At Cross Purposes: Mans Distain and God's Salvation Plan Meet at the Cross (Mark 15:1-40)

In Mark’s narrative of Jesus death, two strands work at cross purposes.

One is that Jesus death is just another dark moment in the history of the inhumanity of man to man. A good person finds themselves on the wrong side of the powers to be, Political expedience triumphs over justice, there is torture and torment, mockery and misunderstanding, and finally a humiliating and horrendous death: It is a story of man’s distain…shown at the cross.

The other deeper strand is that Jesus death is the moment of great light for the world. It is the story of costly sacrificial love, deep faith in the face of suffering, the victory of God’s grace and mercy over sin and death, the kingdom of God over the realms of this earth: It is God’s salvation plan…finished and complete at the cross.

In this deep irony, this cross-purpose, Mark shows us the purpose of the cross.

All the way through Mark’s passion narrative Jesus is acknowledged as the “King of the Jews”. He accepts the title from the lips of Pilate. It is the first question Pilate asks him,” are you the king of the Jews’  probably in response to the accusations of the chief priests, to encourage him to see Jesus as a threat to Roman rule. Itself ironic beyond marks writing as 300 years later the roman empire would be confessing that Jesus not Caesar is Lord.

It is as “King of the Jews” that he is presented to the people when Pilate asks them to choose between Jesus or Barabbas, to be freed for the Passover festival. The people of Israel are presented with which vision of the Kingdom of God they will choose, the way of radical love in obedience or violent insurrection. Love your enemies or kill you enemies. God’s reign in a new community, or Israelite nationalism. It is Jesus and his kingdom that is rejected, but not defeated.

Jesus is mockingly hailed by the Roman soldiers as King. Placed in a purple robe, the royal colour. Given a sceptre and a crown of thorns. Some commentators reflect that the thorns may have satirically been used not only as a crown but also to replicate the pictures of emperors on the back of roman coins. Where they we starting to be portrayed as god like figures with sunbeams radiating from their head. They mocked but here indeed is God’s chosen ruler.

While Jesus carrying his cross to the place of execution is part of the mockery  and humiliation, a parading of a dead man walking,  totally under the control of his roman captors, as Simon of Cyrene is told to carry the cross it is almost changed into a coronation parade, while it was designed to show complete defeat, by Simon being acknowledged as the father of Rufus and alexander who would have been people known to the church mark was writing to, we catch a subtle insight in to the fact that this is not the end. Rufus may well be a member of the Church in Rome mentioned in Romans 16. Here the man in far off Palestine who is being crucified in a short time will have followers and impact in the very centre of the roman world.

In Roman law the crime someone was convicted of was placed above their heads as they hung on the cross. Jesus is crucified as the ‘king of the Jews’. It is as the messiah and the King of the Jews that the high priest’s mock him, telling him to come down from the cross so that they may see and believe…  Mark in a very understated way presents Jesus crucifixion as a coronation. It is at the cross that the kingdom of God is established. A kingdom that needs to be believed to be seen.

Theologian and pastor Jeremy Treat puts it like this

 “Shame is transformed into glory, foolishness into wisdom, and humiliation into exaltation. The cross becomes the throne from which Christ rules the world.”

He goes on to explain it by affirming

“God’s kingdom was present in Jesus’ life, proclaimed in his preaching, glimpsed in his miracles/exorcisms, established by his death, and inaugurated through the resurrection. It is being advanced by the Holy Spirit through the church, and will be consummated in Christ’s return. The cross creates a community of ransomed people living under the reign of God.”

In these cross purposes Jesus is presented to us as saviour.

Jesus is presented to us as an innocent man. While he is bought before Pilate with many accusations, at no stage does Pilate declare him guilty of any crime or wrongdoing. In fact Pilate last recorded words are ‘what crime has he committed?” as the crowd bay for Jesus to be crucified

The incident with Barabbas is a picture of injustice and political experience shows us what Jesus is doing at the cross, while he is rejected by his people, we see Jesus an innocent man dies in the place of Barabbas, a guilty man, who goes free.

In the Old Testament sacrificial system, a lamb without a blemish was to be presented and sacrificed, to atone for the peoples wrongdoing and sin. Here also Jesus is presented as a substitute for our sin. AS peter affirms in 1 peter 3:18 for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous”.  Nicky Gumble reflects on what that means for us when he said,  “The innocent one faced the punishment of death so that I, the guilty one, could go free.”

Pilate finally has Jesus to be taken away to be killed to satisfy the crowd, to keep the fragile peace, later the Apostle Paul talking of Jew and gentile coming together as one will say. He is our peace who has broken down every wall.” Jesus death is not just to ward off conflict but to break down the barriers between us and God, as the late great billy Graham talked of to a post-world war two generation, he has made it possible for us to have peace with God.

Those that mocked Jesus at the cross also do not understand what Jesus is doing as a saviour, they mockingly say he saved other but he could not save himself!  Or call for him to come down from the cross and save himself’. They do not see the purpose of the Cross, that by not coming down by not saving himself, rather giving himself as a sacrifice for all, Jesus made the way for those who look to the cross to have their sins forgiven and be reconciled with God.

