Tag: women

Posted on

Vashti the Prophet – Esther 1:15-20

The Old Testament is full of prophets speaking “truth to power”, advocating for the marginalized and oppressed. Today we’re going to look at one of those prophets that often go overlooked – Queen Vashti of the Persian Empire.

Queen Vashti’s refusal is prophetic because it reveals the injustices of patriarchy in the Persian kingdom. Her denial threatens not only King Xerxes, but the entire Persian Empire and its family structures, revealing the fragility of masculinity and its systems. What unfolds are the layers and manifestations of toxic masculinity: rape culture, victim-blaming, and patriarchal protection.

Bianca Mabute-Louie, Inheritance Magazine

King Xerxes is having a drunken, debauched gathering of nobles while his wife Vashti is having an “alt-party” – he demands that she come and appear to them, but she refuses. She asserts her own autonomy and control over her own body. In response, not only the king but all the nobles explicitly see this as a challenge to not just the king but the entire system of patriarchy that is at the heart of the empire. And so this goes from a simple issue of the king’s harem to a decree to all the lands of the empire codifying the patriarchy and enforcing the idea that husbands rule their households just as the king rules the empire.

We see images of Christ in this story – Jesus’ truth offended those in power, and He was killed for not going along with the systems of oppression that were embedded in His culture.

And we are called to the same thing in our day! At the expense of our own reputation, at the expense of church growth, at the expense of any earthly benefit, we are called to advocate for the oppressed, whether by government, economic systems or sin.

One of the things this means is putting aside our preconceived notions about what roles are appropriate for what people, about what men and women do, what leaders do, what strength looks like and what weakness looks like. Often we put aside the true gifts we are given in favor of who we think we are supposed to be, with expectations and assumptions built by our culture, our family of origin, even our churches. But Christ calls us to be who He made us.

This is particularly true of how women have been treated in the church, where leadership is often seen in the same way that the Persian nobles saw it. But in reality, both men and women are made in the image of God, and God is described in feminine and maternal terms all across the scriptures. God as father and God as mother are both metaphors that speak to the transcendental truths of a God that is far beyond us.

So let women come into the fullness of what God has called you to be. Let men do the same, even when counter-cultural. Let us look within ourselves and see where we have assumptions and expectations that put others in the role of serving us, where we take the role of Xerxes to the women in our life, or others who we see as less than us in anyway. God is doing a work in us and will continue to sanctify and forgive as we seek to serve Him and the others in our lives.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 5, 2023

Posted on

Women and Paul – 1 Timothy 2:11-15

Being a pastor is not about having an overarching vision or being a great speaker or even about being a good leader. It is about enabling the multiplicity of gifts within the church to come together and play out as different people all serve God in various ways. It is about loving and laying your life down for those you have been entrusted with.

But many young men in seminary do come at it from a different direction, one of ambition and vision.

This passage, and a few others from Paul, are used to restrict the roles of women in the church. And at a first reading, it certainly looks like that’s what he’s saying. But a second look, especially if looked at through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings, reveals something different. We can’t just pick and choose what we like from Paul, or treat him just as one stream of Christian thought. We treat all scripture as authoritative, and must view it holistically.

That means taking the life and teachings of Jesus as the ultimate guide, with Paul as the strategist, putting those teachings and truths into practice within particular cultural, social and political contexts.

In this case, he is writing to Timothy, the bishop of the church in Ephesus, where there are clearly specific issues around men (plural) being angry and violent, and women (plural) being vain and spending unnecessary money and time on appearance.

But then in verses 11 and 12, it shifts to singular, implying that he is talking about a very specific situation between a husband and wife. The verb here is an explicitly negative term, also used for murder – it is never ok for one person to dominate another, and in this case it is about women (or a woman) towards men (or a man).

But if you look at the context of Paul more broadly, his vision is of all people using the gifts they have been given to serve. Women versus men never comes into those commands, women are never barred from any of those lists of gifts, including apostleship! (See also, Junia.)

The gospel is subversive, by its nature opposed to the powerful and the popular. In the Roman Empire, the hierarchical power structure was an unbroken line between Caesar to fathers to children. The empire was the household, or oikos, of Caesar – but Paul uses that same term here in Timothy to describe the new world Jesus is building, the oikos of peace, the oikos of Christ.

As Christians, we are to go against the grain. Supporting the powerful over the powerless, supporting men over women – there is nothing subversive or radical about supporting that. That is the natural, worldly order of things. But Christ’s household is different. Christ’s household includes the Samaritan woman at the well, who went into her town and preached, proclaimed the truth of Jesus. Jesus did not tell her to stop teaching and wait for Peter, but chastised the disciples for trying to restrict her.

Let us not put human restrictions on what God has set free.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 21, 2022

Posted on

Sugar and Spice – Judges 4:1-16

Deborah was a respected judge in Israel, despite being a woman – in fact, the scripture hardly remarks on that fact. She passes instruction from the Lord to Barak, a warrior. Barak agrees to obey, but asks that Deborah come with him.

Some readings of this passage see this request as one of cowardice – but that is not supported by scripture. In reality, both Deborah and the author of Hebrews give Barak film credit as faithful and bold. In reality, Barak’s request to Deborah is itself a sign of faithfulness, because he sees that she has wisdom and the favor of God.

Deborah’s presence in the Bible is a reminder that cultural distinctions between men and women are not God’s distinctions. The gifts God gave at Pentecost he gave to both men and women, and the gifts He gives today are the same.

Both men and women are called to kindness and gentleness. Both men and women are called to boldness and courage. Some women are gifted in ways society sees as unfeminine, and some men are gifted in ways society sees as unmasculine. But God is bigger than our cultural boxes and how He calls us to serve Him is not dependent on them.

So men, do not fear to be nurturing and kind. Women, do not fear to be bold and courageous. And all of us, let us support our brothers and sisters in their gifts.

– Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 14, 2022