Chloe Got Her Mac

A few weeks ago, I was asking about Mac laptops. Chloe, my oldest, was about to graduate from high school (the ceremony was last Thursday night in Rocky Hill, CT) and her mother and I had decided to get her a laptop for graduation.

The question of exactly what to get her, and then actually getting the computer, fell to me. I couldn't decide between PC and Mac. So I finally spilled the beans for Chloe's sake and asked her. As you know now, she said "Mac." But then the question was, "Well, which one? Outfitted with what stuff?"

James, I gotta tell you. I took all of your suggestions and the result was nothing short of perfect. My daughter is thrilled, to say the least. Thank you!

Now if she'll use this machine to do top-level college work at West Texas A&M and send her dad an occasional email . . . .

Why Gregory Came Back

On Tuesday, I talked about how Gregory of Nazianzus bolted when he was chosen a Christian leader. He eventually came back and took up the role to which he'd been ordained. Why did he come back?

In his "Second Oration," also called "On the Priesthood," he openly admits, "I did not, nor do I now, think myself qualified."

However, he also recognizes that God has arranged things so that "those for whom such treatment is beneficial, should be subject to pastoral care and rule, and be guided by word and deed in the path of duty; while others should be pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the church, those, I mean, who surpass the majority in virtue and nearness to God."

In other words, Christian leadership is divinely ordained. It's God's idea. And it is vital for the church.

Yes, leaders should and must be godly. They must have taken on the mind of Christ. But when there are such people in the body Christ, and when they are recognized by the community as having those qualities, then the candidate should take on the role that God has intended.

And the purpose of it all? Gregory answers:

"But the scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings,

to rescue it from the world and give it to God,
and to watch over that which is in his image, if it abides 

to take it by the hand, if it is in danger, 

or restore it, if ruined, 

to make Christ to dwell in the heart by the Spirit: 

and, in short, to deify, and bestow heavenly bliss upon one who belongs to the heavenly host."

Why Some Good People Run Away

Gregory of Nazianzus didn't want to be a priest. His priestly father, with a little help from his friends, I imagine, forcibly ordained him in 361 A.D.

Gregory immediately ran away. Literally. He retreated to his familiar contemplative life, and didn't come back to face the music until the next year. When he came home and embraced the role to which he'd been appointed he realized he had some explaining to do. His sermon-apology "On the Priesthood" is one of the first extended reflections on Christian ministry. And it's a great read.

In it, Gregory mentions several things that kept him from desiring the priesthood. Most of his reasons come straight from the category of "some things never change." Like this one:

"I was ashamed of all those others, who, without being better than ordinary people, nay, it is a great thing if they be not worse, with unwashen hands, as the saying runs, and uninitiated souls, intrude into the most sacred offices; and, before becoming worthy to approach the temples, they lay claim to the sanctuary, and they push and thrust around the holy table, as if they thought this order to be a means of livelihood, instead of a pattern of virtue, or an absolute authority, instead of a ministry of which we must give account."

Preachers, elders, teachers, leaders: Like all stewards, you must and will give account. Be holy. Others are watching, some with perhaps greater promise and potential than you. Will those people be drawn to or repelled from Christian leadership because of you? Think about it. Pray about it. It's eternally important.

Saturday in the Park

Greetings from New Haven, Connecticut. I flew into Hartford on Friday and will be up here for a few days. My Chloe graduates from Rocky Hill High School on Thursday night.

I have to tell you about Saturday. My kids and I have always said that "one of these days" we were going to go to one of the two "Bellizzi" restaurants down in Westchester county New York. Well, Saturday we did it. From Connecticut, we drove down to the "Bellizzi" in Larchmont, NY and had lunch. The place was so nice and the food was terrific. So we were relieved as well as satisfied.

Anyway, we started asking questions and found out we were only a mile or so from the train station. We wound up taking the train down to Grand Central and then caught a cab to Washington Square Park. It was a nice day in New York, which always means a lot of people are going to be out and you're going to see and hear some interesting stuff. Saturday was the best ever.

Among other things, we saw a jazz group with this one guy who played two trumpets at the same time. At another spot, there was a guy playing an electric sitar, accompanied by a friend on drums. Chloe took some pictures and I plan to post a few later this week.

This week I get to take a summer term course at Yale Divinity School: "Christian Leadership in the Early Church: Wisdom of the Great Tradition." I'm looking forward to it and will try to keep you posted about how it's going. I hope you have a great week.

Listening and Looking for What?