They throw Jesus words back in his face ‘that he said he could destroy the temple in three days and rebuild it, as the sky goes dark and Christ dies the curtain in the temple is ripped in two. The most holy of places, where the Jews believed God dwelt is now open to all, Jesus death has made it possible for all to come and dwell in the very presence of God.

Christians have found the words of the servant song in Isaiah 53 bring these things together and prophetically declare what happened here… 

 ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.’

While Mark’s narrative of that first good Friday finishes with Jesus death and his hasty burial. There are threads in this story that point us to beyond that, hints that this is not the end, not a defeat an ignominious defeat of just a good teacher.

Mark does not play up Jesus physical suffering, he does point us to Jesus spiritual and emotional anguish. We see that in Jesus cry of Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? Which means my God my God why have you forsaken me?”   and the people gathered by the cross think he is calling out for Elijah to come and save him. So they go and get some cheap wine to wet his lips.  But he is expressing the anguish and pain of carrying our sin on the cross. Also, while mark does not acknowledge it anywhere narrative it is the opening line of Psalm 22. A Psalm 22 also foretells the soldiers gambling for his clothes, and that he would be mocked and graphically outlines the suffering of a person in the midst of the crucifixion process. A messianic psalm that starts with this cry of distress, but finishes with trust and faith in God to save the psalmist and the affirmation that because of God’s intervention future generations will be told about the Lord and it will be proclaimed to those not yet born that (click for words) ‘He has done it!’ the last words recorded on Jesus lips in John’s gospel. We see the testimony of scripture to God sovereignty even in this horrific situation, and Jesus faith in God that even though he is dying God will fulfil his salvation plans. Three times in Mark’s gospel Jesus affirms he will die and will be raised to life again on the third day. The very thing that his mockers threw at him at the cross.

The other hope is the words of the roman centurion, his affirmation is the climax of Mark’s gospel.  There had been a similar one in Mark 9 with Peter’s affirmation that ‘you are the messiah” in answer to Jesus question, who do you say I am? Here, an old professional soldier a non-commissioned officer in the roman army sees what has gone on and with the eyes of faith says “surely this is the Son of God.” While the high priests and religious leadership and the crowds who had come for the Passover festival had missed it, this gentile affirms who Jesus is. There is some conjecture to what he meant by that comment, it would be hard for a gentile with no theological training to make a statement of Jesus as the Son of God in the way we would understand it, as God’s divine son, totally human and totally man, but he is given insight into the very nature of Jesus.

It is an almost cinematic moment, you could imagine the centurion looking down the lens of the camera, breaking what film makers call the forth wall, to lock eyes with us the readers, and audience to the gospel, and invite us to respond to what we have read and seen… surely this is the ‘son of God’. Marks gospel had started by us being told that this is the start of the good news of Jesus Christ the son of God and know at his death Mark invites us to make our response. Which of the two thread at cross purpose are we going to accept, that this was a sad ending to the life of a good teacher and a good person, or are we going to acknowledge that the one who died on the cross is the son of God, and put our faith in him. Here is God’s chosen ruler, who invites us to believe in him, to confess him as our king and saviour.  To know his forgiveness and grace and live in and live out the kingdom of God, the rule of god in our lives. Its at the cross, in Christ’s death that you and I can know new life, we can go free because Christ died for us, we can enter the very presence of God, and know God as our loving Father, because Jesus has made the way. We can live a life of sacrificial love and service to others because Jesus showed us that in giving his life up for us.

Mark leaves us at the cross not simply with the decision to make as to who we believe Jesus is. He leaves us at the cross with the beginning of the story of Jesus resurrection. He finishes by telling us about the faithful women who remained with Jesus through the suffering of the cross his death and his burial.  Again we could see these women like so many women in the face of mans inhumanity, left distraught and grieving for those who have died, the wail of a new widow in a war or the numb and grief pitted face of a mother who is wondering what has happened to a son who was taken by so called security forces and disappeared, a women crying over a son killed in gun violence in On A US city street, or school room.  But now in his gospel we are to follow them, as they go with Joseph of Arimathea and bury Jesus in a tomb, as they rest on the sabbath, filled with grief and as they make their journey to finish preparing Jesus body for burial on the first day of the week, and hear the good news and see it for themselves.  They are Mark’s “it’s Friday but Sunday is Coming”.

Beyond the Hosannas, How Do We Welcome Jesus As KIng? (Mark11:1-11, Zechariah 9:9-12)

This year we are going to be using Mark’s gospel over the Easter period as we walk our way through Christ’s passion and resurrection. AS you read Mark’s account of Jesus entry to Jerusalem, there are all the parts that we are used to and associate with Palm Sunday. The donkey, the palm branches, the cries of hosanna, blessed is the one who come in the name of the Lord’ which make it such a dramatic event. That point us to Jesus kingship. However, the thing that struck me as I read it is that the day finishes in an anti-climatic way. Jesus arrives at the temple, he looks around, but as it is getting late he and the twelve go out of the city to Bethany for the night. 

