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Today, we have our penultimate summer story, another story of light As we turn our attention to some of the often overlooked, but on this side of the summer, now encouraging stories in scripture. In this half of the summer so far, we have looked at Ruth and Deborah. Today, we're gonna talk about Junia and next week, Mary Magdalene. But let's look back quickly at those 2 weeks from this stories of light side of the summer. Ruth is this Fascinating little book that Scott brought so much out of.

It can, however, be a bit of a tough one to read. There's a lot of just cultural context and rules and innuendo. Remember that one? Ruth sneaks into Boaz's room while he's sleeping to uncover his feet, which are absolutely not feet in this context. Nice of those biblical authors to keep things PG for us here.

But at its heart, this book is about the ways in which society can be structured to reflect the heart of God and how when we play our parts and when we follow through on our commitments and our loyalty to each other, we can actually become the will of god in the world. See, the whole story of Ruth is structured around a legal idea in ancient Israel called the kinsman redeemer. And there was a law that said when a woman's husband died, it was the responsibility of the next closest kinsman to care for her and her family. Except the whole story in Ruth hinges on the question of whether this will actually happen. But what's beautiful about Story, of course, is that Boaz is a man of valor who goes beyond his duties to embrace Ruth.

Ruth is a woman of valor who refuses to abandon her mother-in-law, Naomi, and because of that, we have a happy ending for everyone. What's interesting, though, is that both of them, Ruth and Boaz, are both given this title of valor in the story. And that comes from Proverbs 31, a very famous and specific passage that describes the ideal character of a woman in ancient Israel. It's almost as if the writer of the story wants to say that the best version of ourselves is rooted Less in roles and expectations and instead in the generosity we foster toward each other. A shared commitment together to create a society that refuses to leave anyone behind.

Next, we looked at Deborah, and this one surprised us as well in other ways, tent pegs through skulls ways, if you remember. But Deborah is also a really fascinating character. She gets her story told twice, once in narrative in judges 4 and then again in poetry in judges 5. But in Deborah, we see a woman who rises to become the ruler of the entire nation of Israel, A woman who inspires other women from other nations to throw off their oppressors and a woman whose story is told with all of the violence and the war that we see in all the other reins of all the other judges. Now I'm not gonna celebrate the violence at all.

In fact, I think that is reflective of a violent world, All part of a long, slow, simmering story that leads us to eventually understand the complete nonviolence of god revealed in Jesus. But I love the way that Bobby talked about how these stories remind us that we are surrounded by heroes always. From sometimes unlikely and sometimes even hilarious corners, but there are heroes who find a way to push back against whatever it is that damages is our flourishing in the world. And, yes, these stories are scaled up. And, yes, they are reflective of a particular moment in history, and, no, They are not models for us to follow, so put your tent pegs away.

But the kernel of the story remains. God is for us. God is with us. God is working through those we least expect to create change and to bring freedom to a world that desperately needs it. Today, after 2 weeks in the Hebrew scriptures, we turn our attention to the New Testament as Junia takes the lead, But we actually have a trio of women we want to spend some time with today.

1st, though, let's pray. God who shows up where we least expect, and those we often forget, through persons we sometimes look past. Might we acknowledge today that it is in those perspectives, the ones that come from outside our own, That we sometimes finally hear your call to change, to courage, and to engagement with action for the good of those around us. We pray we might listen well today, that you might open our eyes to see what it is that's wrong around us, And that we might become people of valor who live into the best possible versions of your imagination for us. Lead us to offer ourselves generously to each other, giving our resources where we can, but inviting those outside into our homes and our hearts in surprising ways.

And in that, might we not only change each other, But might we be healed and redeemed and set on a new path toward love. Be with us today as we search for your way. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. K.

Junia. And along with her today, Phoebe and Priscilla. But let's start with Junia because, Honestly, what's the big deal here? Why are we talking about a woman who gets 1 sentence in 1 book? I mean, can we really stretch that out into a sermon?

And, of course, if you've heard enough sermons around here, you absolutely do know that, yes, we can stretch 1 sentence into a whole sermon. But The reason we find ourselves focused on Junia this week is because she has not gotten her due for a good chunk of Christian history. My son turned 9 yesterday. And if you have a 9 year old anywhere near your home, you know what a big deal birthdays are at this age. For 2 weeks now, I have gotten a daily countdown of how many days are left until his birthday.

