During Lent this last year, I preached on Ezekiel’s dry bones. This passage is often seen as an apocalyptic passage that promises resurrection. However, some scholars view it as a poetic cry for the life to be brought back to the Israelites, living in exile in Babylon. Ezekiel speaks metaphorically about the dry bones and how they represent the dusty sense of hopelessness the Israelites live in. But the dry bones also represent the promise God made that one day we all will return to the promised land.
The story is one of expectation, waiting for the rescuer to overcome the oppressor while reminding us of God’s long-term promise of the world to come. It requires us to trust in something greater than ourselves and our seeming inability to get it right. It calls us to something greater than we currently experience. When I read of Ezekiel’s dream and the call to bring the Israelites back to God, I immediately think of God’s people living into a place where equality reigns, where people are valued because God is in them, not because of their gender.
So, you can understand why the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I read this in Mindi’s article,
“I had no idea you were such a feminist”.
That comment pulled me in to the article, and so did this one:
“The encounter left me wondering whether, despite differing theologies on the role of women in ministry that are encountered when working across denominational lines, we couldn’t find a model for men and women working for the kingdom alongside one another—without judgment and labels.”
I found myself cheering her on. But I also wanted more. I wanted her to make a call for equality across denominational lines, to understand God’s promise to Ezekiel that one day equality would reign again. I kept waiting for her to bring a big challenge to all her readers that women’s ministry cannot exist in its own silo, apart from the work of the church but that it too has just as much validity as any part of the work that God calls us all into. Mindi has a strong voice for women, but I wonder if she’s calling the church toward full equality, or is she comfortable with the separate-but-equal island? I truly believe that God calls the church into a place of equality with all those created in his image, especially across gender lines.
This issue is something that has been vitally important to me for a long time. When I first joined a church, I was excited when my wife was asked to be an elder. When I began to feel a call to ministry and was turned down for the first position I sought, I was truly dumbfounded and confused to find out it was because my wife was an elder. I had no idea how my wife being a leader in our church could possibly disqualify me from doing ministry to youth. To this day it leaves me shaking my head.
Maybe this comes from being raised in a home with two older sisters and a mom who worked outside the home. Maybe this was something I picked up from my grandmother, who was a widow almost longer than she was married. I know a portion of it came from my wife’s journey too.
A combination of all these things played a role in leading me to a church that fully affirmed women and their gifts for ministry. This experience ultimately confirmed my call into ordained ministry. Experiencing the diversity that women bring made me realize how important it is to see a bigger picture at work in the church. It was a blessing to be able to see the church empower people not because of gender but because of their calling.
As I look with my own experience and understanding of women in leadership, whether in sacred or secular roles, I wonder more how St. Francis, a man I often revere, intended these two orders to exist. While little is written of the relationship between these two orders, we see a clue in the kind of man St. Francis was. Mindi helps us here.
“Out of their respect for one another, Francis and Clare became each other’s greatest encouragers. Francis supported Clare in her leadership of an order for women, and according to historians, the two were frequent correspondents, sharing encouragement and wisdom with each other.”
On the surface, it could be understood that St. Francis was comfortable with separate orders. But my reading of his life suggests that he truly wanted more than separate-but-equal orders. St. Francis clearly wanted a community that modeled egalitarianism, like Christ showed the women he shared his ministry with. I would suggest that Francis likely had many occasions where he openly disagreed with his superiors on the integration of women into the order. The culture of the day clearly worked against men and women serving equally. Francis clearly worked against this cultural trend.
Recently this issue has become even more real for me. I was working with an ecumenical group of youth leaders to plan a baccalaureate service for the graduating seniors. For several years the previous speakers had all been men. I decided it was important to provide a different example this year and began to look for a female speaker for the event. At the planning meeting, I was not greeted with open arms but with apprehension. I think a lot of this came out of the traditions these other youth leaders come from. It may not have been that they were opposed to a woman but that it was not something they had been accustomed to.
These fellow male youth leaders likely had not experienced the same kind of solidarity working closely with women in ministry. My own experience working with women in ministry is akin to St. Francis and St. Clare, finding in one another an adelphoi (the Greek dual-form noun referring to a close relationship, as in a brother and sister pair) for spirit across gender lines, filling gaps in each other’s story. Female colleges in ministry have introduced ideas and values to me that I would not have discovered without them. This kind of image of completeness must be displayed in our student ministries.
The disagreement about gender roles did not end well. None of the youth workers I was in disagreement with have spoken to me since the incident. I am at a loss as to how to reconcile these relationships while not compromising my position. I know this has everything to do with our theological differences and our inability to effectively communicate our differences.
We must embrace this idea of equality and model it for our students. Jesus was a radical-change agent, one who was willing to talk not only to a woman but a Samaritan woman. Women were invited to sit and listen to him teach. Christ called us to a higher respect of all of humanity when he said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second idea alongside this one: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.[1]”
Our modern theological traditions are based not on the life of Christ but on cultural aspects that no longer have a place in our current culture. We could even see in Mindi’s article that St. Francis was also willing to push the limits of acceptable interactions. “Out of their respect for one another, Francis and Clare became each other’s greatest encouragers; it is through their prayers that Francis and Clare were able to encourage each other and to see and understand God’s work and call in their lives.” St. Francis stood up for wrongs he saw in the world while boldly proclaiming a Christ for all people. We too need to stand up boldly for the equality that Christ calls us to.
We must push on in our journey toward equality. Just as St. Francis and St. Clare pushed on in the face of adversity, we too must push the boundaries all around us. We must break down the walls that judge a person by their gender, instead of discerning their heart for God and commitment to Jesus Christ. To be sure, this is a much harder path. Yet this is our calling. We must strive to call out the injustice we see in our church, our community, our nation and even our world.
It starts with us. How can you effect a change in your own ministry setting? How can you challenge the signs of gender inequality you see? We must teach students that we are all created in the image of God; that God desires us to live as one people, not people with different degrees of status, or greater or lesser callings. We must live as a
[1] Matthew 22:37-40, The Message
Comments