Maybe our imaginations were formed by faded water colour of Jesus surrounded by the crowd on Sunday school class room walls. With memories of the drama and pageantry that Palm Sunday lends itself to in terms of Christian worship. We know the reality behind the day… But the way Mark ends his account makes us stop and think beyond the Hosanna’s, the crowd and the words what does it mean to welcome Jesus as king.

 Make no mistake, the gospel telling of Jesus entry into Jerusalem is to show us that Jesus is the long awaited messianic king.

It starts with Jesus seeming to have prophetic foresight sending his disciples into the village to get a colt for him to ride on.  There is a sense that this is a divine appointment. Some have tried to suggest that as it is Bethany where he is staying that Jesus had prearranged this with people. A bit like today you’d order a taxi or maybe even a type of Uber donkey or uburrow… or Uberass if I may. But that does not explain Jesus telling the disciples exactly what others would say and how they would react to the answer he gives them.

In fact when you look at it, a lot of what goes on is pointing us to Jesus kingship. It was a colt that had not previously been ridden, which makes me wonder how it will react to being ridden for the first time, however it made it fit for a king. In the Mishnah, which is a writing down of the Jewish oral traditions around the law,  no one else was aloud to ride the kings horse or steed. Likewise according to the Mishnah the King could ask for the use of something and would expect it to be given. So when the disciples say The master or the Lord needs it, they are willing to accept that. Jesus also fulfills the Mishnah’s expectation for the use of borrowed animals by taking responsibility for returning it after it has been used.

Then Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem is an image of Jesus claiming authority. Jesus walked everywhere else, the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem would have walked this last way up to the city as a sign of humility. But Jesus chooses to ride a donkey. It was an appropriate steed for a Davidic king, a king would only ride a horse into the city in a time of war, coming as a conquering hero.

While Mark does not mention it the passage we had read out from Zechariah 9 gives us the background to this event, as the Lord promises to send Jerusalem a just ruler who will bring peace. We have tended to view humble with riding on a donkey, as opposed to a horse, but it refers more to the nature of the coming king… than his mode of transport. Jesus fulfills that picture as the one who came not to be served but to serve and who gave his life to bring us peace with God and free us from the being prisoners to sin and death. Bu there is also the echoes of Daniel 9 where Gabriel responds to Daniels prayer by telling his that the Lord’s anointed one, and ruler will come to Jerusalem, and then continues in verse 26 that the anointed one will die. Thee is a real sense of Jesus fulfilling these prophecies in his entrance.

As Jesus comes into Jerusalem, the disciples and then the crowd put palms prongs and clothes in front of him. They rejoice which is biblical and appropriate.  The words they use are from psalm 118 that we used in our call to worship this morning and again they are words for the Jews had taken on messianic expectation. Blessed is the one that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna means “save us now’ but by Jesus time it had also become a cry of jubilation and praise… perhaps an acknowledgement both of God’s saving activity and hope that God would do it again. Jesus coming to Jerusalem is indeed an answer to the cry save us, hosanna, not from foreign oppression but from sin and death, to usher in God’s Kingdom for all people, not an independent Israel.

In Matthews Gospel Jesus also quotes Psalm 118 when his teaching is challenged in the temple when he says

The stone the builders rejected

Has become the corner stone

The Lord has done this

And it is marvellous in our eyes.

Jesus kingship is linked to his sacrifice and death on the cross. We cannot separate those events.

As I said before Mark’s account of Jesus entry finishes with an anti-climax. There isn’t the clash between Jesus and the Pharisees, for mark that will come later as Jesus who has come as king begins to assert that kingship by clearing the temple and challenging the Pharisees about their understanding of God. As the kingdom of God clashes with the religiosity of man. Just before the triumphant entry Mark tells of the healing of Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is blind and Jesus gives him sight and it say Bartimaeus followed Jesus down the road. Here people see but they are blind to the reality of who Jesus is.

But what does this passage tell us about welcome Jesus as king in our lives and in our day.  

The things is its easy to get caught up in the crowd and the hosanna and think that that is what its all about. We can simply want the festival experience, the spiritual experiences and after that we find ourselves looking about and heading back home and there is no change in our lives. We can line up and go to the big event or experience and forget it.

In the Old Testament the prophet Amos goes to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Remember after the reign of Solomon Israel is divided between the Northern kingdom and Judea, based on the tribes of

Judah and Benjamin. I love Amos because he could be a new Zealander, we are told that he is a shepherd and orchardist from Te Koa who comes to town to do business. Amos sees the elaborate and exuberant religious festivals in Samaria and God speaks to him, people had thought that their prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing but, Amos says otherwise. There religious life does not add up to God’s kingdom. There prosperity s built on the exploitation of the poor. So Amos says, God hates your festivals, worship and sacrifice what God desires rather let justice flow like a river and righteousness like a never ending stream. Words of course that are indelibly mark in our minds as it has been associated with Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement. There is a sense that beyond the hosannas to acknowledge Jesus as king is to be about the kingdom of God in our lives.

