Holiday Blog Break

Well kids, I'm flying away to Colorado for a week, so no new posts will be forthcoming. I'm going to go cold turkey on email and blogging and television watching and most forms of leisure that require electrical outlets.

I'll be hiking and whatnot, so you'll have to find other ways of amusing yourselves while I'm away. Here's one idea: for your holiday enjoyment, PBS is taping A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday (including the great Meryl Streep!) and airing it on Great Performances Sunday night, July 2, at 9:00p.

It's not Preaching to the Choir, but it'll have to hold you over. ;-)

Have a happy 4th!

Questioning Identity at the Car Wash

So I take my '94 Eagle Vision to the car wash yesterday for some much needed attention. I went to the Breton Village Auto Wash where they vacuum out the inside so the driver waits for the whole process inside the building.

When I left the building to meet my car, one of the young guys wiping down the door jams (who wore his hat cocked to the side of his head like Dwayne Wade and had some bling as well. Bling? For washing cars?), said to me, "Are you a teacher?"

"I, uh, well, uh. (Pause.) Yeah, I guess. (Pause) I'm a professor." He continues to say that he knew it, that he likes to guess what people do for a living from their cars, and he wishes me a good day.

I get in my car and think, "I used to have a better answer to that question: 'Are you a teacher?' 'No, I'm a pastor.'" The conversations were fairly interesting and varied after that point (Really? / You are? / Where? / My aunt is a pastor. / What denomination? / Do you like it?).

I realized that when this guy asked me if I was a teacher, I didn't want him to imagine me laminating cutouts for my bulletin board (not that there's anything wrong with that!). While my previous answer bore its own problems as the responses were unpredictable and occasionally hostile, I'm not at all settled into the new answer.

"I'm a professor." Now, see, that just sounds weird to me. My dissertation isn't done, I can't have folks call me "Doctor" yet (though you all will for the first 30 days after I defend--that's all I ask. Then you can go back to calling me whatever you want, just like you do now....), and I don't have a beard or smoke a pipe or have any bowties. I've dabbled in professor-ness: taught some classes, graded some papers, prepared a few syllabi.

But I think to say "I'm a professor," means, in part, setting aside this identity that has been mine for 10 years, an identity that was hard won in some ways and at the same time fit me. I don't know if "professor" fits me. That's part of the allure of this one-year full-time teaching gig: I can try on the identity and see if it fits.

It's my phone booth year. I just don't know if I'm changing from Clark Kent to Superman, or the other way around. Maybe it's just my dressing room year: try something on and if it fits, buy it. If it doesn't, pull on your favorite old jeans and move on.

We'll see what comes. In the meantime, just nobody ask me what I do.

Another Chapter Down...Two to Go!

Yes, it's true: 8 of the 10 chapters of my dissertation are in the hands of my advisor! Each draft runs about 25+ pages so that's over 200 pages written. Jeepers.

But now the diss gets placed on the back burner for a few weeks. On Saturday I fly to Colorado (YAY!) to teach Calvin students at Snow Mountain Ranch for a week. Then I return to Michigan and will co-teach The Preacher's Oasis with Scott Hoezee and Randy Bytwerk for a week. I have general ideas about my teaching materials for both of those events, but those generalities need to become specificities this week.

AND, since I will depart the tranquil shores of Barlow Lake for a Calvin-owned house near campus after I'm done with the Oasis, I will also spend this week soaking up the pleasures of cottage life: gazing out on the water, kayaking whenever I want, watching turtles, sitting on the deck, and walking Meli without a leash.

So, the dissertation books will get packed up this week and a novel may be cracked. It seems I'll get a bit of summer after all. :-)

My Weekend: Runnin' and Preachin'

This morning I ran the Reeds Lake 5k. It was a lovely morning, and that's the farthest I've run in several months, so I was very pleased. It's a delightful feeling to look down at your watch on a Saturday morning at 9:00am and feel as if you've already accomplished a great deal and anything you do the rest of the day is gravy.



Tomorrow I'll preach at Hope RCA in Kalamazoo. Yes, yes, I know I said no preaching for the summer, but this is a special case. My friend, Kent, pastors there and two weeks ago he and his wife brought their daughter home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where she had been for 4 months and one day (she was born Feb. 10 at 1 lb, 2 oz) . I preached for Kent the Sunday after Josie was born so when asked to step in while he takes time off to be at home with his family, I said yes.

I'm even writing a new sermon for it. So there. What's it about? Well, as my friend John R. says, all sermons should be about God and about 20 minutes. This should meet both of those criteria. If they tape it, I'll try to finagle some way to post it. But read Deuteronomy 11:1-17 and see if that just doesn't scream out a sermon to you the way it did to me...

Distractions...

Bit of a challenge to stay nose-to-the-grindstone on the dissertation when this is the view and the temptation out my window. Me, a novel, a cold beverage, and a hammock, -OR- me, a kayak, a sunny sky and a flat lake, -OR- me, a pile of open books on Aquinas and caritas, lukewarm tea cuz it's been sitting there for a while, an office chair, and a computer.

Guess it better be option 3. Sigh.

Women's Ordination? Find Resources Here.