In his book From Survival to Celebration, Howard Hanchey tells this story:

"Two people were walking along a crowded sidewalk in a downtown business area. Suddenly one exclaimed: 'Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket.' But the other could not hear. He asked his companion how he could detect the sound of a cricket amid the din of people and traffic. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to listen to the voices of nature. But he didn't explain. He simply took a coin out of his pocket and dropped it to the sidewalk, whereupon a dozen people began to look about them. 'We hear,' said the zoologist, 'what we listen for.' "

Then he makes his point:

"Mission-minded Christians enjoy, more than anything else, the work of listening and looking for signs of God at work in the world. As a result, their common life rings with both a present strength and a future hope."

Pondering Paul

During the fall semester of 2006, I taught a course on the "Life and Teachings of the Apostle Paul."

A big bunch of questions immediately confront the teacher for a course like that. Trying to figure out how the class should go was one of the toughest jobs I've taken on in a long time.

For example, the two main sources for the topic are (1) the letters of Paul and (2) the Book of Acts. But the question of how those two sources might work together for someone who's trying to figure out "the life of Paul" . . . well, that's hard to answer.

Why? Because neither Luke (writing Acts) nor Paul (writing his letters) was particularly interested in a biography of Paul. This is just one of the many places where the actual character of the Bible doesn't fit so well with the interests of scholars and the procedures of the academy. But that's another post.

Next, what about the teachings of Paul? Should the students simply read the letters in chronological order (assuming that you have that figured out)? Or would it be better to take a thematic approach, dealing with different topics?

For what it's worth, my class walked through the letters in what I think might be their chronological sequence. But this naturally begged for some sort of explanation from me. And, it required a basic level of historical competence on the part of the students. (As much as I like my students, I have to say that such competence is uncommon). Why go in order of time if the students have no concept of the the overall story?

Since some of you teachers and preachers out there will wonder, Yes, we used the book by F.F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free, as the supplemental text. But I don't think I'll do that again.

Why not? Well, for one thing the book is a bit of a hodge podge. Bruce never set out to write a text about Paul. Most of the chapters in "Paul" were originally published as articles in a wide array of journals and magazines. I'm guessing that it was a publisher's idea to bring them all together, have Bruce fill in the gaps, and come out with a book on Paul. Not to mention that the Bruce book is a little beyond most of my 1st and 2nd year college students.

So, just in case I ever teach that course again, what can you tell me about how you might decide some of these questions? What approach might you take? What alternative to the Bruce text can you recommend? (For reasons explained above, Wright is wrong for my purposes). Anyone been a part of a great Paul class? Who taught it? And how?

Musings about the Museum

The brand new 27 million dollar Creation Museum was opened to the public last week. The 60,000 square-foot facility is located in northern Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati.

From what I gather, the museum is an extension of the Creation Science movement. It insists that a correct reading of the Bible, especially the Book of Genesis, leads to the conclusion that the cosmos was created in six 24-hour days, and that the earth is no more than 6,000 years old.

Creation Science also says that because most of the the scientific community has rejected God and the authority of His written Word, it has come up with an alternative that includes no god and no creative work. This has led, say the creationists, to the moral and spiritual decadence that we see in the world today; by rejecting the beginning of the Bible and its teaching about origins, modernistic science undermines all of the Bible, putting more and more distance between people and the one true God, who is the ultimate author of Scripture.

There were a few protesters at the grand opening. They argued that the sponsors and promoters of the museum begin with a narrow set of religious presuppositions. Then, in order to prop up their viewpoint, these believers abandon just about everything that astronomy, biology, geology, etc. are telling us about the age of the earth and how it came to be the way it is today.

The museum's director responded by saying that both sides of the argument begin with a set of beliefs. It's not as though the people who side with "real science" have no presuppositions about how to read the evidence. Both sides are reading the evidence, says the director. And, unabashedly, he has decided to read it through the lens of the Bible.

When I came across this story, I began to think of Christians who subscribe neither to Darwinism nor to Creation Science. I count myself one of them. Which is not to say that I reject all of mainstream science. And, of course, I don't want to deny what the Bible affirms.

In the spring of 1922, three years before the infamous "Scopes Monkey Trial," the great N. B. Hardeman spoke night after night to overflow audiences at the old Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. In his address on "The Bible" he said:

"Due to a failure to understand one or both, the Bible and science have been considered by many contradictory, and the fight has been on between them. But I have an idea that in the not far distance pseudo-scientists will have reached their limits, and then real science and the Bible will set out on convergent lines that will by and by come together. Forgetting, then, the bitterness of the past in the joy of newly found truth, they will clasp hands and together cast the crowns of their triumphs--triumphs of science and Christianity--at the feet of their common Author and God shall be proclaimed Lord of all."

Of course, I don't know how many years Hardeman thought it might take to get to "the not far distance." But it's now been 85 years since he said that. For all of his wisdom and eloquence, he can't play 21st-century quarterback like I can.

Maybe he underestimated the capacity of science to be not a servant of human good, but an aspect of human power. And maybe the ways in which people read poetic texts about primordial events need to be reconsidered.