In the passage itself we have an example of what it means to acknowledge Jesus as king in the disciples that Jesus sent to get the donkey. They heard what Jesus said and then they went and did what they were told. In doing that found themselves more aware of who Jesus was, more in awe of Jesus. In second half of the book of Exodus and the whole of Leviticus  and the beginning of Numbers there is a repeating pattern. The Lord says to Moses, and Moses is given the design for the tabernacle, for the priestly garments for Aaron, the sacrificial system, the ordination of the priests and the order of the way the Israelite camp was to set up and move, and then we get the story of what people do and it finishes by saying and the Israelites did all that the Lord has commanded Moses. The covenant relationship between YHWH God and the people of Israel, is based on the idea of God as their sovereign.

In the New testament in Matthew’s gospel Jesus gives what is called the sermon on the mount, which is basically the manifesto for the Kingdom of God. What it means to live in the kingdom of God, to be a follower of Jesus. He finishes it with a well known parable of the two builders, one who builds his house on a foundation of sand, remember this is before concrete, there is no cement added, the other builds his house on a foundation of rock. Both suffer storm and flood, but the one who builds his house on the rock his house stands. That solid foundation is to listen to Jesus teaching and to put it into practise in our lives.

Eugene Petersen ties the spiritual journey of the Christian life with the journey to the Jerusalem for a festival,  by using the psalms of ascent, The fourteen Psalms starting with Psalm 120 that pilgrims recited as they can to Jerusalem for one of the three big festivals, as a template for spiritual formation the book is called The long obedience in the same direction. Which is a quote from Fredrick Neichieze, ‘that the things in life worth doing are not easy but rather the result of long obedience in the same direction. Peterson maintains that in the psalms we see that journey start in psalm 120 with repentance, no longer willing to live amongst the tent of those who are not for peace. Then the other psalms talk of that repentance process, the turning to God. Peterson says the journey finishes in worship, acknowledging what God has done and coming from a life that has been attuned and resonates with the Kingdom of God.  The hosannas come out of God’s abiding presence with us that journey. They come from gratitude that God has saved us.

I believe that religious experiences and great times of worship and praise and the times you see Jesus do amazing things are great and wonderful, they inspire us. Worship is joy based and they are times which encourage us and the hosannas are heartfelt and true, but they are like palm lined oasis on that long obedience in the same direction.  After the crowd left and it was getting late, Jesus and the twelve went home. That is not the end of the story is, to acknowledge Jesus as our king and saviour is to be willing to follow him through the rest of the story, being prepared as it happens in Marks gospel to allow our being of the kingdom of God clash with the realms of this world, to show God’s love and justice. To be willing to follow Jesus on the costly road of sacrificial love, to the cross, and in that dying to self to experience the wonder of new life and resurrection.

Modeling The Noble Task of Church Leadership (1 Timothy 3:1-16)

Most of the books I’ve been reading recently on leadership, have used as epic adventure to illustrate the qualities and aspects of leadership they are talking about.

Leonard Sweet in his book Summoned to Lead used ‘Earnest Shackleton’ whose true leadership came when his 1914 expedition to the south pole met with disaster and his ship aptly named ‘the endurance’ was caught and crushed by ice. Over a two year period Shackleton was able to lead all his ships company safety home, at great personal risk and heroic endeavour. He stepped up to the challenge of the moment.

Tod Bolsinger in his book ‘canoeing the mountains’ uses the Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis and Clark had set out with a company on a river adventure up the Missouri River, with the false expectation that they would find a water way that would connect the east with the pacific west, only to be confronted by the vast hostile Rocky Mountains, to achieve their mission of exploration they had to adapt to life in the mountains. Their men had to trust them as they went off the map into a new and for white Americans unknown environment.

They are great tales,  they capture the imagination, and are a great metaphor for the challenge of leading a church in a world that has gone through so much rapid change, that it no longer feels familiar, that is new and different. One of sweets other books calls it being the church in the perfect storm.

Sometimes however it is hard to equate the leadership roles in our congregation with those epic adventures. The everyday, week to week month to month stuff. In the passage we are looking at today Paul asserts that it is a trustworthy saying That whoever aspires to be an overseer or a leader desires a noble task. That looking at providing leadership in the church is looking at doing a good and great thing, it is a call to an epic journey

When people look for jobs and tasks they will talk of looking for work that is “fulfilling, satisfying, financially rewarding, enjoyable, and perhaps needed in society” but they don’t often say they are looking for a task that is noble or good in and of itself. So what does this passage have to say to us about leadership, remember we are looking at Paul’s letters to his fellow workers, known as the pastoral epistles to give us insight into Christian leadership, God’s call to maturity and ministry within the church.

