Women Called to be Servants of Jesus Christ (January/ February 2006)
by
Viola Larson
The first 2006 issue of _Horizons: The Magazine of Presbyterian Women_ is
devoted to the ministry of women. The articles cover a wide range of
information dealing with women in ministry. The articles include subjects
such as the need for women’s organizations, an article by Cheri Harper, how
the leaders of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women minister
to their members, written by Kelsey Rice, and a history of one of the first
ordained women in a Presbyterian Church, Louisa M. Woosley, written by
Nanette Sawyer. Some additional articles on other subjects include an
article on Lent by Kikanza Nuri Robins, one on prayer by Steven H. Shussett,
and a devotional by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton. While each of the articles
about women in ministry are interesting and informative there are no
articles that focus on the call of Jesus Christ in the lives of women. Nor
is there a devotional article that lifts up Jesus Christ. Although the
generic name God is used, Crafton’s article never uses the name Jesus and
Shussett only once. Even in the article about Woosley the reader is left
without any knowledge of her relationship with Jesus Christ. Yet, there is
ample information that she devoted herself to Jesus Christ and preached
numerous revivals so others might come to him for salvation. In fact, at the
web site of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church in America, Mary Lin Hudson, Professor at Memphis
Theological Seminary, writes of Woosley ‘Her relation to Jesus Christ was
even more personal than her experience of God as “Father.” She felt that
Christ most perfectly revealed the nature of God, and without Christ, God’s
nature could not be understood. Not only was Jesus full of compassion and
good will for human beings, but she trusted Jesus Christ to be faithfully
consistent in concern for her. In most intimate terms, she describes, God as
“making love to us” in Christ, and Jesus as a “lover who touched men.”1
Many women, both in the past and today, have entered into ministry as
Pastors, Elders, and Deacons because of their love for Jesus Christ and
their desire to be his servant. In the nineteenth century several women
wrote about women as preachers. Not only did Woosley, in 1891,write, _Shall
Women Preach?, Or the Question Answered_, but also Catherine Booth of the
Salvation Army, that same year, wrote _Female Ministry: Women’s Right to
Preach the Gospel_. Thirty years earlier Evangelical preacher Phoebe Palmer
wrote _Promise of the Father: Or, A Neglected Specialty of the Last Days
_and in 1888 Frances Willard, an important figure in the temperance
movement, wrote an article entitled ‘Woman As Preacher: The Spirit Giveth
Life.”2 All of these women while advocating for the right to minister did
so because of their love for Jesus Christ and the salvation he bought on the
cross. They, like Paul, longed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
crucified. Hudson writes of the song Woosley sang on her death bed; that
song ‘Angel Band,” includes the words, ‘O, bear my longing heart to Him,
Who bled and died for me; Whose blood now cleanses from all sin, And gives
me victory.”3 Christian women and men minister without real purpose if
their ministry is not connected to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Kelsey Rice, in her article, ‘Seed Planting,” writes of her ministry of
seed planting through the National Network of Presbyterian College Women.
She opines about her frustrations and discouragement over small numbers in
the meetings. She writes of their annual Leadership Event, ‘When you compare
it to the thousands who flock to Indiana for Presbyterian Youth Triennium,
or even the hundreds ecstatically singing Lord, I lift Your Name on High’ at
large-scale evangelical college conferences, our event seems pretty
insignificant.(17)” But she goes on to write about their different events
and how their leaders and members will change and influence the church
although their numbers are small. And she is right, small numbers of people
can change large organizations; small movements can become large movements.
When I think of small groups and planting seeds, I think of a small church
my husband and I use to attend. It started from a bible study for teenagers.
The church grew to several thousand because the gospel was preached and
because it was God’s time for growth. One of our friends from that time and
church worked as a logger in Northern California. He came to Jesus Christ
and went on to become a nurse. He married a nurse and together they became
missionaries in South East Asia (Not Presbyterians.) Many people have come
to Christ though their ministry, many persecuted pastors and churches are
strengthened by their care. Many refugees and victims from the borders of
Burma to the earthquake in Pakistan have felt their ministry. Recently they
have written pleading for more women doctors in Pakistan. The fruit
increases but what is important to understand is that seeds produce only
their own kind of fruit. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified that
must be planted in the hearts of people. If our ministry or agenda is
anything less it doesn’t matter whether the harvest is large or small.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reminds the church that Jesus Christ
is the head of the Church and that he is the beginning of the resurrection,
_’so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything_ (Col
1:18).” In light of the biblical insistence that Jesus Christ be first in
all things and that we find our identity and calling in him, there is one
article in this issue of Horizons that is deadly. As stated earlier, Kikanza
Nuri Robins4 has written an article entitled ‘Lent.” It is the ‘Bible Study
Resource” for this particular issue of Horizons. There is an additional
inset by her entitled, ‘LentA Time for Death.” The Articles are not about
Jesus Christ and his death or resurrection. They are about Kikanza. After
writing of her various childhood and young adult experiences with Lent and
Easter, (none of them edifying), Kikanza writes, ‘In my mature years, I have
sought to be more intentional about my relationship with God during the
season of Lent (29).” For Kikanza, that means she will ‘conscientiously
exercise every day, add an additional 15 minutes meditation or engage in a
different kind of devotion (29).” Kikanza ends this small article with the
strange and troubling comment, ‘Throughout Lent I look forward to all that
is symbolized in the Resurrection, the vernal equinox and being among the
Easter people of the world. (29).” For two thousand years the resurrection
has been much more than a symbol of something; it has been a reality, the
bodily rising of Jesus from the dead, the hope of a bodily resurrection for
all those in Jesus Christ.
