02-14-26

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
February 14, 2026
What lenses are you currently wearing? A few years ago, I heard a former fundamentalist Christian speaking about her own transformation. She had grown up being told that women were to be subservient to their husbands, have no place of authority in the church, and should not work outside the home. On a regular basis, the minister would pull a handful of scriptures from the Bible to make his point. One day, she noticed how the only people at the tomb who would later give witness to the resurrection of Jesus were women. Then she had someone point out how Paul praised Junia, a woman, as prominent among the apostles (Romans 16:7), with apostle being a title of authority and significance within the church. Suddenly she found herself reading scripture through a different set of lenses, and she discovered example after example of women being called into leadership. This would have been especially shocking in the ancient context where the culture was mostly patriarchal. Where else have we been told the Bible teaches one thing, only to have a change of lenses that reveal things that previously were obscured because of the old lenses we were wearing? It is shocking how skewed our reading of the Bible can be when we’ve been told over a period of time that we would only find one idea, especially when we were told by someone who we believed had authority. The Bible actually has many perspectives and opinions, but the question I bring is whether I believe in a God who is regressive or progressive, a God who wants to limit or liberate? The God I encounter in Jesus always appears to be liberating individuals from the constraints that restrict their potential, preventing them from fully experiencing the abundant life they were meant to live. For those of you who wear glasses, it can be astonishing how drastically things change when you receive a new prescription. What lenses are you currently wearing?

In a world hellbent on controlling others, we turn to you, Lord God, for a new Exodus and a renewed understanding of your vision for your creation. Amen.