Feminism and the Mary-Martha Story of Luke

"Martha, Martha...you are overanxious..."
by John Bolt

The Mary and Martha story (Luke 10:38- 42) has new traction these days as a proof-text for feminist educational activism—"out of the kitchen and into the academy"—but this is not how the tradition has understood it. On the contrary, the key point is not so much that Mary, the woman, has a mind and should be doing more than making soup and buns, but to call attention to the respective objects of their devotion. Martha is busy doing good things; Mary is attentive to Jesus and that is more important.

Rereading the anonymous fourteenth-century English spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, recently, I was led from the author’s own use of the Mary/Martha story (§§ 18–22) to self-examination and reflection on our contemporary church life. Specifically, are we too busy with this world? Are we so caught up in our programs, our campaigns to end poverty, eliminate racism, cool down our warming globe, stop all war etc., that we have forgotten what is truly important? And, then, if this is indeed the case, do we not have a clear indicator why we are so anxious, why we get involved in more and more "fix-it" projects?

I am often struck by the way in which the Bible writers juxtapose their stories as a way of pulling us back from possibly mistaken applications. Is it not interesting that the story which is often used to propel us toward good works and activism for social change, namely the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is immediately followed by the Mary/Martha story and then, in the next chapter, with our Lord’s teaching on prayer (Luke 11: 1-13)? Note also that Jesus teaching on prayer concludes with a reference to the one most important thing to pray for—the Holy Spirit (vs. 13).

So, are we becoming a Martha church, very busy doing all sorts of good things but losing our first love? Even worse, are we justifying all this busyness in the name of "seeking first the kingdom"? I said earlier that the Mary/Martha story brought me to self-examination. My call in this short little piece of reflection is that we all do the same. Herman Bavinck, reflecting on the furious neo-Calvinist activism of his own day wondered about "losing ourselves in the world. Nowadays we are out to convert the whole world, to conquer all areas of life for Christ. But we often neglect . . . [the fundamental question] . . . do we belong to Christ in life and in death. For this is indeed what life boils down to. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, even for Christian principles, if he loses his own soul." (The Certainty of Faith [Paideia, 1980], 94). Indeed!

Third Wave Pentecostalism in the CRC

Third Wave Pentecostalism: CRC Synodical Study Report
Below an overture sent to Classis Muskegon by the First CRC of Muskegon, Michigan. Rev. Michael Borgert is the minister. The overture was rejected. It is printed here with permission.

Overture to Classis Muskegon on Third Wave Pentecostalism
March 1, 2007

I. Introduction

In response to an overture from the Council of Plymouth Heights CRC of Grand Rapids, Michigan Synod 2004 appointed a study committee whose stated task was, “To examine the biblical teaching, Reformed confessions, theological implications, and pastoral dimensions related to ‘third wave’ Pentecostalism (spiritual warfare, deliverance ministries, and so forth), with a view to providing advice to the churches.”1 The study committee was due to report to Synod 2006, but due to the untimely death of Dr. David Engelhard, the former General Secretary of the Christian Reformed Church and chair of the Committee to Study Third Wave Pentecostalism, the report was not available in time for Synod 2006. Because of significant disagreements over the content of the report, the members of the study committee after several meetings amicably separated into two groups representing a majority and minority, both of which have produced their own report and submitted these reports to Synod 2007. These study committee reports have been distributed to the churches for their review in preparation for Synod 2007. The Synod of the Christian Reformed Church approved an earlier related report in 1973 evaluating the neo-Pentecostal or charismatic movement of the 1960’s and 70’s (see Acts of Synod 1973, Report 34).

II. Background

While we appreciate and respect the effort and care that are evident in the Majority Report on Third Wave Pentecostalism that has been submitted to the churches for their review, the Council of First CRC, Muskegon must register numerous concerns it has regarding the content and potential implications of the report.

First, there is in the majority report very little evidence of interaction with and evaluation of appropriate biblical texts bearing directly on the issue(s) at hand (Romans 12, I Cor. 12, Eph. 4, I Peter 4 – which list numerous spiritual gifts/charismata; and various passages in Acts and the Gospels where miraculous healings, being filled with the Holy Spirit subsequent to one’s baptism, casting out of evil spirits/demons by Jesus and his apostles are recorded).

Second, the majority report evidences even less interaction with the Reformed Confessions with only one reference at the end of the report to the Canons of Dort, Art. 12 of the Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine. If for no other reasons than these two, the majority report should be rejected. The stated purpose of the study committee was, “To examine the biblical teaching, Reformed confessions, theological implications, and pastoral dimensions related to ‘third wave’ Pentecostalism (spiritual warfare, deliverance ministries, and so forth), with a view to providing advice to the churches.” The majority report is clearly deficient with respect to its assigned purpose and has failed to fulfill its appointed task. There are numerous helpful and thoughtful writers in the Reformed tradition on the topic of Christian spirituality including but not limited to John Calvin, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Kuyper; and closer to our own time, John Stott, J.I. Packer, Philip Yancey and Eugene Peterson.

Third, the majority report appears to be almost entirely descriptive rather than prescriptive. There is so little interaction with and evaluation of the Third Wave movement in the light of Scripture and the Reformed Confessions with respect to the practices and theological assumptions under discussion, the majority report seems to simply acquiesce to what is already happening in some quarters of the church rather than offer a helpful critique of it.

