Ordain a Lady, LSB edition
Posted on January 10th, 2013
If you haven’t yet seen the “Ordain a Lady” video, you should. It contains the typical argument that Baptism is the qualification for ordination.
“Hey, I was baptized”, and an interior, subjective call, are the qualifications, according to the video. Couldn’t happen in the LCMS, right?
Well, this post isn’t really about the video. I just thought of the video as I was picking out hymns for the coming celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord (January 13). I came across a hymn new to the LCMS via Lutheran Service Book, #600, Mark How the Lamb of God’s Self-Offering. At first glance it seems good. First stanza checks out, tune is somewhat familiar and sturdy. A pastor in a hurry might not do any additional examination. But then, look at the second half of stanza two: “So we, by water and the Spirit / Baptized into Christ’s ministry, / Are often led to paths of service / Through mazes of adversity.” What does it mean to be “baptized into Christ’s ministry”? I’d like to think it means, “In baptism one receives the benefits of Christ’s work,” but from the context it clearly means the “paths of service” that we follow. And right there, in the LCMS worship book, is the argument for women’s ordination.
Lutheran Service Book has many wonderful elements. But there are some definite land-mines to avoid. One can only hope these are not time-bombs shaping the minds of our current and future pastors.
Every single time we sing this, I have to give myself a good, theological, vocational, proper spin on that line. And it *can* be understood rightly. But,,, yeah… what you said about how these kinds of lines are shaping the thinking of people over the course of years … yeah ….
I never, in a million years, would have put those two together. I respect so many of the things that you write on this blog, but I respectfully disagree with your conclusion here and think you are barking up the wrong tree with respect to the hymn text.
The second stanza, taken as a whole, means – as a baptized child of God, don’t be surprised when you suffer, for even Christ suffered and was tempted following His baptism – baptism is a preparation for suffering. Baptized “into Christ’s ministry” is the same as baptized “into Christ” – but with a few more syllables to fill out the meter of the poetry. As our exegetes would put it, this is a subjective genitive – it is telling you who is doing the action of ministry – thus it can only mean “in baptism, one receives the benefits of Christ’s work,” and it cannot mean “[our] paths of service [to God].” You cannot take a statement in context without taking the entire context. You begin your contextual analysis with a phrase that begins “So….” Whenever you have a “so,” you have a conclusion being drawn from a greater context, a greater context that must be taken into consideration. The first half of the stanza points us to the temptation which Christ endured following His baptism. Thus we should not be surprised when temptation follows our Baptism into what Christ has done for us, since part of what He has done for us was endure temptation following Baptism.
When you take these phrases in the context of the third stanza as well, it is abundantly clear that baptism is a call to the Royal Priesthood. It is only by a confusion of Royal Priesthood and the Office of the Holy Ministry that one could conclude that baptism is the only prerequisite for ordination. This is a confusion you rightly point out exists in the referenced video. But it is only through the eisegesis of importing this confusion of Royal Priesthood and Holy Ministry that you can say that the text of this hymn does that.
You make some great points, and I admire your ability to put a better construction on the hymn than I can.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been disturbed by this hymn ever since I read it, around the time of my first baptism after we got LSB. The timing of the video, along with the recommendation of the hymn planning guide for this Sunday, simply brought it back to mind.
You actually point out an angle of this that I hadn’t caught which, to my mind, makes the problem even worse, namely, the conflation of ministry and “royal priesthood” which has afflicted our synod for some time.
I would truly like to believe that “baptized into Christ’s ministry” just means being baptized “into Christ,” and I will allow that some poetic license has to be granted (generally speaking). But these are important terms, and this text is too recently written not to take this serious problem of the confusion about “ministry” into account.
I hope you’re right. More importantly, I hope that our people are singing this hymn with that understanding. But I fear that I’ve met too many “Lutherans” to believe that…
“So we, by water and the Spirit / Baptized into Christ’s ministry, / Are often led to paths of service / Through mazes of adversity.” What does it mean to be “baptized into Christ’s ministry”? I’d like to think it means, “In baptism one receives the benefits of Christ’s work,” but from the context it clearly means the “paths of service” that we follow. And right there, in the LCMS worship book, is the argument for women’s ordination.
Yeah, not sure I got that. I see “paths of service” as regular vocations like Gene Veith explains in his books on vocation. Women “baptized into Christ’s” ministry” do have various “paths of service” to others through the different vocations of wife, mother, friend, worker, etc. Right? Women are spared the arduous duty of being pastors and bishops.
I entirely agree that women (and laymen!) have many “paths of service” in their vocations – as do pastors outside their word-and-sacrament vocation. But the question is, are the various vocations we all have “Christ’s ministry”? I submit not.
The real problem here is the word “ministry.” If there were another word there, then everything is good and clear, and it suddenly becomes a fine hymn.
Oh, and I totally love it that you put it through that “vocation” filter and Lutheranized the text. That gives me hope.
This video is a disgrace! I wish these women put that much energy into actually doing something useful for the Church they ‘profess’ to be so concerned about and want to serve. The Woman’s Ordination Conference has to be the most misguided and confused organization that exists – do they really think dancing around is going to change something? Maybe the should try jumping up and down in the ocean! And what the hell does “I was baptized” mean? Does this mean EVERYONE without exception is called to Marriage or Holy Orders?