Officially Authorized or Not At All

Have you ever written into a specific ministry hoping for a “yes” to your question? Or were you writing to one looking forward to them telling you “no”? Even little kids understand, depending on which answer you want – you ask a specific authority. For me, if I wanted a “yes” I’d ask my mom […]

How legitimate is Christian Head-covering?

Just today, I saw that the ACLU (an obviously evil organization who hates Christians by requiring all those pesky ten commandments be taken down from public spaces) had filed a suit on behalf of a Christian woman who was required to remover her head covering to take her driver’s license photo. This can only be […]

Stronger Sisters and Weaker Brothers

1 Corinthians 8 talks about food sacrificed to idols. The Corinthian church was infamous for it’s in-fighting and divisions, it’s unfairness and inequality, it’s acceptance of sinning sinners and the sins they sin, among other things. If there was a church that didn’t get anything right, that is, if they got anything right at all, […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 8

So a couple of questions to ask yourself as you try to think so what does this look like for me? Have we bought into the idea that if the roles aren’t equivalent that it means that people aren’t equal? Are we believing in some way the culture story or the Biblical story that’s shaping […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 7

And so in Jesus we see both sides. And in the book ‘Meaning of Marriage’ Kathy Keller puts it this way and this is great: “In Jesus we see all the authoritarianism of authority laid to rest, and all the humility of submission glorified.” We all get to play the Jesus role. Whether it’s in […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 5

And so there’s this responsibility that’s given first to Adam. But it’s more than just for Adam to take care of an to cultivate the Earth. and because of that calling it’s not good for him to be alone. It actually requires men and women, male and female together to do that. And so this […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 4

So when, what are the principles that come out from and for those relationships? 2nd Principle – God made men and women equal –  “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.” (vs 11); Paul is drawing here on Genesis, the first couple of chapters of the […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 3

The theological frame work about the relationship between man and woman, we’re not going to get it right unless we understand how he himself relates to himself. Because to look and see the relationship between Christ and God, between God the Son and God the Father, it tells us what this must mean and what […]

Sermon Decoding – Part 2

Head covering – wearing one, not wearing one, sent all sorts of signals as a culture. Men – head covered said something about your status – Augustus, lead worship, cover your head as a sign of your status, upper-class. upper-class Corinthian men seemed to be covering their heads. It dishonors Christ to exalt themselves above […]

Letters to the Corinthians: Saying Goodbye

It’s something of a special moment – finally reaching 1 Corinthians 16, the very last chapter. This happens to be the thirtieth post – of breaking down the letter by chapters and sections and reading the verses trying to figure out how much of it still applies exactly as written or how creative we’ve gotten […]