Roar, women, roar!

 

Happy International Women’s Day!

I am blessed to have been raised by amazing women and a lineage of incredible ladies.  My gram, mom, aunts, cousins... each and all were strong, independent, fierce, boundary breakers, constant, caring, creative.  On this day and each day, I re-member and I seek to follow their leading. 

 

There is the now often told story of a girl in church who has only experienced a woman as pastor of her congregation.  One Sunday a male clergy was the guest preacher.  Following the worship service, the girl said to her mother, “I didn’t know the church also ordained men??!!?”

 

In every instance, I was always the first female clergy to lead the congregation.  The church folks were not ready.  There was the congregation whose pulpit was enclosed, and one literally stepped inside.  The microphone was unyielding and bolted to the wood.  My first Sunday, they thought female clergy equals soft spoken.  Wrong thought. A worse move were turning the microphone up to level 10.  The style of the pulpit and type and arrangement of the microphone prevented me from creating any distance.  Any way you spin it, I’m loud.  Following worship, the lay leader approached, and I told him to be certain next Sunday to have the microphone at the lowest setting. In reply, he wriggled his finger in his ear and exclaimed, “That’s already been noted, Reverend.”

Other not so pleasant experiences were during an administrative board meeting having my office called the broom closet and various references to my being a witch.  I also once received a low review from a parishioner because…wait for it…. I did not wear nylons.

 

All justice work is a journey, and we share our accounts and hopefully arrive at a time when we can look back and see how far we have come.  I know that both male and female clergy and parishioners must support and prepare the way for women in leadership roles….and not just those in the church.

 

Strong Women:

 

     May we know them

     May we raise them

     May we be them;

Can you hear me now????

 How does God speak to you?  

Now there is a question to ponder.....to reflect on, not to get stressed out and worried and envious if you think God seemingly blathers on and on to that woman and me...zip, silence.

If while out for a walk or a roll and you've recently seen a burning bush, please let me know.  I believe God is in constant communication  with creation and we are too busy, too self-aware, to stressed and worried about many things to stop, look and listen.

The poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes."  Or, if you prefer the line from the film THE COLOER PURPLE when Celie and Shug are walking through a field and Shug says, "I think it pisses God of when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it."         

I experience often and journal about what I call the "holy nudges" --- those moments when a word a read, a story I hear, a line form a film, an email received, a phone call....each and all strike a chord in me that reverberates in my spirit. Of course, I need to be tuned in.  When these gifts are given and received, I note them, write about them and work to juster the courage to follow the leadings of the "holy nudges."

When I was hearing the call to ordained ministry and was wondering if the Divine most likely "dialed the wrong number."  I kept these feelings all to myself. I was working as a program staff person (a summer camp counselor...kind of like a spiritual version of the movie "Meatballs.") and was amazed at the number or parents who when picking up their children after a week of camp would say to me, "Are you going into the ministry?"  Hmmm........ 

Another time, during the summer before my senior year of seminary I was having a major case of the doubts.  Could I do this clergy thing?  I was working at a Student Assistant Pastor (yes....SAP...the acronym applied) and was part of the leadership team for a Youth Mission Trip to West Virginia. As my doubt deepened, I too got into a bit of a faith funk.  The mission team went to dinner at a local United Methodist church located in the hollers of West Virginia.  I was asked to speak about our group and our church and our experiences.  I did so.  Still was funked. A friend and I went to look at the old cemetery nearby and when we retuned to the church all the vans had left, no one realized that myself and my friend, another leader on the trip, were not present.  Now, I'm already in quite the funk and I'm thinking....well, there's a sign, Sally!  

The immediate issue was how to get back to our basecamp.  We were miles away and walking was not an option.  In the age before cell phones, we would  need to wait until the mission team got back to base and then telephone and wait for someone to come back for us.  A member of the church approached us, noticed us as part of the Mission Group and said she lived "out near the Mission Camp" and she'd give us a ride.  

I sullenly plopped myself in the back seat of her brown Buick sedan.  At one point on the drive, the woman turned to me and said, "You spoke tonight, didn't you?  I liked your brogue (we refer to it as Pittsburghese) and, I don't know why I'm telling you this, yet, you'd make a good minister. I'm not sure if you're even considering it, but you should."     

BOOM!  Funk lifted!  Faith boosted! 

The point of this long tale, is to do what some of us  learned in our first early readers, those books with Dick and Jane and Spot...and, yes, little sister Sally......live the advice and stop. look. listen.  

God is in constant communication. Notice. Pay attention. Pray. Reflect. Talk about it with someone.  Keep listening. Keep noting the nudges.  Respond.

Great advice from the doctor

 

When I lead a workshop on advocacy or am a guest lecturer for a college class, I always reference Dr. Seuss and my view that he was one of the great theologians of the 20th Century.

 

A theologian instructs on the practice and experience of faith, on God's relationship to the world and our relationship to one another. Through his rhyming couplets, his characters, and his creative use of language, he taught us the importance of taking action and actively caring as in the Lorax. In the STAR-BELLIED SNEETCHES Seuss spoke to bias and prejudice based on pigment, poverty or position. Feeling the escalation of military budgets and nuclear arsenals is a problem, read the BUTTER BATTLE BOOK.  Feel invisible, not being seen nor heard? I present HORTON HEARS A WHO.

When following dinner and the Snyder clan would head to our specific reading stations in the house, I chose the big chair in the living room (my shout out to Lilly Tomlin) and opened a Seuss book. HOP ON POP helped teach me to read and was so much more exciting then Dick and Jane, Sally and Spot. ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH instructed on accepting differences, as did GREEN EGGS AND HAM.

For decades, Dr. Seuss instructs and, yes, inspires. Central to my understanding of God and living the faith is a call to do what is just. One of my favorite Seuss stories is YERTLE THE TURTLE where one reads:

"I know, up on top, you are seeing great sights,

But down at the bottom we, too, should have rights."