Through a glass clearly

Declaration 7 [part II]:  The new creation that I am will inhabit her identity.  She will not long for the adventure or husks of others.  She will give others the freedom to do the same: to be whom they were created to be. 

For the Designer is the Greatest Poet, and we are His poetry.

Tuesday was fairly straightforward, and if you’ve read much of this blog, you’re aware that it’s a personal refrain of mine:

Be the you God created you to be. 

So why a part II for this declaration?  Because after years of toiling under the impression that I have to fit into a particular mold, acting in a certain way, in order to be a good Christian woman and now slowly learning that this is not, in fact, what scripture is teaching us, I have found that there is another perilous side to being who you are meant to be.  It is the dangerous place of striving to be who you’re told you’re going to be.  While we must not only beware of trying too hard to be like other people [or like a list of traits], we must also be wary of being who others want us to be.   

Mentors are wonderful gifts.  They can identify and call out in us traits of which we were unaware.  They can challenge us, encourage us, champion our growth, and even rebuke us when we’ve strayed too far from where we should be going.  They can help us find the path on which we will blossom and bring the greatest glory to the Lord.  And they can help us along this path, employing their wisdom and love to our greatest benefit. 

However, because all mentors, even the paper ones, are human, they are fallible.  Thus, sometimes they can be wrong; and they can lead us astray.  Not with malicious purpose, and not necessarily outside the bounds of God’s plan for us.  But blindly following their lead, believing solely what they’ve spoken into our lives, about who we are, can, in some instances, be detrimental to becoming and being the person who God designed us to be.  For as fallible humans, they can only see God's design through a glass darkly, and cannot fully know the plans of God.

   

Consider for a moment three men in Acts: Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark.  Barnabas was one of the first Christians in Jerusalem to accept Paul [the formerly murderous Saul], to care for him, to minister to him, to minister with him.  Barnabas and Paul were missionaries together, helming the inclusive movement to incorporate the Gentiles into the Way.[1]  What we find in the pages of Acts is a beautiful friendship and partnership.  These two men toiled long and mightily together, on behalf of the gospel and a people whom most Hebrews thought were never worthy of grace.  We can glean so much from their relationship, even 2,000 years later.  Yet there came a time when these two “had such a sharp disagreement that they parted ways” [Acts 15:39].  And this disagreement was over one man’s desertion of their work.  Eventually, Paul continued his ministry without Barnabas; and Barnabas took John Mark alongside him to do the same. 

Paul, author of almost half of the New Testament; Paul, to whom Christ appeared post-resurrection and to whom God gave an experiential vision of Heaven.  This very Paul found John Mark unfit for service; untrustworthy in matters of the gospel.  And he felt so strongly about John Mark, that he parted company with a man who had no doubt been a great comfort to him and a dear friend.  I won’t waste time projecting what each man might have felt; but I believe that it is likely in each of our lives we have experienced something similar.  Perhaps you were the one who was absolutely certain that a particular individual was utterly unfit for promoting the gospel, based on their past behavior.  Maybe you were Barnabas, the advocate on behalf of a sinner, who had to stand up against unyielding leadership and lost friends and co-laborers in the process.  Or maybe you were the John Mark, someone who made mistakes in your service or your past, that others felt disqualified you from preaching the gospel.  And despite your great desire [and dare I say calling] to do it again, those in positions of leadership told you: NO.

But what we find later in scripture is that Barnabas continued to preach the gospel and that Paul uses his service as an example to other believers [1Corinthians 9:6].  John Mark worked alongside Barnabas and eventually became associated with Peter [1 Peter 5:13].  He was included in Paul’s first imprisonment and “by the end of Paul’s life, he came to admire [John] Mark so much that he requested him to come to be with him during his final days” [2 Timothy 4:11].[2]  Thus, we must conclude that all three men were destined to preach the gospel, to glorify the Lord, to be used by God for His holy and divine purpose. 

We cannot, nor should we, speculate about whether these three should have remained together; nor can we truly posit that it was more beneficial that they parted ways and thus reached more people separately than they might have together.  For who among us can claim to know the mind of God?  What we can say is that God is a God of relationship, not separation; and His purposes will be achieved regardless of human failings.        

Listen, dear one, to what the Holy Spirit is telling you about who you are and what you were made to do.  Yes, seek counsel about this.  Yes, test everything you hear against the scriptures.  Yes, search out a mentor who is willing and able to pour into you their experience and love and who will call out in you traits you didn’t know you possessed and who will encourage you to be exactly who you were made to be.  But don’t ever allow anyone’s opinions or judgments or declarations of “I heard from God” steal from you your purpose or your identity.  Neither should you permit anyone to tell you what you were meant to do, what ministry you are destined for, what call has been placed upon your life. 

Only God, and His Holy Spirit, has that authority.      

 

 

---

[1] The partnership of Paul and Barnabas can be found in Acts 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

 [2] Zondervan 1984 NIV Study Bible: notes on Acts 15:39

How a Servant is to Serve, a lesson from Mary and Martha

Martha and Mary by He Qi Chin

I’ve been Martha.  Not in the way you’d expect, the doing-all-the-things-because-I’m-a-beaver manner.  But in that I feel this unexplainable weight to meet the androcentric expectations of my more patristic brethren.  I’ve held my tongue, when I knew it was not what was being required of me at the moment, in settings where more traditional believers facilitated the gathering.  And I’ve relied on men to speak for me in similar settings, when I knew my job was to speak up for myself, or on behalf of sisters who had been belittled into silence.  I’ve hastily back-pedaled when asked if I desire to or was teaching God’s Word; and I’ve looked demurely at the floor, dying a little bit on the inside, instead of challenging the ideals spouted by denominational leaders. 

