Lectio Divina: A Lenten Journey

I am going to be taking some time off from writing on this blog. I have been writing here for years and while this will continue to be my primary ministry blog, I want to take time to practice Lectio Divina. While working on this practice, I plan on writing a blog called One Year with Lectio Divina. I feel there is much to be learned from praying and listening to what God is saying to us through His word.

Again this blog isn't going away, but I do plan on spending less time on the blog, so that I can write and journal my Lectio Divina journey. I plan on starting my Lectio Journey officially on Feb. 26th, Ash Wednesday as part of my Lenten devotion. In addition to my Lenten season I will be re-reading The Cross and the Beatitudes by Fulton Sheen.

I will only write here if something happens in the UMC that I feel is worth writing here or God provides me a topic. Otherwise, I will be seeing you all after Lent.

What did Paul say about Women in the Pulpit?

I was raised Southern Baptist and there was no such thing as a woman minister in my growing up years. However, I always knew that God brought me into this world to be different.  The other night I was asked "Rai what verses of scripture do you use to prove women as pastors?” I quickly learned that "The ones you don't read.” is not the answer. I have learned in my time of discernment that no one is ready to hear that I am willing to be a pastor. In fact, I have heard “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to have authority over a man; 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 she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.” (1 Tim 2:11-15 NRSV)

I agree with Dr. Ben Witherington when he said "There is evidence in the New Testament of women teaching men.”

In the context of this letter which is concerned with false teaching Paul writes, “women, learn in silence with full submission.” Teaching women was not common in Paul’s day. These women, according to Paul, were unlearned in the faith, so it was probable that they could have been advancing false teaching. It seems likely that (in verses 11-12) Paul is referring to the way in which learning required submission to a teacher. It appears that there was tension or conflict during the worship (1 Tim 2:8), and it is possible that women may have contributed to the disruptive worship (1 Tim 2:12), which is why Paul would call for submission. The Greek word used in verse 12, which has frequently been translated “to have authority,” is authentēs. This word is found only this one time in the New Testament and so its meaning is unclear. Other Greek words were more typically used to indicate having authority over, such as exousia, so it is likely that authentēs has a different connotation than merely “having authority.” In other early Greek sources, this word is often associated with violence. According to lexicographers, authentēs is synonymous with “to dominate someone." Paul is most likely prohibiting women from teaching men in a manner that is domineering. 

The Apostle Paul was dealing with socially elite women in places like Ephesus who have likely played important roles in the cult of Artemis or other pagan religions in town, he explained, women who, once they receive Christ, are inclined to think that because they are literate and have the gift mix that they do, they think they can contribute in their newfound faith in similar way as their past. "What Paul says to that is that you need to listen and learn before you assert leadership and teach," Witherington said. He goes on to say "Neither of those passages has anything to do with ruling women out in general from teaching men. It certainly rules out interrupting a worship service or asserting yourself into a role of leadership when you haven't been authorized to do that.”

So what verses do I use to prove women can indeed minister. John’s Gospel tells us that a woman from Samaria preached so compellingly about her encounter with Jesus that “many Samaritans believed in him because of the woman’s testimony," giving her a key role in establishing a community of disciples in Samaria. Let’s not forget Paul, who acknowledges quite openly in his first letter to the Corinthians that women and men will both prophesy and pray in the gathered community of the church. When Paul lists apostles in the 16th chapter of his letter to the Romans, one of the most prominent is a woman named Junia.

Acts also tells us about Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Philippi, who hosted the church there in her house. She is the only named leader of that congregation. A few chapters later, we meet Priscilla and her husband, Aquila. When the young male preacher Apollos needs to have the way of Jesus explained to him more accurately, Priscilla steps forward and offers her services. 

While there are a few passages in Paul’s letters some cite as evidence that God is not calling women in these ways, the overwhelming witness of Paul’s letters and the New Testament is that in Christ, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Today, we tend to confuse our specific church traditions about ordination with the biblical concept of ministry. The New Testament says relatively little about ordination. In fact if we truly look at what the scripture says we’d notice that the Holy Spirit gifted all people (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 12:4–31; 14:1–19; Romans 12:3–8; Ephesians 4:7–16; 1 Peter 4:8–11). Matter of fact, anyone could exercise ministry which means service. 