So your uncle in Bradenton or your grandma in Ripon or your cousin in Pella wants to know why you think women should be ordained. And you, while holding strongly to this conviction for many fine reasons, need to gather some more info.

Where to turn? Here. Christians for Biblical Equality has books, audio recordings, articles, magazines, and more for people who want to learn about and promote biblical equality. Several articles are free to download, and there's a great CD recording of New Testament scholar N.T. Wright advocating the ordination of women as he works his way through the Bible.

They also have bumper stickers, T-shirts, and great note-cards. Plus their intro ad is great. Be sure your speakers are turned on when you click onto the site. Enjoy!

Weekend Respite with my ol' pal GK

After a wearying week of Synod and dissertation writing, it was good to pile into the car with my sister yesterday and drive to Highland Park, Illinois, to see A Prairie Home Companion at the Ravinia Festival.

Lots of good sister-chat in the auto, and we made decent time getting there, despite all the construction on the Skyway/Dan Ryan. (Note: avoid these routes at all costs if you're headed to Chi-town this summer.)

The Ravinia is a cool place; an outdoor music park complete with places to dine and two stages, one small indoor theatre and one large outdoor pavilion. PHC was in the outdoor pavilion, which would have been great had it been, like, 77 degrees. Since it was 92, there was quite a bit of sweating going on.

Beck and I got there early enough to grab some food, but not early enough to grab a shaded spot to eat it in, which meant that as I hunched over my sweet corn, sweat dripped on to the plate. Lovely.

But we had scored tix in the pavilion/shade, and so as soon as the doors opened we headed in to sit and fan ourselves. And read. I had a magazine and Beck had a book. We listened to the piano tuner and the mike checks as we paged through. Then the Shoe Band started playing some tunes, and GK and the Hopefuls came up through the bottom of the stage singing, "Under the Boardwalk." Under the boardwalk from under the stage. Get it?

It was a great show and you can listen to it here. The occasional loud whistle? Yeah, that's me. :-)

Big takeaway: Alice Peacock. Boy, was she good. Definite Amazon purchase coming up there. She's moved from back-up singer (to whom I don't know) to soloist, and she has the skills and the poise to pull it off. Kudos to her, and to PHC for finding her.

And we drove through the city on the way home, avoiding construction while enjoying some sushi from Fox & Obel and then taking in the lights of Lakeshore Drive. Home by 1a, in bed shortly thereafter, and sweet and sound sleep after that, with the strains of the Shoe Band echoing in my head.

Synod.

At a loooong session last night (7-11p), Synod voted by a 2:1 margin to remove all of the gendered language from the CRC Church Order! No more "male" in article 3, and all subsequent he's/his's/him's are out.

This is a big deal, people. A very big deal. While some delegates and a few spectators grumbled that this makes no practical changes, and doesn't go far enough (we'll get to that in a sec), I remain grateful for what this does do.

It places the burden of proof on those who want to exclude women from ordained ministry, when for 30+ years that burden has been on those who want to embrace women as fellow workers in the church. So now church order will read like I'm included! For someone whose ordination certificate, classis exam form, and other official documents have male pronouns, (e.g. "after proving himself worthy, Mary is...") this is good news. This also means that women can be hired for any position within the denominational hierarchy, which is another change.

Now about the rest: women can't be delegated to Synod or named as Synodical deputies (deputies visit other classes to be sure they are doing things decently and in good order). This is actually a step backward as women were allowed by Synod 2005 to be deputies. In fact, there is already one who's been named. They will have to deal with that tomorrow, which stinks for that person (TL), her church (EACRC), and her classis (GRE).

No delegates to Synod stinks, too, especially after you've sat there for a night and watched the mostly-white mostly-over 50 men banter for four hours.

BUT they voted against putting either of these ideas into the church order, which means they are less weighty and more easily changed (it takes two years to change church order, one Synod votes to change and the next year's Synod ratifies). So neither of those ideas are set in stone.

And the clincher: they voted to take a 7 year "sabbath rest" from talking about this issue. Now that's just silly, and here's why: next year's Synod has to ratify this year's changes to church order, which means they'll talk about it then. And there are a few people who think taking away the deputies privilege was beyond the purview of this Synod and can bring that issue up next year. So the seven year business is really kind of foolish. (Plus, it opens itself to all sorts of mocking: 7 lean years, 7 year itch, etc.)

As someone who's sat in on her fair share of Synods, what struck me most was the small size of the audience. In previous years when this issue was being discussed, the FAC was packed. Not so last night. Here they finally remove the word "male" from Church Order article 3, and there are, like, 37 people in the audience.

As my friend and colleague John R. said to me, "That means that this is over for a lot of people." And as I said to Charley Honey, friend and religion editor of the GR Press, "This vote reflects the change, rather than mandates it."

The other thing: there is really a significant split in the CRC. This issue brings it out, but it's not just about this issue. It's about fundamentalism in scripture and in life, actually a more Baptist approach, countered against an "always Reforming" understanding of scripture and life that refuses to lock people into roles or set ideas into stone.

