Behold I Will Make All Things New

Behold I will make All Things New – Speech by Genieve Blackwell to MOW Sydney St James King St - 7 November 2012

Thankyou for asking me to speak tonight. I have actually not been a member of the Movement for the Ordination of Women. Yet I have always been very conscious that others have fought the battle for which I have been the beneficiary.

My contribution has been more in terms of being the first woman Rector in different parishes. I like to think I have made a positive contribution that way. I am not someone who felt I had to be a priest. Ordination for me was more a function of ministry – what enabled me to do the ministry there to do. And I have been very blessed that basically I have been able to get on and do, to fly really.

This year is a significant year – it is the 20th anniversary of women being ordained as priests in the Australian Anglican church. Twenty years ago I was in my fourth year at Moore Theological College here in Sydney. As I said when I preached at Canberra-Goulburn Synod Eucharist this year - the unexpected does happen - that it is me 20 years later as Bishop being asked to mark the occasion!

Although I must say before I go any further that it was a lecturer from College who was particularly significant for me articulating why it was ok for me as a woman to be a candidate for ordination. A book by RT France was also helpful at that time – Women in the Church's Ministry: A Test-Case for Biblical Hermeneutics asking the questions and giving not dissimilar answers to what I had voiced in the 1980’s in my 20’s. I actually grew up in the Uniting Church and had a number of models of women in ministry.

I have had a real reminder recently how different I am – how I don’t really fit the mould. We billeted a 15 year old French student as part of an exchange program for my daughter's school. Clemence could just handle that Baith’s mother was a priest. But she really couldn’t cope with the idea that I was a bishop! Mind you, she was very attracted to my pectoral cross – I find that often with young women.

Earlier in the year I was giving a talk in which I described all the different factors and people I had to think of before being able to say yes to entering the process for being considered as Rector of St Paul’s Turvey Park in Wagga and Regional Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn.  My mother In aged care in Yass where we were, (I really thought I wouldn’t move before she died)  my husband working in Goulburn (we had moved to Yass to enable John to re-enter the work force; Another way I am unusual is I have had my two children while in ministry – John and I did the whole role reversal thing to enable that.),  my children, in particular my daughter Baith who was in year 9. (I had always thought we would move at the end of year 10 or see out her schooling). That was all before I got to the question of my gifting for the calling of bishop. I remember a Catholic priest sitting there thinking, I’m sure, thank God I’ve never had to consider all of that.

I’ve actually returned to Wagga after over 30 years. I came up to Sydney in 1981 to do my Arts degree at Sydney Uni. The Evangelical Union and St Barnabas’ Broadway were very significant in my formation as a young Christian adult. (It’s been lovely having lunch today with some of those people).

My first five years of ordained ministry were here in Sydney as a Deacon. I was quite OK being a deacon in terms of the Sydney understanding of the diaconate – I was basically in ordained ministry, couldn’t imagine myself as a Rector of a parish – how would I understand the finances well enough?! I was able to preach and it didn’t worry me that much that I couldn’t celebrate communion – it just felt a bit silly for everyone when the Rector was away and someone else had to come.

It was during those five years though that I realised I could be a Rector – lead a parish – if that is what God wanted me to. I didn’t leave Sydney to be priested as such. I had finished as Assistant Minister at St Andrew’s Riverwood to study in Scotland. When that didn’t work out in terms of a job in a parish I thought I was going to, we came home and it was a case of what jobs were available. Accepting the position of locum tenens (basically priest-in-charge) of Gulgong in the Diocese of Bathurst meant being priested. I served in Gulgong and Grenfell in the Diocese of Bathurst and then 7 years in the parish of Yass in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. In that time I was also an Archdeacon. I have really been very blessed in being able to just get on and do as I have said. And I’ve enjoyed what I would describe as broad Anglicanism.

This year is an interesting year for me in many ways: I’ve moved back to Wagga to what I would describe as a more consciously evangelical church as well as being consecrated Bishop. Suddenly I seem to be back in the world of discussions regarding women’s ministry!

Behold I will make all things new - Revelation 21:5 – is a great title for this talk. It looks forward to the new creation, the consummation, when we will be one with God and others. St John the Divine is given the vision of the new heaven and the new earth where God himself dwells his people Everything that separates is overcome – even death. And what does the one who was seated on the throne say? ‘Behold I will make all things new.’

