Female clergy in Poland are subversive by the mere fact of their existence.

I have so many examples, so many names, of women who have shown me by their presence God can call anyone into the role of pastor. Recently, I’ve added two more to a constantly growing list: Pastor Sarah and Pastor Anna, a pair of priests who coordinate a dinner church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

It is an actual cloud of unknowing and an actual cloud of forgetting, and the chord it strikes for the day feels fitting for a contemplative, Lenten March mood.

In Galatians 3, Paul clearly asserts that the three most impenetrable social boundaries of the Ancient Near East, race, class, and gender, are forever breached when people enter into the fellowship of the church. I am certain that those who resist women serving in the ministry would fight to the death to end discrimination based upon race or class which might touch upon their own lives.

Whether we turn to the gospel of Mark, where Jesus asked two ordinary fishermen to “follow me” or turn to the gospel of Luke where Jesus instructed Simon to “let down the nets for a catch,” we come to anticipate an evolution of call, trust, teaching, and journey of faith to happen through these divine directives.