In fact, a couple days ago, I woke up, I came downstairs, and the first thing I was greeted with was, hey, dad. For my birthday, not the 1 in 2 days, but the 1 next Jir. I was thinking about a few things, and I'd like to run them by you. And I was like, slow your roll here. Let's get to 9 first before we worry about double digits.

Point is, my son was not going to let credit for surviving 9 years on this planet slip by. He got his party. I think Junia deserves her, so here we go. Today, we're gonna talk about prison stories, what's a name, deacons, coworkers, and apostles. And we'll come back to look at a slightly larger section of text a little later.

But I wanna start with the one line that Junia gets, and it comes to us from Romans 16/7. Greet Andronicus and Junia, My fellow Jews who have been in prison with me, they are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was, says Paul. Now Andronicus and Junia, from the phrasing here, we would assume that these 2 are either a brother and sister We're more likely a husband and wife, but they are clearly a pair. And from what follows, an equally committed pair, both of them ending up in jail at one point. But from this one line, we already know a few things about them.

Paul says they have been in Christ Longer than he has been, which means they must have been part of that very early Jesus community. And unsurprisingly then, we also learned that they are Jewish. That makes sense. After all, it was Paul who largely Took the Jesus story into the non Jewish communities, and so the earliest followers of the way, even those before Paul, Would have been largely almost entirely Jewish. What's interesting, though, is that neither of these names are Jewish names.

Andronicus is Greek, and Junia is Latin. Now Andronicus was a very common name that was given to freed slaves. Junia was a name that was often taken by slaves to curry favor because Junia came from a very well known and well regarded Roman family name, Jens Iulius, where we get Julius Caesar from. Now we have very little to go on here, But there is at least some compelling suggestion that this couple were Hebrew people who had found themselves in slavery in Rome, who had bought their freedom back for themselves and who had then risked it all for the story of Jesus to find themselves back in prison Like Paul. And if that's the case, and if he knows that story, no wonder Paul is so impressed by these people and their commitment to good news.

Often, I think we smite fight for some small measure of freedom in our lives, and sometimes That struggle can actually make us more timid and more fearful about what comes next. After all, if we found some small victory, we've gotta hang on, and we gotta fight to protect Right? I mean, I get that. I I do. I feel that at times as well.

But at the same time, I also know that the people I've met who have moved through the largest change in their life and had the biggest growth and the most profoundly difficult Stories of transformation that they've overcome often in my experience, those are some of the most fearless in their advocacy for what is right and what's around them. So when I read this, I wonder if maybe the fact that Andronicus and Junia had experienced the injustice of the Roman world It's actually what motivated them to work whatever the cost for a new kind of kingdom in society. Regardless, we do know that they supported Paul. They worked with Paul, and they were even in prison with Paul at some point. Now We know some of, if not all, of Paul's prison stories, and these 2 don't show up there.

So it could be That Andronicus and Junia are alongside Paul in one of those prisons, but are just unmentioned. That's possible. It could be that they were alongside Paul in another imprisonment story that we don't know about. We have some gaps in his life, so that's also possible. Or it could be that they were imprisoned for the gospel separately, but Paul is speaking about them in a more collegial way.

As in you and I, we are in this together because we have a unique shared experience. It's really Paul saying something more like, look. You 2 get me in a way that others can't, and that means a lot to me. I think I think we all know what It's like to find someone who's been through something that we have, that thing that we really struggle to put into words for someone else. And those relationships mean a lot for us.

It seems like they did for Paul as well. And, obviously, we don't know exactly for Sure what's going on, but it's likely that it's that third possibility here, specifically because of the language that Paul uses. He uses the term here, sunic malatos. That's what's being translated by the phrase, have been in prison with me. But more literally, what that means is fellow prisoner.

And the trick here is that this is not a word That refers to someone who's been thrown in jail. That was actually pretty frowned upon in the ancient world. Unsurprisingly, no one wants to go to jail. But sunic malatos, That's actually a term that carried a lot of dignity and honor with it because it referred to a prisoner of war. So it gave the idea of having been imprisoned for your commitment in your country, in your flag, and all those patriotic ideals we might ascribe to today, But it actually lines up well with other places where Paul says things like, look.

You're not a citizen of Rome anymore. Canada doesn't take precedence for you as a follower of Jesus. You are a citizen of heaven, part of god's kingdom. That's where your allegiance now lies. So to be referred to as a Suneic malatos doesn't just mean cellmate.

