A very long time ago, in what seems as though it must have been another lifetime, I taught a womans Adult Christian Education Class at our CLB1. I taught on the books of Ruth and Esther. I began my planning with a reading of the stories in the Bible, but quickly knew that I needed some supporting material. I got some light reading (Lucado, Wiersbe, etc.) on my own, but asked our youth pastor/friend/mentor for some recommendations. He gave me the hard stuff. The Word Biblical Commentary, volume 9 by Frederic W. Bush. Whew … that’ll make your hair curl.

Thus began my first encounter with Biblical Hebrew. I skipped over a lot of it. At first. But then I began stumbling through the parts that dealt with the verbs and the tenses … and it seemed unintelligible. And I hated it. It was a discipline. But slowly it began to make a certain amount of sense to me. And I began to understand the book of Ruth at a whole other level that had never been available to me before. This was a story that I have always loved. It is a beautiful romance tucked in the midst of ashes and but now it has been cut and polished for me like a raw jewel.

As I fought my way through studying and presenting this material to my class, I grew to love Ruth even more. I also learned quite a bit about some of the traditions that have grown up around the story in the intervening several thousand years since it happened. I learned that the megillah (or scroll) of Ruth is read during the Feast of Pentecost or First Fruits. This is the Feast which celebrates the harvest and which celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to the Hebrews. It is the feast which commemorates God making a commitment to live in community with His people forever.

So, why, might you ask, is this book about a foreign girl coming to Israel read during this feast? Well … the answer lies in many places. The first lies in Ruth’s declaration to Naomi early on in the story, “Where ever you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God Your land will be my land.” She gives up everything about herself, to become a nobody in a strange land and take care of her mother-in-law. It is a gorgeous picture of love in the face of adversity. It is also a foreshadowing of who Jesus is and who He calls us to be and it sets up the story to present to us the concept of chesed.

Chesed is a Hebrew word for which there is no precise English translation. The best we can come up with is covenental loyalty in the context of merciful lovingkindness … which is, to say … a mouthful! It is an aspect of God for which we do not have a very good lens. But we do have the book of Ruth, which is replete with pictures of what chesed looks and acts like. Chesed is found in Ruth’s declaration to Naomi in Ruth 1:15-16; then when Ruth follows through on that declaration we see chesed in action. Chesed is found in Boaz’s loving care and commitment to Ruth and Naomi throughout the harvest season and in the fact that he would chose Ruth (a Moabite) and work to marry her, when he might have passed her off on to another relative or ignored her altogether.

So, indeed this is a fitting story to tell on the anniversary each year that we celebrate the giving of the Ten Commandments. It is about more than the Commandments. It’s about God and His desire to live in community with us. He limited himself, and gave of himself in order to hang with us.

Here is the cool thing about Shavuot. The Jewish community celebrates this as a commemoration of the giving of the covenant; the beginning of their relationship with God. The Christian community also celebrates Pentecost and we both use the same name. We celebrate this day as a commemoration of the giving of the new covenant; the Holy Spirit. On Sinai we were given the Law, but after the crucifixion and resurrection, on the same day we were given the Holy Spirit to continue our redemptive, covenental, merciful relationship with God.

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Shavuot begins this evening at sunset. It is these moments which cause me to reflect that our separate religions might just be a human construct and not divine. It brings to mind the Eastern Orthodox tenet that I can only know where I might find God, I do not know where S/He is not. So, whether you are Jewish or Christian, I pray you spend the next day or so reveling in a God who ripped the seams of time to be with us. Here are some thoughts that are pertinent to Pentecost from other bloggers.

First … read about moving from desolation to consolation at emerging sideways. It is a wonderful picture of redemption and provision like the story of Ruth, or the Hebrews. Desolation and consolation.

Second … read the story of Ruth again here at Velveteen Rabbi with a little bit of commentary. Beautiful.

Last … here is a poem from Rachel Barenblatt at Velveteen Rabbi to prepare you for Shavuot … it’s really quite lovely:

LONGING

I’m thirsty for davening
in this gritty desert
of car wrecks and cell phones.
Every person killed
anywhere
keeps the promised land
blocked to our passage.

