ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
December 2, 2021
In 1st Corinthians 14:34-35-, we read:
“…women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”
I am thankful for all the women who, in faith, did not take the advice of Paul. I am thankful for strong, gifted, vocal and prophetic women who have not chosen what Paul described as “subordinate.” I raise this passage today because this coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent, Peace Sunday. And just a verse earlier, Paul wrote:
“…for God is a God not of disorder but of peace…”
There is a part of me that wants to assume we do not understand Paul’s context, for there are many times when Paul refers to women as leaders and ministers… not folks who are silent. And I would like to suggest that creating a system where one group of human beings is to be subordinate to another group of human beings simply because of gender is in itself disorder. It is creating a system in full opposition to the life Jesus lived and the world he worked to reveal. In fact, maybe part of our struggle as human beings is the belief that we can impose peace; force people into peace; create a system of oppression and tell people it is peace.
This season is all about God shining the light of the Christ Child upon every single system that seeks to exploit, demean, subjugate, oppress and humiliate. We have played into a false narrative that announces with authority how some people are not equal. From birth to death to resurrection, Jesus nullified these systems – from the Roman government to the religious leadership to the culture of the day.
Peace requires us to look at the systems in which we participate. Too often we are so comfortable inside our world that we do not raise questions or see how things are in fact holding others back. We can claim peace, but the systems in which we live need to promote genuine peace for everyone. If it ain’t peace for everyone, it ain’t true peace for anyone.
Holy God, may your gift of the Christ Child help us to see where the systems in which we live and work and play are not always as peaceful as we might think. If there are those who are left out, pushed down or harmed as a means of upholding the system, then it is not your peace. Help us, we pray! Amen.
