June 24, 2001
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Based on the book The Bible Tells Me So ~ Uses and Abuses of Holy Scripture
By Jim Hill and Rand Cheadle
I'm going to wake everybody up with a Bible quiz to start out. How did man and woman come into the world? Search back to Sunday school. Yes? Arnie's got the answer already. Reluctantly? Now I know that a couple of you went to Sunday school. "Man was created from a pile of dirt and woman was created from Adam's rib. Which explains a lot." Does anyone want to offer a different answer, or do you want to vote for that one? You're going to accept that one. "Sound's good to me." How many think that man was created and then woman was created from Adam's rib? If you don't agree, I'm going to ask you for a different answer. "It's a mystery of the ages that will never be solved." So we have, "It's a mystery" and just the affirmation that God created humans and the rest of the story is a matter of interpretation or description, or guesstemation, or whatever.
Well, if we look in the Scriptures, we'll see that there are two different versions of the Genesis Story. Some of you remember this from your studies. In one version, man and woman are created on the same day. The second story is of creation where we get the rib coming out of Adam while he is sleeping, because he is so lonely. God takes the rib out and makes woman. It's clear as you read those descriptions, particularly the second one, that a male is doing the writing. So we have, as you've seen with the apostrophe, his-tory for history instead of her-story. We have males recording what went on, or males that are guessing what went on before there was anyone here to know what actually happened. Just this idea of man being created and being lonely, needing someone to help out, is a certain way of looking at the presence of male and female in the world. It shows the ambivalence that we have from the male perspective about this relationship with the females. The same kind of ambivalence that you get from My Fair Lady when the Professor says, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?"
From the beginning of Christianity, we find that the scripture seeks to describe a particular role for women. In fact "The Role of Women" is exactly how the source book that I am using for the summer series describes this topic. And we might add, for our benefit, "The Traditional Role of Women." But people have used the Bible to describe or to define what a woman should do and what a woman should not do. Most of it goes down to those early stories in the Book of Genesis. The Creation stories that we have already taken a look at. Then, following shortly after in the story of the Garden of Eden, the apple on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you recall, the guilty party in that story is the female. It is the female who listens to the serpent. The female is the one who convinces the male to come and take a bite of this wonderful fruit. And the punishment that ensues is blamed on the woman for her response to the serpent. So first chapter, one creation story. Second chapter, another creation story. A third chapter, the woman is taking the rap already.
(Gen. 3:16) "1 will greatly increase your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your desires shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you."
This is the New Revised Standard Version of the scriptures. You can take a look at some of the other versions and see if you find some words that you like better, but this is how it stands for many readers. There was punishment for men, also. Their punishment was to raise their food by the sweat of their brow. They would be required to till the land in order to provide food for their family to eat.
Now, childbearing, we would expect, should be seen as a gift. A gift of new life, a continuation, or expansion of the family. But, there is always that dark side that comes along with it. The pain of childbirth is related to that original sin, punishment for the woman's transgression in giving in to the temptation of the serpent. Along with that then, the whole idea of sexuality, or of reproduction carries with it a little bit of a dark side that is always there, even when we are talking about the joy of a child in new birth. A woman is restricted by the Laws of the Book of Leviticus. She is described as being ritually unclean during the time of her menstrual period and during the time following the birth of a child.
From the 12th Chapter of Leviticus:
(Lev. 12:2) "If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be ceremonially unclean for seven days; as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. (3) On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. (4) Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. (5) If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days.
In the book of Leviticus, also:
(Lev. 18:19) "You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness."
Engaging in sex during that period of time, a month after a boy baby, two months after a female baby, was forbidden by the Book of Leviticus. These are early rules and definition from the Hebrew Scriptures, but if we move to the Christian Testament we again find some more limitations. It is Paul that is most frequently quoted in regards to how women are to participate in marriage and society in general.
In the Book of Ephesians, Paul says to a man and a woman:
(Eph 5:21) "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. (22) Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. (24) "Just as the church is subject to Christ, so wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands."
Again, there is a word for the men:
(25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (28) In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
Also, in Corinthians, Paul addresses this same subject in talking of marriage.
1 Cor. 11:3 "But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ."
In the Letter to Titus:
Tit. 2:1 "But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine. (3) Tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good (4) so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, (5) to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.
"Submissive" it says in the New Revised Standard Version, in the King James Version it is the traditional "obedient." "Be obedient and submissive to their husbands." It was not just in marriage but it was also in the society in general that the scriptures provided suggestions about how women were to fit into things.
