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1 Corinthians 14: 34-35; 16:
19-21 May 9, 2010
ST. PAUL AND
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH
With this being Mother’s Day, to preach on St. Paul’s view of women, might be enough to put me on the endangered species list! While I recognize this may be a rather reckless thing to do, I feel compelled to do so, not only because we began a series of sermons on St. Paul a couple of weeks ago, but also and especially because I think that for too long St. Paul has been perceived to be if not a misogynist then at least an anti-feminist and even a male-chauvinist-source of bacon, shall we say? Now, if I were a biblical literalist, if I believed that every word in the bible was the “gospel word”, I would be the first to admit that the cards, or more precisely, the verses are stacked against me. Take for example our scripture lesson for this morning from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. … not exactly what you would call “text book” material for a Mother’s Day sermon! Now, if you think this verse is theologically reprehensible, I think and I hope that you will find a similar verse in St. Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy to be not only theologically wrong but also morally and spiritually cruel. In this verse, St. Paul supposedly says, I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, Then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be Saved through bearing children… Do you have any idea, can you imagine how much pain this verse has caused, how much damage this verse has done to the human spirit, male and female? Speaking for my own marriage, my own family and a countless number of others who have not been able to have children, I want to say and I want to say quite clearly that a woman or a man’s sense of self-worth and dignity should not be based upon whether or not they have children, and I can share with you how painful it is to have such verses as this held up and held onto as if they had theological integrity, and if St. Paul did indeed say such things, I say, “shame on him.” Just recently I learned of a young woman who lost her baby after 26 weeks of pregnancy, and the genetics of her family seem to be stacked against her, and as she looks around at the other members of her family who have healthy, happy children, I think you can see, I think you can empathize how painful this is, and then, if you were to throw this passage from the first letter to Timothy into the mix – “women will be saved through bearing children” – well you might as well try to quench someone’s thirst by giving them vinegar or salt-water. Verses from the bible can sometimes offer the healing touch of an angel. Some of the verses in the bible can be so wonderfully restorative and reassuring, and how I would love to have some of them attached as banners on airplanes so that all could be reminded of God’s love and truth. Forget about JOHN 3:16; write it out for all to see, for these are beautiful words, to be sure: “For God So Loved the World.” Imagine being out on the water on a beautiful day and seeing a banner in the sky that says, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly!” Imagine being down in the dumps, and then looking up into the sky and seeing a banner that says, “You are the light of this world!” Imagine thinking that you are down on your luck and out of any new ideas, and then you see a banner sweeping across the sky that says, “Behold, I make all things new!” These verses as well as many others are my bread and butter, and without them I might very well die of spiritual starvation, but then there are some other verses of the bible that can feel more like an iron fist in the solar plexus, and for those of us who do not have children, this verse is a case in point. But not only has this verse and others like it been detrimental to the human soul and our sense of self-worth, but also it has been just such verses as these that have done considerable damage to the church as an institution. I believe very strongly in ecumenicity, the importance of affirming the integrity of all of our Christian denominations, and I also feel very strongly about strengthening our interfaith community, but I also believe that we should speak the truth as we see it, and we should be cautious of sacrificing our principles of social justice on the altar of either ecumenicity or interfaith cooperation. I like very much how my Jewish friend, Dr. Mark Braverman, has said that we need less ecumenical and interfaith dialogue and we need more communion, more opportunities to work together in common cause on issues of human rights and social justice. With that said, please allow me to say that while I have great respect and admiration for many aspects of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, I cannot understand why they are depriving themselves of such an incredibly rich and powerful human resource, namely about 50% of our population. Now, it also should be said that these two traditions avail themselves of female leadership in ways that surpass that of many of our protestant traditions, and so we need to be ever so careful of the sin of self-righteousness. Nevertheless, the fact that women are not ordained as priests sends, I think, the wrong message to our younger generation, suggesting that men are more spiritual, men more worthy, men more trustworthy of sacred matters than women are. Speaking as one who enjoys the companionship and co-conspiracy of the 4 ordained women of our church – Carleen, Becky and Elaine and Cynthia, down at the chapel, I would be lost without the wonderful spirit and dedication that they bring to the life and vitality of our church. Now, I know that there are some who would apologize for St. Paul, saying that he was, after all, a “man of his own time and culture,” and certainly a very good case could be made in this regard. Before his conversion experience on the Road to Damascus, St. Paul was known as Saul, and as I mentioned several weeks ago, he was a very devout member of a highly legalistic group known as the Pharisees who followed the ancient laws with absolute precision and obedience, and according to these ancient traditions, women were treated as second class citizens, indeed, more like “moveable property”, otherwise known as “chattel.” Take for example the Ten Commandments. As much as I would want to acknowledge the incredible contribution the 10 commandments have made to our civilization and the rule of law, ultimately leading to such incredible documents as our nation’s Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I also need to say that originally these 10 commandments were addressed to men and not to women. Take for example the last commandment where it says, You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbors. The implication here is that a woman, and specifically a wife, is little more than a line item in someone’s personal inventory, listed along with a man’s house, ox, donkey and his servants. From our 21st century perspective, this is highly problematic, demeaning as it is to women, but as much as we might think of it as ancient history, we have painful reminders of this view of women throughout our world today with so called “honor killings”, female mutilation, the staggering statistic that right here in our own country 1 out of 6 women have been victims of either rape or attempted