Cover your head

1 Corinthians 11. 1-16

The thing is, we read into scripture what we want to see, or what we fear seeing, or what we think we're going to see. And sometimes we just don't know enough about the background to fully understand what we're actually reading. 

This passage is a case in point. Some things are clear. Women were taking up roles in churches which fit into what we would now see as leadership roles. They were acting as prophets and leading prayer - they were worship leaders. Paul takes that for granted. He's clearly used to the idea of women leading in church services, and he doesn't in this passage say anything that would suggest that a woman can not be a leader in church.

But there is a problem involving the women leaders in Corinth. They've caused offence, and he's presumably received comments about them, or he wouldn't have bothered mentioning it in his letter, And the problem is not around what they are doing, but about what they are wearing - or rather, not wearing.

It was usual in that particular culture for women to cover their heads when out in public. It was a societal norm, and not a controversial one. Every culture has different expectations of dress for men and for women. In the culture in which I live women have a great deal of freedom, but there are some restrictions which would be very shocking to break. Keeping our breasts covered, for example. On a hot day, a man might appear in the street without a top, but it would not be acceptable for a woman to do the same. And I am very emphatically not suggesting that we should. Definitely not. But if I lived in certain tribal communities in another part of the world, I might wonder what all the fuss was about.

When we read Paul's instruction to women to conform to a dress code that is culturally important, we need to see it as that, and not as a greater statement about women. It was shocking go go out without a headdress. Yes, women might take them off indoors with the family. And yes, church is family, so perhaps one line of reasoning might have been that it was OK to take off the headdress because we are all one family here. But at church there were newcomers, visitors, new converts, people who didn't know everyone well. Applying the rules of a family household was too forward. Instead the women who took off their headdresses risked looking as though they were prostitutes - the only group of women who did go out with loose hair and without a headdress of some sort. Or they risked looking as though they were trying to be men. 

There was no need for a woman lading in church to try and look like a man. Shea did not get her authority in church from somehow being an honorary man. She is a creation of God made to complement man, and has authority in her own right. For her, authority in church was better exercised with the headdress on, looking like a woman, being all that God made her to be. Not risking being seen as taking authority by somehow pretending to be male. It wasn't necessary and it wasn't godly. 

A woman in leadership in 21st century Britain may not need a headscarf, or long hair. The cultural norms that Paul was living in do not apply to us. So it doesn't help to look at this passage as being about whether or not a woman should cover her head in church or wear long hair. Rather, we need to ensure that we behave as leaders in ways that do not shock or cause scandal (as some of those Corinthian prophets were doing). We need to dress appropriately and modestly according to the rules of the churches that we serve and the culture we currently inhabit. That way we will not become a distraction, or get away of what is really important, which is the message that God wants his people to hear through us. And funnily enough, exactly the same rule applies to our male colleagues.