One conservative pastor talked about how women flourish when they are married to "lovers and leaders" and how he worked so hard to get the men in his church to step up and be the heads of their households. He could have been any evangelical from anywhere who listens to Focus on the Family and hands out copies of Wild at Heart like candy. My mouth dropped open while he was talking. "You're wringing your hands," says my friend John. I was.

Now for a bit of irony: the Board of Trustees of the CRC serves as Interim Synod during the other 51 weeks of the year. They watch over the denominational issues, assign people to committees, interview people for denominational posts, prepare the agenda for Synod, and oversee the Director of Denominational Ministries. You know who was just elected by the men of Synod 2006 to be on that board?

Me.

Today's the Day

From my Friend In The Know:

"The women-in-office stuff is listed for this afternoon. There are three things listed for this morning, three for the afternoon, and the women in office (committee 8) is listed this afternoon as the second of three. The way things are going, that makes me think it will be later afternoon. If people really don't want to take a chance on missing this debate, they probably want to be here by 1:00."

Synod meets in the Fine Arts Center of Calvin College, in case anyone has the desire/hutzpah/thick skin to attend. Or, if you are unable or unwilling to attend you can watch or listen to the webcast.

A wee Synod update

The advisory committee report is out regarding a response to the overtures about women in office. You can read the whole thing here (Committee 8 b&c). An advisory committee reviews the overtures, etc. on a particular issue and then recommends to Synod how Synod should respond.

In this case, the advisory committee says, "Sure, let's delete male from the requirements for ordained office, but we're still not going to let ordained women come to Synod. And, oh, by the way, let's take a seven year break from talking about this because will allow the denomination and its churches to concentrate on their ministries."

Really? Doing justice is distracting you from your ministries? Then what, pray tell, are your ministries?

For the record: Synod can receive the report for information, adopt parts, reject parts, or start all over from scratch, so the advisory committee's role is truly advisory. But as any polity wonk knows, having something down on paper gives an edge to the discussion.

When will this come up for debate? Dunno. Could be tomorrow. Could be Friday. I have a Friend In the Know who is keeping tabs on things. When he tells me, I'll tell you.

Pray on, sisters and brothers. Pray on.

It's That Time of Year Again...

Who are these folks? They are the officers for this year's Synod. Synod, for the innocent, is the annual meeting of the Christian Reformed Church. They meet every year in June.

I say "they" because it's not me. I'm a woman, you see, complete with ovaries and breasts and a uterus and therefore not allowed at Synod. Oh, I can sit in the audience and watch. I could even sit at a table marked "women advisors," a table for women who spend the week sitting alongside the delegates and who are allowed to speak on an issue if they'd like. But they can't vote. They sit alongside a table reserved for the "ethnic advisors," who also can speak but not vote. I'm not making this stuff up.

The delegates are 2 (usually white) male elders and 2 (usually white) male ministers from each of the church's classes, or regional bodies (singular: classis).

I was ordained in this denomination ten years ago. Ten Years Ago. I've done about 50 weddings and about 50 funerals. I've baptized scores of children. Served communion many, many times. Preached boxes full of sermons. Sat on a denominational committee. Taught in the denominational seminary. But all of this was done, according to church order, "by way of exception." Each classis could choose to ordain women, but the denomination as whole was officially against it.

This spring the denomination reached the point where over half of the classes have voted to ordain women. And so Synod once again is going to debate about whether this should be denominational policy. And once again there are going to be folks (read: men) standing on the floor of Synod and quoted in the local papers as saying that such a practice is unbiblical. A disgrace. A show of how liberal the CRC is becoming.

And once again, despite my process of sanctification, I'm going to want to run either 1) away (far, far away with no chance of return), or 2) onto the floor of Synod and tell them just where they can put their recyclable coffee cups. Whether it's 1) or 2) depends on my cycle. We women are very unpredictable, don't you know. Hormones and what. Who knows what it'd be like if we were preaching the gospel? Better to just leave well enough alone.

"So the women left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Matthew 28:8-10

Prairie Home on the Big Screen - TONIGHT!

Yes, it's true! And Lily Tomlin was on The Daily Show last night to plug for it. A Prairie Home Companion: The Movie, the Robert Altman film, opens tonight! Woo hoo! Watch the trailer here.

Loving God

I've been researching for my dissertation chapter on Loving God, and so I've been reading Aquinas, Augustine, people who talk about Aquinas and Augustine, and I've been reading the Torah and Jewish commentaries on the Torah.

It's in the Torah where the people of Israel are commanded to love God ("You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Deuteronomy 6:5) so commentaries on Torah are full of fascinating insights into what it means to love God. And since the Jews have been looking at this text for a lot longer than we Christians have and use a slightly different hermenuetic, there is much to be learned.

In my reading I came across this story, which I then wrote out by hand and stuck on my bathroom mirror because I found it so compelling. I'm still ruminating on it:

"The story was told of a man who had lost his wife and children in a pogrom. He addressed God as follows: 'Master of the universe, You have done much to make me forsake my faith. Know then that in spite of it all I am a Jew, and a Jew I will remain, and nothing You will yet do to me will avail You anything and turn me away from loving you."
(Shelemo Ibn Verga, as quoted by W.G. Plaut)