Asking The Right Question

I once took an active interest in the topic of women's ordination. Should women be permitted to serve as ordained ministers? I felt it was an important question.

But that was when I still thought that church was where the important stuff in Christian living transpired. Churches were where you brought your friends so that they could be saved. Churches were where you grew spiritually. I might not have said these words that way... they look awful when written in black and white. But that attitude was lurking in dark corners of my heart.

I don't think that way about church anymore. A number of painful experiences and hard-learned lessons have brought me to the "heart" (as opposed to "head") understanding that church buildings and the people who run them are not to be confused with the Church universal nor with the true work of Christian ministry. These categories do, of course, intersect — and the more the better — but I believe without a doubt that most of God's finest ministers have never been technically ordained.

Thus a once-interesting topic now leaves me disengaged. Why get worked up over who can hold which titles within church buildings and organizations? Why would that question occupy my thoughts?

"If you don't care, Pilgrim, why then this blog entry?"

A fair question. The answer is this: the topic had been sifting around in my head lately because a woman visiting my church recently made it quite evident that her home church would need to be one in which the ordination of women is permitted and practiced. I left the service that day not only puzzled that she felt this topic was so important, but also bemused to note that the topic had left my radar unannounced. It was her words that brought to my attention the fact that I no longer really care about a topic that once captured my interest as well.

But once drawn to revisit the question, I am reminded of this verse:

Romans 15:20
It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.

This verse helpfully reminds us that Paul loved evangelism and preferred to practice it where there was no church at all. Needless to say, questions of ordination don't play a pivotal role in a land with no churches. So while people can (and do) argue over whether Paul felt women could lead churches, I think they spend their passions on secondary questions.

So much for St. Paul. The true inspiration for this blog, however, resides in this week's Book of Common Prayer readings. How did Jesus feel about women's ordination? Again, I seek to shift the question, and I noticed today for the first time that this passage from the gospel of John implicitly invites us to do the same.

John 4:1-8 (condensed)
Now Jesus... came to a town in Samaria... Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

A few simple questions... Where are the disciples? (In town!) What were they there for? (To get food.) So much for the disciples. Meanwhile, Jesus chats with a rather colorful "I've had five husbands and the dude I live with now is not one of them" woman. For brevity's sake, let's call her Lola.

The disciples return from town. Question. Did they bring anybody with them? No. They brought food. Jesus is not impressed with their efforts. Not interested in their food.

How about Lola? She came in search of water, just as the disciples went in search of food. But Jesus has challenged her to give up the game of hunting down ordinary water and to instead become herself a source of living water. Does Lola take the bait?

Yes. Full points to Lola, who on her seventh try gets it right. Five failed marriages and a sixth live-in arrangement are not enough to disqualify Lola from God's consideration. Jesus is the seventh man in her life, which is quite fitting, since seven is the number of God. She finally gets a good offer and does not refuse.

John 4:28-30
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

So the disciples went to town for ordinary food and came back with no people. Lola, on the other hand, left the ordinary water at the well and returned from town with people. Are we detecting a theme here, perhaps? A study in contrasts? In case there were any doubt, the rest of the story cements the point.

John 4:39-42
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus turns the question of "Who is my neighbor?" into a better question: "What does a good neighbor do?" I seek here to do the same. Why ask "Who can be an ordained minister?" Let us rather ask this: "What does a good minister do?"

My simple answer to this rephrased question is that good ministers bring people into the presence of Christ. It's a bit of a figurative phrase, but it is nevertheless true that only God can truly heal souls. We can dispense knowledge, and it will heal no one. Make no one grow. But God grows us and heals us. Good ministers bring us to God. Call it an oversimplification but I'll stand by it.

So how might we apply these thoughts to this passage from the gospel of John? First off, we'd quickly note that none of the twelve "officially ordained" disciples did any ministry on that day. All they pulled off that day was a bit of shopping in the nearby town. How long have these men been with Jesus? Weeks? Months? A year? And they still don't have a clue. Small wonder Jesus berated them a bit while awaiting Lola's return.

John 4:35b
I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Jesus is disappointed because his slow-to-learn appointed ministers are doing no ministry. His harvesters are bringing back the wrong harvest. While they focused their attention on food, Jesus focused his attention on people. Lola, to be specific.

No shock that Jesus gets it right. Where things get really interesting, however, is when we notice that
(a) Jesus offered Lola the right to minister as well, and
(b) she accepted his offer.

The offer, implicit in his assurances that she could herself become a source of living water, is made explicit when Jesus instructs Lola to go into town and bring back her man. Lola takes this offer and runs with it. Literally. In her hurry, she doesn't even remember her water jar! She returns with not one man, but rather a whole bevy of townsfolk. She brings them to the feet of Jesus. Which, as noted earlier, perfectly fits my definition of a good minister.

The message in this passage is not stated point-blank, but it is there, ready to hit us with a two-by-four. Twelve ordained men failed to minister to anyone on that day. Jesus even refused their ministrations of food. But Lola accepted Jesus' ministry of living water... And proceeded to minister to her whole town.

There is an old joke that goes like this: "A woman has to do twice as much as a man to be considered half as good. Fortunately, this is not very difficult."

This joke meets its match in Lola, who ups the ante by orders of magnitude. After all, on that day twelve men were sent to do what a single woman typically does ("the shopping") while one woman, Lola, meanwhile performed the job those same twelve men were called to do ("ministry") — and immediately did it far better than any one of them had yet come close to doing.

Lola was an awesome minister on that day. And if loose-lady Lola can be a minister, anyone can. Do we really need to pursue the matter any further? Not if we are focused on the right harvest. True harvesters will be recognized not by their official title by rather the harvest they bring in.

Jesus, Paul and Lola harvested people. And we, all of us, are invited to do the same.

Some will disagree with my simplistic logic. Be that as it may. Let the record show, however, that Jesus is far, far more interested in who brings him people than he is in who brings him food — which is a useful thing to remember before we get too worked up over the church politics of who gets to break the loaf of bread during a communion service.

1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.