Women Governors and Women Pastors

When Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain announced that Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was his choice as running mate, I was excited and pleased. The more I read about her, her husband and family, the more I find myself happy with his choice. The decision will be explored in great detail throughout the week before us as the Republican Party has its convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is not, however, my task on this Blog to explore the ins and outs of political campaigns. What I want to look at from the Biblical viewpoint is the question of the ordination of women into the public office of the holy ministry, especially in the light of the strong influence of American culture.

With the nomination of Governor Palin, much is being made of the fact that women suffrage in the USA did not take place until, in August 1919, the 19th Amendment gave women full voters rights. Around the world women won voting rights in New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), Finland (1906), Norway (1913), the Soviet Union (1917), England & Poland (1918), Sweden (1919), Germany (1919), and Ireland (1922). 

After World War II woman-suffrage laws were adopted in many other countries, including France, Italy, India, and Japan. Women now comprise more than half of the U.S. electorate. Among them is my granddaughter, who will be voting for the first time in her life. She is curently beginning her freshman college year at M.I.T. in Boston. As far as public office holders go, Wyoming elected the first U.S. woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, in 1924. Twenty-nine women have been or are currently serving as the governor of a U.S. state.

Women now serve at all levels of government and participate at all levels in the worlds of business, education, science, the law, sports, communications, news, entertainment and the arts. As I said, I'm delighted with these advances by women in public and private offices. Why, then, are there some Christian denominations that do not permit women to occupy the public office of pastor or priest? In the majority of American protestant denominations this question is no longer an issue. Women have served in the local pastorates and various oversight positions for decades.

The largest denomination in the U.S. still forbidding women to the priesthood is, of course, the Roman Catholic. Among Catholics you can find many movements and books by theologians urging the change of this policy. Arguments for the admission of women to the Catholic priesthood include: 
 1. All baptized women are members of the priesthood of all believers. 
 2. Since Jesus' mother and other women were present at the first Lord's Supper, they were empowered by Him to perform the Eucharist; thus He empowered them to be priests. 
 3.There has been a cultural bias against women as being less than men physically, mentally and emotionally. They were also the carriers of sin since Eve first sinned and their monthly menstrual cycles made them unclean. 
 4. Women were ordained as deacons well into the tenth century. 
 5. Mary was long believed to be a priest who offered Jesus in the Presentation at the Temple and during His crucifixion. Those following this line of thinking also believe her capable of offering the forgiveness of sins. 
 6. The wider church (e.g. Anglicans, many Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc.) ordain women to the priesthood. Supported by the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has something to learn from them.
 7. The fact that many responsible Catholic women discern in themselves a vocation to the priesthood is a sign of the Holy Spirit we may not ignore.

The denomination that offered me ordination back in 1957 also does not permit women into the public office of the pastoral ministry. I speak, of course of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I do, in fact, support that position and have been discussing it on the website by the same name as this Blog. I am the editor of Reclaiming Our Heritage. 

If you would like to read more about my reasons, I invite you to drop in to look at the articles on The Role of Women in the Life of the Church. I will be submitting the fourth in that series in September and a fifth in October. My reasons have to do with the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins we are all offered in the person of the Man Jesus Christ, Son of God. None of the seven reasons noted above apply, especially since they are not drawn from the one authority in the Christian church, namely the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. 

The question of women's equality to men is also, in fact, not the issue in this case. Women and men all share in the image of God. They are all called by the Gospel and in Christ share in His eternal life. If, upon reading my articles, you would like to discuss this matter further, feel free to drop me a note.

Jesus, The Center and Substance Of Our Communication

I'm sitting here in the library at Pagosa Springs, CO. with my laptop, waiting while my wife volunteers to re-stack books. As I sit here perusing my email I came upon one ad urging us Christians to be more active on the internet. The site I refer to is called Internet Evangelism Day. They've just sent me another of their monthly bulletins, this time inviting me to join a conference up in Grand Rapids, MI. the middle of October. I'm interested, but find that I'll be out of town and not available when the conference happens. Nevertheless, I do believe that we Christians are only beginning to learn how to make use of this priceless tool to reach millions around the world. 

