Women in the Body of Christ
What is the church? What is my place in it? How do I know where I belong? These questions are common, and answers can vary by denomination, and even by congregation. It can be hard to “find one’s place” in the world, and the same holds true in the body of Christ.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” Chapter 12 is a beautiful and often quoted section of Scripture, defining how all of us are working together as one body. Different parts have different functions, but we all have the same goal. It’s amazing – and sometimes maddening, because we aren’t told by Paul or in any other passage which part of the body we are! Am I a foot or a hand? An ear or a mouth? Who knows, I might be the pinky toe!
I find this lesson of the body of Christ particularly useful when I think of my role in the Church as a woman. I think sometimes it can feel a bit like we are “pinky toes” – that we are unnoticed, unappreciated, or unsure of whether our lives make a difference to the Church. Scripture gives me no specific directive to tell me I’m a hand or a foot, it only tells me that I’m part of the body. The joy and the reality of this passage is that being part of the body is enough. ALL the parts are needed. The truth is that the body isn’t thinking about which part I am the way I think about it. How often do you stop to consider how your ring finger functions as a member of your body? Do you give thought to your right kidney? Paul says that even parts of the body that seem weak are indispensable.
How has God used the women he created to reveal the message of salvation? Where do we see the parts of the body of Christ, completing the functions for which they are made? The question of my role in the church is really the question, “Can God use me?” He promises that he can, and he does. He has given me the testimony in Scripture of faithful women who have gone before me to show that he redeems us all and then uses us all to accomplish his purposes. Here are just a handful of body parts that come to mind.
At the very heart of the Gospel is the incarnation of Christ, fully God and fully man for us and for our salvation. And there is a part of the body at play here that is exclusive to women. Mary is the womb that bore Jesus. “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42) The firstfruits of Mary’s womb are the firstfruits of the resurrection to eternal life (1 Corinthians 15). She carries eternity inside her own body! This mystery of the incarnation sanctifies child-bearing for all of us. Being a woman, having a womb (whether or not it’s ever filled) – there’s witness and testimony to the ability that God has given us to carry life.
I am encouraged by another sister Mary. Her story makes me think that, in the body of Christ, she shows us how to be an ear. Mary demonstrated for me how to listen to Jesus, and to rest at his feet. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus – even as her sister Martha is busy tending to the home and making the guests (including Jesus himself) welcome (Luke 10). This gift, this receptive posture, is given to all of us in the church, but here it is demonstrated by a woman. Jesus gives and we receive. Our Lord tells us this is the better portion, and this rest can’t be snatched away from us.
I have sisters in Christ who have grown the Church by changing diapers, cooking meals, singing songs of faith and reading Scripture to their little ones. Enter the generational ministry of mums living their lives and passing the faith down, the hands and feet of the Gospel. Paul writes to Timothy, encouraged by his faith. According to 2 Timothy 1:5, this faith began with his grandma. This woman, Lois, received the gift of faith. Then she lived her life. She did mum things, and grandma things. In so doing, she shared her faith with her daughter, Eunice. God filled Eunice with the Holy Spirit and faith through the vocation of her mother. Then Eunice lived her life and raised her family. She shared her faith with her son, Timothy. God uses us first and foremost in our closest vocations. Our homes, our workplaces, our social circles – those are truly the “hands-on” ministry venues whereby women (and men) exercise the duties of the spiritual priesthood – faithfully bringing their families, their faith communities, and an unbelieving world before the throne of grace.
More women than are named in the Scriptures spent time following Christ’s ministry and hearing his teaching. Sometimes they sought him out for healing, other times Jesus rocked up on their doorstep instead. Over and over again, as the lives of these women are touched by the love of Christ, they can’t help but carry that back into their homes, into their families, into their communities. The woman at the well declares, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did!” (John 4) Mary Magdalene runs to the disciples and gushes with the news, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20) The body of Christ has lips to sing glory, tongues to proclaim mercy, throats to shout hope, and mouths to speak the Holy Name of God (Thy Strong Word, stanza 5) .
We can pour out of ourselves to others only what our good and gracious God first gives us. Jesus calls us to rest in him, and to receive from him – anything else I will learn about how to live a life as a faithful Christian woman will flow from this. My life in the Church flows only from what I receive in and through Jesus. In the end, it doesn't matter which part of the body I am, because my head is Christ. Jesus our Saviour is the head of the Church, his body, and he directs us all using the vocations in which he places us to serve the body and to bring glory to him.
“But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:24b-26)
By Deaconess Kathleen Mills.