Tag Archive: Women

She’s where? When a complementarian looks for Mary.

June 11, 2019 0 Comments

I truly enjoy reading the Gospels in the New Testament over and over and over. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John show us the relationships of Jesus. We get an inside look at Jesus’ relationships in the communion of God, with Himself, with people, and with the stuff of earth. I am often challenged and I hope I am being formed by the Gospel and what is presented to us in Jesus’ relationships.

Jesus’ relationships with women are astonishing in respect to the norms and expectations of the day. Women themselves were surprised by Jesus (John 4). And sometimes the folks around Jesus, even women, were dismayed by Jesus’ inclusion of women in his rabbinic ministry.

Luke 10:38-42, NIV
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,”the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

The Scene

Can you imagine the moments before Martha made a scene? Perhaps she was busy with the preparations for the meal, giving instructions, and busily managing her household for this wonderful moment: Jesus, the rabbi, had come to their house again. It was a privilege to host him and his friends. But now, the internal schedule in her head was not being met. All hands are needed–and that’s when she noticed–Mary is missing. “Where’s Mary?” Someone tells her, “She’s sitting at the feet of Jesus.” Incredulously and in full outrage she asks again, “She’s where?” That’s how I imagine it.

But, back to the Scripture brought to us by God. In the mind of Martha, Mary was not where she was supposed to be. Mary, in Martha’s world, was supposed to be with her and attending to a different work, a different kind of service, and in a different place. So Martha does the most outrageous thing; she interrupts Jesus and tells him what to do with Mary. ““Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

A Common Experience

What Luke captures here for the friends of God is a common experience. When we start listening to Jesus and aligning our lives with Him and His Kingdom, some folks will feel that we have left them, that we have left the work that’s our obligation, and that we need to be put back in our place. I have a lot of empathy for Martha. It is shocking to have my expectations of other people blown out of the water when I have made plans for them. I have some empathy for the parent that is shocked that their son is following Jesus and has been baptized. I have some empathy for the lab partner that is outraged because their friend is no longer available on Sunday mornings because of Jesus. I have some empathy for the CEO that can’t believe their top recruit has taken a “lesser position” elsewhere because of Jesus. Folks feel left behind when people start being obedient to Jesus. It’s a thing!

But I suppose I am still trying to muster up some empathy for the followers of Jesus who are outraged when a women preaches the Word of God or humbly offers leadership to the church in the power of God’s Spirit. I’m still trying to find empathy for men who want to tell Jesus, “Tell the women to help me.” I’m trying to find some empathy. But, what seems obvious to me and to others in the room who have been at the feet of Jesus may not to be so obvious to them. But it does seem obvious to Jesus and perhaps we all need to hear Jesus’ words again:

“Martha, Martha,”the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Don’t interfere with Jesus.

To sit at the feet of a rabbi was to become the student and to enter into a kind of relationship of formation and participation. To sit at the feet of the rabbi-Jesus was a choice Mary had made in response to Jesus. And Jesus says it will not be taken away from her. Is Jesus indicating that anyone who seeks to take it away from her is interfering with Him? Is Jesus saying that Mary’s devotion to Him is not to be interfered with? Is Jesus suggesting that the outcome and trajectory of Mary’s life and ministry that is generated as His follower is not to be interfered with?

I believe, Yes, Yes, and Yes. Jesus is basically saying to Martha and to anyone who was listening to Him — leave Mary alone. She has chosen what is best. It will not be taken away from her. But Martha was a complementarian. She believed men and women had certain roles to fill. You wonder how I make this reading about Martha? Martha could have asked her brother Lazarus to help her, but she didn’t. Why was Martha looking for her sister at this moment of stress? Why? Because her cultural and familial setting gave her permission to designate and demand that Mary take up a proper role. It was unthinkable and inappropriate to Martha that Mary would make learning and being equipped by Jesus for His Kingdom assignments a priority when dinner preparations where pressing.

What does complementarianism do?

I find myself often asking after reading this exchange between Martha and Jesus about our situation today. “Is not complementarianism just another voice used to tell women who follow Jesus what their place in the world is?” The framework of many complementarians is that men and women are equal but that they have different roles. I find myself asking, does Jesus really construct His eternal Kingdom and our relationships in His Kingdom on the basis of gender based and assigned roles? There was nothing inherently wrong with Martha’s choice and response to the presence of Jesus. But when Martha wanted to impose her response to Jesus (the work of hospitality) as a demand and rule for Mary, as a role for Mary, she had crossed the line of Jesus’ rule and reign. She was interfering with Jesus.

In Real Life Today

The question of who gets to “sit at the feet of Jesus” is still current for us today. When my wife, Ellen, and I were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) from 1990 – 1993 we were dating when we arrived. I was regularly shocked to hear from her that male students would confront her and express their belief that she had no good reason to be studying Greek and Hebrew. And then there was the matter of preaching. Why would she preach and why would she join them in the fellowship of preachers? After we married, one man even quizzed her incredulously, “You’re still here?” Yes, still here! As we were both pursuing a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages the preacher boys had to deal with a woman who was an excellent student and a gifted minister of the Gospel. Some did. Some left. Some listened. Some received. But, even though she was confident of Jesus’ call on her life, the shadow of their dismay took a toll and still takes a toll today. I’m thankful for the grace Jesus has given her. But, please note that this shadow of death was cast on us before the BFM 2000 was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention or even now by the Canadian National Baptist Convention. This shadow is old and it continues to cover gifted and called women. (Take for example all that has been thrown at Beth Moore since preaching on Sunday in a church in Texas in May.) But, this shade, I do not believe it is cast by Jesus.

