The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today

Note: February 2021 ended up being the month of Phoebe. I spent the first two weeks writing a previous post about her, re-read it and was dissatisfied, and so spent another two weeks trying again.  This past January, I attended the ordinations to the diaconate of three seminarians I’d spent the past three years working with. This took place at the Episcopal cathedral in Garden City. I was there at the invitation of the students, and in my capacity as executive director of Episcopal Divinity School at Union. During the service, a passage from Luke’s gospel that has long been associated with diaconal ministry was read. This passage was that of Luke 22.24-27 and it is one that speaks to how the spirit of reversal so embodied in Mary’s Magnificat continues throughout Luke, both on theme of wealth and, in this case, power and authority. The passage begins with the disciples fighting again, arguing among themselves who is the greatest and who had the most authority (Luke 22.24). Jesus begins

In just two short verses in the Letter to the Romans, Paul uses two intriguing terms to introduce the person of Phoebe. The New Revised Standard Version renders Romans 16:1-2 as follows: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon ( diakonos ) of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor ( prostatis ) of many and of myself as well.”[1] A great deal of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth has resulted from Paul referring to Phoebe as diakonos , particularly from those quarters of the Church that insist on the historicity of male-only ecclesiastical leadership. This is frequently side-stepped by arguing that this really meant “servant” in the mid-first century, rather than a formalized role. Yet Romans 16:1-2 is the only place in the New Testament where a woman is referred to as both a deacon and benefactor/patron, and it’s the combination of the two term