Sermons

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Hairstyles, Hatsyles, Heartstyles
August 19, 2001
Series on I Corinthians
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

I Corinthians 11:2-16

This morning we continue our sermon series in I Corinthians, and I guess I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that for the first time in five weeks, we are not going to talk about meat sacrificed to idols. Today’s passage is the first of three chapters dealing with issues related to worship.

The bad news is that today we are dealing with a fairly convoluted passage regarding women in worship wearing headcoverings.

Now…when I read this passage, coming back from being gone four out of five weeks, I knew it would be a challenge. It’s a difficult text. And I’ll share with you that the normal way I prepare for sermons is to do a little translation work, read through the passage several times, ponder, pray, take some notes…and finally go and read some commentaries on the particular passage. This week, when I went to look at my favorite Bible scholars, here are the kinds of things I found:

“More than any other passage in this letter, I Corinthians 11:2-16 presents severe problems for the interpreter.” So I put that down, and pulled out a different book:

“The preacher who works from the Revised Common Lectionary will never have to deal with this text.” So I put THAT one down, and picked up my very favorite writer:

“Perhaps the best way to deal with this is in the context of a small study group.” Thanks so much for the preaching help!

In all seriousness, this is a difficult text. I’ll tell you right now, there are things I don’t have answers to, and it’s complicated by the fact that there are things about the language and the culture of Corinth we just don’t fully understand. HOWEVER, I believe that God’s voice speaking through scripture is louder than our inability to understand.

And so, the question for us today is: How is this God’s Word for us today?

I invite you to read with me. I Corinthians 11:2-16. We’d better PRAY!

Let me just remind you as we begin, that this is the beginning of three chapters on issues related to WORSHIP. In Corinth, there was some tension as to how things were to be done in worship. People were uncomfortable. And I want to begin by asking you: Is there anything that would make YOU uncomfortable in a worship setting? Earlier, some folks may have been a bit uncomfortable at an August breakfast service, sitting around tables in the Fellowship Hall. What other kinds of things might make SOME of us uncomfortable in worship?

Someone comes into church…wearing a tank top, shorts and bare feet. Some will remember a day back in Bethany’s history in the 1960s, at the height of the Jesus People movement. I’m told there were young people crowding all around the sanctuary, barefoot hippies sitting next to rigid Presbyterians…I wish could’ve been there!

For some of you, you would be totally comfortable, and you think, “Come worship as you are, God wants you.” Others are uncomfortable … and you think, “Have some reverence, you’re not going to the beach.”

What if someone wore baseball hat into the sanctuary? Or refused to sit in the pew, but took the floor?

There are things that would make us uncomfortable, aren’t there?

So what is the issue that Paul feels compelled to address here, probably at the Corinthians’ request? Many would say: The Role of Women in Worship. Actually, I don’t think this is the issue. The issue is really not around women particating or even leading in public worship (we’ll deal with that more in Chapter 14). Paul mentions two roles in the worship setting: praying, and prophesying (speaking the Word of God). There is no hint from Paul that women shouldn’t participate. In fact, he assumes they do! The question is: Should their heads be covered?

Now, I’m glad for that. At Bethany, we have women elders, worship leaders, and a female Associate Pastor, Lynne Baab, who preaches regularly and does a great job of sharing God’s word with us. So, I don’t have to worry about her speaking in worship (just whether her head should be covered!).

Others say the real issue here is: Women in Ministry or Leadership in general. Really, that’s not the issue either. If we read Paul in other places, we find: In Romans, Paul enthusiastically welcomes women like Priscilla as “co-workers in Christ Jesus.” Also in Romans, Paul affirms a woman named Phoebe as a valuable leader in ministry. In Philippians he writes of two women, Euodia and Syntyche who have “struggled beside me in the work of the gospel.” So the issue is NOT women in ministry.

Still others say the issue is: Women Being Subservient or inferior. (In fact, ladies, this passage was used along with others in the Middle Ages to provide evidence of a sort of chain of being…where women ranked above animals but definitely below men!). . . . But it’s hard to imagine Paul thinking anything like that, the guy who writes in Galatians, “In Christ…there is neither male nor female.” And in verses 11-12 here, “…in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God.”

YET: at the same time, it is impossible to deny that Paul’s argument here reflects a cultural context of male-dominated hierarchy. Where does that come from? One place is by how frequently Paul uses the word “head” here. Eight or nine times just in this passage. If “head” means “ruler,” or “relationship of superiority”…then Paul is indeed detailing a chain of hierarchy: God-Men-Women.

But if that is the case, it’s interesting that his list of analogies in verse 3 (and Paul is very good at lists) is NOT that way. It says “Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.” If Paul wanted to prove his hierarchy, surely he would have listed: God the head of Christ, Christ the head of man, man the head of woman. But he didn’t.

If “head” is improperly translated here, and better means “source,” which many say it does, it moves the argument to the ORIGIN of women, not rule/relationship…but we are still left unclear, and it still has strong male emphases.

AND Paul muddies water further with his use of the creation story from Genesis 2, where he repeats “woman was made for man” (not vice versa). He COULD have picked Genesis 1 “in His image he created them, male and female.” That would have been easier. But Paul didn’t do that.

So…we are left in some tension: We do not know exactly how Paul used words. He clearly wrote with some overtones of a male-dominated culture. Yet in other places, Paul writes eloquently of male-female mutual dependence. It’s a tension. And it’s a tension we need to leave hanging for now. Part of the reason is this: We still haven’t really hit the main issue here. THE Issue: Should women wear a head covering to participate in worship?