rape and in some cultures, the statistics are even more staggering than that. On Mother’s Day, what better day to recommit ourselves to overcoming this terrible treatment of women, and one of the places to begin is with our own theology, understanding and coming to realize the painful role that our own theology has played in the subjugation of women. Now, I can see how Saul, before his eye-closing, eye-opening experience on the road to Damascus might have had a very antiquated view of women. Being the stickler on biblical law that he was, I can see how Saul might very well have thought of women as little more than chattel, little more than a line item in one’s personal inventory, but as I read the bible, I think something wonderfully dramatic happened to him on the road to Damascus. Just as he was thrown from his horse and turned upside down, so did he find all of his assumptions and philosophies and theologies turned upside down as well, and while Saul may have been a “male chauvinist you know what”, I have come to have great respect for St. Paul as one who had an incredibly enlightened view of our humanity, male and female, saying as he did to the church in Galatia: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ. Do you see how radical these words would seem to those brought up to think of their wives as chattel? Do you see how wonderfully liberating this would seem to women, many of whom had been treated as something worse that second class citizens, and can you see how this new philosophy of women would revolutionize the early Christian church, placing women in positions of authority, empowering them to use their God-given talents for the edification of all, giving them the opportunity to speak their truth with love, and as I look at the role of such early Christian women as Priscilla and Lydia and yes, Mary Magdalene, I am very proud of how egalitarian those early Christian communities must have been, and I am very grateful that this male chauvinist got knocked off of his high horse and as a result came to the beautiful realization that deeper down than all of our gender and sexual identities, deeper down than our racial and nationalistic identities, deeper down than all those things that can so divide us, deeper down than all the adjectives and predicates that try and fail to define us, deeper down than all this is our common humanity: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ.” And I love how he goes on to say, “and I write this with my own hand”. Now, why would he feel compelled to say this? I think he knew that he would be misinterpreted and misquoted. I have to say that sometimes I myself am surprised by what others have said that I said. Not always in a bad way, but sometimes, people have altered or embellished what I have said and have made it much better than what it was to begin with! And so I think St. Paul understood that imperfect communication is very much a part of our human predicament, and so I would guess that he knew that down through the generations people would try to use him and superimpose on him their own their own thoughts and their own philosophies. Such is the nature of what Soren Kierkegaard called “indirect communication.” All this goes with the territory, as we say, but frankly I think St. Paul would be shocked and greatly dismayed by some of the things that he has supposedly said, things that have been used to support all manner of bigotries and narrow-mindedness, especially with regard to women. As I see it, rather quickly after the early churches got their start – the struggle for power and authority being what it is – strong minded men began to push women more and more off to the sidelines, and when the bible was canonized, when all those ancient documents and letters were compiled, including the letters that St. Paul had written, the editors felt compelled to refine and to clarify what St. Paul had said, and so it is that we have such a huge discrepancy in what St. Paul seems to say about the role of women in a church. I mean how can you reconcile these two verses: “Women should keep silent in church” and “there is neither male nor female.” These two statements are mutually exclusive, and as for me, I refuse go through the mental gymnastics trying to reconcile those two verses; I refuse to believe that the man who said the latter could also say the former. In his letter to a young man by the name of Timothy, I love how St. Paul paid respect to Timothy’s mother and grandmother, saying, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you.” That to me is the authentic St. Paul! That to me is in keeping with the eye-opening, mind-opening experience he had on the Road to Damascus, an experience that enabled him to see that women could be equal partners in the great mission that God has given us, that essentially, deep down inside, we are neither “male nor female” but we are all one in Christ.” I think St. Paul would be the first to say, “thank God for the Lois’ and Eunice’s of every church; thank God they have not kept silent; thank God they have taken it upon themselves the great task of propagating the gospel of Jesus to the next generation. Likewise, I think St. Paul would offer very special words of praise and thanksgiving for a business woman by the name of Lydia way up in Macedonia, for without her generosity and hospitality, the church at Philippi never would have become the strong and compassionate church it proved to be. Likewise, I have no doubt that St. Paul himself would have high praise for all the women of this congregation, both those with children and those without children, all those who have refused to be silent on matters of peace and social justice, all those who have used their voices to pass along the hopes and the dreams and the teachings of Jesus Christ, all those who have sung in our choirs and taught in our Sunday School, all those who have preached and prayed from this pulpit – all clear violations of the 34th verse of chapter 14 of the first letter to the Corinthians, and I think St. Paul would be the first to celebrate that deviation! For in deviating from that verse, these strong minded women of our church find themselves in complete solidarity with Lois and Eunice and Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Priscilla and Lydia and all the other women without whom the Christian church would not have been born. I was looking through the annual report of our church, and out of about 100 positions on our church’s boards and committees, currently 70 of those positions are filled by women! I say, “Thank God for that 70%, for we would be nowhere near the church that we are without them. I know she would not be happy with me for bringing this up, but did you know that today is the 90th birthday of one the most wise and wonderful Sunday School teachers I have known. Amy Henry, for as long as I can remember, has been one of the most loving and dedicated members of our church, and virtually every Sunday you can find her down in one of our Sunday School rooms, sharing and teaching and reading stories to our Children. This is how our Christian faith has been passed on from one generation to another, and I say, thank God for Amy, thank God all those women of our church who have refused to be silent. Oh, and, by the way, I have written this with my own hand. Amen.
David W. Good Old Lyme, Connecticut
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