Did you know that Sunday, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD)? Most of the world celebrates it while the US hardly notices. In many countries, March 8 is celebrated like the US celebrates Mother’s Day, yet in most places, all women are honored–not just mothers. I like to celebrate IWD by donating to one of my favorite organizations: Global Women, a Christian nonprofit striving to bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable women around the world. You can learn more and donate online at http://www.GlobalWomenGo.org. Your gift to Global Women will help:

– stop sex trafficking in Moldova

– birth babies in Haiti

– educate girls in Zambia and India

– develop sewing skills in Romania, Myanmar, and Uganda

– bring clean water to Zambia

– and more!

While thinking about the needs of women around the world, I also watched a few TED Talks this week on various women’s issues. If you have not discovered TED Talks yet, you are missing out! Go to TED.com and spend some time learning some incredible things on just about any topic.

Then my mind started wondering which biblical woman I wanted to tell you about this week. I decided on one who traveled internationally herself. Her name was Phoebe. She is only mentioned in two verses in the New Testament. You will find her in Romans 16:1-2, the famous text ascribed to the Apostle Paul. While the verses may not be very enlightening about the details of her life, the context and a historical understanding of these verses reveal a great deal about the role she had in the church and Paul’s support and encouragement of that role. Read on . . .

Romans 16:1-2 in the Common English Bible reads: “I’m introducing our sister Phoebe to you, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae. Welcome her in the Lord in a way that is worthy of God’s people, and give her whatever she needs from you, because she herself has been a sponsor of many people, myself included.”

In the New International Version, it reads: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. ² 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.”

Here is what we can learn about Phoebe from the historical and textual contexts of this passage from Paul’s writing:

1. She is probably single, since Paul does not ask the church to welcome her and her husband.

2. Many scholars believe she is the person chosen by Paul to deliver this letter to the Romans. This means he entrusted her with what became one of the greatest documents in all of Christendom, and that he expected her to be able to make the 600+-mile journey from her home in Cenchreae to Rome, Italy. Cenchreae was the eastern port of Corinth, which was about 58 miles west of Athens. She would have traveled by land and sea at a time when women did not often travel alone.

3. Paul calls her a “servant” of her church or a “deacon” of her church. Paul is acknowledging the leadership role her church has recognized and is commending her because of that to the people in Rome, whom he has not met.

4. As the deliverer of the letter, she was probably also the interpreter of that letter to the church in Rome, meaning she would’ve read it and explained it to them.

5. She is also called a “sponsor” or a “benefactor” of Paul and others, which means she must have been wealthy enough to support the ministries of others.

6. Paul expects the people of the church in Rome to receive her with respect, honor, love, and welcome.

7. Phoebe was apparently willing to risk her life to travel across international borders to carry Paul’s message to a group of people he had never met. Not only would the travel be challenging, but so would the possibility of being rejected or dismissed. She obviously made the journey successfully, because we still have the letter to the Romans today.

Questions for the day: What if Phoebe had been “silent” in her church or around Paul? Do you think “silence” is what caused her church to name her a “deacon”? Do you think “silence” would have been a characteristic that caused Paul to want to send her on such a dangerous journey with this document? (*Hint: Paul’s use of the word “silent” in 1 Corinthians 14:34 must have had another meaning!) Now, what borders does God want you to cross this week?