On More Time Into the Fray

This week is Vacation Bible School EXTRAVAGANZA (a word I always believe requires capital letters) at our church. We've turned the sanctuary into a barn and we're singing, talking, and shouting that we need to "Listen Up!" to God the farmer.

I love Vacation Bible School. I love 100 elementary school kids filling the church building with songs and clapping and skits and snacks. I love that, in spite of all the technological changes in this world, we are still making crafts out of popsicle sticks. I love that these kids think VBS is the greatest thing ever and that they want us to do this every week. I love that they are loved by the volunteers and I believe they will remember that, even if they never remember any of the bible lessons.

This year we're also hosting our local church camp counselors, all of whom are here to lead our VBS as their way of practicing to go out this summer and lead day camps at churches all over the area. 60 college kids, so enthusiastic about life and ministry and kids and faith, with energy levels I can hardly believe. They are practicing, so they're not perfect - not all of them ought to play the guitar, it turns out - but what they might lack in some skills, they more than make up for in devotion.

Our local camp is one of the few co-owned by the ELCA and LCMS. If you are not Lutheran, those abbreviations probably mean nothing to you. If you are, you might know that this is something like divorced parents trying to share custody of a child. The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is the liberal one. The LCMS (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) is the conservative one. Those are both vast and not entirely accurate generalizations, but you get the drift.

I've been leading a few one-hour theology sessions for the counselors in the afternoon. Some of them are ELCA; some are LCMS. Some are not Lutheran, though all are Christian. And this year, like almost every year, the thorny issue of women's ordination has arisen. Again.

That's the most divisive issue between the ELCA and LCMS; it's why the LCMS didn't join other Lutheran bodies in forming the ELCA in 1988. Missouri Lutherans do not ordain women. In some very conservative congregations, women don't even vote. Some Missouri churches, of course, are so liberal that they probably don't care and would ordain women if they could, but for the most part, this issue is still a live one - even though we celebrated the 35th anniversary of women's ordination two years ago. That means that women have been ordained in the Lutheran church since before any of these counselors were born. Even before I was.

Part of me welcomes the opportunity to talk about this issue. I believe myself to be quite open and non-defensive, and I don't mind engaging difficult issues as long as I am not being attacked. I don't mind showing you my interpretation of Luther's writings on ordained ministry, or my reading of those few passages in scripture that have been used to forbid women from this work.

But another part of me - and this part is getting slightly larger each year that I get asked the question - is tired of defending my existence as an ordained clergy person. Part of me gets so discouraged that people are still arguing about this, because if they're doing that, how much longer will it take for us to bless and welcome the ordained ministry of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters?

I see so many gifted young women in this group and they ask eagerly about my sense of call, and I am delighted that they might sense that in themselves. It's not the most mature reaction, but I do get a bit pissed off when a few of their male colleagues question whether God could so call a woman. Have you not read the Magnificat? Do you not know Deborah and Lydia and Mary of Bethany? Do you remember who it was that Jesus first trusted to share the resurrection news?

Why do we think that restricting the ministry to a chosen few is a faithful interpretation of the scriptures? Or of Luther, for that matter, who sought to remind us that we are all called to be 'little Christs' in the world, and that no one ministry is more important than any other?

My goodness. I might need a nap. But those elementary school kids make it worthwhile. A few years ago, a mother of one of our 2nd graders told me that she and her son had been to visit a friend's church on Sunday. After worship, her son whispered to her, "Hey mom - I didn't know that boys could be pastors."

The Lord who sits in heaven laughs...