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riscilla apersVol 33, No 1 | Winter 2019 PThe academic journal of PCBE International Marriage and Sexuality 3 Sermon Hannah: More than a Mother Tracey Stringer 7 Preparing for Equality: Perspectives on Christian Marriage Laura Schilperoort 14 Early Christianity's Concept of Sexuality April Kelly 19 The Nashville Statement: A Critical Review Jamin Hübner Priscilla and Aquila instructed Apollos more perfectly in the way of the Lord. (Acts 18:26) I Tertius . where credit is due—not necessarily to Priscilla Papers itself, but to the authors of the sermons. Why does Priscilla Papers publish sermons? Our decision to publish sermons is a § natural result of our desire to be a resource for the local church and its leaders. This issue of Priscilla Papers opens with a sermon by Tracey Nevertheless, providing sermons is not Stringer, Pastor of Spiritual Formation at New City Church the main service of Priscilla Papers to the of Los Angeles. It is a Mother’s Day sermon, and we have church. In fact, since we began publishing sermons in the printed it here so it will be available in time for Mother’s fall of 2014, we have printed seventy-one articles and only Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in eight sermons. nearly 100 nations, and on various other dates, mostly in How might readers use these sermons? the spring, in approximately 100 more. First, we trust that our readers will make use of a This issue also includes articles by Laura Schilperoort published sermon much like they do anything else CBE on various perspectives on Christian marriage and by International provides—by reading it, considering it April Kelly on early Christianity’s concept of sexuality. carefully, allowing it to enrich their egalitarian theology, Finally, we have included a critical review of the Nashville and ultimately finding ways to live out one or more of the Statement. Composed by the Council on Biblical Manhood sermon’s ramifications. and Womanhood in Nashville, Tennessee, in August of Second, many of our readers are preachers—including 2017, the Nashville Statement is a series of affirmations those who preach weekly for a congregation and those who and denials regarding sexuality. Jamin Hübner has written preach less (or more!) frequently in a variety of settings. the critique, which CBE International also recently made For those of you who fall into such categories, we invite available to members of the Evangelical Theological Society you to use the sermons in Priscilla Papers as resources for at the 2018 ETS meeting in Denver, Colorado. your preaching. On certain occasions, you might choose We hope these writings will enliven all our readers— to preach one of them largely as you find it in our journal. women and men, single and married. May they be of use to More frequently, these sermons will spark your thinking, you and your ministries. and you will therefore use material from them in less direct ways. Whatever the case, we encourage you to give credit . greet you in the Lord. DISCLAIMER: Final selection of all material published by CBE International in Priscilla Papers is entirely up to the discretion of the publisher, editor, and peer reviewers. Please note that each author is solely legally responsible for the content and the accuracy of facts, citations, references, and quotations rendered and properly attributed in the article appearing under his or her name. Neither CBE, nor the editor, nor the editorial team is responsible or legally liable for any content or any statements made by any author, but the legal responsibility is solely that author’s once an article appears in print in Priscilla Papers. Editor: Jeff Miller Associate Editor / Graphic Designer: Theresa Garbe President / Publisher: Mimi Haddad President Emerita: Catherine Clark Kroeger† Consulting Editor: William David Spencer Peer Review Team: Lynn H. Cohick, Havilah Dharamraj, Tim Foster, Susan Howell, Jamin Hübner, Loretta Hunnicutt, Adam Omelianchuk, Chuck Pitts, Marion Taylor, Karen Strand Winslow On the Cover: Hannah in the Temple, Samuel's Prayer Testing, by Priscilla Papers (issn 0898-753x) is published quarterly by Rembrandt, 17th c., Public Domain {{PD-1923}} CBE International 122 W Franklin Avenue, Suite 218, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2451 Priscilla Papers is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database® (ATLA RDB®), http://www.atla.com, in the Christian Periodical Index (CPI), in New www.cbeinternational.org | 612-872-6898 Testament Abstracts (NTA), and in Religious and Theological Abstracts © CBE International, 2019. (R&TA), as well as by CBE itself. Priscilla Papers is licensed with EBSCO’s full- text informational library products. Full-text collections of Priscilla Papers are available through EBSCO Host’s Religion and Philosophy Collection, Galaxie Software’s Theological Journals collection, and Logos Bible Software. Priscilla Papers is a member publication of the American Association of Publishers. 2 • PRISCILLA PAPERS | Vol. 33, No. 1 | Winter 2019 cbeinternational.org Hannah: More than a Mother a sermon by Tracey Stringer preached on Mother’s Day, 2018 Today, we are going to turn our attention to a passage about a would pray to God because their womb had been closed, and mom, a mom many of us know very little about. We’re going they felt like they had been cursed. The world instantly judged to focus on Hannah, who was the mother of Samuel—and that there was something wrong with Hannah and assumed she who, before she became the mother of Samuel, was a wife to must have sinned. And so this is what Hannah lived with on a Elkanah, and before she was a wife, was someone’s daughter, but daily basis. before she was a daughter, was God’s beloved. We are going to Moving on, 1 Sam 1:3–8 reads as follows: take a closer look into Hannah’s story to see her. Hannah was 3Now this man used to go up year by year from his unseen, she was unknown, she was taunted, and I believe, even town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of depressed. She lived under the societal pressure to fit into this hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni role of motherhood, something she had little or no control over. and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4On As we walk with Hannah, we are going to see how she encounters the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give and discovers who God says she is. This is a message not just for portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons moms or women, but for all of us. Every single day of our lives, and daughters; 5but to Hannah he gave a double we are asked to fit into a certain shape, but we don’t always fit the portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had mold. If we listen closely, we will be able to identify with Hannah closed her womb. 6Her rival used to provoke her in her struggle to figure out who she is. severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had In 1 Sam 1:1–2, we encounter three individuals: Elkanah, closed her womb. 7So it went on year by year; as Hannah, and Peninnah. Elkanah was an Ephraimite who had often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she two wives. Hannah, more than likely the first wife because she is used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and listed first, had no children, but Peninnah, likely the second wife, would not eat. 8Her husband Elkanah said to her, had many children. These women were also Ephraimites, a group “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? of people who had received a special blessing from their ancestor Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than Israel right before he died. Genesis 48 says: ten sons?” (NRSV) “I pray that they will grow to become great families Every year, this family went on a trip to Shiloh, to sacrifice and and nations on earth. But his younger brother to worship God. And every year, Elkanah gave Hannah a double will be greater than he is. And the younger brother’s portion because he loved her. He loved her in spite of the fact that family will be much larger.” So Israel blessed them her womb was closed. We learn that Elkanah did indeed love his that day. He said, “The Israelites will use your wife and was trying his best to care for her. We also learn of the names whenever they bless someone. They will say, rivalry between Hannah and Peninnah. During this annual trip, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” the taunting and provoking severely irritated Hannah and caused In this way Israel made Ephraim greater than her hurt and bitterness. This was probably an ongoing bullying of Manasseh. (Gen 48:16b, 19b–20 ERV) sorts that intensified during the annual trip. Perhaps Hannah felt Under this blessing, these three individuals grew up knowing and like the bootless man Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about: “It’s hearing over and over that part of what it meant to be blessed alright to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is was to be great in numbers. In order to be great in numbers, the a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself family had to produce children. Not only was this the idea in all by his own bootstraps.”2 The same type of jest is evident here; of Israel, but it was emphasized among Ephraim’s descendants.