In Jesus’ time women were regarded as subordinate, and that thought process has continued into today’s churches. Josephus, a Jewish historian, said: “The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man. Let her accordingly be submissive.” It was also said: “Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good” (Sirach). Jesus, however, by his teaching and actions, affirmed the worth and value of women as persons to be included along with men within God’s love and service. Jesus challenged “sexual put-downs” of women. In Jesus’s setting, the prerogative of divorce belonged almost exclusively with men, and virtually any reason could be used to justify divorce. Jesus tolerated no such “male chauvinism.” He recalled the “one flesh” concept (Genesis 2:24) of mutual partnership and God’s intention for marriage (Matthew 19:3–9).

First is the fact that when the Holy Spirit came in power and in fulfillment of God’s Word (Joel 2:28–32) both men and women were present (Acts 1–2). Peter interpreted the events of Pentecost to mean that the “last days” of God’s time had come and that God’s Spirit was poured out on both women and men enabling them to prophesy. This foundational role was significant in the early church (see Acts 21:8–9; 1 Corinthians 11:5). Throughout the history of the modern church, the events of Acts 2 have been one of the major arguments in favor of women in ministry.

Second, the involvement of women in the establishment of the Philippian church is noteworthy (Acts 16:11–40). Paul begins the church in Philippi, the leading city of its district, with a group of women gathered for prayer outside the city gate (Acts 16:13–15). The “place of prayer” here is probably to be understood as a synagogue. Clearly one of the leaders of this remarkable women’s synagogue was Lydia. She and her home became the center of the new Philippian church (Acts 16:14–15, 40). This data is very significant background for the two women of Philippi who worked with Paul in the gospel ministry (Philippians 4:2–3).

Third, Acts gives some indication of the importance of Priscilla (Acts 18:2,18, 26). She, along with her husband Aquila, instructed Apollos, who became a noted teacher in the church (Acts 18:26). There has always been debate over the significance of the fact that Priscilla taught Apollos at home rather than in the church, but it must be recognized that she did teach Apollos (see 1 Timothy 2:12).

Three women are known as leaders of house churches (the only type of church there was in the first century!): Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11), Nympha (Colossians 4:15) and Apphia (Philemon 2). To this group we can add Lydia, a Pauline house church leader known from Acts 16.

Paul stated that four women—Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis (Romans 16:6, 12)—had worked very hard in the Lord. The Greek word translated “work very hard” was used very regularly by Paul to refer to the special work of the gospel ministry, including his own apostolic ministry (1 Corinthians 4:12; 15:10; Galatians 4:11; Philippians 2:16; Colossians 1:29; 1 Timothy 4:10; see also Acts 20:35) as well as the work of others in the ministry, leaders and persons of authority in each case (1 Corinthians 16:15–16; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 5:17). Thus, for Paul, the term “work very hard” was not a casual term referring to menial tasks.

In Romans 16:3–4 Paul greeted Priscilla and Aquila. This husband and wife team is mentioned six times elsewhere in the New Testament. It is significant that Priscilla is usually mentioned first, since the cultural pattern would be to name the husband first. This may indicate that Priscilla was the more important or visible leader and may suggest that she had a higher social status and/or more wealth than Aquila. Paul indicated that he and all the Gentile churches were indebted to both of them. Paul designated Priscilla and her husband, Aquila, “fellow workers in Christ Jesus,” a term used regularly for other leaders in the gospel ministry: Urbanus (Romans 16:9), Timothy (Romans 16:21), Titus (2 Corinthians 8:23), Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25), Clement (Philippians 4:3), Philemon (Philemon 1), Demas and Luke (Philemon 24), Apollos and himself (1 Corinthians 3:9), and several others (Colossians 4:11).

In Philippians 4:2–3 Paul mentioned two women, Euodia and Syntyche, whom he also classed “along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers,” and noted that these two women fellow workers “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel,” an expression similar to the “worked very hard in the Lord” phrase applied to the four women noted in Romans 16. In view of Acts 16:11–40 it is not surprising that two such women leaders emerged in the Philippian church.

