Easter 7- Acts 1.21-26- (Galatians 3.28)- Mark 5.21-34- on the 30th anniversary of ordination of women priests in the CofE
Yesterday was a very important day. A very important day for women, but one of fair shame for the Church of England. We were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ordination of women priests. But it is a label of shame to the Church of England because it shouldn’t be 30 years, it should be 2000 years or more- are we so so far behind, not the times, but the heart of God that we are celebrating only 30 years? Shocking!
And all the more poignant that our reading of the disciples’ activities in the book of Acts should be so deeply concerned about appointing a man to replace Judas as one of the 12 apostles. It is a wonder, and a shame, because the celebrations of yesterday tacitly point to the way in which we have allowed things of little concern to get in the way of ultimate matters of sharing the goodness of God. If we continue to show that the distinction between being a male in ministry or a female in ministry, or for that matter a male in Christian practice or a female in daily Christian practice, we need to figure out once and for all what it is that’s important about that. Personally, I don’t think it is.
The apostle Paul had a thing or two to say about women in the church.... Yes, he said a thing or two. Thing is, he also said a few opposite things or twos too. One of them was this famous line:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3.28)
So it would seem that the idea of distinguishing one human from another isn’t a concept that works in God’s eyes. It seems to be a only point of practice of us humans to divvy up the humanity with which we were made.
Despite St Paul saying a thing or two (oh yes, he said a thing or two), we find working alongside him plenty of women leaders. There was Phoebe in the book of Romans, Priscilla (someone mentioned in the book of Acts), Euodia and Syntyche who Paul mentioned with much love in the book of Philippians. So for the CofE to be celebrating just a mere 30 years is such, to my mind, such a wasted opportunity that the number doesn’t have at least 4 digits in it. And it could be even more, as there were plenty of major female players in the Old Testament too.
In fact so important is this idea that Paul stated ‘that in Christ there is no male or female, for all of you are one in Christ’, that in the gospels Jesus seems to take, over and over again, a line that tries to rebalance the male-female divide there was in society, ..is in society.., raising the profile of women and not only that but highlighting the tenacity and subversiveness with which those women lived, and marked that as worthy of celebration.
When an important synagogue official pleaded for Jesus to follow him home to tend to his very sick daughter, it was in the midst of going there that a woman of no account to society dared to reach out and just, just tried to touch the hem of his cloak as he passed by in the crowds, to just let her fingers accidentally allow the tassels on the fringe of his prayer shawl to drift lightly over her outstretched fingers. What a small, timid act, that she hoped would never be noticed, but despite the urgency of Jesus’ errand, who did he stop for? He stopped for her. To highlight not only that her faith to try to reach out made her well, but to show who it was that had reached out, how it was that she reached out, and to subvert society’s treatment of her by giving her more than just the time of day but that amazing proclamation to be worn like an olympian’s crown- your faith (that is here, your willingness to be subversive and step beyond bounds of society’s rigidity) has made you well (that is, healed yes, but raised you up, made you seen, made you a woman, known).
That woman exemplified a priestly action, one that all priests and priestesses could learn from in their activities. Now we have the idea of the priesthood of all believers, that is when I do the communion prayer- it is only made valid by the fact that you are all gathered here together with me and we need to hold that idea in mind as I draw this analogy.
Priests at the table of communion reach up with next to nothing their hands but a bit of dry bread. We dare, like this woman in today’s gospel to hope to let the tassels on the end of Jesus’s cloak to drift over our poor fingers. And in every communion we receive a gift in that emblem of dry bread that reminds us of the fullness of the life of Christ that is in us. ‘Who touched me?’ We could almost hear when the priest’s hands are raised at the table. And as we receive, we could almost hear ‘your faith has made you well,’ (that is your tenacity and subversiveness against the norms of the world to dare reach out has brought this gift of life to you).
Now if a woman, who had been scammed of all her money by male doctors, can show us the key priestly action. What a shame on the Church of England for being able to celebrate a mere 30 years of women’s priestly ministry.
This has been a bit of a rant of a sermon and you might be sitting thinking, yes that’s good for the priests but what about me, where’s my spiritual input for the week. To that I would simply say, yesterday’s anniversary, and today’s chosen gospel reading demonstrates something that we are a part of undoing.
If in Christ there is no male or female, no greek or jew, or any other nationality, no status, no identity, no attribute physical or otherwise, no disability, no mental need or emotional need that can distinguish us because we should be one in Christ as Paul says, then we need to look around at our society, at our leadership, and our structures and ask ourselves- have we done anything about all that yet?
There is plenty to do. Let us let this story of the CofE’s women priests be a lesson to us about just how much more we need to do before that deep deep truth that Paul said is finally true for all the other divisions we have made in the fabric of humanity.
