Lutheran Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future.

    By Rev. Dan Greg To close out Women’s History Month, I want to tell you about a really cool Lutheran. Her name is Dr. Bessie Rehwinkel. Born in 1873, Bess Efner challenged all sorts of standards and trends by wishing to follow in her father’s footsteps as a medical doctor.   Choosing to attend medical school over the course of eight years, she took an enormous risk of neglecting suitors and focusing on her goal of becoming a doctor. After finishing school, she became board certified in Iowa and began to practice, despite every odd being stacked against her.  She fought distrust and ridicule from many in her community until they saw how skilled and fair she was with pricing. Women loved her delivering their children.   In the financial panic of 1907, Bessie lost her business, savings, and home. At the same time, her sister in law and brother died tragically, leaving their 3 daughters with her to care for them. She stepped up in a big way, taking the biggest risk of her life thus far

    By Rev. Dan Greg Growing up, my mother and the ladies at church were usually doing some sort of Bible study on "The Women of the Bible."   Because of its specificity, these studies, with their feminine art and swirly cursive, images depicting painted-nailed hands gripping coffee cups; they usually distanced myself and other boys and men in the congregation from deeply learning about the faithful women of the Scriptures outside of the texts of the weekly lectionary.    What a shame!    I have spent time in recent years making up for that gap in my scriptural knowledge through personal study and going out of my way as a pastor to remember these faithful women in my teaching and preaching, as well as observing important feast days such as for Mary the mother of God, Mary Magdalene, and so on.   So this International Women’s Day, I wanted to talk about my favorite woman in the Bible.  She is lovely, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.