Phoebe, usually assumed to have been the one to deliver Paul’s letter to Rome, is warmly commended by Paul to the Roman church (Romans 16:1–2). Phoebe is designated as “a servant of the church in Cenchrea.” Although some have thought the word “servant” here means “deacon” (or “deaconess”), that is most unlikely since the other New Testament texts that refer to the office of deacon mention the office of bishop in immediate conjunction with it (Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:8, 12). Paul regularly used this term “servant” to refer to persons clearly understood to be ministers of the gospel: Christ (Romans 15:8), Apollos (1 Corinthians 3:5), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), Timothy (1 Timothy 4:6), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7), himself (1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:23, 25), and generally (2 Corinthians 3:6; 6:4; 11:15, 23). Thus, Phoebe should be understood as well as the minister (leader/preacher/teacher) of the church in Cenchrea.

Paul identified Andronicus and Junias as “outstanding among the apostles” (Romans 16:7), an expression that includes them within the apostolic circle. Junias is a male name in English translations, but there is no evidence that such a male name existed in the first century AD. Junia, a female name, was common, however. The Greek grammar of the sentence in Romans 16:7 means that the male and female forms of this name would be spelled identically. Thus, one has to decide—on the basis of other evidence—whether this person is a woman (Junia) or a man (Junias). Since Junia is the name attested in the first century and since the great church father and commentator on Paul in the fourth century, John Chrysostom (no friend of women in ministry), understood the reference to be a woman Junia, we ought to read it that way as well. 

In fact, it was not until the thirteenth century that she was changed to Junias!

These thirteen women surveyed here (Lydia, Chloe, Nympha, Apphia, Mary, Persis, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Priscilla, Euodia, Syntyche, Phoebe, and Junia) provide clear evidence from Paul that women did participate in the gospel ministry, as did men. Paul’s common terminology made no distinctions in roles or functions between men and women in ministry.

Oh, and in case you were wondering the first women ordained were on 23 March 1930 for the first time a woman was ordained. Her name was Berthe Bertsch and it occurred within the Alsace and Lorraine Reformed Church. Why there ?

Because during WWI women had to work to replace men, in factories as well as in post-offices. There were known cases of pastors’ wives who replaced their drafted or departed husbands, but still fulfilled their duties towards the children, the sick, and even presided over funeral and baptism services.

Because the first female students were allowed in the faculty of theology, long after other subjects. In the early 1920s there were only 4 young women in the Strasburg faculty, along with one in Geneva, both belonging to State Universities. Then came Paris where Marguerite Thourot got her Bachelor’s degree in theology (equivalent to a Master’s) in 1933.

And for some information on our sister pioneer women pastors:

• Elisabeth Schmidt (1908-1986) embodied the fight for women pastors within the French Reformed Church. She was the daughter of a Member of Parliament and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and then theology in Geneva. From 1935 to 1941 she was assistant with the Saint Croix Vallée Française parish in the Cévennes region and then in Sète until 1958. The parishioners themselves asked for her ordination.

• Geneviève Jonte (1906-1983), was the daughter and grand-daughter of the Montbéliard region pastors. She studied theology in Paris, then was an assistant with the Montbéliard parish in 1934, and was eventually ordained in 1937. She was the first pastor of the small Saint John temple the Peugeot family had paid for and built in the new workers’ quarters – it was later demolished when the Peugeot Company needed the land.

• Marieleine Hoffet (1905-1996) was a pastor’s daughter who studied theology in Strasburg, Geneva and Edinburgh. She was a vicar with the Reformed Church of Alsace Lorraine and got married in 1931. She took an active part in the resistance movement and accepted in 1945 a position no one wished to take, namely chaplain in former collaborators’ internment camps. She then turned to women’s bible teaching. She fought against the rule forbidding married women to become pastors, which was suspended in 1968.

• Jeanne Zurcher (born in 1917). Her father was of Swiss origin and her mother was American. She had an early calling which her family refused. She started her theology studies in Geneva and completed them in Paris. She was an assistant with the Etoile Reformed Church in Paris, with the Mission Populaire (Working class Mission) in the suburbs, and then with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. When she was 58 she was ordained at the Suresnes parish near Paris.

They did not belong to women’s emancipation movements. They were not promoted by their churches – peer pastors sometimes even voted against them. But their parishes appreciated their competence and listening skills, and mostly their calling.

Super Bowl LIV: Hyper-sexualization on Display

All I can say is indignation. It’s what I felt and still feel about Super Bowl LIV’s halftime show featuring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. After NBC posted on Facebook their question about the half time show, I felt the urgent need to remind people that the Super Bowl, as well as other major sporting events are targets for human trafficking.