Fourth, the majority report fails to engage the questionable assumptions of the Third Wave movement. Prominent among those assumptions is that the “signs and wonders” associated with the Third Wave movement are visible marks of the true church. The Reformed tradition has since the time of Calvin affirmed that the preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments and the exercise of church discipline were the marks by which the true church could be identified and separated from a corrupt impostor. The assumption that the Holy Spirit allowed these supposedly indispensable gifts to lie dormant and remain largely unused in the experience of the church for hundreds of years except for isolated incidents and occasional outpourings of extraordinary power strains the limits of credulity.

The books of Acts, which records approximately 30 years of the early church’s history from the Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven to the time of Paul’s arrival in Rome does record numerous miraculous events (healings, exorcisms, glossolalia, etc.). But even here in the experience of the apostles themselves these miraculous events were recognized as significant enough that Luke saw fit to record them. We are left to assume that these were not everyday occurrences. In contrast, the Third Wave movement does assume that such miraculous events will be commonplace in the experience of the church and in the lives of individual Christians that are filled by the Holy Spirit. This is at best a troubling assumption, and at worst a opening for a neo-Gnosticism to enter into the life of the church creating division, in direct contrast to Scripture’s stated purpose for the giving of these gifts which was to unite the church.

The majority report allows many other underlying assumptions of the Third Wave movement to go unchallenged and in addition makes many of its own assumptions that are equally questionable and seem to be the result of misguided emotion and incoherent thinking rather than sustained, prayerful theological reflection. At one point, the report states, “The astonishing rise of cults, Eastern religions, paganism, Wicca, Kabbala, and others in the last couple of decades attests to a longing to experience the spiritual world. Strikingly, however, while interest in spirituality is on the rise, Christianity as an organized religion is in decline, likely because many denominations practice a functional deism that leaves spiritual seekers to turn elsewhere for an encounter with the divine.”

There are numerous problems with this quotation. First, it is factually inaccurate. Even a superficial examination of church membership statistics will demonstrate that far from declining, the evangelical church is the United States posts modest gains each year and has for the last couple of years also done so in Canada following many years of decline. Second, the charge of deism, functional or otherwise, against a fellow Christian is a serious accusation, one that the report does not substantiate. Third, to assume that the practices advocated by the Third Wave movement are a Christian solution to the “longing to experience the spiritual world” or the “interest in spirituality” is disconcerting. This assumption is even more worrisome when in the minority report one reads of numerous Christian leaders from churches in the developing world who say that many of the practices of the Third Wave and other Pentecostal/charismatic movements have more in common with pagan/animistic rituals that they do with anything that could recognizably be called Christian. We should present those who long for spiritual experiences and who express interest in spirituality with a robust Reformed theology and practice of Christian spirituality rather than to baptize questionable practices with a veneer of Christianity and recommend them to spiritually hungry people as a viable alternative to their yearning.

III. Overture
Because of these concerns, First CRC of Muskegon overtures Classis Muskegon to:

1. Overture Synod 2007 to reject the Majority Report of the Committee to Study Third Wave Pentecostalism.
Grounds:

• The majority report is seriously deficient because of its lack of vigorous interaction with Scriptural and the Reformed Confessions.
• The majority report does not adequately examine the theological implications and the pastoral dimensions of Third Wave movement practices nor does it suggest helpful advice to the churches.
• The majority report opens the door to assumptions that are theologically suspect and to practices that are not edifying to the churches and have the potential to undermine a Reformed hermeneutic of Scripture and Reformed ecclesiology.
• The majority report fails in its stated objective, “To examine the biblical teaching, Reformed confessions, theological implications, and pastoral dimensions related to ‘third wave’ Pentecostalism (spiritual warfare, deliverance ministries, and so forth), with a view to providing advice to the churches.”

2. Overture Synod 2007 to accept the Minority Report of the Committee to Study Third Wave Pentecostalism.
Grounds:

• The minority report identifies and critiques a number of troubling assumptions and practices of the Third Wave movement.
  
• The minority clearly engages in an exhaustive study of relevant biblical passages with respect to the stated purpose of the study committee making it clearly superior to the majority report.
  
• The minority report is well-grounded in the Reformed Confessions and theology.
• The minority report’s recommendations to reject certain aspects are clearly in keeping with the cautions and warnings of the earlier Report 34 of 1973 dealing with neo-Pentecostalism.
  

3. Overture Synod to further instruct the authors of the minority report to, in addition to their wise critique of certain beliefs and practices of the Third Wave movement, present a positive statement of Reformed Christian spirituality.

Grounds:

• There is a genuine yearning for spirituality in the world more generally and in our churches.
• This yearning can be positively understood as a manifestation of the sensus divinitatus and should be acknowledged as such and properly directed toward the true end of Christian spirituality – union with Christ.
  
• To put forth such a positive statement of Reformed Christian spirituality presents a viable alternative to the spiritual yearning individuals express and feel, but does so in a way that is in agreement with and under the authority of Scripture and the Reformed Confessions.
  
• Such a statement of Reformed Christian spirituality will serve to strengthen rather than undermine foundational Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical elements of the Christian Reformed Church’s identity.