Paul had written to Timothy to encourage him in the task of countering false teachers. Who were misleading the church away from its mission, away from faith worked out in love to contentious arguments about myths and genealogies, misleading them away from a life that reflects the gospel to one that reflects the society around them. Paul had started with prayer and public worship and how people were to act and the demeanour they were to have that reflected the gospel. Now Paul turns to talk about leadership for the community to continue it on the right path it needs to have the right kind of leadership.

After his assertion that leadership is good and noble, he gives a rundown of the qualities that are to needed when selecting Christian leaders. The list is very similar to the one we saw in the book of Titus when Paul told Titus to appoint elders in the church on Cyprus. There are some things in the list that speak of what we’d call competences like being apt at teaching and shown to be able to effectively and peaceable run the household of God by how their home life was like.

Unlike in his letter to Titus he differentiates two different kinds of leadership episkopos, which means ‘overseers’ and diakonos which we translate as deacons but means those who wait tables or serve. In the middle of that in v14 he talks about the qualities of women in leadership, which we shouldn’t be surprised about, before going back to some more teaching on deacons and finally a wonderful section where he uses a hymn about Jesus ministry and mission as a way of summing up how the church should seek to live in pure holiness.

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve worked through the text from 1 Timothy, word by word and line by line, and that’s been important. But when we looked at the book of Titus earlier this year we did the same thingwith Paul’s duty code, his list of desirable traits for Christian leaders, in that case it was elders. Today I want to explore understanding this passage in the context of different models or understandings of Church. Because what this passage has to say is determined by our understanding of the Church.

The first model of church is what is known as the settled church, or the hierarchical church, which basically sees Church as an institution, to be preserved and maintained. It is basically the model of Church that served during Christendom, that time when the church was at the centre of European society. I’ve illustrated that as a triangle sitting on a long side. Theologically it says Christ is the head of the church and other positions of leadership work their way up or down from that to lead the body of chirst. 

The focus on leadership becomes about positions within that structure and who is fit to have those positions. Historically, there have been debates over the structure of church leadership as elsewhere Paul talks about eldership being the model for church leadership, to which my Presbyterian heart goes, Amen. By the second century overseer had become associated with the office of the bishop. The oversight of a city or region being in the hands of the bishop. Likewise deacons were seen as a position in the Church, set up to take on the more practical jobs and roles to keep the church functioning.  In our system in the old days we would have referred to them as managers.

Character and attributes are like a check list for people to attain those leadership offices. Arguments and decisions over who can do what becomes almost legalistic. The husband of one wife, can a widow, or a single man be in those positions. Can women be in leadership. It’s interesting that the churches that are the most fervent against women in leadership are also the ones who seem to have forgotten the idea of a married leadership and have enshrined celibacy for their leaders.  The ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit are then identified with those offices rather than as being  given to the whole people of God for them to minister to one another and share the gospel.

Some see Paul’s teaching here as the beginning of the church transitioning from a pioneering movement where leadership was from gifted itinerants to an established institutional church. The positives of the institutional church is that its stable, institutions are designed to maintain the advances made in the past. However it is also open to the pitfalls that Paul mentions for overseers to fall into the snare of pride, it can become about status and power.  You only have to look at church history, ancient and modern to see those abuses. Institution and all its trappings, both good and bad,  can be the thing that is worshipped not Christ. Institutions find it hard to adapt and to be reenergised. While institutions have that idea of permanence, they have a life cycle.  A great example is video rental stores, every block used to have one, now they are as rare as hens teeth.

Greenleaf's famous model of servant leadership
is a of a leader being first amongst equals.

Another model is the servant leadership model. That leadership is all about serving others. If it is healthy then it is a more biblical understanding of leadership. You could say it is tips the hierarchal model on its head, where leadership holds the church up to Christ. Overseers elders and deacons then become about roles and functions not position and office. They are there to serve the church. Paul’s list of qualities equally applies, we want those who serve to be worthy of doing it, we need people with a Christlikeness to serve as Christ served and love as Christ loved, as well as being capable. Overseers and deacons can be seen as equals and part of a team with different and complimentary roles, not as a hierarchy. Spiritual gifts can be seen as given to some to help others.

The theology is good but in practise it can result in the leaders being left to do all the work, all the heavy lifting of keeping things going and we can forget that the purpose of the church is that we might all grow into full holiness and godliness, our faith has its outworking in love. We can become a served church rather than a serving church. Things are left to a small group of people who have the curse of Atlas, to carry the world on their shoulders and they get tired and worn out, either to be replaced or the structure gets wobblier and wobblier and unstable. I couldn’t help but think of a spinning top, a child’s toy, that is able to keep up on its point because it is spinning at a certain speed, its hard to keep it at that speed, but you’ve got to, or else it wobbles and falls flat.

We’ve seen churches that have simply dissolved and collapsed because of the failing of one of its key components. It also lends itself to a consumer ideal of church, we shop around till we find the place where we get the services and service we want, and when it changes so do we.