I believe Jesus would tell us not to interfere with her or with Him.

So… where’s “Mary” in the congregation of Jesus today?
Are you interfering with her devotion and assignment from Jesus?
Are you interfering with Jesus?

Church, Relationships

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Six Women God Raised Up Making the Torah Possible

June 13, 2018 0 Comments

Preserving life and pursing God’s vision of human flourishing requires leadership.  Resisting a culture of death requires leadership. Within the regular conversation of the Church is what some may experience as an annual interruption provided by the Incarnation of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus: women who lead. The women who showed up at the tomb became the first to proclaim and give witness to the Good News, “Jesus is alive!” Its this work of God that inspires the New Testament.

 

Likewise, though not as regularly considered in the church, the redemptive work of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt provides us with what is not meant to be an interruption. In fact, I believe its because these events are treated as “interruptions” and not the normal activity of God that we find ourselves so shorthanded in the church and the mission of Jesus. If only we remained hitched to the full testimony of the whole Scripture, we would see that the interdependence of men and women in leadership has been God’s way in all our beginnings.

 

The extraordinary redemptive work of God precedes our texts. Exodus gives birth to Genesis. Moses emerges from the influence of the Egyptian empire because God has heard the cries of His people and is working. Genuine leadership in the Kingdom of God, is a response to the graceful stimulus of God. Such leadership takes its form in the promotion and preservation of life.

 

Exodus 1:15-22 (NIV)

15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

 

Exodus 2:1-10 (NIV)

1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

 

Exodus 2 is most often read as an introduction to Moses. But actually its an introduction of God and how He is working. These six women are called out by God. They are called “out” because they act in resistance to the culture of death. They have gotten out of step with the empire and the king’s insistence that every male child be thrown into the Nile. They are out of step with the culture of death.

 

The Company of the Committed

Let’s list out the company of those who resisted, who became aligned with God. They  surely had to make internal decisions to pursue life even at the risk great cost, even their lives. That’s what leadership does: a leader counts the cost for pursing a vision greater themselves especially when it aligns with God’s righteousness.

Shiphrah and Puah: The midwives who delivered boys and girls equally and resisted the king’s death edict. They entered into a form of civil disobedience against evil; they did not give in when confronted by the king.

Jochebed: The mother of Moses. She kept her son and then strategically let him go. She built an ark for the preservation of his life. Her name means, “YAHWEH is glory.” Her husband is Amram.

Miriam: The sister of Moses. She assisted the redemption of Moses from death by strategically floating Moses in the Nile, waiting to see what happens, and then intervening with Pharaoh’s daughter to strategically find help (Jochebed) for nursing the child. Her name has several associations but the most direct is to her own birth: bitter – in reference to her birth in a season of bitter labour and harsh treatment at the hands of the Egyptians. (It should be noted that in some commentary Jochebed and Miriam are sometimes identified as the brave midwives, Shiphrah and Pauh.)

Bithiah: The Pharaoh’s daughter. In direct opposition to the king’s edict, she ordered the rescue of Moses from the Nile, had compassion on the baby, adopted him as her own, named the child, paid for his care (which came to Jochebed), and welcomed him into the Pharaoh’s court and family. She is named in 1 Chronicles 4:18. In Midrashic tradition is considered to be the one and the same daughter who rescued Moses. Her name means, “Daughter of Yah” — most often understood in reference to Yahweh.

The slave girl and the attendants: As persons under the leadership of Bithiah and as witnesses of Bithiah’s life preserving actions they have become complicit with her resistance to the king, and are aligned with her great value life.

 

 

Leading Agents of God’s Redemption 

These six women are raised up by God as agents within His redemptive work. Together they conspired to preserve the life of a vulnerable child. They knew his name. They knew his history. They knew the treasonous actions that preserved his life. Yet, over the next twenty years they never yielded. As far as we know they never used the subversive knowledge as a threat. They did not know what Moses would become, but God did. They did not know what Word would create God’s people. They became participants in the supreme flow of God’s purpose.

 

The exodus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is the Passover. But the Passover has a history too. It is built on a series of redemptive acts inspired by God, making His values visible, and leading up to His dramatic intervention. Likewise the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is Easter. However, the story of God’s Kingdom is an extended series of redemptive actions inspired by Jesus before and after His Resurrection. In both the Exodus and in the Resurrection, women and men led themselves and others to respond to God even in the face of raw, violent, oppressive power. They chose to obey God in the regular course of their lives rather than those who would project a false supremacy and a culture of death. In so doing, they became leaders and participants in the flow of God’s true life. We can celebrate, we must celebrate how God works. God has always chosen to work redemptively through the leadership of both men and women.

Discipleship, Leadership

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