“What do you think about the role of women in the church?”

    The subject is a minefield.  No one seems to be able to keep their own prejudices and sore spots out of it.  Women are quick to point out the failings of men as if that undoes the dictates of God.  Men are quick to pontificate about the worst of women, even straying into women in the work force and the evils of abortion as if that had anything to do with the issue.  Not a few pat themselves on the back about how well they treat women and why would any woman want anything more than their wonderful selves?  (Am I not better to thee than seven sons? Elkanah asked Hannah.)  Everyone wants to add the “what ifs” and invent artificial boundaries that the scriptures never speak of.  And we think the Pharisees were ridiculous with their traditions.  

    But I am asked—often.  So here is, not what I think, but what it seems obvious that the Bible says.

    Do women have a leadership role as Christians?  Yes.  “Children obey your
parents” Eph 6:1, obviously includes mothers who, last I checked, were all women .  

The older women are to “train the younger,” Titus 2:4.  When I teach my Bible classes, I have control of the students.  I am the one who directs the discussion and sets its boundaries in time and content.  I am the one responsible for correction if error is spoken.   Sounds like leadership to me.

Women are to “rule the household” 1 Tim 5:14.  A lot of men completely miss that one.  It means she has a domain and he has no business micromanaging her in it unless she is doing a poor job of stewarding his provision for the family.

     On the other hand, whenever the church is talked about as an assembled group, things are much different.  Women are specifically told to “learn quietly with all submissiveness” 1 Tim 2:11.  As to the command in 1 Cor 14 that women are to “be silent,” we need to recognize the context and pull out every other time that two word phrase is used in that same context before we make blanket statements about women not opening their mouths until the “amen” has been said.  But that does not undo 1 Timothy 2 in any way.

    I could go on about Paul’s statement that a woman is not “to teach nor have dominion over a man.”  I could talk about parsing the sentence.  I could just bypass that and go to the obvious point that the preposition “over” has to go with both “teach” and “have dominion” or else the Bible contradicts itself.  Priscilla obviously helped teach Apollos and if all teaching is forbidden to women then that includes teaching children and women (which we have already seen is commanded) and singing (“teaching and admonishing yourselves in songs…”—the Greek word is the same in both passages) and you know what?  Everyone would have to completely ignore all godly women because their example teaches even if they never open their mouths.  But don’t you see?  There is something much more basic going on when we take issue with the scriptures.

    Whenever I hear women trying to sidestep 1 Tim 2:11, when I hear them rationalizing about their talents and how God wouldn’t want them wasted, when I hear them talking about Paul as if he were not an inspired apostle, when I hear them listing the failings of the men in their group (as if they had none) and dreaming up everything they can possibly think of that might make an exception, I think of Psalm 119:97:  Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.  When I try to weasel my way out of God’s commands, when I try to avoid them in any way possible, what does that say about how I feel about them?  Doesn’t much sound like love to me.

    God is my Lord, not the other way around.  He has told us exactly how He wants things to be done.  I have no business telling Him that my way is better or that He ought to accept my way because I did it with a good heart.  I have no business railing against Him about why He gave me a certain talent if He won’t let me use it the way I want to use it.  I remember a few men in the Old Testament who learned that lesson the hard way.   Ladies, God will treat you equally.  Isn’t that what you want?  Or is it?

    If I love the law of God, if He is my Lord, I will not try to worm my way out of His commands, no matter how many men or Pharisaical Christians abuse them.  THAT is how I feel about the issue.

I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.  Ps 119:125-128

Dene Ward

Nearly twenty years ago, while on his weekly rounds as a probation officer, Keith was ambushed and shot five times by one of the convicted felons assigned to him.  It was a terrifying experience.  The word spread through all branches of the Department of Corrections and law enforcement.  Once we were sure he would survive and the details of his success in handling it got out, we received well wishes and get well cards, emails and phone calls from people we did not even know, including the Secretary of the Department of Corrections.  

Probation officers all over the state congratulated him because it validated them as law enforcement officers themselves.  Many offered to donate some of their sick leave to him so he wouldn’t have to go on workman’s comp, which would have paid only 2/3 of his salary.  One of the news stories mentioned that he had been in the Marine Corps, and a couple of ex-Marines sent emails ending with the sentiment, “Semper Fi!’  Add this to the people who helped us that very night, including a local fireman who had heard the radio traffic, and after I had driven the forty miles to the town where this all happened and stopped at his station to ask directions, decided to drive me on the next 30 miles to the hospital.  He also called his wife to follow us in his own truck so he would have a ride home, dropped me off at the emergency room, parked the car, and paid the fee.

    Brothers in arms come out of the woodwork when a need arises.  They band together and support one another.  They offer service far beyond the minimum precisely because they are brothers.

    That’s the way the church is supposed to work.  We think we have found one that does.  When one of us has a serious surgery, the waiting room is full.  When there is an accident or medical emergency, the walls of the ER are lined with folks awaiting word.  Cars park along every piece of curb in our neighborhoods when one of us is called home.  The line to greet a wayward brother as he arrives back to his spiritual family fills the aisles to the back of the building.  When prayers are requested, if there were such a thing, the switchboard in Heaven would be jammed.  I know.  I have been on the receiving end of those times.  