I’ve been Martha.  Distracted too much with the worry of how other people will react to my intentions or actions, to sit at my Master’s feet and quietly, though publicly, declare that I will be His student, so that I may be a teacher of His way to others.  Worried about the hard work of having to defend why I think what I’m doing is scriptural, why women should be permitted to behave thus.  Worried at the reaction towards my husband, who leans a little more closely to the traditional way of doing things than me.  Worried that my ministry or my voice or even the person for whom I’m advocating might suffer unnecessarily for my brazen speech.  Worried with the details of service, of how things will come off; because these events will reflect on me as a leader and my ability thereto.  Worried.  To the point of distraction, so that I’ve missed my Master’s presence in these beautiful moments. 

And because of this, I find that I might have more in common with Martha than Mary.

The Sisters at Bethany: Luke 10:38-42

As we mentioned on Thursday, By sitting at Jesus’ feet, Mary is signaling her intention to become a teacher herself; and Jesus declares that she is right to do so.[1]   However, if this is the sole intent of this narrative, Mary’s theological education comes at the expense of Martha.[2]  To counter the seeming unfairness towards Martha, Veronica Koperski proffers the theory that it is not Martha’s busyness that is being chastised, but her anxiety.[3]

The weight of this idea falls mostly on the translation of the Greek verb “diakouew” from verse 40.  According to Klaus Hess, in this particular passage, it means “service at a table;” however, this word occurs 34 times in the New Testament and in every use except this one, it implies “service, office, aid, support, distribution (of alms, etc.), office of a deacon.”[4]  In fact, Koperski contends that because of its usage in other New Testament passages, it is “not exclusively associated with table service, and the text gives no indication that a meal is involved.”[5]  In particular, she references a later passage in Luke 22:25-27 were this word expresses “the epitome of Jesus’ mission” and notes that “Jesus does not actually serve a meal, but charges his disciples to adopt the attitude of ‘one who serves.’”[6] Warren Carter asserts this position, noting that

in six of its eight occurrences in Acts diakonia indicates leadership and proclamation on behalf of God or of the church and the gospel.  In two of the six the administration and provision of material relief for those in need are indicated without separation of these tasks from the tasks of leadership and proclamation.  Partnership with others in the acts of ministry pervades all eight texts, as does the sense of ministering as the representative of God or of the church…thus [it] does not designate domestic or culinary activity.[7]

The question then becomes, why in this instance only does this verb refer to waiting tables?  Is it only because its subject is specifically female and could therefore offer no other service?  If this is the case, certainly Jesus’ words that Mary has choose the better portion indicates that becoming his student trumps domestic obligations.  On the other hand, both Carter and Koperski contend that Mary and Martha were involved, at some level, in local church leadership.  Carter posits that Martha’s anxiety stems from the exultant doing of this ministry, while Koperski attributes the worry to her feeling of being pulled away from her service therein, by the disapproval of others.[8]  While both theories certainly place more weight on Martha’s potential ministerial duties and make her seem less like a petulant child, neither can be adequately proven from the text itself. Yet, neither can a simplistic outburst concerning the unfair distribution of domestic duties.  What remains are Jesus’ words that Mary “has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (10:42). 

Thus however you read this particular word for service, as domestic in only this one instance or as service for the kingdom, the good portion for which Mary is lauded is: being aware of her Lord’s presence, of abandoning what is culturally expected to spend her time with him, soaking up his presence and his teaching even if it is socially unacceptable.  Because those are the only things that will sustain a servant of any ilk. 

I must encourage you: sit at Jesus’ feet, soak up His presence, and learn from Him through reading God’s Word.  Be prepared to share what you have learned, to freely give what you have freely been given.  And when societal boundaries seem to rise up against what you’re doing, cross them.  Like a rebel who hails from a kingdom where your King delights in eliminating the walls that keep us from Him.    

Enjoying this study?  Here's a link to other articles in this series: The Women Who Knew Jesus

---

[1]Wright, N. T., Bishop of Durham.  “Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis.”  Conference paper for the Symposium “Men, Women and the Church,” St John’s College, Durham, September 4 , 2004.   www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Women_Service_Church.htm
[2]Veronica Koperski.  “Women and Discipleship in Luke 10:38-42 and Acts 6:1-7: The Literary Context of Luke-Acts.”  A Feminist Companion to Luke.  ed. Amy-Jill Levine with Marianne Blickenstaff, 161-196.  New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002, page 183.
[3] Ibid, 195.
[4] Colin Brown, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol 3 (Grand Rapides: Zondervan, 1986), s.v. “Serve, Deacon, Worship,” by K. Hess.   
[5] Koperski, “Women and Discipleship,” 183.
[6] Ibid, 182.
[7] Carter, Warren. “Getting Martha out of the Kitchen: Luke 10.38-24 Again.”  A Feminist Companion to Luke.  ed. Amy-Jill Levine with Marianne Blickenstaff, 215-231.  New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.  Originally published in CBQ 56 (1996): 264-280, page 222.
[8]Carter, “Getting Martha Out,” 230; Koperski, “Women and Discipleship,” 185.