It captures the essence of a book I read recently by an American evangelical biblical scholar Scot McKnight: The Blue Parakeet - Rethinking how you Read the Bible. What mainly motivates Scot McKnight to write his book are the difficult passages in the bible – passages which he terms as blue parakeets because we try to tame them, or silence them. He is particularly thinking of women’s ministry. His argument is that views which limit women’s ministry are stuck in the fall of humankind.

The bible’s story is a story from: God’s Trinitarian oneness, mutuality, to The Adam, who was one and alone, to Adam and Eve, who were one and together, mutuality, to Adam and Eve and others, who through sin become others, to Jesus Christ, who was the one God incarnate, to Becoming one (as in Eden ) all over again in Christ, to The consummation, when we will be one with God and others. Behold, I will make all things new! When I say I am comfortable being in leadership in the church, it is not because I have excised St Paul. Written him off as a homophobic misogynist. Texts such as Eg 1Cor 13:34-35 or 1Timothy 2:11-12 We can gravitate to these texts but it’s like asking about marriage in the bible and gravitating towards the divorce texts. First we should ask, to use a phrase of Scot McKnight’s: What did women do in the bible?

Miriam, Deborah and Huldah Priscilla, Junia and Phoebe [Junia (Romans 16:7 – they were outstanding among the aposties) Priscilla, (Acts 18:26 Priscilla and Aquila explained to Apollos the way of God more adequately Junia (Romans 16:7 – they were outstanding among the aposties Co-worker Romans 16:3 – special term for associates in church ministries) Phoebe – (Romans 16:1-2 Deacon, benefactor – first commentator)] Not to mention Mary, the mother of Jesus and her influence on Jesus, James and other early Christians.

What did they do? They led, they prophesied, they taught, they were apostles, and they were local church mentors. They were exceptions whom God raised above the norm of the patriarchal culture or cultures they were part of in order to accomplish his will.

Is that what I am? Am I an exception? Some would want to say there should be no exceptions. But the question really is can women do today what women did in the Bible and in the early churches? All passages of Scripture are to be taken seriously.

I actually think I am more than an exception. I think I am part of what it means to Behold All things new. What it means to see the story of the Bible unfold from creation, through the fall and redemption to new creation.

The trajectory of Scripture is expressed in key verses such as 2Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Galatians 3:28 We are all “one in Christ” and in Christ there is “neither male nor female.” A key turning point in the story of the bible is Acts 2 – it reveals the messianic era will release the Spirit so that women will also be gifted to exercise prophecy and leadership in the churches: When the Spirit fell upon the Pentecostal assembly, including Mary and other women, Peter said: 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Pentecost is a picture of new creation

When we think of passages like 1Corinthians 13 or 1Timothy 2: Should they control the What Did Women Do passages? Or do they more reflect the fallen reality Genesis 3:16 describes: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Not an ironclad rule for the rest of history, not prescribing how we are supposed to live but a prediction of the fallen desire of fallen women to dominate the man and the fallen desire of fallen men to dominate women. Fallen desires in a fallen condition in a fallen world.

When we put these passages from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and to Timothy in context, the reality is we don’t think we should do everything Paul says today eg males should pray with their hands lifted up. The reality is we don’t do everything the bible says: In effect we pick and choose, or in other words we adopt and adapt. The NT writers did that with the OT and the church has continued to do it. And who knows for certain, what Paul meant, for example, when he said women will be saved through childbearing. (maybe its speaking to the new Roman women)

But if you think of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and his letter to Timothy, What is the overarching question Paul is concerned with? He overarching concern is, what is best for the gospel? What will cause least damage, what will most further the spread of the gospel?

I am sure that if Paul was asking the same question today in our western, egalitarian society he would answer the same question very differently. I know from the reactions of friends of mine over the years that too little too slow when it comes to women’s ministry has neutralized the church’s impact on society as much as too much too soon was Paul’s concern in the world of his day.

In 1Corinthians 9:19-25 Paul speaks of being all things to all people for the sake of the gospel. Paul was a chameleon – he changed colours everywhere he went – But he kept the same body. His gospel mission shaped everything he did. His gospel was the same, but his circumstances shaped how he went about spreading the gospel. If you want to be completely faithful to St Paul today, you really have to submit every act and every idea to the principle of what furthers the gospel most. Because of that principle, St Paul adopted and adapted. And he with St John looked forward to all things being new.