Either way, I often find myself befuddled by it all. And I always wish I knew as well as I am known. What do you think?

Linda, My Friend

There is a side of us that longs to find a place, some quiet corner of this world, where joy is never mixed with pain, where delight is never interrupted by tragedy.

Christ and his closest followers have always known better. Jesus told his disciples that they would have to take up their crosses. Paul just accepted that "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And Peter knew that part of what Christians have been called to is suffering.

Within the last several years, I've decided that the people I respect the most are those who live in hope, deeply knowing the inseparable link between joy and pain; people who, living with the realities of the here and now, do not allow the sad or even tragic parts of life to bring on a permanent sense of ruin, as though God had nothing left to say; people who recognize that sometimes doing the will of God doesn't bring you health and wealth, but instead brings poverty and a cross.

Yes, all of the people I respect the most are tried and true Christians, brothers and sisters who have lived this Way for a long time.

Some of the most disadvantaged people I've ever known also happened to be the most joyful and hopeful. They have always lifted my spirits, not merely because of their attitudes, but because they serve to remind me that there is another spirit at work in our world besides the self-centered spirit of our age.

Linda Smith, my sister and friend, was one of those people. She died last Sunday and I've been sad all week because I loved her so and can't believe I won't get to hear her laugh down here ever again.

Maybe sometime I'll tell you more about her. But until then, make the time to be good and godly to somebody. It will do them good and bring glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Female Deacons, 4

Did the earliest Christian communities apppoint female as well as male deacons?

My own study suggests that before the 1860s, writers within the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement gave one answer: Yes. The New Testament churches ordained and employed not only elders and deacons, but deaconesses as well. So, they said, modern-day churches have Bible sanction and should do the same. Take a look:

"From Ro. 16:1 as well as from 1 Tm. 3:11 it appears that females were constituted deaconesses in the primitive church."
Alexander Campbell, "Order," Millennial Harbinger 6, no. 10 (1835), p. 507.
_________

"It is generally regarded, among our brethren, as an essential element in the restoration of the primitive order, to ordain, in every church, both deacons and deaconesses."

W. K. Pendleton, "Discipline, No. 7," Millennial Harbinger 5, no. 5 (1848), p. 292.
_________

"The Phoebes should . . . constitute a part of the diakonoi of every fully organized congregation."

Robert Milligan, "The Permanent Orders of the Christian Ministry -- Of Deacons," Millennial Harbinger 5, no. 11 (1855), p. 626.

Female Deacons, 3

In the previous post on this subject, my goal was a simple one. I wanted to show that there's plenty of evidence to indicate that at least some of the Judaisms in the ancient world recognized female leaders. There were, in fact, women who served as heads of the synagogues. And some synagogues had priestesses.

Again, here's the connection I want to make. More than anything else, it is the synagogue that provides the setting for the establishment and growth of earliest Christianity. Recording the first mission trip, Luke tells us "At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue" (Acts 14:1).

Evidently, Christian assemblies were even called "synagogues." Here I'm referring to the Greek text of James 2:2. Most English translations lose their nerve and say something like, "Suppose a man comes into your meeting . . . " (NIV). But the text quite literally says, "For if a man comes into your synagogue . . . "

When we put the facts together, what seems clear enough is that the earliest Christians wouldn't have blinked at the idea of a female appointee called a diakonos, an official "servant." If we have a problem with the idea, it must be remembered that it is our problem. It certainly would not have been theirs.

One reason I mention this has to do with an objection to my theory. That objection goes something like this: Because Judaism in particular, and the ancient world in general, were so very patriarchal, female appointees among the earliest Christians would have been unthinkable. But in light of the evidence, it should be obvious that this objection survives only by ignoring the facts. To the next point.

I mentioned in the first post that female deacons are known in early Christian history, the New Testament foreground. The earliest and best support for this view can be found in an ancient letter.

In the year 112 A.D., less than two decades after the death of the Apostle John, a Roman governor named Pliny (the Younger), wrote to his boss, the Emperor Trajan.

What I find especially interesting about their correspondence is that Pliny asks what he should do about one of the many odd and suspicious groups in the province he now governs. What should he do with people publicly accused of being Christians?

Trajan had previously sent Pliny to serve as governor of a rough and rebellious part of the Empire, the Province of Bythinia, a region where strange and superstitious clubs were common, one of them being the church. Pliny wants to know if the way he has handled things so far is the right way, or if there something more the Emperor can tell him regarding interrogations, trials, and sentencing.

In one section of his letter, Pliny explains that, in order to enforce his prohibition of political associations (here we must remember that the expression "Jesus is Lord" would have been heard by Romans as political, rather than religious, speech), Pliny had found it "necessary to extract the real truth" from the Christians. He had done this, he says, "with the assistance of torture, from two female slaves, who were styled deaconesses."

