I once spoke at a women’s event where a man, who was helping prepare food, thought it enormously funny that I was both a lady speaker and a Southern Baptist.
He joked that he would turn his chair around every time I opened my mouth, as famously happened at the Southern Baptist Convention when Anne Graham Lotz spoke.
I have thought of that jester everytime I saw news about the SBC, Albert Mohler, and women elders this week.
I could have defended myself by saying that I wasn’t preaching, that I wasn’t addressing a gathering of the church, and that I had no spiritual authority over the gathering, but instead, I smiled politely and tried to avoid looking at the kitchen.
It stings a little to be told that Jesus’s command to Peter “Feed my sheep,” “Tend my lambs,” isn’t meant for me, though as a pastor’s wife, a mother, and a Christian, I do my fair share of feeding and tending.
When I have studied Peter’s reinstatement in detail, I see that it has to do with Peter’s audacious claim during the Last Supper that he loved Christ more than all of the other disciples. After his denial, that assertion had been tamed out of him, and he humbly assented only to “phileo” love, not “agape.” He had been humbled.
If I pridefully insisted on preaching with authority, where would be my “agape”? Where would be my submission to my husband? Submission within the Body of Christ preserves submission inside the family order, allowing the elders of the church, the husbands and fathers, to fulfil their God-given roles, giving them the opportunity to step into “agape,” which must be commanded because it doesn’t come naturally.
One Sunday morning, I was feeding and tending to my children. The dogs barked, and I realized that there was a belligerent, inebriated man outside my front door. I spoke to him through the window, telling him to go away. He became violent. He made threats. He began to tear at the window screens, doors, and garage. My husband was at the church. In that moment, I knew I could adequately feed and tend but that I was vulnerable when it came to protecting my children. I didn’t want to have to shoot the man.
I called the police, who were too busy to come. Then, I called my husband.
He came home, and he took authority of the situation. I’ve never been so glad to see him. The aggressor left, and we were safe.
I did not want the responsibility to protect in that moment. I was very happy to submit and be protected.
Anecdotal evidence doesn’t tie this issue up with a neat bow, but it helped me picture just what it is that God had in mind for His body, as we all submit together to the Head, Christ.
Instead of Peter, let me be the woman emptying her jar of expensive perfume. Jesus commended her as one who had done “a beautiful thing” for Him. His word choice, “beautiful” encompassed truth, goodness, and beauty, denoting virtue.
Let me be a virtuous woman in His house. Then, I will not mind when jokesters turn their chairs or demons scrabble at the windows. For I know that He protects me, feeds me, and tends to my every need, regardless of my role as a part of His Body.
Sarah Dixon Young 