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.)

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.)

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.

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

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.

What is courage in the Biblical sense?  Is there really a difference between ‘masculine courage’ and ‘female courage’ and what does feminine courage look like Biblically? 

As a female believer I have always considered Jesus Himself the highest example of courage humankind has ever seen.  It has never occurred to me to view His courage through the eyes of His gender, so I have never contemplated the level of courage Christ modelled as a masculine characteristic.   In the same way I have marvelled at the courage of a youthful David standing before the giant Goliath armed with nothing more than a stick and five small stones.  I have wondered at the courage of Stephen exhorting the religious leaders of Israel,  surely knowing what the outcome may be.   I have anguished over Paul’s many sufferings in Christ’s Name and felt totally humbled by the legendry courage of Peter as he was crucified upside down on a Roman cross. 

So where are the female examples of courage in the Bible?  So much less seems to have been said or written about them.   It seems nearly always when we hear a sermon or exposition on courage, the focus is on the spectacular, the violent or the dramatic. 

Examples of female courage in the scriptures often slip by us barely noticed,  just as they went un-noticed in the patriarchal culture of their day.  I think of the courage shown by Abigail approaching an angry and armed David who was ready to destroy her home and her livelihood.   I think of Jael driving the tent peg into Sisera’s head.  I try to imagine Sarah’s courage before Pharoah, or the courage of a young Esther taken from her home to be made a sexual servant to the king.  What extraordinary level of courage did it take a woman termed ‘unclean’ to mingle publically (forbidden!) and touch a rabbi’s garment (punishable by death!)?   I find it hard to imagine the fear that woman overcame.  (We hear much of her desperation, but little of her courage.) 

Or the courage of Mary of Bethany, edging up closer to Jesus in a room full of men,  to sit at His feet in the position of a disciple, a place only ever given to males.  Did she lower her eyes so not to see the consternation and disdain on their faces?  Did she struggle internally not to turn and run back to Martha and the cooking? 

There are so many more examples:  the women who stood at the Cross, the female house church leaders, Junia, Priscilla, the list goes on.  And then so many more down throughout  church history to this present day.  So many courageous women, many we know about but many more whose names are unknown because male church leaders did not deem them worthy of recording. 

The more I think on this kind of courage the more I realise that the common denominator is faith, which is genderless.  

What do others think about these things and what experiences have you faced where your courage was tested for the name of Christ?

It would be a great encouragement to everyone to read how you first came to see the truth that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (TNIV)

While it can be a growing awareness and learning, there is often a starting point ;  a questioning, a comparing of God’s character with what is being taught, some dramatic situation which made you wonder about heirarchy and its place in the church. Maybe your upbringing or friends or something you read…the list is endless.

Please write and share something of your story which will illustrate how those we pray for can come to see how we all can be redeemed to be the people God had in mind in the beginning.

When teaching a class on biblical texts about women, I once made the mistake of saying, “Culture is everything.” I found out several days later that some students–one in particular–took strong exception to my comment.

The student thought I meant that culture is the most important factor in biblical interpretation. Thinking that I had said such a thing, his selective listening skills kicked in and he began to believe that I promote that idea that when applying an ancient biblical text to a modern situation, the first and foremost factor is to consider how that text would best serve our present culture, regardless of how it served its own.

What I actually meant, and what I should have said, is that “Everything is culture.” I intended to point out that culture is an ever-present reality in the contexts of the biblical writers, in our own contexts, and in every place and time in between. While the word “culture” is especially difficult to define, we know it when we see it. This is true because we see it every time we open our eyes.

Consider this cluster of examples: I am right now typing on a computer. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I’m organizing pixels on a screen rather than actually typing. I am looking at the screen through reading glasses purchased at Wal-Mart. I’m sitting at McDonald’s accessing free Internet and sipping Diet Coke even though I’m neither on a diet nor thirsty. To my right a young man is watching ESPN. The air I am breathing has been polluted in various ways and then run through an air conditioner; as it enters my nose I am greatly helped by the antihistamine I took this morning. In a few hours I’ll be on a date with my wife at O’Charley’s, even though we’re not Irish. And on and on it goes.

So, if someone asks me to define “culture,” I would say, “culture is everything.” I don’t say this as a philosopher who has crafted the perfect definition, rather as a biblical interpreter who wants to emphasize that the all-permeating influence of culture must not be overlooked as we seek to understand and apply biblical texts. If we claim to set aside our cultures as we encounter the Bible, we fool ourselves.