Lastly is the missional Church model, represented here by a triangle on its side, an arrow heading towards Christ.  Put very simply it is the church that hears Jesus call to follow me, and is prepared to do that, we often think of the people who answered Jesus original call as his disciples, but when Jesus  prayed and chose the twelve they were not just as followers and learners but apostles, sent ones, to do God’s will. In Timothy one of the things that concerns Paul is that the false teachers have derailed the church at Ephesus from supporting and working with him on his mission, that is at the heart of God, to see all people come to saving knowledge of the truth., worked out by our faith resulting in love.

Leadership in this model, both overseeing and serving is seen as working so that the church is able to keep going in its mission, to keep following to achieve what God has called us to do, corporately as witnessing communities and to discern and clarify and direct the church in that way. Others serve to enable us in our mission. It’s not about a position or office, or a role that need to be fulfilled, but rather it is the how we are to do what God calls us to do. The rugby vernacular is that we have leaders all over the field working for a common vision.  The qualities of leadership that Paul lists of both groups are indicators that the person we select for leadership has their lives attuned and resonating with Christ and his mission. There marital life, family life, their relationship with wealth, their appetite focused on following Christ. Men and women. By the way biblical scholars think that Paul’s mention of women means he was open to women deacons, but I wonder if here Paul didn’t leave the door open for women overseers as well, he has to mention women’s exemplary behaviour because in roman society none of them would have been the heads of households, so their ability in that area couldn’t be tested.  The overseers are apt to teach as they have their lives attuned to Christ and are passionate about Christ’s mission. How they are seen by those outside is significant because they are witnessing to Christ (the same as the other models but in this one its an important part of who they are and their leadership role). Serving deacons becomes the things that need to be done practical and spiritual to fulfil God’s mission. We can all exercise leadership as we see where we are and we nudge ourselves and our community forward in following Christ.  Change is still hard and difficult, and I recently read a definition of missional  leadership as being the art of disappointing people at a pace they can endure. But we change because we are on the mission God has called us for an epic journey unique to each faith community. 

In the end Paul says, our epic journey  our mission is to  find the spring from which comes  the call to leadership and the call for all the church to order our lives, even amidst the wild storms of societal change and as we head off the map of the familiar In the words of the hymn Paul quotes it is to follow and worship and obey the one who…

Appeared in flesh

Was vindicated by the Spirit

Was seen by angels

Was preached among the nations

Was believed on in the world

Was taken up in glory.

…Are  you ready for the noble task.

Change our tune to resound with God's heart ( A prayer of thanksgiving and confession based on psalm 33:1-110

This is a prayer of thanksgiving and confession written as a reflection on Psalm 33:1-11, which was the psalm section in my devotions this morning. As always I'm using it public worship and am happy for people to use any part, line phrase or all of my attempts at writing prayers that you find useful. 

Mighty and Eternal God

We lift up our hearts in praise this morning

Our voices together to tell of your righteous love

We sing of all the wonders you have done

We shout for joy because your word is right and true

we use our word craft, musicality, and exuberance

to celebrate that the world is full of your unfailing love

Creator God

You spoke and the heavens were made

You breathed star and galaxy into being

The depth of the oceans seems so distant and alien

Yet you formed them and know them

They seem unknown and wild and hostile to us

Yet for you they are like water in a jar, kept in your storehouse

Sovereign God

We stand in awe at all that you have made and created

In reverence we acknowledge its grandeur

Beyond our ability to comprehend, You spoke and it came into being

Not fleeting and temporary like with the things of man

But established and constant, and standing firm

Obeying your word and command, according to your design and plan

Loving God,

Our ideologies and idea, politics and nations blossom then fade

Our plans and our self-seeking purposes you thwart

But your plans for us are forever sure

Your heart desires worked out lovingly generation after generation

Your salvation plan in Christ Jesus his life death and resurrection

Reconciliation with you for all who would trust in him

Holy God

We confess that we have gone astray

Forgive us for the things that we have done wrong

Forgive us for the good we have left undone

Thank you for your great love in Jesus Christ

That because you are faithful and just , we are forgiven

The slate is wiped clean, the stain has been removed

Gracious Father

Fill us a fresh with your Holy Spirit

Help us sing a new song to change our tune

May our lives resound in resonance with you

Our heart beat for what is on your heart

Lead us, teach us direct and conduct us

To witness to the hope we have in you for your glory

This Could be Fraught: Women in Leadership and what Paul actually Taught ( 1 Timothy 2:11-15)

This week we have marked international women’s day, a time to celebrate women and their achievements and to take stock of where we are in terms of equality, rights and treatment of women. It just so happens that inadvertently in my preaching plan for the year we are looking at a passage that “has been used unrelentingly as a proof text to swiftly and decisively squelch the ministry of women in fellowship” (John Zens, 2012). It has also contributed to reinforcing a hierarchical view of the relationship between men and women, that has been detrimental to women…and men… and has harmed the whole church. It has also been pointed to as proof that Paul and scripture are antiwomen, and so should be dismissed at best as archaic and irrelevant, and at worst as harmful and dangerous. So while it may be fraught, it is timely that we look at what Paul actually taught about women in leadership. By the way I know it’s not an issue here at St Peter’s, because we been well served by wonderful women elders and several women ministers, mainly rev Sandra Warner, my predecessor, but it is an ongoing issue in the world today and like with Paul’s time impacts on the churches mission to all people.  

