The CBE Scroll

I find myself thinking about this question asked by a child, which Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen shared in her book Gender & Grace (p. 34):

My younger son asked me this past Pentecost why people don’t get as excited about this holiday as they do about Christmas and Easter. He thinks we should send up fireworks on Pentecost. (“After all, that’s when God sent fire down, isn’t it?”)

Acts 2:1-4 records:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

With the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the followers of Jesus became empowered as his witnesses, and these words of Jesus (Acts 1:8) began to be fulfilled:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

As these spirit-filled followers began to prophesy in various languages, a crowd gathered around them and marveled, “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:11).

Peter explained to them why this was possible (Acts 2:16-17):

“This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:  ’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…’ ”

Pentecost. God dwelling in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Men and women gifted by God to prophesy. Women and men boldly declaring the wonders of God. When God created the church, God’s living temple, gender equality marked its beginnings.

Perhaps an annual celebration focusing on this momentous event would help to tear down the gender divide and draw us into greater unity with one another. Any ideas for a Pentecost celebration? Do you know of any churches already celebrating this?

(All Scripture verses are from the TNIV Bible.)

Heresy was my response to the colleague who gently suggested that he and his wife believed I should consider becoming a pastor. I had been a Christian for 30 years, nurtured by conservative evangelicals thinking that I would always have to struggle against the prejudice of being a woman in ministry. Of course, at that time, I was only a Director of Early Childhood Education, a job safe enough for a woman to handle.

We laughed together over my comment and he said he knew I would respond in that way. He continued that there was a book in the Church Bookstore he thought I should read, written by a Professor at Wheaton College. That sounded safe enough for me so I agreed. That conversation coupled with the book, Beyond Sex Roles by Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian, began a journey of freedom that will culminate when I meet Jesus, face-to-face.

Rough seas have not been absent from the journey. Not only difficult circumstances: being fired as Director Early Childhood Ministries; having a very successful growing Single Parent Ministry taken away and choosing to leave my supporting church and financial support, all related to being a woman in ministry.  There were my own inward battles to face; battles of fear, unbelief and woundedness. Through it all there was One who has never left me, just as He promised in Hebrews 13:5. For my part I did not always walk in wisdom, certainly not egalitarianism when making choices of church or education. These were major gateways for fear to enter in and doubt to buffet my heart.

How could I leave the evangelical conservative culture I had known all my Christian life? They spoke my language, didn’t they? They read and appreciated the same books. Couldn’t I just stay quiet and take the opportunities offered to me?

Enter, from the East Coast, a Staley Lecturer to our west coast evangelical Bible College. Each night as I met with God he gave me the same message: make an appointment with Dr. L. I had the audacity to argue, but why do I need another evangelical male to tell me, women can’t? God’s response: make an appointment with Dr. L. Finally after three nights I acquiesced.

Before the appointed hour I was nervously waiting in the faculty lounge and a student walked in. He paced about the room with some agitation. I recognized him as a seminary student from Africa. As soon as Dr. L entered the room this student rushed up and explained he must see him now as he was leaving for Africa at the end of the week. Can you imagine my thoughts? They went something like, “There goes my appointment and there won’t be another one available at this late date.” Then the most amazing statement came from Dr. L, “I am sorry I can’t see you now I am meeting with this lady.” We did meet and he advised me to leave that college and go to another one in a nearby town where he had a professor friend who could help me. He encouraged me to follow what he perceived as God’s call and gifting for my life, to preach and teach without hindrances of gender restriction.

I would love to be able to say I walked through this open door of opportunity but I let many obstacles build a mountain based on fear. God continued to pour out His grace over the next seven years.  He sent me to another state, another school and a time of intense physical suffering.

After experiencing a severe stroke in my 40’s I became involved in a small church in Littlewood, Colorado with a woman pastor. It was here that I first preached, from a pulpit. The response was measured but encouraging.

Soon, though, I returned to my hometown in Oregon to suffer a second stroke and move back into the familiar evangelical cocoon. But God wasn’t finished with my journey of freedom. In that cocoon I responded to a need in England within a missions organization. The first time of applying my health history shut the door but the second, said yes.

In 1997, in my early 50’s I left for the West Midlands, England, as a faith missionary, supported by my evangelical church. My heart was to encourage the English church as my job was to teach International students in Bible and evangelism. In the summers I taught conversational English to South Koreans and Germans. Soon, opportunities to preach in local churches began to cross my desk. I accepted these whenever I could. After a year of being open about these preaching events my home church elders asked me to stop, and I did, for six months. At that point I realized I must follow what I knew God was asking of me, not what men were asking. My home church’s response was, no response.

After almost four years of International ministry in England God had led me to an evangelical Anglican Church in a nearby village. Here I had the amazing opportunity to teach adults and often preach. I knew a freedom I had only dreamed about. Along with my Vicar I looked for a ministry where I could directly encourage the English church, the desire of my heart. No doors were available, never mind opened. So he created a position in our church and I left the missions organization.

