An Inkling
In this lull time between having called Sarah Marsh to be our new Associate Pastor, and her arrival here (mid-October), I thought I’d offer a brief reflection on women ministers. Even though St. Giles has not called its own woman pastor before, for most of us women ministers are no longer a novelty. The Presbyterian Church ordained its first woman elder 80 years ago, and its first woman minister 54 years ago. Yet what seems simply right to us now did not seem so with our forebears, nor does it with many of our friends in other churches. They cite various Pauline statements about women and ask, “How can you do that and take the Bible seriously?” Good question.
Our church changed its mind not by setting the Bible aside, but by reading it more carefully. Having seen women effectively “eld” before they could be “Elders” and “pastor” before they could be “Pastors,” the church re-read the scriptures with a renewed determination to understand God’s plan for women’s roles.
Whole books have been written about the interpretive quandaries caused by seemingly contradictory passages. I can’t deal with all of that in a blog. But I will simply lift up some passages that helped the church recognize women’s broad roles. Genesis 1-3 shows how God created men and women equally in his image, and that it was sin, not God’s design, that put men and women at odds. Jesus chose women as the first heralds of the best news ever: his resurrection. So they were apostles to the apostles! Paul summed up the impact of Christ on human divisions: There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
By putting such passages alongside restrictive passages, the church saw that the overall trajectory of the Bible’s teaching supports equal roles for women and men, even while recognizing the God-given distinctives of the genders. In that light, the restrictive passages are seen as directions for particular places where women had misused their new God-given freedoms.
I’m glad the church took a second look, for we are now richly blessed by the gifts God brings through women elders and ministers. With Sarah’s arrival, we’ll witness the fruit of that second look in a new way in our own midst! Seeing with our own eyes helps, but we must also be clear from the Bible itself why we believe women should take these roles. Such clarity brings encouragement to our women, who must still sort out the claims of some churches that women don’t belong in such roles.
Let’s be ready to launch Sarah well in her ministry here. And you might find one of our women elders and speak a word of encouragement to her too!
Blessings,
Keith
