Sermon Cloud

Welcome- Chris

1 Song- Call to worship

Responsive reading: Nicene Creed (modern wording)

3-4songs-

Meditation- To start today- let’s do an exercise together.  On the back of the announcement sheets- take a few minutes and think about community. When you come- what are the “rights” that you feel? What are the responsibilities you feel? Write those down...think about them and we’ll continue on...

What did you come up with? What rights do you feel in this community? What responsibilities?

The piece of Scripture we look at today sits right in that uncomfortable spot where rights and responsibilities intersect... and occasionally clash. Today we get to a very fun passage- and when I say “fun”, what I mean is difficult, hard to understand, painful for some people to hear and painful for me to try to preach and not say anything stupid... you know, “fun.” So, let me start with two stories...

A couple of years ago we had a young, married couple start coming on Sunday mornings from one of the local Bible colleges- pretty intense in that way that some bible college people can be. And, after a couple of weeks, the guy wants to get together with me and Chris. Huh, I think. I wonder what’s on his mind? We meet at Starbucks and after about 30seconds of chit-chat, he asks if we’re open to talking about the role of women in leadership. “Ahhhh...” thinks I. “Well- it depends on what you mean by ‘open,’” I say. “We worked through the issue as a community when we first began, knowing this was a big issue to many. We have women in leadership, it’s a value for us, so we’re open to talking about it- but no, we’re probably not going to change our position on that.”

I have to give the guy credit, though- he wasn’t giving up that easily.

He pulls out this large Bible, unzips it and opens to... 1 Cor 11- the passage we look at today, and starts reading, occasionally throwing some commentary in here and there.

“But a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head...” he reads- and then the penny drops. It’s like that moment when you realize Bruce Willis has been dead for the last hour and a half. His wife, who is kind of hippy looking, long flowing skirts and blouses always had her hair tied up in a scarf on Sundays- you didn’t even think twice about it because of the way it fit in with the rest of the ensemble’. Now, realizing exactly what we’re talking about about, I say... “Dude- just so you know. I will never ask the women of evergreen to cover their heads for worship.” I had thought thru the passage and understand it as a culturally bound expression- an expression of some good concepts and principles for us, but as we’ll see, one that looks different in our time and place.

He didn’t see it that way. When I said that, he said “Well, that’s all I needed to know,” zipped up his huge bible, got up and walked out. Never saw him again...

Another story: my grandmother died in 2000- I was raised by these grandparents, so in a way, it was like my mother had died. The funeral was in SoCal, which tends to be a bit less formal than other places, but still- most people showed up in suits, skirts, at least slacks and a jacket. Except for one guy- a distant cousin by marriage. He came in shorts, a tank top, a visor and sunglasses. I know it’s a bit irrational, and I shouldn’t have cared, but I did. I felt angry, I felt resentful, I felt... disrespected. He volunteered to help carry the coffin- 5 guys in suits and 1 guy in a freakin’ tank top and San Diego Chargers visor. I wanted to think about my grandmother, mourn and grieve her... but all I could think about was this guy and how... inappropriate the whole thing was.

Now, on the surface, it may not seem like the two stories have anything to do with each other... But they do.

Let’s pray, and then we’ll dive right into 1 Cor 11... Prayer- Bob

The Apostle Paul often, I think, gets a bad rap- he’s called a lot of things like misogynistic, and a woman hater for things he wrote- many of which, ironically, would have appeared very freeing and raising of the status of women in his day. He advocated women being taught, which was out of step with the culture. He taught that in Christ, men and women were equals. Very much out of step with a culture that viewed women as property. The Gospel was extremely freeing to women in the first century.

The people just needed some help in understanding how that did and didn’t play out, particularly in the community of people following Jesus- in the church.

So- Paul is writing 1st Cor, which we’ve been working through for a couple of  months now to help them understand- not just the women, all of the people- this is how it all should look and fit together. They’d gotten off track in a lot of areas and needed some correction- and one of those areas was how they did or didn’t use their freedom to the benefit or the detriment of others. We’ll pick up in verse 2 of Ch 11...

