03-10-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
​March 10, 2023
A little late to the party or whatever other idiom might fit, but Wednesday was International Women’s Day, yet I had it in my mind that it was today. I wrote the following Etching for today, even though it should have been Wednesday. Please excuse my tardiness, but pretend you’re reading this on March 8.

In a recent study I was facilitating, the class found itself talking about how certain passages of scripture, if we emphasize them above others, can shift our entire thinking. For instance, most people have come across the words in 1st Timothy 2 that say women should dress modestly, remain quiet, and be submissive. And then we have the Apostle Paul, who speaks of Junia as someone who was not only in jail with him but is considered prominent or highly respected among the Apostles. Junia was a woman, and as an Apostle, she would have been a leader, a preacher, and respected for her insights. These two passages were written by two different people at two different times, and it is hard not to see how they conflict. And since they do not easily align, a person is automatically (whether consciously or unconsciously) going to prioritize one over the other.

Well, let’s pretend for a moment that men, early in Christianity, chose to prioritize women being silent and submissive over any other passage about women. If that is your starting place, then you are going to read other passages through the basic idea that women should not have positions of leadership. For this reason, there have been those who have said that Paul referred to Junia as an Apostle, but he must have meant something else. They have gone as far as teaching that Junia was a really good "supporter" of the Apostles, a cheerleader of sorts, but nothing more.

But what if Junia was an Apostle, one of the finest according to the Apostle Paul? What if, from the very beginning, the church believed women and men were equal in everything, including leadership? In fact, the early church probably did, but somewhere along the line, men made the 1st Timothy passage the primary passage by which women were to be defined in the life of the church. And no surprise to anyone, but men who have wanted to maintain a hierarchy of the male gender throughout history, including recent history, have been adamant about the absolute inerrancy of the 1st Timothy passage but are quick to suggest that the Romans’ passage about Junia was misunderstood.

Let us continue to celebrate your calling upon our lives, O God, and your call to ministry and service that is not limited by gender or even by a very narrow reading of scripture. Amen.