That might possibly be the worst title ever for referring to issues surrounding female ordination, but it’s what I feel like we do when we set up rules about who is and who isn’t fit for service and then blame it on God. We put God and all God’s abundance in a tiny, minuscule, partitioned box and act as if God only acts in the ways that we know and understand… although our history is full of God acting in unexpected ways.
- Who really anticipated an unmarried, average girl to bear the Son of God and for him to be born in a lowly, dirty stable instead of some swank locale more fitting of a king?
- Who really expected Jesus to be in the temple giving the rabbis a run for their money instead of goofing off with friends wherever Jewish kids used to goof off and get into trouble?
- What did the disciples expect Jesus to say as he was passing the loaf of bread and the cup of wine?
- How did Jesus’ followers expect him to leave the earth; did it include suffering a demeaning death or ascending into heaven?
- Who would have ever expected that Mary Magdalene would be the first to see the risen Christ and go on to tell the good and unexpected news of resurrection?
- Where did we expect to find the Holy Spirit – probably not in an upper room, fifty days after the resurrection, and in all who were gathered.
- When have we expected to see Jesus return and have seen that fulfilled?
All I’m saying is there might be a pattern here. God doesn’t act only when we expect God to act and I think we do a disservice when we set up rules about when it’s okay for God to act.
What does this have to do with female ordination? Everything. Why do Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestants refuse to ordain women? Is it because those with votes are misogynist? Their actions lead me to vote yes, but nobody has yet to speak up and say “Yeah, we just don’t want chicks in chasubles” so I’ll not make assumptions.
So then we get into a lot of twisted, shaky, scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel theology about how the priest represents Jesus at the altar, the church is the Bride of Christ, only men can be married to women (which is another conversation…), and so logically only single men can truly represent Christ at the altar. So wait, how come we never say only single women can be members of the church if the church truly represents the Bride of Christ?
I got nothin’ there except that it all seems to be a hole-y way of defending a patriarchal structure that doesn’t have to change unless it wants to. Right now the Vatican kind of reminds me of Ron Burgundy’s newsroom: Broads don’t belong in broadcasting. We like our scotch drinking, sexist, and cigar smoking environment just fine and see no reason to change it. But since we’re scared of change, we’ll blame our static life on selective history.
As much as that troubles me, what bothers me more is the apparent belief that women cannot represent Christ as well as a man. If we are all called by baptism to be ministers of Christ, we all receive Christ at the Eucharist, and we are all renewed by the Holy Spirit at confirmation, then what is it that demarcates how women can be called by God is substantially different from how men can be called by God? Is it a design flaw? If women are limited in their ability to represent Christ at the altar, are they also limited in their ability to represent Christ in the world? I absolutely fail to see the evidence for either.
[Full disclosure: this is the part where it's a little more personal.]
It’s not that people in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestant traditions don’t believe women can be called by God to do something, but it’s what they are called to do that I find inequitable and stemming from shady logic.
In the tradition I was raised in, men could certainly be called to pastor and should enjoy life as a father, but it was implied that women would become mothers (preferably stay-at home) as that’s what Godly women are called to do. In some other traditions, that’s okay if I don’t feel called to be a mother, I can take comfort that I have been called by God to be a nun. Since when are calls from God easily reduced to a barely multiple-choice question? If a man hasn’t felt the call to be a father, he can be a Brother, a deacon, a Father, a bishop, a [perhaps frowned-upon] childless husband, or perhaps a bachelor. At least he has options. How did God leave me with no options?
Right there sprouts my discontent, for I do not believe that by virtue of being female God has left me with a scarcity of options, but with abundant options. Instead I see that the church as an institution is what has left women with scarce options. By the church, I mean the historical church as well as the present traditions that engage in such practices, even though I know and proclaim the good news that there are many traditions (mine included) which want women to have abundant options for living their calls.
Since I believe that the gender, marital status, color, or sexual orientation of the priest at the altar doesn’t matter, I also believe women (as well as married men and homosexuals) can be called by God for ordained ministry. Even though some traditions may attempt to limit God’s actions on those lines, God’s power can transcend the boundaries of the laws we make from our interpretations of scripture. Once again God does not have to use the expected, usual, typical candidates that we set out for God’s service, but instead may use any willing person.
And sometimes I think that willing person has to be us in the pews. We have to be willing to accept a different person at the altar. We have to be open to the idea and trust God enough to try it. We might even find we like it. Speaking for myself, seeing someone with an XX chromosomal makeup elevate the chalice and priest’s host has never taken away from my experience at the Eucharist or skewed my understanding of the priest as a representative of Jesus at the altar. I find it has only enhanced my experience and understanding of how God works in us.
I also find abundance in the reflection that God calls even the unexpected into open service; given choices between theology of scarcity and theology of abundance, I want to pick the theology of abundance.
Listening to: GoD and DoG, Wendy Francisco