My home church requested my presence there to explain what this change meant. The end result of that trip was God directed through an intense prayer time that I release the church as my financial and leadership relationship. I returned to England without financial support but God had it all in hand. My Anglican church raised the support and on we marched.

I was soon involved in Reader (Lay Pastor) training. After a year and a bit I sought counsel about being priested. That became a dead end, almost literally as I had my third stroke. But God wasn’t finished. Via the internet and a Christian Friendship site I met and eventually married my husband and moved to his home in southeast England.

Another evangelical Anglican Church and a great Vicar; I finished my Reader training. For three years I was blessed with preaching in 3 churches and teaching. We would still be there but …God.

We are now living in Latvia without the language but living the gospel in a very rural setting with a small sheep farm, where I am learning to improve my writing and taking any opportunity God brings. Why Latvia? God is not ready for that story to be shared, yet. John 10 speaks of the sheep, who know their shepherd’s voice. We were told to “Go, wait, listen, and while you are waiting and listening, encourage.” You can follow our present journey and unfolding story at:

hhtp://ergliangel45.wordpress.com

Everyone has a story. It may be quite different from Kathleen’s or it may have similarities. Please take the time to write your story, either as a comment or send it in a Word document and we will publish it. (Liz & Trevor..admin.)

Recently I read on another blog that the writer had not read anything about helping people face the fear of moving from a complementarian position to that of an egalitarian. Maybe this is true for many of our readers so we would like to give opportunity for folks to write here of their struggle and fear while considering what would happen should they embrace a new way of looking at how God loves us all equally and shows no partiality for people of  particular gender, race or class.

There is the major fear of going against what is perceived and taught as God’s plan for women and men. God-fearing women and men don’t want to cross the line into ‘liberalism’ which entails ignoring what are seen as obvious commands and ideals for how we should live in the home and church community.

There is also the fear of being ostracised by people which in some circles can mean not only loneliness but a cutting off from all forms of support – monetary, emotional, social and family ties. To embark on a journey into a belief in what can be termed ‘heresy’ is a great step of faith and takes enormous courage.

For those of you who have made the step across this ‘great divide’, you might have some encouragement of how it was for you and some suggestions about how it can be less fearful.

For those who are still weighing up whether equality is really biblical and/or whether you are ready to count the cost of ‘changing your mind’, please feel welcome to share your doubts, questions and hesitations.

Of all the literature produced by the early Syrian church, the most prized was composed by Ephrem the Syrian, often called “The Harp of the Holy Spirit”. One of his hymns memorialises the faith of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well and sent forth as a missionary (see John 4)

O, to you woman in whom I see
a wonder as great as in Mary!
For she from within her womb
in Bethlehem brought forth His body as a child,
but you by your mouth made him manifest
as an adult in Shechem, the town of His father’s household.
Blessed are you, woman, who brought forth by your mouth
light for those in darkness.
Mary, the thirsty land in Nazareth conceived our Lord by her ear.
You, too, O woman thirsting for water,
conceived the Son by your hearing.
Blessed are your ears that drank the source
that gave drink to the world.
Mary planted Him in a manger,
but you planted Him in the ears of His hearers.
Your word, O woman, became a mirror
in which He might see your hidden heart.
“The Messiah”, you had said, “will come,
and when He comes He will give us everything.”
Behold the Messiah for whom you waited, modest woman!
With your voice your prophecy was fulfilled.
Your voice, O woman, first brought forth fruit,
before even the apostles, with the kerygma.
The apostles were forbidden to announce Him
among pagans and Samaritans.
Blessed is your mouth that He opened and confirmed.

Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns tr. Kathleen E  McVey. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: 1989. Hymn #23

Easter brings to the egalitarian mind the fact that women were the first evangelists to proclaim the risen Lord. One of the gospel accounts attesting to this historical fact is Luke 24; verses 9-10 say, “…and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles” (NRSV). I believe the gospel record, and I consider this point important. But to be honest, I don’t make much of it in my teaching. Why? Because someone who doesn’t value this historical fact may respond, “Yes, but what those women did is far different from modern preaching. That they spoke in private to their friends doesn’t mean modern women can preach!” And thus this wonderful gospel verse becomes something to argue about instead of something to celebrate.

Rather than focusing on verses 9-10, I tend to focus on the words of the angels in verses 5-7, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (NRSV). Consider especially verse 6, “Remember how he told you …” It doesn’t say, “Remember how he told them” or “Remember how you overheard.” Luke here is building on what he’s noted several times already, that Jesus’ disciples included both men and women, and the women, rather than simply the exception to the rule, were a substantive, identifiable group who remained faithful to the end. By telling the readers that Jesus taught the women core truths, Luke is telling the readers that they were core disciples.

The statement in verses 9-10 that the women were the first evangelists is prompted by the narrator’s comment in verse 8, “Then they remembered his words….” Thus we not only proclaim that these women were evangelists, we also affirm the foundation for their evangelism—a foundation Jesus laid with many months of discipleship training. Luke wants us to ask why. Why did these women proclaim the gospel? Was it merely because two men in dazzling clothes told them to? No, it was also because the Lord himself had prepared them to.