Interview with Rev. Lynn Smilie Nesbitt

Rev. Lynn Smilie Nesbitt  and Anna Grace Glaize

Rev. Lynn Nesbitt is an Associate Pastor at Dothan First Methodist UMC with over 40 years of experience in ordained ministry. She graciously allowed us to share a church service she crafted for Maundy Thursday. The service, called “I Am Here; I Bear Witness,” allows the women of Holy Week to speak for themselves.  This interview was conducted on April 11 and has been edited for clarity and length. 

AGG: You shared with us a resource of a service that you did for Maundy Thursday…in which the women of Holy Week get a chance to speak for themselves. So I’m wondering, how did that idea come about? 

Rev. Lynn: I wanted to do something for Holy Week that was different from what had been done before. It’s great to have a sermon and have Holy Communion. I’ve done foot washings, I’ve done handwashings. And then I realized that we were ignoring some voices that were absolutely there—and those are the voices of the women. If most people were to draw a picture of Maundy Thursday, there would not be any women in that picture. And I don’t think that’s accurate. I determined that I would only use material that was actually in the Scripture. I’d use a little bit of imagination, I’d talk about feelings because the Scripture doesn’t have feelings, but I would not invent somebody who was there. I would only use people that we have reason to believe are there. That’s why I actually footnoted the biblical references for everything so you can go look for yourself. 

AGG: I saw that. 

Rev. Lynn: I mean, you can find them yourself! I wanted something that would stir people’s imagination, so I had all of the women (we had laywomen and clergywomen there)... and we all dressed in “Biblical Costume.” We have a closet full of that at the church. So we all wore things that would help people imagine that. We didn’t act it out; we simply told our story. And it was very well-received. 

AGG: It reminded me of Vacation Bible School when you’d go into the story rooms. I did think, “Oh wow, we don’t present the Bible stories in this way when we’re grown up!”

Rev. Lynn: I grew up in the era where people used flannel board to teach Sunday School, which I, by the way, think is a fabulous idea! It’s not a bad idea at all…My Momma taught four-year olds-and so my Daddy got a board and stretched flannel across it. And then the literature came with pop-out figures, and you’d move them on the board so that the children could envision them. I think that’s a great idea! But they’re two-dimensional figures. I think a lot of figures in Scripture are two-dimensional to us. We hear the name, maybe we can list some things about them. I had a professor of Old Testament in seminary at Candler at Emory, Dr. Miller, and I took History of Israel from him. He started talking about these folks [biblical characters], and I thought, “He knows these people. He absolutely knows them.” My first thought was, “I want to know them so well that if I met Sarah in the produce aisle of the grocery store, I’d recognize her.” I want to know her as a person, not just as a flat two-dimensional figure. So, probably, that background of being taught on flannel board and then having Dr. Miller, probably that fed into that, too.

Who were these women? I don’t think most people realize that Luke says the women financed Jesus’ ministry…Everything has to be paid for. There’s a price. Jesus’ ministry had to be paid for. Somebody had to replace the sandals that were worn out. Somebody had to buy the food. There had to be money for that. And Luke tells us that the women were the ones who supplied the money to finance Jesus’ ministry. I don’t think most people know that. That’s not my speculation. It says it! 

AGG: Going into this process, did you have a favorite woman of Holy Week? 

Rev. Lynn: Probably Mary Magdalene. I think she is much maligned. 

AGG: She is. 

Rev. Lynn:...Any time that someone feels that they must attack another person, the person they’re attacking must have some real power. So, Mary Magdalene’s been attacked so much that I want to know what it is about her that scares you so badly. 

AGG: It really started with a pope who preached a very bad sermon. 

Rev. Lynn: Indeed. Indeed, but I wonder if he didn’t pick some of that up…We don’t have a history of things he was told about her. But she was the first one to proclaim the Gospel. Jesus directly told her to go tell his disciples that he was risen from the dead. Well, there is no greater thing to preach than the resurrection of Jesus, and there is no more exalted audience than his disciples…Jesus told Mary Magdalene to do that. 

I was reared in a very conservative United Methodist church and no one told me that women couldn’t be pastors, but certainly, no one told me that they could be pastors either…When they’d have a revival and we’d go to at least one night of the revival…I was about five years old, and there was a woman preaching that night. And the man introduced her by saying, he quoted Samuel Johnson (I didn’t know that when I was five years old), he said, “Seeing a woman preach is like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. It’s never done well, and you’re surprised to see it done at all.” Everybody laughed just before she got up to preach, and my five-year-old self was offended. That’s the first woman I ever heard preach…

I think until I visited Candler as a prospective student, I don’t think I’d heard another woman preach. Remember that I went into Candler in 1977…There were very few women clergy…I certainly didn’t have any role models, and a lot of people were telling me I didn’t belong there at all and that Jesus said I didn’t belong there at all. But I just don’t think you can argue with Mary Magdalene. I just don’t think you can. So, Mary Magdalene. 

AG: Reading it [Rev. Lynn’s Maundy Thursday service], I liked that you gave the High Priest’s servant her due, because I think a lot of times she’s seen as a villain in that story, but she’s just saying what she knows to be true. She’s saying, “Wait! But I saw you!” That’s not a crime. 

Rev. Lynn:...The High Priest’s servant, she’s not a weighty individual in that society. But she spoke up. And a Gospel writer managed to include what she said. 

AG: This is a great way to include women in the life of the church. Are there other ways that you try to highlight women in your ministry? 

Rev. Lynn: I remember the preachers in my home church…many times they were very wonderful people, but they used a lot of golfing illustrations, and a small percentage of the men even golfed in my church! And football illustrations that left me cold…I think inclusivity is not just who you have at the table, it’s how you talk. When I preach, I try to deliberately use stories that children can relate to and older people. I mean, there’s all kinds of being inclusive…I try to have something that if you’re physically able to sit in that pew and listen, that I have something you can see yourself in. I think part of it is just being aware of folks. 

AG: Is there anything else about the women of Holy Week, the experience of writing this, or even just your life in ministry that you wanna close on? 

Rev. Lynn: I did not get a lot of encouragement when I was going into ministry. I got a lot of people telling me why I shouldn’t do it…therefore the people who did encourage me really stood out to me. Ernest Andress was on the Board of Ordained Ministry, and they would come to seminary once in the fall and once in the spring and take us out to eat, and they’d often give us rides…Ernest looked at us and said, “I’m so glad I get to be in ministry with the two of you.” And I survived on that morsel for decades. It made all the difference in the world to me…I began to realize that if I’m being left out, there are probably other folks…I’ve never forgotten Ernest Andress saying that one throw-away line, that he probably forgot he said, but it meant a lot to me.