Who knows the path
to short-circuit
this wandering?
Some days manna falls
but others we’re back
to toil, scratching
like chickens in the dirt.

If I was there at Sinai
to sign the ketubah
God offered, black fire
on white, most days
I don’t remember.
Everyone forgets the unity
we started with.

This year
when our anniversary comes,
God, I want to stay up
all night
to feel the letters
traveling up my hands
into my heart.

I want to sing holy at dawn
with the birds
in the willow behind shul
who open and close each day
with praise.

Not too long ago a book made its appearance in our home. It arrived with the LightMom; a gift from the GrandPea to his oldest grandson (LightBoy). It’s called the Dangerous Book for Boys.  At about the same time, Julie Clawson wrote about some serious misgivings she has about the book.  She makes some points that I’ve given some thought to.  But I’m not terribly concerned about them.  We’ve all been reading the book, including LightMom, who wished that the book had been around when she was a girl.  I want to build the crystal radio with the LightChildren, and I’m teaching LightBoy to quilt, LightGirl plays ice hockey, it would be fair to say that LightHusband does more cooking than I do.  So we tend to be fairly gender neutral in our house.  I worry about those books in terms of our culture, but also know that on a case by case basis I have more control over how my children perceive them than I previously recognized.

Then I took LightGirl and one of her friends to play hockey one afternoon and the friend (nicknamed the Beast by her team) told a story about her middle school softball team.  It seems that the girls softball team and the boys baseball team share equipment room space and practice time.  They do not, however, share a liking for each other.  So they have taken to playing somewhat mean jokes on one another.  This is not done in a spirit of fraternity, but in getting even, and ill will.  The latest prank was that  the girls broke into the equipment room and tied tampons and pads all over the boys equipment.  They thought this was hilarious.  I guess if you’re 13 it is.  What was disturbing to me is that the girls coach aided and abetted them in this endeavor.  LightGirl brought the incident up with me this morning.  We talked about it.  I told her I found it somewhat disturbing that the coach assisted in this.  I also told her that my biggest problem was that for centuries men have found women’s menstrual blood and the products they use to deal with it unclean and the butt of jokes.  So the girls were just perpetuating that myth and denigrating themselves by playing that joke.  They were, in a sense, further putting themselves down.

Without menstrual blood, we would not have the human race for much longer.  It is that monthly cleansing of the womb that allows pregnancy and prolonging our species.  It’s high time we acknowledged that far from being unclean and a joke, it is what allows us to be and continue being.  It is what makes us intensely feminine, female and other and beautiful.  And I am far more concerned about those underlying centuries old issues that women and girls continue to perpetuate as well as men.  May we learn to find beauty in these things as well.

Today is/was my Grammy Openshaw’s birthday. I loved this day every year. Our birthdays were very closely timed, mine being but a few days away. She died in late April the year she was to have turned 80 … that was a very bad year … it was almost 20 years ago now.

My Lily of the Valley is in full bloom right now right next to my front door and its scent is heavenly. It reminds me of Grammy O every time I go in and out. It is the flower for May girls everywhere.

Grammy was a lady, in every sense of the word. She was tiny (she only ever got to 5’3″), but she filled a room. She ruled my Grampy with a loving hand and he was 6’2″. She let him think he was in charge, but we all knew differently. She drove 1969 Mercury Cougar fastback. She and Grampy bought it brand new and she drove it til the day she died. That was funny, seeing my tiny little grandmother driving a classic sports car. But she did it elegantly.

She taught me to sew, embroider, cook, and type. She could out type an electric typewriter back in the day. I spent hours every vacation laboring over “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” With the onset of computers and keyboards, I am everlastingly grateful.

She took me to church occasionally in an attempt to overcome the wickedness of her daughter (tongue in cheek, LightMom). She was a model for me in many ways of perserverance, love, balance, and keeping ones head in times of crisis.

Happy Birthday, Grammy. I really miss you.

Saturday morning’s losing hockey games were topped off with a award for mom! What’s that you say? Was I awarded most geeky hockey player mom? Best hair? Stinkiest hockey bags? Certainly I was in the running for any of those … especially stinkiest equipment bag. Peee yew!!

