remember that it's I would say every time, not just about you being a mom.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Not just about you raising your kids. It's an important thing. Well, think about not the only thing.
Speaker 2:What you would want for your daughter. You want her to live a big, beautiful life. You want her to be fulfilled. You want her to achieve all her dreams. You should want that for yourself too.
Speaker 2:Treat yourself better.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think it it lines up in a big way with what we've talked about with feminism before. Every generation seems to be able to take a couple steps further. And right now, I feel like we've taken taken some steps back. But as a general rule, like, I look at my grandmother's life and how she had to live because both society and her faith expected a certain thing of her.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, she had to live a very submissive lifestyle, not because that was her personality, and I can tell you for absolutely sure that it was not.
Speaker 2:Grandma.
Speaker 1:But because instead, that's what was expected of her, and so she had to do that for a time. And then I look at my mom who preached it but didn't live it. Mhmm. She said, submission is how you're supposed to live. The man is supposed to be the leader of the household because it's what society and her religion expected of her, but she didn't actually live it out because she could take another step further.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. She could move out of the way she was raised just a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Her and dad are partners.
Speaker 1:Right. And then I look at you and I and what we can do now. We don't have to preach it or live it. Now it's still part of us because it is in a way the way that we were raised.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it for me, it's been something I've had to move past in my marriage and, like, let go of. And it's hard to let go of because you do feel like, well, I'm being a bad Christian wife.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's the reason why I'm not married right now. Could be.
Speaker 1:Also could be that you keep meeting men who want to marry you after 3 seconds, and this is not Bridgerton.
Speaker 2:I need someone who has just, like, just an ounce of patience. Insanity.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But and then I look at what my daughter will get to grow up in
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And she wasn't even taught this stuff. Yeah. Now it's not that she'll never hear it. It's not that she'll never experience it, but she was never taught it as what's right.
Speaker 2:I think it's so cool when I sit there and I watch, like, a movie or something with her that's a little bit older, and you hear something like, oh, women just belong in the blah blah blah. And she picks up on that stuff too, and she's like, well, that's a lie. Yeah.
Speaker 1:She's very sensitive
Speaker 2:to it. Not very feminist.
Speaker 1:Well, we talk about this. We don't talk about, like, the nitty gritty of it with her, but it's definitely a topic that comes up, and she picks up on everything. So it's it's very cool to see her grow up strong in a way that I don't think any of us ever got to grow up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Strong and, like, absolutely free. That child is doing whatever she wants. She is she's the most confident person I've ever met.
Speaker 1:So there is another section that I kind of wanted to talk about, but we're running over time a little bit. But just the quickest little bit here. In Revelation 12, which I'm not gonna
Speaker 2:read because it is wild. Look that up on your own time, and then don't read it right before bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's a little spooky. But there's a woman mentioned in Revelation 12, and, you know, whether you wanna argue that this is an allegory or I I think it's hard to argue that it's literal, but it talks about a woman giving birth, and she's giving birth to, essentially, the person that's going to save the world. And then there's dragon, and the dragon wants to eat the baby. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't specifically say it's Mary, but according to Catholic tradition, generally, it's believed that it is Mary. Mhmm. So that's a random little one, but I did wanna kinda mention it just because it's fascinating. And if you wanna read into it, I'm I would love to do some more research on Revelation, but, frankly, it scares me. So there's that.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I don't know that I can. Like like, I need my sleep. I can't have nightmares. It would be a big nightmare inducing thing.
Speaker 1:So next week, we're gonna retell our stories.
Speaker 2:Oh, I forgot about that. Crap.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about this for a month.
Speaker 2:I know. I just gotta figure out what my life's about.
Speaker 1:So Bree's gonna do some massive soul searching in
Speaker 2:the next week. I'm gonna hire a therapist.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna be talking about that mostly, frankly, because the sound quality in our first episode sucks.
Speaker 2:Brie and
Speaker 1:I are in theory are gonna be buying each other new microphones for our Christmas gifts to one another. Happy Christmas. Happy Christmas. So we hope you guys had a great Christmas, and have a great New Year's. We will see you after the New Year.
Speaker 2:In 20 2020 Willie? Hang on. Hang on. Let me look. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll see you in 2025, you suckers.
Speaker 1:So future folks. We'll see you then.
Speaker 2:I hope you get everything you ever dreamed of. World peace, dreams. Love, joy, peace, patience. So have
Speaker 1:the beatitudes. I hope you get the beatitudes. Alright. Happy Christmas, Harry. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:I love you.
Speaker 1:I love you.