Galatians 3:23-29 Acts 16:11-15

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the foremost leaders in the anti- slavery and women's suffrage movements – and she was also a Presbyterian. She was raised a Presbyterian in Johnstown, New York and when she was secretly married to Henry Stanton, it was in a Presbyterian church. Later she was a Sunday school teacher, but resigned when some members of the congregation refused to allow
black children to enter the sanctuary.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a woman who lived out her principles. As she studied the Bible she challenged the male dominated images that were found in scripture and how they had been used over the years to keep women in their place domestically, politically and in the church.

Using the original Greek and Hebrew Stanton and seven other women provided a new translation and in 1898 The Woman's Bible was published. This shed new light on the way women were treated in the church and society and raised important questions that continue to be asked and discussed in the church.
What kind of portrait has the Bible drawn of women? What are the positive and negative images of women in scripture? How has the Presbyterian Church affirmed or betrayed women, and what place do women have in our denomination and the Christian community as a whole? And how do men see themselves as women's roles have become more visible?
The critical text to look at as we begin to answer these questions is Galatians 3:28. Here Paul affirms there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.

Such a conclusion probably did not come easy for Paul; he was going against both the prevailing culture and his own way of thinking. But this one sentence in Galatians is the first time that a clear declaration is made in a Christian document about the equality of men and women.
Not only that. Paul, in this single statement, takes the three places where discrimination was most common and most stringently enforced in the ancient world – racial or religious relationships, the institution of slavery, and the role of women – and challenges them in the light of Jesus Christ and the Christian hope for the future of the church and the world.
Paul's testimony was a radical break from traditional thinking and this particular passage is often called “the Magna Carta of Christian liberty.”

We don't know what brought Paul to this place. Perhaps he was influenced by stories that were being circulated about Jesus' attitude toward the presence of women in his ministry and their place in God's kingdom. None of the gospels had been written at this time, but there were probably reports circulating about women being among Jesus' closest followers and being the first ones to give witness to the resurrection.
Paul may have also been influenced by the place of women in his own ministry. In the story from Acts we here about Lydia and how they met. Lydia eventually became the leader of a house church in Philippi.
Priscilla and her husband Aquila were important church leaders in Corinth. They not only had a church in their home, but also financed Paul's missionary journeys. At one point Paul refers to them as Prisca and Aquila, not only putting her name first, but also using her nickname, both of which would be considered very uncommon, and even uncouth to do.
In his letter to the Romans Paul also names and commends several women who were critical to his ministry. He names Phoebe as a deacon in the church, and Junia, who spent time in jail with Paul, is listed as an apostle.

Clearly Paul respected women as an important part of his Christian ministry. Of course, elsewhere Paul is less flattering. In 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 he seems to come down pretty hard on women, first insisting that women enter worship with their heads covered and then making a point of telling women they should be quiet in church.
In the first instance Paul was following the social customs and decorum of the times that demanded that women wear some kind of head covering. In chapter 14 most scholars believe that Paul was addressing a particular situation where women were disrupting worship by asking their husbands questions during the service.
In both cases, Paul's overall discussion was about keeping good order in worship and preventing any disruptive behavior from keeping others from meaningful worship. It was also important that these new Christians not draw any undue criticism for violating basic cultural norms.

Another problematic passage that is attributed to Paul is Ephesians 5:21-33, where the author of the letter writes that women should be subject to their husbands. Many scholars do not believe that Paul wrote Ephesians. This conclusion is based on differences in vocabulary and syntax between Ephesians and the letters that we know for sure were written by Paul.
It was very common during this time for the next generation of disciples to write letters and other documents while still using the name of the original well-known leader. This might very well be the case with Ephesians as well as some other letters attributed to Paul. I agree, but I digress.

But even in Ephesians there is a radicalness to the pronouncement. While acknowledging the social norm that husbands are indeed the heads of their households, the writer then goes on to say that this should be done in the same way that Christ is the head of the church.
In other words the husband is to treat his wife with the same care, respect, and love that Christ treats the church, thus changing many of the traditional rules that allowed for and even sanctioned mistreatment and abuse. What essentially is being said here in Ephesians is that men and women are to love each other with the love of Christ.
While Paul may address particular situations where women needed to behave in a more decent and orderly fashion, we certainly cannot use his teachings to diminish or prevent women from being equal partners with men in ministry.
And this is what the Presbyterian church today affirms and practices. Seventy-five years ago the church began to ordain women to be deacons and elders, and 50 years ago as Minsters of the Word and Sacrament. The most recent statistics I found for our denomination was 2004. 21% of the ordained ministers were women and 53% of those who were candidates for ordination were women.

Church-wide 49% of the elders were women and 70% of the deacons. And 59% of the active members in the PC(USA) were women. And I suspect that the percentages are getting higher, not lower. However, there are still some churches in our denomination that will not have a woman pastor, and there are a few where all the elders are men. Times are changing, but.....
All of this leads me to say three things. The first is I feel like I'm preaching to the choir. The fact that I'm up here giving this sermon is proof that you are accepting of women pastors. And women are well represented in the leadership of this congregation. But there are still churches that will not permit the ordination of women. A recent report indicated that 1,600 women have been ordained in moderate-to-progressive Baptists churches across the country (PCUSA had 4,430 in 2004), but the Southern Baptist church still “forbids” the ordination of women.

In the Roman Catholic church the nuns are the most outspoken group advocating for ordination of women. I suspect priests will be allowed to be married before women will be ordained. But on Friday I received an email from a radical Catholic group that sends me stuff from time to time. It was an announcement of an unsanctioned ordination that will take place on Monday in Pittsburgh, PA of 8 women as priests and 4 as deacons in the Catholic church.
And in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church there are those who are speaking out strongly for women to have equal status, and that may result in a split in that denomination.

It is important, I believe, that we be advocates for the inclusive role of women in the church and speak out whenever possible. And we also need to be aware of and speak out against the tremendous disparity between our country and others in regard to women's rights. Many women are still considered as second class citizens, or even still possessions of their fathers or husband. I believe that if I look to Jesus as my model, we must speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.
But, all that being said, it is equally important to consider the men, especially in our denomination. As women begin to take on more roles in the leadership of local churches we must not lose the voices of the men. I don't think that men will ever be relegated to the second class status that was there for women, but in many of the smaller churches the women are the ones who seem to be most active in both the leadership and everyday happenings of the church. We as a congregation need to find ways to encourage male participation, and men should be willing to be available to serve the church.
Again, I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but we all need to be aware of this danger. Equality for women should never be at the expense of the men. We all need to share in the work and ministry of the church, equal partners in all we do.
Paul affirms that men and women are equal as children of the living God, fully known and revealed in Jesus Christ. We must never presume to take one another for granted nor to demean or misuse the gifts of any of our members. Instead, we are to celebrate our oneness in Christ, find ways to encourage one another in joyful service and worship and give living witness to our equality.
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Amen.