    I am often bemused by things some do and do not allow to be announced during the services of the assembled church.  “That’s not a work of the church,” is patently false.  We are to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.”  We are to “encourage one another to love and good works.”  We are to “train the younger” and “support the weak.”  We are to gather “from house to house” and “practice hospitality one to another.”  

If we can pray for it, why can’t it be announced?  And if we aren’t praying for the stability of newly married couples, the safe delivery of new babies and their mothers and the wisdom of new young parents, strength for recently graduated seniors set to go out and make their marks in the world, and thanking God for the examples of fiftieth wedding anniversaries, what in the world is wrong with us?  I can see Jesus shaking his head and muttering something about “straining at gnats and swallowing camels,” as we insist on the artificial boundary of a spoken “Amen” before we announce something in exactly the same room to exactly the same people.

    When something momentous happens in a Christian’s life, whether good or bad, his brothers and sisters in arms should come streaming out to meet him with whatever he needs.  He shouldn’t need to count on the world to support him and offer help.  And beyond that, they should be the daily spiritual support, the ones he counts on and runs to, and the ones he in turn aids far beyond the barest necessities.  Shame on any congregation when they are outshone by the carnal groups in this world.  They are supposed to be the spiritual family, the family of God.  When something happens in a family it affects them all, and this family should be the one that cares the most and gives the most because we all share the same Father, the same Savior, and the same salvation—undeserved grace.

    Brothers in arms are neither silent nor invisible.  If they are, then they aren’t the brothers they claim to be.  They know what binds them together and nothing can break that cord.

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  1Cor 12:26.

Dene Ward

Four letters, “weight allowance.”  I have seen it in crossword puzzles so many times that I automatically write in “tret,” even though I have no idea what it is talking about.  Finally I looked it up.  Tret is (or was?) the weight allowance given to buyers of certain commodities, usually four pounds per hundred, to make up for deterioration during transit and impurities like sand and dust.  So if they order one hundred pounds, they actually receive one hundred and four, the idea being that they will have at least one hundred pounds of product in that one hundred and four pounds.  

    That made me think about grace.  God supplies what we lack in perfection because of our sin.  Only the ratio is backwards—I am sure He allows at least one hundred pounds of grace for every four pounds of our faith and obedience, probably far more.

    We also make such allowances for each other.  When we know someone has been through a rough time, it is easier to take their snappy comment with equanimity.  When we love as we ought, our love covers a multitude of sins, 1 Pet 4:8.  

    However, the need to make allowances for things like that should eventually disappear as we all grow to maturity in Christ.  Shouldn’t a man who has been a Christian forty years no longer be watching and waiting for the Bible class teacher or preacher to make a comment he can raise a fuss about?  Yet how many times have I heard young preachers told, “It’s just old brother So-and-So.  That’s just the way he is.”  Why is he still that way?  Hasn’t anyone told him how much he hurts people with that behavior?  I wonder how many young preachers were expected to make so many allowances for so many things that they just gave up preaching.  Why doesn’t anyone make allowances for them?

    Is old sister So-and-So still managing to take offense at everything anyone says and jumping on them with both feet?  Hasn’t anyone told her that she is wrong to treat people that way?  Oh yes, I know what they will hear back, but we are not doing her any favors to let her keep on this way.  The Lord certainly won’t make allowances for it.

    But the larger question for me is this:  are people continually making allowances, “tret,” for me?  Am I the one causing consternation, making people walk on eggshells around me, and stealing everyone’s pleasure with my bad attitude?  God’s grace works for people who are trying their best to do right and still fail, not for those who make a career out of bitterness, criticism, and cynicism and expect everyone, including God, to just accept it..  My “tret” should become smaller and smaller as I mature as a Christian, leaving infancy behind and becoming full-grown.  

    Where do I stand today?  A 50 year old baby is no longer cute, and to take the grace of God for granted in such a way must surely be an abomination to Him.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  Heb 10:26-29.

