In this episode, we explore one of the most pervasive (and often deliberate) misinterpretations of Scripture: disregarding a disliked passage by seeing its application as culturally irrelevant, rather than seeing its underlying principle as permanent.

This brief sermon covers the famous account of Peter walking on the water in Matthew Chapter 14, how the grace of Christ is present with us when our own faith fails, for He is faithful when we are not.

One should not have to draw upon a wealth of psychological literature across the ages to understand that the fundamental natures of men and women are different, so I am not going to. After all, this is an explanation, not an academic paper, and Scripture should make obvious the distinction of the masculine and feminine natures … as should nature itself. Psychology has long been a deep fascination of mine and point of study, Jungian in particular, but many others as well. Jung has always struck me because of his observation of how the masculine and feminine natures, being opposite extremes, each have what he called the “Shadow,” or a dark side, a perversion of their rightful constructive intention into a backwards destructive reflection. It is natural enough to conclude that perversion of any of God’s design will lead to ruin of the intended function.

 “Equal” means many things. Of course men and women are equal—in value and dignity and worth. Are they equal in size and strength? Of course not. Does being unequal in one way mean unequal in all?   The distinction between natures and domain was present at the beginning. His domain would become the brutal hard work of the labour field; hers would be the dwelling. Both would actually serve the family above themselves, as the family is the highest human order. Labouring in the field has never meant “following his dreams” or “having all the adventures.” It was work, work to provide a home and food. It is only in the unrestrained and vainglorious conceit of wealth that we came to equate the labour field with following desires. Today, a man or woman living in a decadent, wealthy culture like modern America might have far more options for vocation, and ones far less physically grueling (which certainly is not itself an evil thing but a blessing), but the moral duty for the man to labour is no less now than then. God’s design does not change because we are all rich and spoiled rotten. 

There is probably no conflict today deeper and more bitter than ones surrounding the division of gender. This initial episode covers the all-important framing of the issue, the way we examine it in the first place, in order to then examine it well.