July 15th, 2020

Wednesday Words      Week of Proper 10      7-15-20

Psalm 38      Joshua 3: 1 – 13      Romans 11: 25 – 36   

Psalm 119: 25 – 48      Matthew 25: 31 – 46        BCP 975 bottom 

Argula von Grumbach

 1492  -  c 1554

Wife, Mother, Church Reformer

I was asked recently why I choose to think about saints in these meditations.  The most important reason is that I find the lives of saints fascinating and challenging.  Too often we think of saints as extraordinary men and women who live tucked away from everyday happenings, very brave and always extremely poor.  But that is not the case everytime.  Saints are ordinary people that God uses in extraordinary ways.  Yes, most are brave because most face criticism and ridicule from even their own family members.  Rarely are saints given spectacular talents, but each uses what he or she has fully in service to Jesus Christ and to others.

The Episcopal Church has an interesting relationship with saints.  We do not pray TO the saints.  After all, when we pray, God listens and God answers.  We often pray to Jesus as the Christ and to the Holy Spirit as our companion and comforter, because we believe in the Trinity of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We believe ourselves to be praying WITH the saints in heaven and with the saints living on earth.  God is the source of our prayers because God made us and loves us.  Jesus is the power of our prayers because Jesus Christ redeemed us from evil and sin.  The Holy Spirit is the guide for our prayers from our hearts to God’s ears because the Holy Spirit is our companion in this life.

I love discovering a saint that I have not known before and today’s saint is exactly that!  Her name is Argula von Grumbach.   I suspect you have not heard of her either.  Argula was born in Bavaria in 1492.  That was a significant year – in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Our own history gives us reason to know that year well.  Argula was the daughter of a nobleman in a very prominent and wealthy family in Bavarian society.  Her family valued education and college degrees and was highly active politically.  Tradition says that she was an early reader – competent enough that when she was about 10 years old her father gave her a beautifully bound copy of the Bible for her own use.  And use it she did!  She read it regularly and deeply, memorizing whole books.  

What many male leaders in the Church feared was precisely what happened next.  Argula grew up, an intelligent, educated, bravely Christian woman with thoughts and opinions of her own.  Oh, my!!

At the age of 16, Argula became a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Frederick III.  Then in 1509 both of her parents died in the plague.  In 1516 her brother was involved in a scandal in the court and was executed. Later that same year, Argula married Friedrich von Grumbach, also from a Bavarian noble family.  Together they had four children but only one survived his parents.  Her husband Friedrich seems to have been in poor health most of his life and died after only 14 years of marriage.  In 1533 Argula remarried, but her second husband died after two years.

All that to say that Argula’s domestic life was neither easy nor simple.  She managed the business of the family, her children’s education, and the loss of three children and two husbands while at the same time continuing her reading and teaching, writing and copious correspondence.  She became interested in the ideas of Reformation that Martin Luther was expressing because his ideas resonated with her own.  They began a long and personal correspondence, finally meeting in person in 1530.

The teachings of Luther and the Reformation were illegal in Bavaria at that time.  In 1523, a young seminary teacher was arrested and forced to recant his Protestant views. Argula wrote a thoughtful, long letter to the religious authorities in protest of the his arrest.  She included 80 Scripture citations with full explanation to give foundation to her objections.  The letter was turned into a booklet – and created a sensation!  It was reprinted 14 times in the next two months. 

The problem?  Wait for it…..

A WOMAN confronted religious authorities with her own ideas.  Her theology, of course, was illegal although she based it in Scripture.  Of course, she must be an awfully bad wife and mother, neglectful of her household!  After all, she is merely a woman….   Misogyny is really nothing new, is it?

Argula von Grumbach was persistent and consistent.  She continued her writing and working until her death in 1554.  It is only in the last decade that her writings have been surfaced so that we can read them.  Like the work of many women, Argula was buried in the opinions of her detractors and ignored because she was female.  

We are blessed that scholars and researchers are bringing her words to us.  God has used many people in our Church history – women and men, young and old, strong and weak, of every color and place – to be God’s messengers and teachers.  God intends for us to listen and learn and digest the message instead of judging the messenger. 

God does not love God’s saints better than the rest of us.  God strengthens and blesses God’s saints so that the rest of us will desire those same blessings in our own lives.  Saints are ordinary people doing extraordinary GOD things in their own lives wherever that life may be.  We can get started today!   Blessed be God!