Tuesday in the Second Week

Isaiah 1:2-4, 16-20; Psalm 50:7-15, 22-24; Matthew 23:1-12

One of the legacies of patriarchy in the Episcopal Church is the difficulty with what to call female priests.  In denominations with less hierarchy, clergy have been “pastors” or “reverends” for a long time.  Women became “Pastor Mary” upon ordination.  They had a rough road, but the name wasn’t part of it.

But so many Episcopalians grew up calling someone “Father,” in spite of Jesus’ direction here.  So when women are ordained, after forty years the big question is still, “What do we call you?”  

Some people think that any title other than “Mother” dishonors my priesthood.  When I pastored a Lutheran congregation side-by-side with an Episcopal one, I was “Pastor.”  Generally, people struggled to call me the name God gave me: Shane.

The human drive for hierarchy and privilege, or simply for order, is so deep that we will ignore Jesus if he gets in the way.  We are pack animals, and packs need order.  Jesus tells us to overcome the need to see our leader in the flesh and to listen for the word of God.  It’s just as hard a command as the one to pick up our cross, or the command to love our enemies.  it goes against every instinct we have.  But he says this is how God’s world looks: everything’s turned upside down.

He tells us that we will be able to recognize the leaders: they’ll be the ones serving, not the ones being served.  Not “fathers,” not “teachers,” but “sisters” and “brothers.”  Children of one God.

These days I ask people to call me “Sister” if they need a title.  They’re often surprised: doesn’t priesthood “outrank” being a Companion?  In the hierarchical world, it probably does.  But I want to follow Jesus.  I want to be a sister, not by virtue of vows but by my way of life.

Call me “sister.”  Help me learn how to be your sister in truth.  And come, be my sister or brother.  Let us carry the load together.