So this week's sermon began with the following passages from Corinthians and Timothy. Needless to say, several women were shooting daggers at me, and a few even laughed! From here I introduced this passage from the Gospel of John. Next we divided ourselves up, declaring our views on women as clergy or even leaders within the church.
I said that all people can basically be put into four groups, as far as their views on female clergy:
1) Those who believe it is wrong
2) Those who don't think female clergy are as "good" as male clergy
3) Those who believe it's right, but aren't really sure why
4) Those who know it's right and can tell you why
In both congregations, the movement of people was overwhelmingly to the pro-female clergy side of the sanctuary. At this point I commented that it's only natural in a United Methodist Church for this to be the case, and that if we were in a church from another denomination, or even in a different part of the country our views might be drastically different.
At this point I began to tell my story, which has seen me move from one view on women clergy to another, to the point where I've held each one of the four views at some point in my short 26 years. Beginning in my youth, in the church where I grew up, I had my first experience with a woman pastor. She was smart, funny, kind, and a great preacher. I even remember some of her sermons, including one that used a text from Galatians, that points out that in Christ we are all equal. Her story included divisions in reading levels that she experienced as a young girl in school, the sad fact that she was in the lowest level, and the reality that that experience stuck with her even into adulthood. Her application of the Galatians passage was to point out that such divisions should not exist in the church and do not exist within the Body of Christ! At this point in my life I was firmly in the group that believed women should be pastors, but is not quite able to explain why.
The next step along the journey for me, included another female pastor, who wasn't very funny, and wasn't very nice, and didn't preach exceptionally well. I tried to tell myself that there was more to being a pastor, but when I approached her about help with a sermon I was working on for youth Sunday, I left the interaction less than satisfied. I had asked her for help in locating the above passage from Galatians, that speaks about unity in Christ, but her reply was that she didn't "do the Bible." I was shocked and appalled that a pastor not only didn't know even remotely where to send me in the Bible to find what I was looking for, but that she didn't even want to bother trying to help me find it. At this point in time I found myself agreeing with those who say women don't make as good of pastors as men.
I graduated highschool and attended college. The college I went to would be considered a conservative Christian college. It was there that I was first introduced to the passages from 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy that I reference above. The reasoning was that if I took the Bible seriously, that I could not ignore such clear and plain passages, and therefore had to acknowledge that women should not be clergy or even leaders in the church. The logic seemed solid, and the passages seemed clear, saying things like "...women should remain silent in the churches." and "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." It was because of such things that I now found myself believing that it was clearly wrong for women to be clergy.
While in college I began serving churches as their pastor. Upon my graduation, I planned to attend seminary in Washington, D.C. This meant that the churches I was serving would need to find a new pastor. There was obvious concern on the part of the congregations, as they were happy with me as their pastor, and were anxious about who they might be getting to replace me. Just before I left for seminary, I and the churches found out they were getting a woman pastor, but to further complicate things for me, that woman was my mother! I was understandably distressed and conflicted. As I stayed in touch with the people, I learned that according to them she was doing well, but wasn't as "great" as I was! Then they would tell me about this family, or that family, and when I would ask who that was, they would always reply with "they've been coming since you're mom's been here." I quickly began to realize that she wasn't as "great" as I was, she was greater! Now I didn't know what to think, because I thought I was sure that it wasn't right for women to be pastors, but in my short life I had two solid examples of very effective female clergy.
It wasn't too long after that, that I graduated seminary and again was on my way to another state to serve different churches, and as before I was going to be leaving a congregation that didn't want me to leave and that was apprehensive about who would be replacing me. This time I learned before I left that they would be getting a female pastor. In this particular United Methodist congregation, the divide between those who thought women could be pastors and those who didn't, was much different. The majority at the very least had serious concerns about women clergy. It was around this time that I read some work done by a woman named Phoebe Palmer. She was a 19th century Methodist who believed very strongly that women should be allowed to be leaders, preachers, and teachers, in a time when it was not accepted. Palmer's argument sprung from two key biblical passages. First from the following passage in Acts, where the Holy Spirit is given to men and women alike, and second from the above passage from John's Gospel where Jesus sends Mary Magdalene to inform the others that he had risen. Phoebe Palmer's reasoning went like this: If Jesus can send a woman to be the first evangelist (bringer of the good news of Christ's resurrection) and the Holy Spirit can be given to men and women alike for the purpose of giving birth to the church, then certainly women can be allowed to preach and teach in churches. Upon reading Palmer's writing on the subject, I was now convinced that women should be allowed to preach, teach, and lead churches, and I could explain why.
The whole point of this week's sermon is not necessarily to convince anyone of one viewpoint, but rather to encourage everyone to give serious thought to this issue, and come to a conclussion of your own. The only thing I ask is that you have reasons for your beliefs beyond "because I feel that way" or "because I think it's right." Such reasons are no reasons at all.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
My sermon this week, also included a good deal of work on the passages from 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, where I basically show that both can (and I argue should) be read to be understood as for a particular people of a particular church in a particular time, and therefore not having universal authority for all people in all churches of all times. If you would like to see this work please feel free to ask me and I'd be more than happy to give it to you. I will not be including it here though.
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