Galatians 3:27-28: All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free man; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We live in a feminized culture, and that feminization began with the church. Here in Moscow, we have set ourselves against these cultural confusions by emphasizing biblical teaching about the headship of husbands, the authority of fathers, and the leadership of men in the church.

But to keep our balance, we should remember what the church looked like when it first erupted into the Greco-Roman world. Romans already knew all about male headship.

The paterfamilias had absolute authority over his household. Roman men could, and often did, demand that their daughters be killed as infants. Very few Roman families had more than one living daughter.

To this world, the church announced that in Christ “there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female.” Woman is the glory of man, said Paul; wives are co-heirs of the grace of life, Peter added; Jesus chose women to be the first witnesses to His resurrection. To Roman men, the church didn’t look like it was upholding traditional male roles. It looked like the terrifying first wave of feminism.

Roman men didn’t even eat at the same table with their wives in their public, religious feasts. But the Christian table is open to all. Whatever we must say about male authority, and we must say a good deal, we cannot forget that at the center of worship, class and culture and sex mean nothing. At this table, all the baptized are one in Christ Jesus, united as a single Bride in a single feast.