VS 2-3

Now... when I read that, there's a certain feeling that some of you get. A tingling in the back of your neck... I want you to bookmark that feeling- we'll come back to it.-

When Paul says "head" here there are two basic schools of thought as to the meaning of the Greek. The word is "kephale" and it means literally- head. Like a head that sits on your shoulders. The question isn't what it means literally, though- everyone agrees on that. The question is what it means metaphorically. And like I said- two options. Some see it as meaning subordination and authority. Others see it as origination- source. Those who see it the first way say that the equivalent word in Hebrew was often used to mean authority. Which is fine- but this was written in Greek, not Hebrew- and the word wasn't really used much that way in Greek. Used metaphorically, it more often meant "source" as in "headwaters" of a river. Or- the which gives life to the body.

Our problem is that we don't read greek, we certainly don't think like first century Greeks and to top it off, when we use the word "head" metaphorically we generally use it to mean authority or boss- as in the head of an organization. 

Without getting any farther into this than we already have because some of you already have eyes rolling up into the back of your heads from so much linguistic talk- suffice it to say, I don't think Paul meant "authority" here. He does mention authority a few verses down, but even more so, he leans on the idea of "source." So what's he saying? 

What he’s not saying, I think, is that here is the heirarchy- It’s God, Christ, Man, and then on the bottom of the pyramid- Woman. A chain of command. Why not? Because it’s not a linear chain. Notice- It’s a circle- Christ, Man, Woman, God and back to Christ, starting the whole thing again.

Here’s what we believe- God, Father, Son and Spirit exist in a circle of relationship- a circle of equality and love that has existed from the beginning. There’s a sense in which Christ submits Himself to the Father, and the Father submits all things to Christ- makes everything about Him. There isn’t a sense of heirarchy, but rather of source- of flowing from and for each other- relationship.

It’s too deep a concept to go into this morning, but Scripture says the Son is begotten by the Father- not made, not created- but that one eternally flows from the other- and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and Son.

So in what sense is God the Father the source of God the Son? One flows from the other- co-equal, co-eternal. In what sense is Christ the head of every man- I think Paul is getting a bit abstract here, but he’s thinking back to the creation story- knowing Jesus is the agent of Creation- that all things were made by Him- and that one thing in particular that was made by Him was... man. A male. In what sense is the male the source of women? In that God didn’t make woman in the same way- from scratch- but made her out of man. And BOTH were made to image, to represent God.

Now- keep that thought- a circle of relationship- because Paul comes back to it- and we’re going to as well. But for now, he’s going somewhere with this- he’s trying to say as he has throughout this book- you all are not on your own here- you’re in community. And that means some things, practically speaking...

VS 4-5

Men- uncover your heads. Women, cover your heads. Pretty straightforward, right? When I was a child, I went to a Plymouth Brethren church- a church where the men took off their hats and the women covered their heads in worship. In fact- they had a box of women’s hats out in the entryway- you know- for any of the ladies who “forgot.” They were unable to see the cultural markers and practices here and rather than focus on the principle, they focused on the particulars...

We’ve already mentioned- it was the Apostle Paul who wrote and preached- “In Christ, there is neither male nor female, Jew or Greek, slave or free...” And in some of the Corinthian's minds, that meant that social convention could be completely disregarded. If it was Paul's idea that women and men were equal in Christ, you'd think he'd be very much behind doing away with anything that culturally distinguished men from women... But not so fast. 

The problem was- in this Greco-Roman culture it was the practice of prostitutes to go without head coverings, to let down their hair in public to let everyone know it was business time. And unfortunately- Christians were already misunderstood and accused of a lot of things- Roman historians accused early Christians of being "cannibals" because they ate “the flesh and blood of Jesus”. Another accusation was of incest- because they called each other “brother and sister” and then married one another.

Later in 1st Corinthians, Paul talks about what people who don't know Jesus would think walking into one of their meetings- I think this is really the beginning of that thought. 

