Notes: This is a sermon I originally gave at the Ringwood Salvation Army Corps in March of this year at their contemporary service. The congregation was about 30-40 people, and a mix of Christians well along on the journey, new Christians and non Christians so I did my best to make it accessible to all those groups. Like any sermon, when delivering it I do have a tendency to diverge from the text but this is the essential structure.
Had I been aware of the term I would have spoken about the Myrrhbearers.
Like any sermon given in limited time I was unable to go into as much detail as I would have liked, hence some sections may appear to gloss over certain subjects. That is the nature of preaching, but hopefully I have managed to remain faithful to the Biblical truths,
One of the criticisms that is often levelled against Christianity is that it is a sexist religion, a religion that helps to oppress women and reduces them to the role of second class citizens. If we look back on the history of the Church it is understand why people might have that sort of perception. We can see this in some of the writings of the early church fathers such as Tertullian who spoke of woman as “the devil’s gateway,” “the unsealer of that forbidden tree,” and “she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.” and Augustine, whose quote about the segregation of women I decided was inappropriate to mention if I wanted to be invited back. We can also see this from the Middle Ages through to more recent times where the Church was used as a way of disenfranchising woman and any female who did not fit the narrow stereotypes of what was acceptable was viewed with distrust and suspicion
But, as in many other issues like slavery or racism, what the Church has taught and what is in the Bible is not always the same thing. So, the question I hope to answer tonight is, “Is God a sexist pig or has His word been twisted by sexist pigs?” Read the rest of this entry »