It doesn’t get any easier, still. We’re not sure what “head covering” meant in 1st-century Corinth.

a) Some thought “veil,” as in images of Middle Eastern Muslim women in public with a very confining veil. But there is little evidence that these were used in first century Greece.

b) Others think that head covering refers to either a piece of cloth pulled over a woman’s head OR her long hair pulled up in a sort of bun as a sign of modesty. And so when a woman goes out into public, including worship, she covered her head.

[We still see this practiced in some Christian denominations. Or, if you look at pictures of the 1950s, all women wore hats to church. That was partly from a sense of “you dress up for church,” but also actually has historical ties to the covering of the head.]

Now, the significance is this: In that culture, if a woman did NOT cover her head, if her long hair was blowing loose…it was the sign of a woman of questionable moral character, even a prostitute. And Paul says, “You might just as well shave your whole head,” which was also a sign of severe disgrace. If a woman went to worship in such a way, she would severely embarrass her spouse, and bring shame on her family and faith community.

It’s not hard to imagine somone in Corinth bringing this issue up by speaking like this: “You know, Paul taught us that we are free in Christ. So we are going to exercise this new-found freedom in Christ by throwing out a social convention…and surely Paul will support us…he’s the one who taught us freedom!”

But Paul says: “No.” You see, not only did a woman embarrass her husband, and shame the community…but even worse, she brought disruption to worship. Who will be able to hear her prayer or prophecy if all they can see is a woman intent on flaunting conventions of the community? If the woman is perceived as so uncaring of the shame she brings on her spouse, if she is so set on own agenda to be individual or exercise her rights…it gets in the way of worship. So Paul, in this case, says that turning over social convention is NOT worth potential disruption of worship. So, Paul writes: Corinthian women, you should continue to cover your heads.

If Paul is about anything, he is about worship. He wants nothing more than that people might come to God, and worship the living God. He wants as many as can to come before God, to know Him personally.

So…in our culture…we are obviously not wearing head coverings. So how might this be the Word of God for us? I have four brief thoughts for you:

1) Use of this passage to define gender roles…is a very uncertain and hazy endeavor.

However, it is clear to me that Paul DOES support gender distinction. Women are not to wear short hair like men; men are not to wear coverings like women. Don’t confuse the two. Paul encouraged the church to honor distinctions between men and women. BOTH are created in God’s image.

We live, of course, in a culture that is extremely confused about sexual identity. We’re seemingly on a vendetta to eliminate the distinction between the sexes: clothing, manners, even physical anatomy is interchangeable. Many of you have read about the City of San Francisco’s debate over providing insurance benefits (they now do) which will cover people’s sex-change operations. We are a very confused culture over gender differences. But Paul definitely recognized the differences. And he says in essence, “It’s okay for you to be a woman! It’s good for you to be a man!” His picture of a healthy community, which we’re gradually getting in little snippets, needs men and women together…not some kind of “sexless neutrality.”

2) Paul reminds us here…that the Christian faith, and worship in particular…is a corporate issue. We are not a roomful of individuals having our own experience with God. God is meeting us in community. And so we need to think long and hard about how worship affects others, or when changes are implemented. There is a time and place to buck tradition or convention, as Paul often did. But it is not for the sake of change alone.

Many of you know we are looking for a music director right now. As I sit in those interviews, I find myself listening for a person of sensitivity, who understands that God deals with our community. A person who would try to come “make their mark on Bethany” is not what we are after, but a person who would come listening and responsive to what God is doing here among these people.

3) There are undertones in Paul’s argument here of the word submissiveness. And even if they are directed here towards women, I don’t want to throw this word out the window. Concern for how one impacts others, a willingness to humble oneself, a concern for the whole community over yourself…these things are very, very important, particularly in participating in leadership. If, for example, I thought that the reason Lynne preached was because she wanted to show that a woman COULD preach…I would be very disappointed. I want the Word of God…not word of Lynne. We are to be submissive to Christ. Submissiveness, choosing to serve others because of the call of the Gospel of Christ…is a mark of the church. Don’t throw the word away.

4) Finally, and maybe this just says the same thing: Coming to worship…is not about hair…or hats…but our hearts. Paul pushes the Corinthians not to let extraneous things pull them away from worship … we are to come expectantly, gently, submissively, serving others… to see what God will do among us.

On the mission trip last month to Costa Rica with our group of 20 high schoolers, we met each night to talk, study and worship together. Halfway through the trip, as we gathered for worship, trip leader Matt Linden invited us into time of washing each other’s feet. Maybe you have participated in a time like that. I have to confess to you, as I have to Matt…that as he introduced the concept, I groaned inside: “No Matt, don’t do it! I can’t see it! They won’t understand it! It just doesn’t fit here!”

Footwashing, of course, re-enacts the story of Jesus serving his disciples long ago by washing their feet…but that is so far removed from our culture. But as Matt introduced it…he knelt in front of me, asked if could wash my not-small, not-pretty feet. He took the straps off my sandals, and poured water over my sore feet, and talked out loud about places he had seen God in our relationship. And then he pulled out the tail of his T-shirt, and wiped them dry. By the time he was done, we were both crying.

Then it was my turn, and I went to someone else around the circle, got on my knees, asked permission to wash, unlaced those dirty and stinky shoes and socks, and washed their feet and talked about where I saw God in them. Soon people all over the circle were doing the same thing.

And you know what? God did some amazing things. People who had treated each other poorly for years confessed and forgave each other as they washed one another’s feet. People cried for the whole 45 minutes as the Spirit of God moved in that place. People determined not to participate at the beginning gradually did so, in different ways. I believe it was the turning point of trip. It was such a humble, submissive act. And God used it to melt our hearts.

I believe God wants us to come together…to worship Him. Concerned not only about our own worship experience, but our brother and sister as well. We come to the Lord and to our community with open hands, with soft, submissive hearts...we come to see what He might do among us.