I made a comment, and I have been judged as a racist bigot, a girl who couldn’t get a man if I wanted one, anti-Latin culture, uneducated. However, let’s get to the heart of the matter. Sunday’s half-time show didn’t reflect Latino culture, unless Latino culture tells us that it’s okay to sexually exploit our children.

I get that in the entertainment business, sex sells. If want to be be relevant or even sell an album, there has to be a level of comfort with selling yourself. According to a USA Today article by Gil Smart “There was nothing about the halftime show that shocked, from a cultural standpoint. Our culture, after all, is marinated in sex, with hardcore porn easily available on those smartphones you all gave your kids.” And as much as I hate to admit it, Gil is correct; except that typically we can block those things which we don't want our children to have access to. 

This being said, we are now teaching that it is okay to objectify women. One of the comments my post on Facebook garnered was from a man who said "Yeah, I love a little pole dancing.” My initial thought was “until it’s your child, your daughter, sister or someone close to you.” So desensitized to sex have we become that we have people on twitter saying "is there a middle ground between the Super Bowl Half Time show is literally sex Trafficking?” and “It's the most empowering women I have ever seen and I am watching with my 10 YO son.” Really? How can we even question this? 

I also realize that every NFL team has cheerleaders. Nothing burns my biscuits more than my hearing a man saying “I love the top cats…they are the only cats we like.” So it shouldn’t be shocking that most men don’t have an issue with the NFL’s half-time show. One of my friend’s friends wrote on Facebook, “The only people complaining are the women, its only because they can’t do this or that and their man liked it.” Well I am a woman, I don’t have a man and I didn't like it and I can do everything Shakira did, and if I wanted to take pole dancing to build my core, I could at my local gym.” 

Dr. Michael Brown wrote an article on Christian Post where he asks “Moms, are these the kind of shows you want your husbands and sons to watch? Or your daughters to emulate? Speaking of mothers, both Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, the featured performers at the last Super Bowl, are moms themselves, probably very devoted moms. And JLo even brought her 11-year-old daughter on stage to perform with her. But that makes the performance all the more outrageous. A 50-year-old mother in the presence of her daughter, performing on a stripper’s pole?”

Among other comments made on the NBC Facebook post were comments on my looks as well as comments that “I would go to the beach and not have an issue with what people are wearing.” Evidently these people have never been to the beach with me. I take it seriously when I read in Proverbs 31:10 A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. (NRSV) and Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (NRSV). I don’t limit that just to myself, but to young girls and young ladies that we are raising to be the next women leaders in the US. 

You see we have become a nation that is so drenched in sex that we can’t even admit when we see something that is wrong and that borders on the porn industry’s exploitation of sex. Kristin Smith writes, “It’s becoming more widely known that the Super Bowl and sex trafficking are notoriously linked. The crowds the event draws, and the distractions it can create, makes the “big game” a horrifically bad issue. In fact, nearly 200 people were arrested last year in connection with 2019’s Super Bowl in Atlanta. But it’s not just the Super Bowl that’s a problem. It’s the world-wide epidemic of sex slavery that the real culprit. And the United States is one of the biggest contributors to this horrific industry. How, you ask? Well, one way is in the connection between viewing pornography and sex slavery. According to Fight The New Drug, “the porn industry fuels real people being sexually abused and exploited at the hands of family members, traffickers, and pimps. The collective billions of clicks to porn content directly fuels the demand for sex traffickers to make money by selling videos of their sex slaves to porn sites.”

According to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE) “Some may be tempted to write off the Super Bowl LIV halftime performance as harmless, but the reality is that stripping and sex trafficking are inextricably linked. Many of the women—minors, in some cases—in strip clubs have been sex trafficked.” 

And while many are saying that people like Franklin Graham, Dr. Brown and myself are over reacting and are hateful and bigoted, I have to wonder why they call themselves Christians? How does bowing down and worshipping at the altar of sexual exploitation in the name of entertainment fit in with their Christian faith? As Christians we must reject the hyper-sexualized content like that of the Super Bowl Half-time Show. 

I agree with Lucas Black, actor in Fast and Furious and NCIS: New Orleans Protecting your daughter and sons from seeing the display of sexual exploitation at the #SuperBowl halftime show is showing love. We have to teach our younger generation that their value and self worth comes from what God says is true about them.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”