So... Christian meetings are where all the women let down their hair like prostitutes... hmmm. It doesn't sound like much to us, but maybe an equivalent would be if you heard about a church where all the women wore bikinis. What assumptions would you make about a group like that? 

Clearly, as a church, we are not against the drinking of beer. But I’ll tell you this- walk in on Sunday morning with a 40, kick back and pop it open and see if someone, probably me, doesn’t say something about it, and quickly- WHY? Why do you think?

The theme of personal freedom without regard for anyone else is still very much in view here... Paul is not writing along and then thinking to himself- Hmmm... I don't think I've put the women down enough yet. Better throw in something about that. No! This was a real situation they were dealing with and I think Paul make a deal about it not because it was a huge deal in and of itself, but because of what it was symptomatic of- what it showed was really happening deep down in their hearts. 

Socially, at this time, women covered their heads. It's what respectable women did. And while Paul wanted to change a lot about society, fashion was pretty low on his list of priorities. So he says- look, you know- not wearing a head covering in worship is pretty much the same as doing a Britney Spears and taking a razor to your head. It makes you stand out- it’s an attention getting device. It brings all the attention of all the people to the Very Progressive Woman Who is Not Bound By Social Convention- which is exactly what people should be focused on when they come to worship, isn't it? You- and what you are or aren't wearing. No... 

So Paul gets a little sarcastic here and says to them:

VS 6

Basically, he says- it's not about you. Please don’t think that freedom in Christ includes walking into the gathering looking like a prostitute during working hours. Think about the men and women around you- including those who may be a bit more conservative than you... Now- it gets a bit more confusing here...

Vs 7

So... what the heck? This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to our ears. Or maybe I should say- I struggled this week to make sense of this- it’s a notoriously difficult verse to wrap our heads around. Is Paul saying it’s ONLY men who are made in God's image? No... Genesis is very clear- Man AND woman were created in the image of God- that is, with the responsiblity to image God, to mirror Him, reflect Him, show Him to a watching world. So what does he mean here? This is just a guess...

In the world into which Paul is writing, headcoverings meant very different things for men than they did for women. Though Hebrew men would pray with a prayer shawl on their heads, in the Greek culture they were in, it was the male slaves who would keep their hats or turbans on inside. I think Paul is saying- you should honor and glorify, not disrespect the God who has set you free- When you come to worship, come as the free man you are- regardless of your social status outside the community- in it- you are free. Honor God by taking off your hat. Even though both men and women are made in the image of, to reflect the characteristics of God, he’s focusing on men here and saying- in worship, and for the sake of your Greek brothers and the culture around you who may read it wrong, just take the hat off.

Women- when you take your freedom to the extreme of letting down your hair in the worship gathering, you not only distract all those around you- but you fail to honor and respect the man who loves you self-sacrificially as Christ loves the Church. You looking like someone with loose morals may not embarrass you- but it embarrasses him- and that’s not what the marriage relationship is about.

He says: Vs 8-9

Was woman an afterthought? Absolutely not. So in what sense is woman created “for” man? In the sense that he needed her. In other words, it wasn't woman who couldn't stand to be alone, it was the man who was crying himself to sleep every night on his huge pillow. 

Vs 10

So for this reason- for the reason that in marriage we are meant to help each other and not hurt each other- and making your husband bow his head in shame at the way you dress in public definitely falls under the “hurt him” category, for his sake and the ake of others around you- just wear the scarf.

Now... Angels? Paul says elsewhere that WE, male and female, will judge angels. That is, when all is said and done, we'll sit, men and women, in a position of authority over everything, with Jesus in a position of authority over us. 

So- the angels are watching us- they want to know- how do we do with authority- not authority of a husband over a wife (that’s not what’s in view here), but the authority of God over us all, and the authority formal and informal that we live with as people in community, in society. 

I've said this before- but I'm still working it out in my own life, so I'll say it again- I hate the rules of our Home Owners Association. I hate their arbitrariness, I hate the way they are enforced... I hate them. And, I need to obey them. 