In Paul's First Letter to Timothy:
1 Tim. 2:8 "I desire, then, in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; (9) also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, (10) but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. (11) Let a women learn in silence with full submission. (12) I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. (13) For Adam was formed first, then Eve; (14) and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (15) Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty."
Now there is some debate over the phrase, "She shall be saved through childbearing." It has sometimes been translated that "She shall be saved through the birth of the Child," referring, of course, to Jesus and his birth. Or else sometimes it has been translated as, "She will be brought safely through childbirth." But as it stands here in the New Revised Standard as, "She will be saved through childbearing."
In relationship to leadership in the church, Paul writes in his First Letter to the Corinthians:
1 Cor. 14:33b "As in all the churches of the saints, (34) women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says, (35) 'If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. '"
It is pretty much a barrage of scriptures. Restricting the role of women, making the woman subordinate to her husband. If we claim to be people of the Bible, then how do we understand these materials? Is the Bible an answer book for us? A recipe book? A Law book, setting down exactly how we are to behave? Or is it something different? This particular topic is one in which it is easy to look the impact of the cultural limitations. What was the world like when these scriptures were written? Who was writing? Who was the audience? If we understand that men are writing these scriptures, in a time in which the women are subordinate in the society, a time in which the women are considered to be essentially property of their husbands, we can understand the context a little differently. If we understand the early debates about who is acceptable to provide leadership for the church, we can see that while Paul has many things to say about the role of women in the church, there are also passages in which Paul is having to fight to defend his own right to stand up in front of the congregation and speak to them about the relationship to God. The scriptural ideas about women clearly are seen by many churches to be affected by their historical and societal context. They are not seen as being prescriptive for what we do these days. There are still many Christians, men, and even women, who believe that the Bible as we have just read says very clearly that women are not to be in leadership roles. They are to be home taking care of the household. They are to listen to their husband, who is being guided by a loving concern for his wife, at best, but still the wife is to be subordinate to her husband.
When the Equal Rights Amendment was brought up for a vote some years back, Phyllis Shafley, from the conservative side of the Christian family, said, "Women have to understand that in the Judeo Christian culture they have things so much better than they have anywhere else in the world." While it might be true that there is some improvement provided even by the conservative view of the Christian faith, there is certainly much more room for improvement.
The scriptural ideas about women and their uncleanness during certain times of childbearing or preparation for childbearing. The idea that the woman was the one who gave in to the temptation of the serpent lays the foundation which has gone throughout history. History has seen women as having some very admirable qualities. Another strand of history describes women in a subversive role, tempting men, or leading men astray. The ideas of women as temptresses, was part of the foundation for the Salem witch trials in the early years of our country. Women in particular were accused of being close to the occult. Being involved in witchcraft of all kinds. Our Puritan ancestors were not above using the scriptures to persecute women as witches in Salem Village. We remember studying about all the various kinds of punishments that were meted out to women who were accused of being witches. Or the kinds of tests that took place to find out if someone was, indeed, a witch. If you dumped a woman in the river and she drowned, she was innocent because if she was guilty, as a witch, she would have been able tosave herself Helpful means of discernment, perhaps for the society, but it didn't do much for the woman who died.
The role of women in church has been hotly contested for many years. It's to our credit in the Congregational tradition, that the first woman in this country, Antionette Brown, was ordained in 1853 by her local church. Now while we are tooting our own horn, we have to recognize that it was some 30 or 40 years later that the National Offices of the Congregational Church finally decided to put their blessing on the ordination of a woman. But we can still make the claim that the first woman ordained in this country was ordained as a Congregational minister.
In the 1840's, abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and eight other prominent women were locked out of an anti-slavery meeting convention in England. They were already actively involved in prison reform, abolishment of slavery, and the anti-alcohol movement, but they were not allowed to participate on an equal basis with the men who were also involved in these same movements of liberation. In retaliation, the women got together and spearheaded the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions of 1848. This was the first document of the feminist movement in the United States. In this document, the women talked about the way scripture had been used to distort the role of women. They talked about the way it had been used to design one set of morals for males and another set for females. They challenged views based on scripture and they affirmed that God had created male and female equal. They pointed to the scriptures, particularly to the Gospels where Jesus indeed goes out of his way to talk with women even though that is against the laws of his time, and the way in which Jesus affirmed their equality before God.