No, I arrived home to an e-mail from Phil Wyman at Square No More (aka, Phil The Why-Man), informing me that I have been awarded a Thinking Blogger Award!! Well. Check. That’s one evil plot I’ve fulfilled. Hehehehe … j/k. On a serious note, I am honored and more than a little stunned. It would seem that I am becoming more and more like my father (as the LightChildren say, “That’s what Grampy does, he thinks.”). So, thank you, Phil. I do appreciate the compliment and encouragement more than you know.

Now it is my turn to pass it forward as they say and award 5 more bloggers who make me think. So here are my Five Amazing Muses:

• Igneous Quill – Adam Gonnerman
• More than Stone – Jamie Stone
• One for the Road – Paul Mayers
• Present Matters – Patrick Oden
• Swinging from the Vine – Makeesha Fisher

Your mission (if you are one of the tagged), should you choose to accept it, is to pay it forward as well … the rules are simple and they are three:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is the gold version and the silver).
Oh … and enjoy the new blogs you get to read 😀

As he is wont to do, LightHusband sent me the link to a mildly interesting article from a local website this morning.  I read through it and we commented back and forth.  I noticed tho, that there were some links in the sidebar to other articles.  One looked promising, so I clicked on it … and began reading … and my blood pressure began to skyrocket.

It’s an article in which former Congressman, latterday presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is being interviewed by that paragon of Christian virtue, James Dobson.  Apparently, Gingrich appeared on Dobson’s radio broadcast for two days.  I tried to find a written transcript of the interviews, but Focus on the Family only makes audio available.  So I was left with the article alone.  I’ve done a search and can’t find anything more on this.

The upshot is that at the very same time that Mr. Gingrich was leading a criminal investigation of Bill Clinton’s extramarital affair in the White House, he was also having an affair.

Here is his attempt to explain that twisted fairytale:

“The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge,” the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton’s 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. “I drew a line in my mind that said, ‘Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept … perjury in your highest officials.”

Huh?

Now please do not write to me in comments and remind me that the charges that Clinton faced were perjury.  I’m not that thick.  What I am struggling to reconcile in my mind is that in the media (which Mr. Gingrich very clearly used to great advantage and delight) the battle was over moral issues.  Perjury was a sleight of hand to get the whole thing into the court system and thus before Congress for impeachment.

I would really love to read Mr. Dobson’s response to this, but I have neither the time nor the stomach to listen to an hour’s worth of religious treacle to get there.  I remember what his response to Mr. Clinton’s “moral failure” was.  I remember that even when Mr. Clinton finally acknowledged it and discussed it in light of his faith, the howls about moral terpitude and failure from the likes of Dobson and his followers drowned out any possibility that grace or mercy would be extended to him.

I read the article and the cynical me had to wonder.  Rudy Guiliani is making a clean breast of his infidelity.  Now Newt.  It seems to me that they are controlling the conversation and coming clean in such a way as to make sure that the religious right will swallow it.  So that it will be palatable to them.

But there’s a larger picture here.   A picture that is somewhat revolting.  In part of the picture we see people who are willing to tolerate gross hypocrisy and dishonesty in leadership … as long as they display fealty to the proper channels and organizations for it.  In another part of the picture (and this has never been part of the conversation) we see men who use women to further their sense of self worth.

I wonder how the conversation would change if we began to look at these “moral failures” in terms of abuse rather than infidelity.  It may be a gross overstatement, but hang in there with me for a moment if you will please.  In our culture, as in many cultures, we have made women into objects of desire.  In the eyes of many men, they are no longer persons, but things to be used to scratch an itch.  Objects or things may be used and discarded … things such as sewing machines, automobiles, boats, and the like.  You’ll notice my list included large pricey items that people might form a close emotional attachment to, but when it becomes old and no longer useful, they will throw it away and get a newer, more sexy model.  They may feel a twinge of regret, the occasional bite of nostalgia for the old days, but the new car or boat or sewing machine is just sooo cool, the old one can hardly compare and besides, she’s such a bee-yotch.  A nag.  Always needing some repair and more money.  Hmmm … have I slipped a rail?