The passage we are looking at today is acknowledged as being difficult at many levels “Contextually, culturally, linguistically, grammatically and conceptually’. Big words, big issues. We need to dig deep and wrestle with it. Because in the end it has a lot to say to us that we might not hear if we simply either write it off or quote to reinforce our own preconceived ideas.  So we are going to do some word studies, some background to place it in its cultural context and in the light of the rest of scripture, then hopefully cross the bridge between the there and then and the here and now having understood it more deeply and all within twenty minutes… Can I say that there are many different interpretations of this passage and I’d love to lay them all out to you, and choices about words and meaning are often made depending on which view of men and women you hold… my view will probably become clear, it’s not about side stepping this passage but as always  we hope to remain faithful to scripture.

When it comes to the Epistles in the New Testament we need to realise that the key to understanding is that they are occasional. They are written to a specific time and a specific place, a context. We need to understand it that context before we can start to apply it. AS we work through the pastoral epistles we need to remember that, they are not simply text books on being a leader. The context of the whole of Paul’s letter to Timothy is that Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus to deal with false teachers and teachings that are disrupting the Church and its witness. It would be great if we had a comprehensive understanding of what that false teaching was, we only get glimpses from what Paul tells us, its influence however needs to be to kept in mind.

Paul starts dealing with this false teaching by addressing the impact that it was having on public worship and prayer life of the Church. V11-15 are a continuation of Paul’s teaching which started in verse 1 with acall to prayer for all people, because God’s heart was for all people to come to a saving knowledge of the truth through the one God and one mediator between humanity and God Jesus Christ who gave his life as a ransom for all. There is a universality of that prayer, all people, men and women, Christ died for all, men and women. We come to saving knowledge the same way, men and women. Then Paul had gone on to deal with the demeanour of people who prayed. Which welooked at last week. He told men to lift holy hands and pray without anger or dispute. Which at its core has to do with power, who is right and who is wrong. He also challenged a group of women, mainly wealthy who were attired in a way that reflected the cultural and religious life in Ephesus not the heart attitude of  a Christian who comes to worship God. That’s a overview… Verse 11-15 is a continuation of that and is designed to deal with the same group of women, and to deal with the underlying issues there.

Lets look through the text. “  A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.” The first thing we should note is that Paul wants women to learn. In Paul’s letter to  the church at Ephesus he had said he wanted the whole body to learn and grow into maturity and fullness to be equipped for every good deed (Ephesians 4). The gospel and New Testament Church was different from its Jewish and some pagan systems in that it saw women learning in religious matters as important. This includes such things as Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 when he talks of we should not be uninformed about spiritual gifts and using them in the body. That the church grows when everyone uses the gifts that the holy spirit has given, the holy spirit that was poured out on all flesh, men and women, both who would prophecy, which means to tell forth God’s word.

The word that the NIV rightly translates ‘quietness’ has been translated in other places as in silence. It has been used to effectively silence women, from speaking and taking part in public worship, which by the way is contra to the flow of the New Testament. The word quietness here is the same as the word “quite life” that Paul had used as the reason why we should pray for people in authority, so we could live a peaceful and quite life, which were the best conditions for the church to grow into all Holiness and godliness. It’s not about silence its about a lack of conflict and trouble. Submission here has the idea of not all women being submissive to men, rather it is the right attitude for learning, like silence in a library,  it’s not to men per se but to the word of God, to the gospel and apostolic teaching. Martha’s sister Mary is the example of what it means to be a disciple and a learner in Luke 10:38-42. She is sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening. Now some have said that that gospel story reinforces the idea of women being silent, but listening is not a passive exercise and we are not told if Mary was asking questions, but the Jewish method of learning involved questions and answers so it may well have been that she was involved in that. It does show that Jesus was comfortable with Women as disciples and in the public space of the house. Now Paul could have said this because there were women present who because of the influence of false teachers were not willing to listen, in fact in 2 Timothy 3:6-7 Paul talks of a group of women who were under the influence of the false teachers who were always learning but did not come to a knowledge of the truth. They were not willing to accept the apostolic teaching, you can imagine how that would impact public worship.  

Lets move on… “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man, she must be quite.”

Firstly the flow of scripture in the gospel and new testament is towards equal involvement of men and women in leadership and the mission of the church. The women were the first to hear the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead. Men and women were together in the upper room at Pentecost and received the infilling of the holy spirit which Jesus said would enable them to be his witnesses.