It was a few years later that this same group of women got together to create The Woman's Bible. Each woman took two different Bibles and cut them apart to take the words they wanted to address faithful living and put them together into a booklet. They wrote commentary on all of these verses, sometimes questioning the traditional interpretation of scripture; sometimes pointing to broader understandings of the scripture that conflicted with the popularly held view of a particular scripture passage. This may seem like a pretty radical thing to do but one of the saints of our country; Thomas Jefferson did exactly the same thing. He cut the Gospels apart and put back together again to create a standard for ethical living, based on the teaching of Jesus.
The Women's Bible was created by a group of people headed up by Elizabeth Caty Stanton. She grew up in a Presbyterian family in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In her experience, the Christian faith was cold churches and gloomy sermons, but she did appreciate her local church pastor because he had helped her to learn the Greek language and she was able to do some further studying of the scriptures on her own. She was probably even more influenced by a young man that her girls' club had helped to support and send through seminary. After they had provided for his education and given him a new suit upon graduation, he preached his first sermon. He chose the text, "But I suffer not women to teach ... but to be in silence." (1 Tim. 2:12) It was quite a thank you for their support in seminary!
The Women's Bible challenged the understanding of scripture as being inerrant, that is as being handed down by God exactly as God intended. Now, as I have already said, there are Christians today who believe that the scriptures are inerrant. They believe in the literal word of God, that they think is clearly spoken in the scriptures. The women who put together The Women's Bible suggested (as I have many times) that the scripture is a faith story, not a document dictated by God. They are inspired by God, because the people who are writing the scriptures are people of faith who are writing down what they understand about their relationship with the divine and the history of humanity with the Creator. If you look at the scriptures as a faith story rather than a direct quotation from God, then the approach is different, and the meaning that comes through to us has changed.
The scriptures contain divine truth but they contain divine truth only when a particular passage is in line with the broad range of truth in the scriptures. The scriptures, both the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures say in many places that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed. The Book of James says "God is love". Well, if God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed, if God expresses love as the essential part of God's own being, then any scripture passages that can be interpreted to oppose an individual or group of people, can't be divine truth. If there is a scripture that oppresses an individual, or a gender, or a race of people, that scripture comes into direct conflict with the very many passages that talk about the goodness of God's creation. About God's love being poured out for all people. About there being no difference when people are in Christ. If the Bible is used to relegate woman to a narrow role, then it cannot be divine truth. The only interpretations of passages that can be understood to be divine truth are those which expand God's love, those which draw the circle of inclusiveness wider. Those which describe God's desire for justice for all people.
In their Women's Bible, the women discussed the two stories that I asked you about when we opened our worship service today. They came down, as you might guess, with the acceptance of the first, where man and woman are created together and a rejection of the second story as being a little bit of spin doctor work by the editors.
Discrimination, using scriptures as a basis, continues on to this day. And will probably, unfortunately, continue on well into the future. If you go into many evangelical Christian congregations and look on the wall you'll see the pictures of the ministerial staff, pictures of men. If you look down the list of ruling elders of thechurch or look in a photo directory to see their pictures, you will find photos of men. If you look to see who the support staff people are, the secretaries, you will find women in those roles. The scriptures are still used to deny ordination to women in the Roman Catholic Church because it is believed that Peter was the first head of the church and the apostolic succession goes down through the males. It was only some 25 years ago that the Episcopal Church finally voted to ordain women.
There was a theological event held a number of years ago, a gathering primarily of women about two years ago called "A Re-imagining Conference," Women came together to think about our faith and to think about the ways we express our understandings of God in theological words and images. In that conference, they frequently lifted up a Biblical expression, "Sophia," a Greek word meaning "wisdom." It means the wisdom of God, but is the wisdom of God in a feminine context. It is a perfectly acceptable Biblical concept. But when the women used the word to address a prayer to Sophia, they were accused by many in the church as worshipping goddesses. The women have already brought a freshness of view to the church, and have the potential to help us to see many more issues from a broader prospective. There is a continuing debate in the church on the acceptability of women for leadership. The uproar over this conference, and over the issue of reinterpreting our faith is not yet over.
We have a long way to go in interpreting scripture so that they are supportive of all of God's people. We should no longer talk about the role of women or the role of men, but talk about who we are as creations of God and how we are to individually use our gifts for the betterment of all people.
I pray that God's Holy Spirit might indeed be with us in this endeavor. Thanks be to God. Amen.