Women are not things.  They are not objects to be used at one’s will.  Whether that will be for a series of nights, or for a few years.  When men do that they are abusing their fellow created beings.  They are (if you will allow the use of some Scripture here):

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  Romans 1:24-45

Despite the fact that women are created by God, when men use and abuse them, they have become something else.  Something created by man.  Men have re-created women into their own image, rather than the image of God.  Is it any wonder that they then feel no compunction about using her, abusing her and then throwing her away?

When men such as Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Dobson are able to brush away infidelity that was occurring at the same time as another infidelity that caused a national crisis by splitting hairs, they have “… exchanged the truth of God for a lie, …” and continued the lie that objectifies and abuses women.

Know the Truth and it will set you free.

You’ve been warned … squeamish guys … should. not. read. any further. I’m not going to say that this is for women only, but guys … you’ve been warned.

Okay.

I read and contribute to Emerging Women. There was a post on there called TamPontification. Interesting huh?

I thought so too.

It was a post calling attention to the plight of homeless women and their lack of access to feminine hygiene products. Cool. Okay, not so cool in real life. But. Yeah. I never thought about that.
And … lo and behold, there is a company who is doing something about it. Seventh Generation has a site where you can learn more and donate to the cause. For free. It’s called TamPontification.

Here’s the verbiage on the Donate page:

Women’s shelters in the U.S. go through thousands of tampons and pads monthly, and, while agencies generally assist with everyday necessities such as toilet paper, diapers, and clothing, this most basic need is often overlooked. You and I may take our monthly trips down the feminine care aisle for granted, but, for women in shelters, a box of tampons is five dollars they can’t spare.

When you go to the Donate page and click on the virtual donation, Seventh Generation will donate a box of tampons and a box of pads to a womans shelter in the state you specify. And all it costs is two mouse clicks. What could be easier? BrickDude do not answer that!

I’ve promised a book review over at Emerging Women (I’ve cross-posted this there as well). I’ve been dragging my feet. You see, I promised to review books I read over 3 years ago. That was a somewhat overwhelming promise to make. Now I find myself having to re-skim them in order to write coherently about them. I also find that some of my basic assumptions have changed. In short, I thought this would be easy and no … now it’s not.

Then I realized, hey … this is my review. I get to make up the rules. What fun! So I’ve changed my own rules. I’m going to write a couple of collective reviews. I’m reviewing books that comprise some of the recent literature on women in ministry. So I decided to group them. Here’s the first group: Paul, Women & Wives by Craig S. Keener, What Paul Really Said About Women by John T. Bristow, Why Not Women? by Loren Cunningham and Ten Lies the Church Tells Women by J. Lee Grady.

This group of books is concerned (in the main) with arguing the point from a Biblical standpoint that the traditional exegesis of Paul is mis-guided. Each author does a great job of sussing out the different strands from the main texts that have been used over the centuries to subjugate women and keep them in a subordinate role to men in the church and until recently, in society as well.

As I was re-reading/skimming these books, I had a sudden insight. The traditional or heirarchical perspective is grounded in the notion that women were created in the subordinate position and that was further exacerbated by the Fall and resulting Curse (Genesis 2 and 3). People writing, arguing and living in this paradigm read the Old and New Testaments with a particular eye. This eye says that women are and always have been subordinate to men, beginning in the Beginning and up til now … it’s just the way “things” are.

People writing, arguing and living in an egalitarian paradigm read the Creation account and see something different. They see man and woman created equally, albeit somewhat differently. They go on to read particularly the Gospels and Epistles of Paul with a markedly different perspective. This perspective is one that looks at redemption of the original created order. If, in the beginning, God created Adam and Eve as equals, the Fall and resulting Curse, corrupted that. The egalitarian paradigm is grounded in the notion that the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ was sufficient to redeem the Fall. It is sufficient to return our relationships to the original created order; that is, that men and women are equal in form, status and function. The much maligned epistle accounts of St. Paul are read from the informing perspective of this paradigm.