Secondly  Paul’s own ministry practices elsewhere in scripture show us that Paul was in actual fact comfortable with women in leadership. Even in Ephesus, Pricilla and Aquilla, had been teaching and has taught Apollos, the truth about the gospel. Paul uses the same title coworkers for them, her, as he does for Timothy and Titus, and the fact that Pricilla's name comes first is significant. It implies she was more central than Aquilla in terms of ministry. Paul had entrusted Pheobe with the letter to the Romans, which means she would have not just acted as a postman but would have most likely read the letter to them, explaining and expounding it. Junia in Romans 16 who along with Andonicus is acknowledged as outstanding amongst the apostles.  There are many other examples of women Paul acknowledges as being in leadership roles in the church. So how do we understand Paul now saying I do not permit women to teach?

The word do not permit has been argued over as to weather it is a blanket ban or more along the lines of in this situation, or now I do not… that Paul had changed his practice. 

We then need to consider what Paul is not permitting. There are two things here teach and have authority over a man. The word for authority here is unique in the new testament cannon, its not the usual word for authority. It has negative overtones about authority in its uses in other literature. So it can mean be dominant over a man. Paul does not permit a women to teach in such a way that she is trying to get what she wants and dominate men, see needs to be quite, which again is the word not for silent but peaceful, and in order. Women teaching and dominating men would have been looked down upon by roman and Greek society and Jewish society as well and would be detrimental to the spread of the gospel. Just as that attitude to women is detrimental to the gospel in our day.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Paul would not allow women to dominate men, because in his letter to the church at Ephesus as Paul had addressed the Roman household code his teaching had been Ephesians 5:12 submit to one another out of reverence to Christ.  There is a mutuality about that, that revolutionizes the Roman household code from an imposition of a strict social order into loving service. The majority of Paul’s teaching in that section on wives and husbands is to us husbands, to love, nurture and honour our wives to build them up to die to ourselves in service to them just as Christ died for the Church. Because we need to hear that, because patriarchy and forcing that roman social order today can result in dominating a wife and spousal abuse. Perhaps the best way of looking at this idea of authority is the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 20:25where he tells his disciples not to be like the gentile rulers who lord it over each other, rather they were to learn to be the servant of all. 

Then Paul goes back to the genesis story… For Adam was formed first, then eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the women who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbirth’. The hierarchical understanding of this passage, is that Paul is asserting the primacy of men, and saying that women are easily deceived and not as spiritually smart as men, and relegating them to the domestic sphere of childbirth and caring for the family… We tend to see it like that because we’ve been conditioned by that reading. Again social context is important. Firstly from 1 Timothy 4:3 we see that some of the false teaching was around abstinence and not being married, in 2 Timothy 1:17-18 Paul talks of two false teachers who had said the resurrection had already come, there is a sense here that the group of women were seeing that married life and childbearing were no longer part of that. The other side to this is that the main religion in Ephesus was the worship of the goddess Artimus, or Diane, Ephesus was world famous and dominated by the temple of Artimus, a large portion of its wealth came from that, (you can see that in Acts 19). In that religion all priests were women, it was a religion where women dominated men and Artimus was also the one that women prayed to for safety in childbirth. The hair styles that are mentioned in verse 8-10 were associated with this worship as well… it was said their prayers were wrapped up in their hair. So Paul is working on two fronts here, not to say that women are inferior to men, but probably to remind that group of women that they were not above men, the creation story is used as a leveller. While there is some debate over the childbirth part, saving her is not the being saved in terms of being put right with God, which is only by faith in Christ, that does not make sense and on a different pastoral level a misunderstanding of this passage can have horrible and damaging impact on childless couples. The wider understanding of the word saved is in play here to mean physical safety. There may have been a fear for women who had been part of the Artimus worship, as most pagans in Ephesus would have been at facing pregnancy without that, but it is God who is with them.   At the same time he is addressing the fact that this normal god given  role of the women is not to be abandoned.

In the end Paul’s hope for women is that they may continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. The same thing that Paul wishes for all the church, Christian virtues wrapped in Greek philosophical terms. Faith that invisible relationship with God, made possible for all through Jesus Christ, reflected in love, how we treat those around us and holiness a life that is consistent with the God whom we worship, very relevant if Paul is dealing with the remnants of Artimus worship with the gospel. Propriety gives the idea of self-control, which is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Ok very quickly, lets wrap it up… sadly this passage had fitted into a strong patriarchal tendancy in the church historically… Today however, our western society and its understanding of the place of women is very different in than it was in Paul’s day. We are open to women leaders and teachers. The causation of this passage is still relevant, and we do need to be on guard about issues of domination and power, not love and service in leadership, of either gender, remember it is about faith which has it outworking in love. In the book of Revelation Jesus has to remind the church in Ephesus to remember their first love.

Paul’s focus in on the mission of the church, god wanting all people to come to a saving knowledge of the truth. The gospel has been welcomed in to many places because Christians were prepared to teach women. In many places round the world there maybe good reason for caution in the speed of which women are welcomed into public leadership, as in Paul’s day, having many women teachers is a society that did not permit women teachers would have been counterproductive, today it may endanger them and the church. But in the west as Philip towner finishes his commentary on this passage says “too little too slow could neutralize the church’s impact on society just as effectively.”