Why? So- like we talked about a couple of weeks ago- I'm not the jerk neighbor who pisses his other neighbors off by disregarding rules that they may not mind, that they obey... and because they know who I am and what I'm about and they are wondering- does following Jesus make you more of a jerk, or more of a nice guy- more considerate and community minded or less?

But what Paul tells us is that it's not just they who are watching how we interact with formal and informal rules around us- it's those we'll someday ourselves be in authority over...

Now- this is the main point or the passage- there are a couple of more verses after that we'll look at, but here's the heart of this thing:

VS 11-12

Source: A circle of relationship that mirrors that of the Triune God. Woman sourced out of man. Now man sourced out of woman. And all sourced out of God. 

We are not independent of each other- Community is about mutual love and support- and while it’s also about freedom- it’s about freedom for each other, not freedom from each other.

VS 13-16

Jewish thought said that God made humans male and female and gave them authority over the world, and that though we abdicated it, it's in worship that we'll reclaim it. 

If that's what Paul is thinking here, then the thrust of his argument is that culturally we have differences between us and though we are equal in Christ, God still created us as male and female and in the worship of God, we do that which proclaims our freedom in Christ but doesn’t cross the line into bringing shame or embarrassment to Jesus or each other- we submit to one another.

And here's the thing- it doesn't matter if we're talking about marriage, or in the church or in our friendships- if our first concern is for "my rights"- we may win a battle here and there, but we've already lost the war. 

Let me wade into some dangerous waters here- Paul says some things here in ways I probably wouldn't say them. Of course, he was someone who had seen the risen Christ, who wrote under the inspiration of God... I'm just Bob. But regardless of whether I would say it the same way or not, he did. And passages like this offend some of you. You feel aggrieved. Back to that feeling on the back of your neck- a slight sting. That's just pride messing with you. Forget pride. It never helps- only hurts. 

I think it’s important that we not lose sight of what the overarching issue here was- each of us, man or woman, thinking first about what points to and speaks well of God, second what keeps the unity in community, and third and last- my rights.

Paul has been saying all along- love each other and serve each other. And sometimes we do that by doing some things for one another and sometimes we do it by NOT doing some things- by refraining. 

As I said at the beginning- I’m not going to ask the women of this community to cover their heads or the men of this community to take their hats off- those symbols don’t mean the same thing in our society- but I am going to ask you to be mindful of each other.

Men- in the way you talk about women, you better show respect. These are your sisters- not objects, not toys- You might think that you have the “right” to make certain jokes when it’s just the guys. And maybe you do. But in community, that’s not our primary concern. Respect your wife, your girlfriend, your sisters, your mother enough, even when they aren’t present, and especially when they are to watch what you say.

Women- this isn’t going to earn me any points, but I think its what Paul is saying and I think I need to say it too- for the sake of the men in the community- watch what you wear. No- you don’t have to wear a burka. But neither should everything be “on display.” There’s a healthy balance somewhere that respects your rights as a person and the rights of everyone else around you- the rights of the men in the community not to have to constantly be on guard and constantly be averting their eyes lest they be inadvertently be sent down some paths mentally they don’t intend to go down and the rights of the women of the community not to have to feel like they have to watch their husbands to see if he’s watching you.

Thinking of each other first might look very different for many of us: Some of us need to say less in the gatherings because we tend to talk a lot. Some of us need to say more- there are people who could benefit from our wisdom, but we’re letting our shyness get in the way of that. Some of us need to step up and lead and some of us need to learn how to follow. Some of you have gifts and talents that have never been offered to the community- you’re withholding. Each of us needs to ask- what’s my responsibility to the ones I’m walking with? And if each of us is mindful of our responsibility, the benefit is- rights get protected. But if each of us is only thinking of rights, responsibilities are left undone and unfulfilled and the community goes nowhere.

We’re going to pray, and then I’m going to ask you what you think...

Prayer

Wrap-up/discussion

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