These four books are prime examples of rethinking, rereading and re-learning what exactly the Apostle Paul meant in his instructions that women should be silent, not teach, not be put in positions of leadership over men, etc. Each book takes a methodical look at a variety of the primary proof texts (Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 5:21-33, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 1 Corinthians 14:33-35, and 1 Timothy 2:8-15). Each takes a close look two or more of these texts and concludes that Paul has been misquoted, misunderstood and generally misused for just shy of two millenia. They are well written. I’d highly recommend any or all of them and one more which I don’t have in my possession as I borrowed it from the library, Good News For Women, by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis. The main difference is in readability. “Ten Lies” was written with a broad audience in mind. It is an easy read, the logic easy to follow, and anyone with a highschool education can profit and learn from it. “What Paul Really Said” and “Why Not Women?” were written to a more sophisticated audience. One might find these books on the reading list for an undergraduate class in the 100 or 200 level. “Paul, Women & Wives” and “Good News For Women” are written as if intended to be texts for graduate level classes. You can pick and choose among them according to how intense you wish your study to become. To get a well-rounded picture, it’s probably best to read at least two.

While they all end up in a similar place (women are equal to men and have the rights and responsibilities of men to leadership in ministry), each heads out in a slightly different perspective, or perhaps it is that the goals of the respective authors are slightly different. This is in some cases reflective of the audience to which each book is projected. Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) writes his goal eloquently:

As I envision this, I see every little girl growing up knowing she is valued, knowing she is made in the image of God, and knowing that she can fulfill all the potential He has put within her. I see the Body of Christ recognizing leaders whom the Holy Spirit indicates, the ones whom He has gifted, anointed, and empowered without regard to race, color or gender. This generation will be one that simply asks, “Who is it that God wants?” … This new generation will not be bound by traditions hindering women from obeying God’s call the way my generation has. Instead they will take a fresh look at the Word of God, knowing that the Holy Spirit will never do anything that contradicts His Word. As this emerging generation studies the Bible free of cultural blinders, they will see that the Lord has always used both women and men to proclaim the Good News and to prophesy the Word of God to their generations. (p. 13-14)

John Bristow had too many questions and not enough answers. He describes the beginning of his quest in words that echo Albert Einstein, “I challenged an axiom.”

In a sense, I sought an answer to these questions about Paul’s teachings by challenging another axiom: that what we think Paul meant is really what Paul intended us to think.

I began with Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, in which he states that wives are to be subject to their husbands and that husbands are to be as a head to their wives. Now, Paul’s letters are in Greek. Theoretically, if I took our English translation of his words and translated them back into Greek, my words should be similar to Paul’s original words. But when I tried doing this, such was not the case, not at all! In reality, the words that Paul chose to use imply different ideas from those conveyed by the English words we use to translate his writings. (p. xi … preface)

Craig Keener takes a slightly different tack and describes the pinnacle of the argument (for me):

Equal treatment for women (or, indeed, for any people made in God’s image) is not, as some would argue, an agenda borrowed from the secular world. The subordination of women, on the contrary, is an idea practiced (often in brutal ways) by most non-Christian cultures in history. It could thus be easily argued that the subordination of women in Christian history was borrowed from the “secular world,” and that it tells us more about the societies in which those Christian rules were formulated than about God’s eternal purposes. As I hope this book will help to demonstrate, treating women as men’s equals was far closer to the spirit of Paul than making them subordinate. This is significant, since it is to Paul that the alleged repression of women in the New Testament is most often attributed. (p. 10)

It is Keener’s perspective that finally puts to rest the heirarchical notion that women are or ever needed to be subordinate to men. My observation has been (as a budding armchair anthropologist) that throughout time and across most cultural boundaries men have viewed women with suspicion and distrust. In many cultures, women remain in a subordinate position such that the rate of abortions for female fetuses is far higher in many Third World countries (7,999 female to 1 male in one hospital in India alone). Women and girls are a lightly held commodity.

Thus it is that I simply do not believe that the God who came and proclaimed as his mission to “set captives free,” would maintain captivity for fully half of the world’s population. The God who occupies the Alpha and the Omega of the entire universe does not create secondhand goods. He does not leave us in darkness or bound by the traditions of humans. He came to upset that apple cart. Do not believe anything different for one moment. And if you need further proof, read one of these books. And celebrate equality with your friends regardless of gender today.