So this study has gone
to Acts six, talked about widows (clarifying some unhelpful mental
misconceptions in the process), mentioned divisions, made its way to Galatians,
back to Timothy, and then on to Corinthians, all related to the mention of
“deacons.” This process has been necessary, and it has all been connected
to food, thus allowing an observer to firmly link talk of deacons in the letter
to Timothy with the church’s meal table, which also allows for the placing of
talk of “overseers” within a meal table context as well. Frankly, it is
impossible to overstate the importance of the meal for the church, as it is a
vital component of the Jesus tradition, a defining aspect of culture, and
combined with talk of food in the letters of the New Testament, a repetitive
element in the conversation related to the life of the body of Christ.
Returning then to
Acts, what is the response to the complaint about the way that food is being distributed
at the church’s gathering? “The twelve called the whole group of
disciples together and said, ‘It is not right for us to neglect the word of God
to wait on tables” (Acts 6:2). Now this could be a point of
contention. With the centrality of the meal assembly for the church, and
the value placed on service by Jesus Himself, can the disciples rightly insist
that this is the case?
Would it not be most
appropriate, in following the example of their Lord, who came not to be served
but to serve, for these disciples to do this very thing? Could having a
hand in the distribution of the food, which would mean their being the ones
that served the food to the assembled church, possibly be conceived of as
neglecting the word of the Creator God? One might very well lament this
response of the twelve, as its enshrinement in Scripture handily created what
very well may have been a dichotomy between preaching and service that Jesus
never intended, thus furthering the construction of hierarchies within the
church.
Luke opens his
account in Acts by stating that “I wrote the former account,” referring to the
Gospel of Luke, “Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1).
Here, Jesus’ own disciples have opened up a disconnect between doing and
teaching. That divide becomes evident in what has become the standard,
contemporary reading of the letter to Timothy. It is not evident because
overseers and deacons, and the qualifications for such are discussed.
Rather, it is evident because one reads “overseer” and think of an authority
figure, doing the same with “deacon,” though obviously to a lesser
extent. Regardless, it is obvious that, owing to the proclamation and
example of the disciples of Jesus, that the church quickly fell into these
practical and hierarchical divisions, and these divisions immediately began to
have honor assigned to them. This is more than comprehensible, as
humanity is certainly prone to such things.
Since, unfortunately,
they were not going to be waiting on tables, as they would later make clear
that their plan was to “devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the
word” (6:4), the disciples went on to say “But carefully select from among you,
brothers, seven men who are well-attested, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,
whom we may put in charge of this necessary task” (6:3). One could say
that here things went from bad to worse, as the disciples, prone to affectation
by a culture that was almost completely dismissive of women (even though women
had been charged with the initial proclamations concerning the Resurrection of
Jesus), limited that which would become a hierarchical position in the church
to men only.
One could say that,
or one could look at it another way, realizing that they were not intent upon
creating a spiritual hierarchy, but that this was an unintended by-product
brought about by a lack of faithfulness to the mission and vision of Jesus, and
chose men specifically to serve at the church’s tables, giving them the
responsibility of being sure that all shared equally in the food and drink on
offer because this is a job that would normally have fallen to women and to
slaves. Perhaps this is the genius of the disciples, but with so many set
at such a distance from the culture of the day, it is quite easy to miss what
is going on here.
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