“I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.”                       (I Timothy 2:12)

This week marks a significant anniversary for the United Methodist Church. Friday was 50 years ago to the day when our denomination granted full clergy rights for women. It happened at General Conference on May 4, 1956 in Minneapolis. 

I was finishing my junior year in high school. The only preachers I ever knew growing up were men. We had one woman on the program staff of our church. She was a long-tenured deaconess. 

Prior to 1956, women were ordained and appointed in our denomination, but they were not equal. They were called “local elders” instead of full elders. That meant there were no guarantees. If a woman was a local elder at a Methodist church and a man wanted the church, she could be bumped at any time by a male elder. There is one story in our tradition of where that almost happened, except the congregation protested so loudly that the bishop and the male elder relented. 

May 4, 1956! The first woman given those rights was one here in Pennsylvania. She was a missionary overseas, and she was granted the right to full eldership in absentia. 

This coming summer, 1500+ clergywomen will gather in Chicago to mark the anniversary, to worship, to honor the past, and to look ahead. Their theme is this one: “A Courageous Past, a Bold Future.” 

For many centuries women were considered second class in the church. Men used the Bible literally to make that decision. One prime example of that is the text for today. Can you imagine what it would be like to take that text literally? Some Christians still do. A few denominations still do. The text reads, “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” (I Timothy 2:12)  

These are purported to be the words of Paul. However, most scholars believe they may not be Paul’s words. Rather they are words of a disciple or a student of Paul. Other words in the New Testament reading are more certainly those of Paul. Here is one that stands out: “There is neither slave nor free, neither mail nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.” And then there is the important final word, “We are all heirs of the same promise.”  (from Galatians 3:23-29)  

Eugene Peterson translates the passage this way in his version: “In Christ’s family, there can be no division into male and female. Among us you are all equal.” I doubt that we can appreciate how radical those words were in the first century AD. 

Let me give you a few bits of information about the history of this issue. John Wesley first licensed a woman to preach in 1761. It wasn’t until 1924 in the United States, however, that United Methodist women were ordained as local elders for the first time. The first female bishop was elected in 1980. Her name was Marjorie Matthews. (One of the B rooms here in the church is named for her.) Today there are 16 active women bishops and 4 retired women bishops in our denomination. Later this year a woman bishop will become the president of the Council of Bishops. 

In my tenure here at Christ Church we have had three women clergy on the staff—Sharon Everhart, Lisa Grant and Penny Adams, plus we have two deacons now, in the person of Linda Williams and Peggy Osborne. A former member of this church entered the ministry out of this congregation, and is now a district superintendent. Some of you may know her. She is Pat Harbison. A woman bishop will be the preacher at the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference this year. Finally in mid-October, a woman clergy will preach here on Thank Offering Sunday. She was a member of my youth group in my previous congregation! 

Today more women than men are preparing for the ministry. This is particularly true at Duke and Perkins, in the south. Today 20% of all United Methodist clergy are women. I know at least 5 clergywomen who are or have been lead pastors of larger United Methodist churches. Two of those are now district superintendents. 

Over these past 50 years women have become more accepted and recognized in the ministry. Garlinda Burton, who was the General Secretary of the Commission on Status and Role of Women, writes, “Our previous pastor was a woman of many gifts. When it was announced that she was leaving and that a man would become our new senior pastor, a 9-year-old boy in my Sunday school class said, “Miss Garlinda, I didn’t know men could be preachers.” 

So what do we learn from this history? What do we learn from this process? Our United Methodist tradition is based on some solid Biblical principles. Let me present some of these to you today for consideration. 

WOMEN HAVE A FULL ROLE TO PLAY 

First of all, women have a full role to play in the Bible. It’s probably a fuller role than the Bible openly admits. There is no male exclusivity on the Kingdom pathway. Absolutely none! Clearly most of the Biblical society was a patriarchal society. Thus the story is somewhat inevitably slanted toward men. Men have felt themselves to be in charge for a long time. 

Dan Brown’s popular book The daVinci Code makes the claim that males suppressed information about Jesus and about the disciples in the early church. That did not happen. There is no evidence that it did. I suppose it could have happened. But remember, The daVinci Code is fiction. It never claims to be anything else. 

We know that women were involved in the itinerant ministry of Jesus. Some of them probably gave financial support to his ministry and that of the disciples. It’s just that women disciples were not elevated to importance by the writers of the New Testament. 