It speaks to the shared commitment and purpose and citizenship that Paul has with them. It doesn't mean we happened to be in jail together. It means I see you as a partner, an equal, a citizen with me. And that's important Because Paul also refers to Andronicus and Junia as outstanding or well known among the apostles. Now what exactly does that mean?

Well known among the apostles. Does that mean they were well known to the apostles, as in the apostles knew them well, or does it mean of all of the apostles, these 2 were very well known? Well, know this, it's the second. Truth is there is debate about this, but it is largely ideological, not philological. And what I mean by that is this.

The Greek here can technically be read either way, but Pretty much everyone agrees that outstanding among the apostles is the most straightforward way to read this sentence. Well known to the apostles is possible, but you need to make an argument for why to interpret it that way. And the only real argument here is because a woman could not possibly have been an apostle. Therefore, Paul must have meant something other than the normal reading of what he wrote. And I'm not even stretching things here.

That is the argument that is made for why we should take a secondary interpretation here. Paul says other things about other women in other letters to other cities. Therefore, he can't mean what he seems to be saying here. Fact. Translators for the ESV, which is notorious for stretching words into their most gender specific options possible.

They use the phrase well known to the apostles, but then they go even further and they add a footnote that says, Actually, apostle can just mean messenger, so that's likely. And that's true. That is all that the word means. The irony is if you reduce apostle from a title to the word messenger, then you don't need to find a way to make sure that Junia wasn't one of them. You can just leave it as it says.

However, The real indignation here is not from modern translations. It actually goes back much, much farther because the earliest attempts to constrain Junia appear to have taken hold somewhere in the 6th century. Back then, the tact was not to deny her outstanding position among the apostles. Everyone accepted what Paul said. A strategy then was to make her a man.

Now to get into the weeds here a little bit, the text actually reads or and that n on the end signifies the accusative case. It's just part of Greek grammar, but it tells us she is the subject of the sentence. And the question is whether that n is a normal suffix stuck onto the end of her name, junia becoming junion, or whether it replaces an s, which would indicate a masculine form, becoming. In fact, Andronicus It's pronounced Androna Khan in this sentence for that same reason. So there you go.

Perfectly reasonable assumption. Junia is a dude named Junias. One problem, though. Junios is not a name. Junia appears in biblical texts and has been found in more than 250 inscriptions, was a very common woman's name.

Junios appears. Anyone wanna take a wild guess here? Never. Not in any book or any note or Lenny letter or any inscription we have ever found. It doesn't appear because it just wasn't a Latin name.

It is a made up theoretically masculine version of the name Junia. In fact, John Chrysostom, One of the very early church fathers writes in the mid 3 100, and he says, to be an apostle is something great. To be outstanding among the apostles, just think. What a wonderful song of praise that is. They were outstanding on the basis of their works and virtuous teachings.

Indeed, how great the wisdom of this woman must have been, for She was deemed worthy of that title. I mean, the dude cannot believe that a woman would have been worthy of this, but there it is. Paul vouches for her, and that's good enough for old John. And yet, in the 6th century, we have 1 manuscript That adds an accent indicating Junias to be the reading, and then 5 centuries later, we get 1 more that does the same. And on the basis of that, Two manuscripts against all the others that suggest Junia and had for centuries, it was American translators In the 19th century, they decided these 2 relatively late manuscripts.

They're designated b 2 and d 2. They should overrule all of the other manuscripts, and her name was officially changed to Junias in English, erasing the only female apostle ever mentioned anywhere in the New Testament. Now is it true that Junia was an outlier? Yeah. Just like Deborah, women that rose through male dominated societies to be recognized as leaders at the absolute highest levels were rare.

But you know what made it more rare? When we purposely hid the stories of those who broke through those barriers, empowered by god, and recognized by community because they made us feel a little uncomfortable. And this is where I wanna go back and pick up from earlier in Romans chapter 16. Sejunia appears in a larger section where Paul is recounting the many people in the Roman church who have supported and encouraged him over the years. And it's at this point in the letter that he's actually done all of his teaching.

He has said everything he wants to say, And so he just wraps up with a series of greetings and thank yous. He says, starting in chapter 16 verse 1, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon in the church of Sancrea. I ask you to receive her in the lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. Now deacon Comes from the Greek word diakonos. Later, it becomes a designation in the church for the servant leaders that guide the community.

And here, Phoebe is the first person, man or woman, who is given this title in scripture. Next verse. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me, not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Now Priscilla and Aquila, we know from the book of acts.

