Women in Ministry..... And yes that is a thing....
Hello to all my followers out there...... it has been a while since I have really posted anything semi personal but I am about to give it a go..... As you can see from the title I am going to be talking about women in ministry..... and yes that is a thing... just in case you didn’t know.... and as you can see from the tags and from my post prior to this one it is a project for school.... but it is more than that.... this is a topic that we should really all be thinking about..... I have so many thoughts on this topic and I hope that I am able to do it some justice..... I will try my best below to put into words what I think about this and maybe quoting some of the bible while I am at it.....
First: I do not understand why it is even an issue in the first place..... And that may have a lot to do with the fact that women in ministry is just a norm for me....... I have had a female pastor for a majority of my life and it seemed just as normal as the male pastors that I have had.... they have all shaped me into the person that I am today and I appreciate them all for it....
Second: Then there is also the fact that every single time I have mentioned, either before or now, that I am in seminary, both men and women ask me if I want to be a pastor.... that is there go to ask, not oh I want to work with the children or something else... I get asked if I want to be a full blown minister of the word and sacrament(PCUSA term for pastor).... So again I still do not understand why this is even an issue...
A quote posed:“Our church follows the Bible’s teaching. You know, Paul says women can’t have that kind of authority in the church.”
I am assuming this is in reference to 1st Corinthians 14:34 and in the NRSV it reads as follows: ‘women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.’ And to this I would honestly say you cannot cherry pick one verse out of context.... we should and would need to look at the passage as a whole to understand it more and we would also need to learn the history of the letter and learn why it had to be written and then maybe we could understand why Paul said what he said here.....
I would like to take a moment to step away from Paul.... don’t worry well come back..... I would like to look at the Gospels for a second.... in at least two of the resurrection stories the women who were following Jesus went to the tomb and discovered his body was not there...... and Jesus then said to them to go and tell the others what I have said and what you have seen..... Jesus called the women to be the witness to the resurrection.... think that over..... like really think about that......
Now lets pivot back to Paul.... and let’s have a look at Romans 16 where Paul praises several women.... Phoebe, a deacon, Prisca who works with Paul, Mary who is a hard worker, Junia who has been in prison with him, Tryphaena and Tryphosa who are also workers for the Lord, Persis who has also been a hard worker for the Lord, the Mother of Rufus whom Paul also considers a mother to him, and Julia and the Sister of Nereus. He mentions these nine women from these congregations and praises them and their works.... And also think about it out of 27 people mentioned.... and yes I just counted.... 9 of them are women.... that is about 33.33%... if I did my math right which I think I did... but that is a not so small percent of women mentioned..... Just think about that..... and I mean really think about that.....
I hope all that I said above makes some sense to you all my followers out here on tumblr..... I hope that maybe with this post I will feel more confident to share more personal posts and tell you all more about life here at seminary......
Until next time y’all
#Crush the patriarchy
