An illustration to this sermon walked into the church in Whorlton a couple of weeks ago during the Open Gardens event. It walked in in the shape of a fairly serious-looking chap, who approached me, introduced himself as a Roman Catholic Christian and proceeded to ask me if I was aware that Apostle Paul prohibited women from teaching and speaking in the church. He then looked at me intently. Translating his question, what he was saying really was: was I aware that I wasn’t meant to be ordained? A brief and, I am pleased to say, polite conversation followed, although I have since played in my head multiple versions of my possible responses that, in my imagination, would have defeated my opponent completely. He left and hopefully enjoyed the beauty of the church and the gardens in Whorlton and I too went on my way.
Please don’t feel angry or sorry on my behalf – this is not the purpose of me telling you this story. The purpose is to remind us that Apostle Paul has indeed said some things about the role of women in the Church that have led many to believe that women either have no role at all or, if they do, their role is quite marginal and subsidiary to the ministry of men. Ordination of women is perhaps the most heated and still current issue when it comes to the place of women in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. There are indeed valid theological reasons to disagree with ordination of women, which is why people have debates on the matter, and no, it does not at all boil down to one verse from Paul. There are also ways to disagree well, still respecting different theological perspectives. However, putting aside ordination, there are plenty of other roles women play in the Church and indeed the wider society, which have similarly been affected by the thinking shaped, in part, by some of the things Paul has said in his epistles.
The ‘scandalous’ verse my Roman Catholic friend was referring to comes from the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 14, where Paul says that women must not speak in the church and must be in submission to their husbands, as the law says. Another verse that has a similar meaning is in the first letter to Timothy, chapter 2, which may or may not have been written by Paul. It says, ‘A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve’. Do not be alarmed by these words. Taken on their own, they are indeed very forbidding, but in the Bible, they coexist with other texts that say, in fact, quite the opposite. In the book of Acts, a man named Apollos speaks boldly in the synagogue. Having heard him, a couple called Priscilla and Aquila invite him to their home and explain to him ‘the way of the Lord more adequately’. Priscilla, a woman, is clearly teaching a man.
Furthermore, in today’s reading from Romans 12, Paul says to everyone, men and women, that they are part of one body with different gifts, which include both leading and serving – both for men and women.
In addition, when Paul speaks of the law that tells women to be submissive, he clearly does not include some notable Biblical exceptions. Among them is Huldah, a prophet from the Old Testament, whom King Josiah and his officials – all clearly men – consulted following their re-discovery of the lost Book of the Law. Huldah did have a husband but was clearly chosen by the Lord to be a speaker and a teacher independently of him. Miriam, Moses’ sister, and Deborah, one of the Old Testament Judges, are also counted among the prophets – very prominent and respected roles in the Jewish society back in the day!
Then there are countless other women who may have not had much power in social terms and were indeed subject to the power of their husbands, fathers and brothers, but, from the quietness of their positions, they did things that were life-changing for whole nations: Sarah, Rebekah, Esther, Rahab, Ruth, Judith from the Apocryphal book of Judith, who kills the Assyrian general Holofernes.
Then there is Mary, who is only a teenager and whom the Church often likes to portray as meek and mild. She indeed shows absolute obedience and submission when presented with the news that she would bear a child. After lots of debates at early councils, in the 5th century she is formally given the title of Theotokos, ‘the God-bearer’, affirming her role as the mother of Our Lord as her main value and purpose. But listen to the things this meek and mild girl says when she meets her cousin Elizabeth: ‘…all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. <…> He has scattered the proud, <…>, he has brought down the mighty from their seats, <…> he has lifted up the humble and meek and has sent the rich away empty’. She speaks of justice, of social and political equality – the things that would have been well above her station by the standards of contemporary society.
Then we take a step away from the Bible and find women like Mary Sumner and those who supported and followed her and who indeed continue to follow her a century and a half later. The Mothers’ Union exists within the framework of caring the serving – caring for the children and the family, serving God, His Church and each other. But the work it has done over the decades, as we have heard, has broken the expectations some may have had of the caring and serving women. Without abandoning the spirit of servanthood, they have done truly revolutionary things with vast social impact, protecting and empowering women and, through this, strengthening families. They have led and have taught and they have done it all with compassion and a desire for harmony, in the family, in the Church and in the world.
And I think harmony is key to the work of the Mothers’ Union: they have not done anything to promote or elevate women above everyone else, but instead, having recognised the roles of their members as wives, mothers and carers, supported and fought for women in ways that make the society altogether more equal, more protected, and more harmonious. And wise leadership, including women’s leadership, which seeks harmony, does turn out to have a positive effect on everyone, not just women, so we should not be scared of it.
I think ‘harmony’ is an important word that we do not use enough today, at the time when we desperately need more harmony in our social and political life. Perhaps here too we can learn from Mary Sumner and those who followed her, including our own Mothers’ Union here.
I also think that a focus on harmony is needed in the Church. Our (occasional) inability to read the Bible in ways that seek love and goodness for our neighbours is also aided by the lack of harmony in our souls. This leads us to misinterpret the book that, after all, speaks of all of us as one body, that is intended to be harmonious. With many complex and conflicting passages, it may be difficult to see this harmony at first glance, but we have to do the work, or we end up picking isolated quotes and using them to tell others how to live their lives.
So as we celebrate the anniversary of the Mothers’ Union today and give thanks for their work over 150 years, let us also reflect on the power of harmony. Let us rediscover a desire for it, which may start small, with perhaps even just two people, but then let it expand to include a family, a community, a country and the planet. Do not be put off but how utopian this might sound – just start small, a bit like a little group of women did back in 1876. Amen.
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