Sermon: Mike Breaux on Rabbis Talking to Women
July 15th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Jon Weece, senior minister at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, is a great preacher, who regularly tackles important material with an accessible approach and a sense of humor.
In the recent series, “Seriously?!” Southland’s former senior minister Mike Breaux pinch-hit for Weece on the topic of “some of the more unusual phrases in the Bible,” particularly, Jesus’ instruction to “Eat My flesh.” (E.g. here, verse 54.)
Breaux’s talk was compelling, and one of my favorite parts of his sermon was when he talked about the Etch A Sketch he keeps in his office (next to a Tupperware ball) to remind him of how he hands the scribbles of his life to God, who returns a clean slate. What a great religious art metaphor! (You can read more about the toy in his book Identity Theft on Google Books here, page 159.)
But Breaux also said something about Jews, particularly rabbis, that is simply not true, and I think it’s important to point this out.
You know how some parents think their children are simply perfect, and though you want to tell them their kids are great, but not that great, you think it’s really sweet that they take such pride in their kids? Religious people should feel that sense of pride about their God (or Gods); it’s what you are supposed to feel if you are a person of faith. But when that pride comes at the cost of putting down others, it’s important to step back and wipe off the boundary between propaganda and religion.
Breaux turns to John chapter four to discuss Jesus’ unique ministry to a “a woman of Samaria” at a well in Sychar. Breaux praises Jesus for addressing the “really broken” woman, “even though Jewish rabbis were not supposed to speak to Samaritans, they were not supposed to speak to Samaritan women, or women in general in public.” Yet, Jesus talked to this one, “because he knew she was broken … he was always breaking rules, in fact they weren’t really rules, they were just barriers people had put up.”
Perhaps Breaux knew of the passage from Ethics of the Fathers that states, “One who speaks excessively with a woman brings evil upon himself, neglects the words of the Torah, and will go to hell.” (See here, number 5.) But frankly, I’m not so sure he knew the reference, and if he did he’d know to dig a bit deeper. The Talmud is packed with references to rabbis counseling women, and intelligent readers would know not to confuse the sense of modesty in Jewish scripture with any kind of censorship of coed conversations. There is just no reason for this cheap shot at Jews in an otherwise great sermon (save another reference to Jews as “spiritually blind”) and the audience deserved better.