Leaning into the Gospel

Dear People of Christ Church,
This week, I'm mulling over all things episcopal: episcopal in the sense of "Episcopal," as in, our church, and "episcopal," in the sense of "related to things relating to bishops." (Greek episcopos=overseer=bishop). The slate of bishop candidates in our diocese was released in January, and during February, candidates who join the slate by petition (those who have gathered the correct mix of clergy and lay delegate signatures across our diocese) are being background checked and will be announced in March.  It won't just be those five from the nominating committee! This week also saw the release of the bishops' slate in the suffragan (assisting) election in Maryland.   All the candidates were women, which was at the same time entirely troubling and entirely great.

I recently read Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In, a corporate manifesto for professional women to focus harder on their careers and reject the things that (she sees) hold them back. Sandberg's point is that, too often, women undermine themselves in subtle ways, and before they know it, have lost the opportunities that would have been available to them had they only "leaned in" further to their work. We don't ask for raises, we don't speak up, we let our spouses get away with leaving too much childcare to us. Sandberg's book has been well-criticized by many different corners, first and foremost because she is talking to such a narrow segment of the population, a relatively un-diversified group of people who are already leaps and bounds more privileged than most Americans, nevermind women or men on a global scale.  What's more troubling about the book is that there's nothing about all the structural inequality that leads women to get stuck in their careers, or never to start them at all.  If you couldn't go to college because you got a part time job at CVS to take care of your family, there's not a lot of room for "leaning" anywhere before you fall over.  

Since I read the book, I've been thinking a lot about how it does and doesn't translate in the Christian life.   The Gospel doesn't measure our worth by our salaries or the size of our office, so why should we chase after those things?  Well,  our Gospel for this Sunday does say something about not hiding your light under a bushel, and I think that can go for our secular work as well as for our faith in God. 

But Maryland, oh, Maryland.  If I was a little disappointed to see just one woman on the slate in Massachusetts, it was so much worse to see all those women on the list.  This is the definition of a double bind: in a circumstance in which the outcome you want (women bishops) is sure, why would you not want to have it be certain? Because it just points to how stuck we already are, that either there is an assumption that a woman would never get elected unless running against only women, or that just being female is a job requirement. This is the structural change that Sheryl Sandberg doesn't get and that we in the church don't do a great job with either. 

The charge in baptism is to "respect the dignity of every human being," which includes working for inclusion of all people's skills, on every level, at all times.  We need men and women toget her in our sacraments, men and women together in the choir, men and women on the altar guild, menand women and all those in between who don't identify with either, to listen for God's call in their lives.  That, as the Prophet Isaiah says in our reading for this Sunday, the fast that God chooses. That is God's desire for the church.  What can we do here at Christ Church to share ministry more effectively?  Where are you called to stop hiding your light?  

Blessings,
Sara+ 

PS: See a piece on my blog that this is based on & some conversation about it on the church website Episcopal Cafe.