First Tuesday of Easter
Lectionary Texts:
Acts 4:32-35
John 20: 19-23
One of you in The Daily Office Project inquired as to why she did not hear anything from me last week about it. The reason is that I didn't get anything done on it. Holy Week and moving back to CH from the OBX took some time. I am re-rereading St. Benedict this week. I'll report something by the end of the week.
Today we return to Acts Bible Study. Please read Acts 17:10-15.
This is a summary statement of Paul's time in Beroea with Silas and Timothy. Their preaching was successful with the making of many converts both Jews and Gentiles. Paul's Jewish opposition in Thessaloniki got wind of it and came to Beroea to stir up trouble. Their target was Paul, not Silas and Timothy. Paul was shuffled out of town to the seacoast, while Saul and Timothy stayed in Beroea and help to establish a strong on-going church there.
Paul prefers not to do hit-and-run evangelism. That is, coming into a town organizing a time and place to preach, gathering a crowd, preaching, then leaving for the next town. This kind of evangelism was characteristic of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America. Instead, Paul preferred to stay, sometimes for over a year, to get a church strongly established. Unfortunately, in this case he can't do that.
Paul and all the early Christians don't fight. This was another reason why Christianity was despised by most of the Romans. Christians were considered cowards. Christians who are devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ ask themselves this question to this today. Should I fight? Or should I turn the other cheek?
Fighting has always been the provenance of men. Women never served in the military until the twentieth century. Joan of Arc and a few others are rare exceptions. Although I have no figures to support this conclusion, I rather suspect that the Christian Church has always had more women that men, even though they were denied leadership roles from the second through the mid-twentieth centuries.
Luke and others have frequently noted the financial support that wealthier women have given the church. In verse 12 Luke writes, "Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. That Luke puts women first in this sentence is significant. The Western Text of Acts (Codex D and the Old Latin manuscripts) change the order to "men and women." The Western Text is notably anti-feminist in many places. All the other manuscript traditions read, "women and men." I might further note that John Wesley in his ministry in England had the support of several wealthy women friends.
Let me make a controversial statement: Women make better Christians than men. I think I may have asked a similar question before, but I would love to hear your comments of support for or disagreement with this statement.
Paul will go on without travel companions to Athens, where he has his most interesting encounters in the whole book of Acts. Next time on Acts Bible Study.
Lord of all peoples,
We give you thanks for the millions of women who have supported the Church in every way done through the ages. We thank you for all the Marys and all the Marthas alike. Your saving message would likely not have survived without them. Amen.
2 comments:
I disagree with your statement, "Women make better Christians than men." Churches lean heavily on women for their ministry, but who can determine the heart and soul of individuals to judge who are better Christians.
I have never seen a man make a deviled egg. To me, this is part of being a Christian.
Churches do lean heavily on women. It has been amazing for me to see, when I lived with my mother in Reading, PA, how now in the UCC women are the majority of clergy. My mother was the oldest of a group of women clergy, and was very much looked up to, as well she should be. She had to go through a great deal of suffering as an early woman minister, and it is of note that she did not remain in the United Methodist Church, but went to the United Church of Christ, along with a host of other women, at a time when women were more welcome there. Watching women rise in respect and power, not just doing all the work while the men get all the credit, was encouraging.
Do women make better Christians? What's a good Christian? I agree with Frances: who can judge the heart and soul? And I can't imagine that God ranks us or gives us grades. I went through a time when I certainly behaved as though I were trying to make straight As in church: volunteering for committees, serving at the homeless shelter, leading the most successful clothing drive ever and baking innumerable cookies and pumpkin muffins for coffee hour, yet who knows what was in my heart and soul as I ran around performing all of these works?
I think the very idea of a good Christian is a little sad. Anyone who decides to follow Christ is a good Christian. I can imagine Jesus saying, "You, the one who got drunk last night and slept through church, but walked someone home from the bar and made sure she was safe. You are a good Christian." You who never came back after the pastor gave one of his sermons on an issue of the day that hit a raw spot with you and hurt - but who prays every night and watches the Sunday services on the computer - you're a good Christian. You who never came back to the church you visited because no one spoke to you and you didn't feel welcome - you're a good Christian. All of you who went somewhere else because the faith of those you met in church seemed to be just a performance - you're a good Christian volunteering at the cat shelter on Sunday morning or sleeping after working the night shift at the hospital.
I've spent an entire lifetime trying to be good at things, and usually succeeding. A Christian is the one thing I want to just be. At a gathering I used to go to in Reading, a beautiful weekly worship for those who identify as in recovery as one kind or another, people used to speak and usually start with, "Hi, I'm so and so and I'm an alcoholic/addict/co-dependent." There was one man who would stand up and loudly proclaim, "My name is Willie, and I love the Lord!" He needed no other qualification. I took to saying, "My name is April, and I am a Christian. That's the only label I need."
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