Women were the first to witness to the Resurrection. Frances Maloney writes,

One of the most outstanding features of the gospel’s treatment of women characters is the universal presence of women at the empty tomb, and their being the first to proclaim the resurrection. It is found in all four gospels. 

Women have a vital role to play in the Biblical story. In the early church, many women emerged as leaders. Some of our United Methodist circles are named after such significant women. 

GOD’S CALL TO MINISTRY 

Secondly, God’s call to ministry is clearly to women and to men. Again, there is no male exclusivity on the path to the Kingdom. In the Old Testament God called Deborah to be a prophet to Israel. God called Esther to lead her people. 

In the Book of Acts, Peter quotes an important Old Testament passage when he says, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy.” That is, men and women will speak about God and for God. 

We certainly have affirmed some of that here at Christ Church. All the women on the staff are called out of this congregation. In fact, I give a piece of advice to the first time senior ministers when we have our conference here each year. I tell them the way to build a staff is to hire a bunch of bright, pushy women and get out of the way! Several women have entered full time ministry out of this community of believers. 

I look now over the young women of this church. Might God call you to this work in the months or years ahead? 

At one time women were not thought too highly of in ministry. One of the earliest ordained United Methodist women reports that when her appointment was announced, a man in the congregation said, “There will be no skirts in the pulpit of my church!” He later became one of her greatest supporters. In the past 20 years the number of women in ministry has grown rapidly. 

In the “Gen-X” generation (20 to 30 year olds), a growing number of women clergy are seen as dynamic movement of the Holy Spirit. In fact, God may be calling more women than men to ministry. The Holy Spirit may be doing something very different today. 

CONSIDER SPIRITUAL GIFTS 

In fact, the key to all of this may lie in both the call to ministry and in the spiritual gifts. When God calls someone, it’s either because God sees the spiritual gifts in you, or God wants you to develop those gifts in service to the Kingdom. It may be that more women than men have the gifts needed today. Every believer has spiritual gifts, both men and women, but increasing numbers of women may have the gifts needed for this time. 

One of my favorite television shows right now is probably about to be tossed out. It’s the show entitled “Commander-in-Chief” starring Geena Davis. I like the show because I believe that the United States is ready for a woman president—perhaps sooner than later. In the last episode of the show that I saw, the vice president resigns due to the health of his wife. In his resignation he says to the president, “Ma’am, you have a deep compassion.” He implies that that is a compassion that the country sorely needs right now. I would agree.

Quite possibly women have gifts through the church that the world needs. 

Two years ago a friend of mine edited a book of sermons entitled “The First Fruits.” We asked a number of people to write stewardship sermons. The book was published by Abingdon Press. I wrote an introduction. Curiously, as I read over the manuscript, the sermons that piqued my interest the most were those of women. Five of the fourteen sermons in the volume are by women. 

Maybe the Holy Spirit is saying, “I need the gifts of women today.” Maybe the Spirit is saying, “I need persons who don’t have to make every decision.” 

There’s a story I like to tell about a man who was sitting in a medical office, waiting for his time to visit the doctor. Behind the closed door he could hear the doctor shouting. “Tetanus! Diphtheria! Smallpox! Typhoid!” Finally he said to the nurse sitting outside, “What in the world’s going on in there?” She replied, “Oh, don’t worry about him. He just likes to call all the shots.” 

Maybe we don’t need those who like to call all the shots. Rather we need those with some uniquely feminine gifts to heal a broken world. 

There’s another story about two people who were talking after a new minister’s first Sunday at the church. One said to the other, “How did you like him?” Came the reply, “I liked him a lot. He asked God for things our previous minister didn’t even know God had available.” 

When God calls, God calls forth special gifts. Maybe some of the most needed gifts today are in women. I see a greater role for women in ministry ahead. 

The director of admissions at Perkins School of Theology says, “The number of young women who feel a strong call to ministry today far exceeds that of young men.” Maybe God is trying to say something to the church. 

There’s a wonderful story about eleven people who were hanging on a rope under a helicopter. Ten of them were men. One was a woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry them all, so they decided that one of them had to leave. Otherwise they were all going to fall. 

They were not able to name the person that should go until the woman finally gave a very touching speech. She said that she would voluntarily let go of the rope because as a woman, she was used to giving up everything for her husband and her children, or for men in general, and was used to always making sacrifices with little in return. 

As soon as she finished her speech, all the men started clapping! 

I applaud the gifts that women bring to the ministry. And I invite you to consider God’s call—to men and to women—for a new day ahead.