In doing a Google search I came across an organization called World Association for Christian Communications. Here's a quote from them: 

"Information and communication are drastically changing the world. Instead of establishing solidarity, public communication tends to reinforce divisions, widening the gap between rich and poor, consolidating oppression and distorting reality in order to maintain the status quo. Yet communication remains God's great gift to humanity, without which citizens cannot be truly human, reflecting 'God's image’. Nor can they enjoy living together in groups, communities and societies steeped in different cultures and different ways of life without communication."

Information has always changed our world. As the quote says, "public communication tends to reinforce divisions." I'm not sure I know what the authors of the site mean by public communication. I assume they refer to communication available to anyone, like a newspaper or TV broadcast. So I see political parties pushing their own particular agendas as we approach yet another presidential election. This communication is not uniting our country, by any means. We are living with various tensions as we approach the problems facing us as a nation. 

And the information is usually skewed to whatever views the communicators hold. 

All this posits quite a challenge for those of us who seek to communicate the Gospel. How shall we best do this so that the Holy Spirit of God may use our words to convey the Word of God to the hearts and lives of those who happen to read, see or hear our communications? I see a variety of answers to that question popping up in the Christian community. 

I offer yet another. My answer is that we who are Christians must be absolutely certain that we understand what that Word of God is. There is vast confusion among us about that issue, especially in a day and age when the Holy Scriptures are not universally reverenced and respected in the Christian community. 

I invite you to ponder one Scripture quote from the English Standard Version: 

"The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:37-40). 

You may be a pious student of the Scriptures. You may even believe them inspired word for word, in contrast to what many Christians understand these days. But if you are like the Jewish leaders and teachers of Jesus' day who rejected Him as their personal Messianic King and Savior, you really have nothing to communicate. My point remains fairly simple and to the point. Before you can call yourself a Christian communicator you must have a personal faith relationship with Jesus, God's very Word communicated to us. And how did God speak to us? In the life of Jesus, in His miracles and teachings and above all, in His sacrificial death upon the cross of Calvary and His totally surprising return from the dead. This same living Christ continues to communicate to us through the Scriptures and through the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

Not only do the Scriptures bear witness to Jesus as the Christ, but we ourselves must ever make Him the center and substance of everything we communicate. 

God Is Not Watching From A Distance

As we were driving our granddaughter to catch her plane in Albuquerque recently, she tuned the radio to listen to some of her favorite songs. We all hummed a bit as one that even I knew echoed in the car. It's called "From A Distance" and sung by Bett Midler. The song won a Grammy for song of the year in 1991. As pop songs go, it's been around now for a long time. But as noted, it's still played over the airwaves. 

As I listened, I commented that the song was lousy theology. "But I like the song," came the reply. I said no more, but felt that I must somehow make my reasons clear for the judgment. 

From A Distance

The first verse reads like this:

From a distance the world looks blue and green and the snow capped mountains white.

From a distance the ocean meets the stream and the eagle takes to flight

From a distance there is harmony and it echoes through the land

It's the voce of hope, it's voice of deeds it's the voice of every man

And there are no guns, no bombs and no disease, no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments marching in the common land,

Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace, 

They're the thought of every man.

God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us .... from a distance. 

The song goes on to tell us that every man is singing the same song, longing for harmony and peace, but we are at a distance from one another. The implication seems to be that we need to get closer to one another and if we did that all the fighting, wars, hunger and disease would come to an end. 

Meanwhile 'God' is apparently observing us, not involved and not about to do anything to help us relieve the dilemma we've gotten ourselves into. This is the god of Deism, the god who made this world, but doesn't get involved in the sticky mess of what's going on in it. Creation is rather like a huge machine that this god set in motion and then went off on some kind of disinterested vacation. Oh, he watches all right, but it seems to be against his general principles to be caught up in any way with the events of his creation. He remains hidden. We can only assume that he is watching us . . . from a distance. 

This is certainly not the God I have come to know, the God who created the world and everything in it, but who also anguishes over the suffering, pain and death that He observes in it. All of that is not merely the result of our distancing ourselves from one another, though that is part of it. The real source of the world's problems is our failure to love our Creator with our whole being, heart and soul. Failing to love and honor Him leads to our failure to obey His commands to both love Him and to love one another. This is the real source of our distancing, both from Him and from those around us. 

