Respecting Women

 Last week the Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans.  88 percent of those present voted to confirm the ouster of Saddleback Church from their membership because the church includes women in pastoral ministry. Rick Warren, the founding pastor, spoke in defense of the church.  Warren led the church from a few friends gathered in his living room 40 years ago to an attendance exceeding 23,000.  He is also the author of The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life.

 I must admit I am mystified. Why would anyone want to prevent someone from doing good, male or female? Or why would anyone want to prevent a church from choosing someone to serve their congregation who has moral integrity and pastoral gifts. My cousin’s daughter was recently ordained in North Carolina.  We sent a card and a gift to encourage her.

 Jesus rose above customs and traditions to demonstrate the worth and value of women. When Jesus came to the well in Samaria, he remained alone while his disciples went into the nearby village searching for provisions.  A single woman approached.  She was taken aback to find a man at the well.  Refusing to make eye contact, she hoped to avoid any interaction with this Jewish stranger. She intended to fill her water jug quickly and be on her way. 

 But Jesus would not let the moment pass.  He asked her for water.  She was shocked. “You, a Jew, would ask water from me, a Samaritan woman?” Jesus engaged her more deeply.  This thoroughly confused the woman who challenged him with the Samaritan’s tradition of worshipping at Gerazim rather than Jerusalem.  Again His response stunned her.  He did not argue the point.  He did not put her down.  He said, “I tell you a time is coming when true worshippers will worship God neither in Jerusalem nor Gerazim but they will worship in spirit and in truth.”   He offered her living water from which she would never thirst. When the disciples returned, they were too amazed to speak.  It was unheard of that a Jewish man would be found conversing with a Samaritan woman. (John 4).

 In Jerusalem a woman was dragged to Jesus because she had been caught in the act of adultery.  Her accusers stood glaring, stones gripped in their hands, waiting for Jesus to condemn the woman. Instead, he bent over and wrote in the sand.  “Let him who is without sin,” he said, “cast the first stone.”  The men who were ready to stone the woman were overcome with guilt.  One-by-one they dropped their stones and drifted away.  “Where are your accusers?”  He asked. She responded, “There are none.”  Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way and sin no more.”  (John 8).

 Following His crucifixion Jesus chose to show Himself alive first to the women and only later to the men. They carried the news to the eleven who were huddled in a secret room.  The men dismissed the women’s report as idle gossip.  Only later, when Jesus appeared among them did they realize the truth of the women’s report that He was, indeed, risen. (Mark 16:9-11).

 The Apostle Paul summed up the Scriptural position on gender when he wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,”  (Galatians 3:28).