The significant Latin word in this passage, of course, is ministrae, rendered "deaconesses" in the standard English translation of the correspondence, and rightly so. Had Pliny wanted to say that these two women were simply members or were a part of the Christian community, he could and certainly would have said so without using what can only be understood as a sort of technical term: ministrae, which means "ministers" or as I would call them, "deaconesses."

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?

A Bit of Bibliography:

I do not currently have access to a copy of the standard text of Pliny which is found in the Loeb Classical Library. The Loeb series is so nice because you get the Latin or Greek text on one side of an opening, and translation into English on the opposite side. To read, in the Loeb edition, the letter quoted in this post, you would need to get this volume of the series.

In this post, I have quoted from an English translation of Pliny that I found on-line. You can read the letter I'm referring to here.

William Harlie Fewell (1928-2007)

We buried Harlie Fewell yesterday. His funeral was in the afternoon at the San Jacinto Church of Christ in Amarillo, a congregation where Harlie once served as a elder, and where he had been a member for at least fifty years. He and his wife, Lerline, were married for sixty-one years.

I didn't meet Harlie until January of 2006. By then, age and sickness had already reduced him to a shell of what he had been in his prime. Even so, his spirit shined through so that most anytime I talked with him, I would walk away thinking, "What a man."

Not long after we first met, Harlie mentioned to me that I could easily remember his name by imagining what you might put into a motorcycle: Harley fuel. That was him.

There's a certain species of Christian you might call salt-of-the-earth West Texan. Harlie personified that. He was a little guy with a huge heart whose phrases and gestures would make you smile and sometimes laugh out loud.

Behind all of the good-natured joking, however, there was this earnestness, this seriousness about life that would have led Harlie to die trying to do the right thing.

One of Paul Faulkner's standard lines is, "Act better than you feel." Harlie had mastered that. The last time I ever saw him alive, he was wearing the neck brace that held up his head and was carrying the oxygen bottle he needed for breath. He had come to the nursing home to (get this) help conduct the Wednesday-afternoon devotional for those old folks.

At the end of the devotional, like a sideshow barker, Harlie stood up, opened his arms, and raised his voice: "Everything's been great today! The singing was good. And Leonard gave us a good message. And we're glad you came out." Then, with gusto, he led the group in his trademark song:

Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me
Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God is he
Saving me, keeping me, from my sin and shame
Wonderful is my redeemer, Praise his name

We sang it through twice, as always.

During the funeral one of Harlie's sons, Glen, remarked that his dad never thought himself worthy, that he sometimes doubted his commitment, whether he was acceptable to the Lord. Glen had reminded his father that Jesus Christ had already taken care of all that. Harlie agrees today. May his memory be for a blessing.

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." --Revelation 14:13

Female Deacons, 2

In the first post on this subject I hinted that in my view the New Testament speaks of female deacons. I also mentioned that this view is apparently consistent with

(1) NT background
(2) early Christian history
(3) the views of early reformers in the Restoration Movement

Not wanting to drag this out or make anyone's eyes glaze over, I do want to identify a few bits of evidence that might jump start your own thinking. Consider the first item: the New Testament background.

I begin with the assumption that the most significant aspect of NT background is the Judaism(s) leading up to and including the time of Jesus and the earliest Christians. And what do we see when we examine the synagogues of that period? Plenty to suggest that females in official roles would have been nothing new to those folks:

1. For example, a Greek inscription discovered at Smyrna (Izmir) and that dates from the early Christian centuries reads as follows:

"Rufina, a Jewess and head of a synagogue (Greek: archisynagogue), built this tomb for her freedmen and her house-slaves . . . "

2. Another text comes from Myndos (in Caria, western Turkey) and reads as follow:

[The beginning is lost] . . . . "of Theopempte the head of a synagogue
(archisynagogue) and her son Eusebius."

3. A third comes from Kisamos (on the island of Crete):

"Here (lies) Sophia of Gortyn, an elder (presbytera) and female head of a synagogue (archisynagogissa) of Kisamos. (May the) memory of (this) just woman (be) forever. Amen."

As heads of synagogues these women would have been, in the words of rabbi and scholar Shaye Cohen, "responsible for supervising the services, specifically for deciding who should read the Bible, lead the prayers, and give the sermon. The archisynagogue was something between a president and a rabbi."

In addition to the three quotes given here, there is inscriptional evidence from the same period indicating that at least some Jews of that time recognized certain women as priestesses. Impressive indeed. But it's my goal here simply to show that, if the earliest Christian communities appointed female deacons, this would have been no break with the Judaism of that time.

Source: Cohen, Shaye J. D. "Women in the Synagogues of Antiquity" Conservative Judaism 34 (November-December 1980), pp. 23-29.

Reactions? Comments? Criticisms?