While the date for celebrating Easter is on the ‘first Sunday after the
first full moon after the spring equinox,”5 it is strange for a Christian
to equate the vernal (spring) equinox with Easter. Although the Neo-Pagans
of today, Wiccans, Druids, etc, often celebrate the vernal equinox as one of
their eight ‘sabbats” (seasonal holidays) Easter is unique to Christianity
and should not be confused with a pagan holiday. Both celebrations are about
new life yet the differences are vast. The Neo-Pagan spring celebration is
about regenerating energy and the cyclical return of life. Graham Harvey
points out, when writing about the pagan celebration of the spring equinox,
in his book _Contemporary Paganism: Listening People Speaking Earth_:
Spring can be seen as a time when energies rise. Sometimes, however,
this can be chaotic, evidenced by the equinoctial gales. It can be seen
as a time when all of life is trying to find harmony already seen in the
balance of day and night. Meditation about the individual’s desires is
balanced with experimentation with more outgoing, self-affirming
activities.6
This is the Neo-Pagan way of celebration and it is somewhat like Kikanza’s
words about her way of experiencing Lent in the small inset, ‘LentA Time for
Death”. She writes, ‘Each Lent I put to death the ideas that limit me. In
their places I make room for endless imagination, unlimited vision,
boundless possibilities and regenerating energy to accompany me as I emerge
from the tomb with Jesus on Easter morning (29).” But Easter, the biblical
Easter Christians celebrate as well as the season of Lent that leads up to
Easter, is about a historical event in a particular place when the Lord of
life gave up his life for our sins; it is about his overcoming death for
those who trust in him. During Lent we look back to his suffering and
sacrifice. We remember that we are sinners born under a curse and that Jesus
Christ came to live, suffer and die for our sins. ‘But God demonstrates His
own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us
(Romans 5:8).” Whether we give up something important as a way of saying
thank you to the Lord for the great sacrifice made for us, or we simply try
to live our life in a sacrificial manner, that is the Christian way of
celebrating Lent. That is, in fact, the way we are called to celebrate our
whole journey with Jesus Christ. Paul writes in the twelfth chapter of
Romans that by God’s mercies, we are to present our ‘bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is” our ‘spiritual service of
worship.”
Church history is not void of women in ministry, whether as Pastors, Elders,
Deacons or other kinds of ministry. And among those who have truly
ministered as Christians there has been no disconnect between service to
others and service to the Lord of life. In fact, Eusebius in his church
history records the story of an early Christian woman who fellow believers
looked to as a way to contemplate the suffering of Christ. In the martyr’s
arena Blandina, who had already suffered torture: ‘was bound and suspended
on a stake, and thus exposed as food to the assaults of wild beasts, and as
she appeared to hang after the manner of the cross, by her earnest prayers
she infused much alacrity into the contending martyrs. For as they saw her
in the contest, with the external eyes, through their sister, they
contemplated Him that was crucified for them, to persuade those that believe
in him, that every one who suffers for Christ, will for ever enjoy communion
with the living God.”7
The Editors of _Horizons_ seem content to advocate for women’s issues
including women in ministry without including the very core of Christianity,
Jesus Christ. But that is impossible. Without Jesus Christ there is no
ministry, no salvation and no hope. So the prayer of the Editors of
_Horizons_, Presbyterian Women and Women’s Ministries, as well as the whole
church, should be for many more women to enter the harvest, but as the
ancient song goes it should be about reaping sheaves to lay at the feet of
Jesus Christ.
_________
1 Mary Lin Hudson, “Shall Woman Preach?” Louisa Woosley and the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, http://members.aol.com/mleslie598/woosley.html.
2 Frances E. Willard, ‘Woman As Preacher: The Spirit Giveth Life.” _Our
Day_, 286 (1888): 287-305, listed in ‘An Exploration: Feminist Ethics and
the Principles of Orthodox Christianity, Viola Larson, Thesis, California
State University, Sacramento, 1994, 105.
3 Hudson, ‘Louisa Woosley”.
4 See article on Kikanza Nuri Robins and her theology at
http://layman.wpengine.com/Documents/Doc0177.aspx
5 Kathleen Long Bostrom, ‘For Everything, A Season: A Study of the
Liturgical Calendar,” 2005-2006 _Horizons_ Bible Study, 46.
6 Graham Harvey, _Contemporary Paganism: Listening People Speaking Earth_,
(New York: New York University Press 1997) 9.
7 Eusebius, _The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus_, (4th
century), Translated from the original (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House
1979)176.