That's the Biblical diagnosis, but it's not the Biblical solution. It's not enough simply to acknowledge our distance. It is, in fact, not even something we are ready to do. "Who me?" we ask. "It's the other guy's fault." Since our Creator knows us He also knows that about us. But He has not been willing to leave us to the consequences of our disobedience and rebellion. He has moved to do something about it. This mystery of godliness is what we Christians call the Gospel or the Good News. 

Foretold by the prophet Isaiah long before Christ was born, the Good News for every man is that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ precisely in order to assume responsibility for the failures and sins of us all. Isaiah put it this way in part in the wondrous 53rd chapter of his prophecy:  "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows . . . He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."  

This one who died for us, rose again and now promises to be ever present in our lives if we but accept Him. He is not a God at a distance, but the One whose very Spirit dwells in our hearts. He speaks to us in His revealed Word. He comforts us as we recall the water of our Baptism, reminding us that we died and rose again with Him. He invites us to His Table to share with us His very Body and Blood and assure us that one day we, God's children, will feast with Him at the banquet table in the Father's House. 

That's the God I know, the God I know personally. I shudder at the thought of having to live in a world where God is only "watching us . . . from a distance." That sounds more like Jesus' parable about the rich man in hell separated by a great chasm from the joys of heaven. I can only pray that you know that this is not where the true God wants any of us to end up. 

Celebrating Birthdays

Last night Sylvia and I joined some friends to celebrate Mosetta's birthday at a local restaurant. The celebrant rejoiced that we were gathered on the very day of her birthday. In fact, just two days prior Sylvia celebrated her birthday, the same birth day as her sister, who is three years older. We've often marveled at the fact that both sisters were born on the same day three years apart. Another strange thing--to us--is the fact that both sisters married good friends and longtime classmates, whose birthdays were but one day apart. 

I was talking about birthdays with one of the therapists during my physical rehab session. She commented that Sylvia is a Leo and wondered what I am. I had to scratch about in my memory for the name of my astrological sign and finally said, "Why I'm a Libra." She wondered how that worked out between us since Leos are apparently the take-charge people and we Libras are supposed to vascillate back and forth, being more emotional by nature. I said something to the effect that it must be working since we've now been married for over 51 years. 

I mention this incident not because I put any credence whatsoever in astrological signs--despite the story of the Magi and Jesus' birth. Rather, I speak about it to note all the many feelings, ideas and customs that wrap around birthdays. 

Origen of Alexandria (185-245 A.D.), in his dissertation on Leviticus, reminds us that in the Scriptures no believer is recorded to have celebrated his birthday. He wrote, "None of the saints can be found who ever held a feast or a banquet upon his birthday. . . But sinners rejoice and make merry on such days. For we find in the Old Testament that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, celebrated his birthday with a feast, and that Herod, in the New Testament did the same." 

That makes one wonder, does it not, whether we Christians of this time and day ought to be celebrating our birthdays. Are such celebrations pagan? Certainly not. They belong to the class of things that are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Bible. These are called adiaphora by theologians.  

And recall, if you will, that we annually celebrate the greatest birthday of all, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25. We celebrate it on that date even though we have nothing certain in the Bible telling us either the day of the month or the year when He was born. The celebration of Jesus' birth could, I suppose, be called an adiaphora, since it is not commanded. And there are still those Christians who refuse to celebrate it. However, the church has long ago decided that the reading of God's Word, the singing of hymns and the teaching connected with such celebrations can be wonderfully edifying. 

Maybe that's a partial reason why we celebrate birthdays with our friends and family as well. Such times help us to look back with thanks for another year of God's grace and forward with a prayer for continued blessings.

As I write, Sylvia and I have just returned from the store to purchase a cake for Dorothy. We're going to celebrate her 94th birthday after the worship service at our church. We'll gather around to rejoice with her for all the many blessings our Lord has showered upon her during the past decades. It will be wonderful celebration, I'm sure.