Dene Ward

Chloe has found her niche.  We have never questioned her smarts—her breed is known for them, but we never really figured out what it was she was good at till now.  
    Magdi, her fellow Australian cattle dog, plays “shortstop” with Keith as he hits tennis balls her way; starting from a crouch and taking off just in time to stop the ball.  She plays “outfielder,” catching fly balls with her mouth that I would have a problem with if I had a giant mitt.  She chases a giant exercise ball around the field, pushing it up on her shoulders and balancing it a few seconds as she runs along.  If you tell her to bring you a ball, she will.  She is ready for play any time you choose, and even when you don’t.    
    But Chloe?  She has no interest in balls.  She had much rather sit around chewing on a stick or rolling in the grass.  All this exercise stuff is for the birds—or perhaps for less smart dogs?
    Then she discovered grasshoppers—the big brown flying kind, as big as small birds.  When she happens upon one, she chases it, even as it flies, and leaps into the air to catch it.  Then she plops down on the ground immediately and begins crunching.  No, she cannot chase balls, and certainly cannot catch high flies, but she can catch big brown grasshoppers just fine.  We have noticed that there are fewer of them this year than any other recently.
    We all have a gift, a natural ability that God has placed somewhere in all those genes.  The trick is to find it.  Too many are dissatisfied with the gift they have been given and try to exercise one they do not have.  Why?  Because, as much as we might talk about humility, we want the flashy gifts that put us in the forefront.  A gift for visiting shut-ins and knowing just the right words to say does not garner much attention.  Neither does a gift for cleaning—either the meetinghouse or the homes of the sick.  But both of those things may make far more difference in someone’s life than whether or not a man can lead the singing well or teach a good class.  
    Yet song leading and teaching seem to be the most desirable gifts in our estimation.  We have forgotten their purpose.   
    Leading a congregation in a song service is not about choosing songs one likes or that he feels show off his ability.  It is about enabling a group to more effectively praise God and edify themselves.  A good song leader makes thoughtful selections for the occasion, pitches them so that every part can easily sing, and actually leads so that the group does not bog down in either tempo or pitch.  
    Teaching a class is not about standing in front of a group and allowing everyone to have their say, like some sort of verbal traffic cop.  A teacher should have prepared long enough and hard enough that anything anyone pops out with off the cuff is far less valuable than what he has prepared.  It is more edifying to listen to an enlightening and challenging lecture than to hear yet again what everyone says every time a certain subject comes up, things we could write down before they were even said because we have heard them so many times.
    So what is your talent, and more to the point, are you willing to use the one you have, instead of the one you wish you had?  If I am griping because everyone gets a turn to teach but me, maybe it’s because I am the only one who realizes that I am not any good at it.  What I am good at may be far more helpful to my spiritual family.
    Chloe has found her niche, and she is happy to fill it.  She doesn’t look at Magdi with resentment because we only bat tennis balls for her.  She doesn’t run around picking up balls lying on the ground, thinking that is the same thing as catching a thirty foot high fly, nor does she stand there barking at the giant exercise ball as if that makes her its master.
    God gives us gifts—all of us.  It would be singularly ungrateful not to discover them and use them.  He gives them so we can help one another get to Heaven.  What if you decide you don’t like yours and someone misses the trip because of you?
    
For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or serving, let us give ourselves to service; or he that teaches, to his teaching; or he that exhorts, to his exhorting: he that gives, with liberality; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness, Rom 12:4-8.

Dene Ward

“Stop acting like a child!” has become a staple line of many arguments.  Yet one time, Jesus said the very opposite.  

Verily I say unto you, Except you turn, and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matt 18:3.  Unfortunately, whenever this event in Jesus’ life comes up in Bible classes, we totally ignore the context and instead start listing all the wonderful qualities of children.  By the time we have finished, it’s a wonder we can’t find dozens of passages telling us to act like children instead of dozens telling us to grow up!  Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Eph 4:13. Worse than that, we miss the point Jesus is making.

Look what was happening immediately before.  The Twelve were arguing about which of them was the greatest in the kingdom.  Surely that had something to do with Jesus’ admonition.  

The verse after the one we all quote so often specifies, Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child…(v 4).  What was it about this particular child?  He had no status or rank, no wealth, and nothing to offer in worldly terms at all.  All he did was come the minute he was called and trust the one who called implicitly.  Don’t you think that made those men squirm in embarrassment at their previous behavior?

Then Jesus went on to add,   But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea, v 6.  Here He included those metaphorical children who would come to Him with the same humility and trust.  How we treat them determines our fate as much as how we live our lives, or even how we worship or where.

Do you think the early disciples did not need this lesson?  Besides their constant bickering about who was the greatest, those early churches had arguments about who had the greatest spiritual gift and who should get the most “floor time” with his gift, 1 Cor 12-14. They bragged about which preacher baptized them, 1 Cor 1.  They showed off their wealth in bringing so much Lord’s Supper that it constituted a braggadocio feast instead of a memorial supper, 1 Cor 11.  Their women had to be reminded not to dress up to show off their wealth, 1 Tim 2.  They were told that how they received guests into their assembly could condemn them as easily as committing adultery or murder, James 2.  Clearly, personal humility and acceptance of others regardless of rank was a lesson they needed from the beginning.  

Why was that important?  Because, as Jesus tells the sheep in that great parable of the judgment in Matt 25, when they wonder how they had served the Lord by feeding, clothing, and visiting him, he answers them this way, Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, you did it unto me, Matt 25:40.  Any time we reject a brother because we think we are better than he, whether because of wealth, education, race, or anything other consideration, we are rejecting the Lord for the same reason.

So the next time this passage comes up in Bible class, let’s see if, instead of listing all the sweet things our children do, we can actually get the lesson Jesus intended from it.  It’s a whole lot more important than we seem to think.

 And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receives me: and whosoever receives me, receives not me, but him that sent me, Mark 9:36,37. 

Dene Ward