Aquila is a Jewish man. Priscilla or Prissa, We're not entirely sure about her background, but she looks like she was a gentile. And that means that this is a mixed marriage At a time when Jewish and Gentile Christians were still figuring out how to get along with each other, which might have been why they were so influential In the early Jesus movement, they were modeling for us what we could become together. More than that, though, these 2, they go to Ephesus with Paul to start a new church. They coach Apollos, who becomes another church planter.

It's likely that they were some of the first members of the church in Rome that Paul is writing to here, and Paul calls them or coworkers. Now that doesn't sound as fancy as deacon or apostle. I get it. It It was never really adopted as a religious title, but there's 2 main ways you can use this word in Greek. You can use it in the dative case, in which case, it means coworker to me, someone who supports you like an assistant, Or you can use it in the genitive case, which means a coworker of me or a coworker alongside me, which indicates a colleague or a relationship of mutuality.

So 2 very different uses, but any guesses on which one Paul uses here? It's the latter. It's the genitive. Means that Paul sees Priscilla and Aquila as peers, not as subordinates. Next, Paul says, greet also the church that meets at their house.

Greet my dear friend, Eponetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Greet Mary who worked very hard for you, and we have no idea who this Mary is. Other than that, She was clearly well enough known to the church here that she could just be name dropped, and everyone would be like, yeah. We get it. Mary's cool.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles. They were in Christ before I was. Now Here's what I want you to notice today. Paul is done teaching at this point in the letter.

He has no more agenda here. He's not trying to make a point or virtue signal. He's not trying to brush up his feminist bona fides. This is simply Paul thanking the people that meant the most to him. Phoebe, a woman, the 1st person named as a deacon in the church.

Priscilla and Aquila, a couple of mixed ethnicity where the woman is named first, by the way, colleagues of Paul. Mary, a woman who carries enough weight in community that everyone knows why she gets a shout out just from her name, and Andronicus and Junia who are not only apostles, but outstanding among them, models to look up to for even the most well regarded leaders. You see what's fascinating about Junia, what's fascinating about this final chapter of Romans is that this is a window into the Actual leadership of the very early church, men and the women who actually shaped the community that we now in together today. And, yes, in the years and the centuries that would follow, there were all kinds of Political machinations and power struggles and social pressures and name changes, everything we saw in the attempts to erase junior from our history. And, yes, sadly, over time, the church, like a lot of organizations, slowly gave in to reflect the expectations that surrounded it in society.

But here, in this glimpse back to the earliest moments, what we see is a community at its Most vulnerable, a nascent movement that could not afford to conform to social expectation And instead, simply allowed the spirit to empower leaders as Jesus saw fit. See, Paul isn't trying to make a point here, and that's what makes it so powerful. This is an unvarnished look at who Jesus brought to the table when it was all getting started. And, yes, as the church moved from the margins of society Toward the center and eventually into places of power, it became easier, and it became easier for us to choose leaders that looked like what everyone expected a leader to look And to our shame, we actually tried to rewrite our past to reflect those expectations that came from the societies around us. But the best stories have a way of hanging on even when we sometimes want them gone.

And I think that's because spirit knows that even in the shadow, we need to hold on to the stories of light that remind us of something bigger. You see, Junia is here to tell us that our place at the table It's not only open to us, it is necessary for the body to flourish. And if you have ever felt Like your story has been written over or your contributions ignored, like your gifts and perspective leadership have not been given the weight that they deserve, then know this, that Junia is cheering for you And that Jesus sees you and that the spirit is working through you right now in some way, Trusting that shadows will always give way to the light of Christ that is in you right now. Let's pray. God of all grace, who works in and through every single one of us, who invites us to find our feet at the table, bringing the unique thing that only we can bring to those around us.

We pray that your infinite welcome, Your space that you have reserved for us would somehow not only give us the right to sit, but it would help us then to see those around us and what they bring, To recognize that our perspective of the divine is limited by our human experience, but when we come together We share our insights, our perspectives, the ways that spirit is speaking to each of us, and we put it together. We See you more deeply and more clearly than we ever could on our own. We pray that we might become the kind of people who know not only our value and what we bring to those around us, but who can see that gift in others And who can continue creating space so that all of the beauty of your wisdom, Your gift and your space in the world can be brought to life and to light around us. May all these stories of light represented by every person here in this room Shine and illuminate your grace to each of us. May we know that you are in us, you are working through us, and that even when our story is sometimes pushed to the side and marginalized.

The light of Christ is there contributing to a story that we may not see right now, But will come to light in due time. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.