I have been following Nadia Bolz-Weber on social media for a few years now and I subscribe to her newsletter. I find her preaching to be witty, funny, cutting, provocative and deeply spiritual. It has been most welcome over the years as I have tried to deal with the problems of everyday life and the larger fucked up world. Bolz-Weber has written several books but I believe this was the first and it sort of provides the “origin story” for Pastrix Nadia, a Lutheran pastor whose ministry started with folks who weren’t welcomed or didn’t feel welcome in more traditional church settings. “Pastrix” is a derogatory term for women clergy, but Bolz-Weber embraces it along with all other things that have made her and her parishioners outliers. These are the things that have also bonded them together. The book is 12 years old but the message within — about self worth, redemption and God’s love — is timeless.
Nadia Bolz-Weber (NBW) was raised in the Church of Christ, a conservative evangelical religion that had impact on her in not so great ways. Although NBW was an excellent student and attended services regularly with her family, as she got older this same church relegated her, because of her gender, to secondary roles. She was meant to be quiet and to focus on personal salvation. The world was divided into the good and bad, those saved and those not. The people she liked most at school — gays and others who were on the fringe — were clearly on the “bad” list even though NBW knew they were actually very good people. Consequently, as she grew older, NBW left the Church of Christ but she also carried with her a very negative image of herself, as a “bad” person who was destined for trouble. And so she embraced what she thought was inevitable, hanging around with people who engaged in dangerous behaviors. NBW became an alcoholic, like many of her friends, but after a few scary incidents, she began attending AA meetings with the goal of “learning to drink like a lady” rather than actually giving up drinking all together. Yet at the AA meetings she meet an interesting group of people who made her want to become sober and who brought God and faith back onto her radar. A woman named Margery often spoke of God and relying on God. This got NBW’s attention because what she saw in Margery and her faith was a connection to God not based on the piety and righteousness but on desperation, something she felt herself. It took many years, but NBW ultimately found a home in the Lutheran Church through her boyfriend/husband/theology student Matthew. One of the selling points for NBW was the church’s social justice message, something missing from the Christianity she grew up with. From there, after getting married and having kids, NBW became a seminary student herself and later started her own parish – the House for All Sinners and Saints — which attracted gays, addicts and other city folk who like NBW were searching for God but were not welcomed elsewhere.
I learned a lot of interesting things from reading Pastrix. For example, I had not realized that preaching about Christian ministry to the poor/social justice is a divisive point for more conservative evangelical Christians. The Church of Christ that NBW grew up with was focused on personal salvation and not really about responsibility to the poor or anyone else. That seems pretty central to Christianity to me, although I also think plenty of churches that talk about social justice talk more than they act. I also found many of NBW’s sermons (not printed in whole here but often mentioned as part of NBW’s personal spiritual journey) to be surprising and thought provoking. One of the best is the chapter “Eunuchs and Hermaphrodites,” in which NBW openly reveals a prejudice of her own that she had to confront, and in which she interprets a passage from Acts in which Philip baptizes an Ethiopian Eunuch. While many would use this story as an illustration of the need for inclusiveness in the church, NBW turns the story on its head and shows how it was really a moment of conversion for Philip.
One of the things I like about Pastrix and about NBW’s preaching is that she is very open and frank about her own struggles and screw ups, about her frustration with God, her parish and herself. She is not afraid to share her learning moments, which, lets face it, can be incredibly embarrassing and painful moments for all of us. This book also has me thinking about my relationship with my own church (Roman Catholic). I’ve been pretty frustrated with it for years but NBW also gets angry and frustrated with the Lutheran Church and other progressive entities (there’s an interesting passage about Sojourner magazine) when they don’t seem progressive enough. Given her ministry to the LGBTQ+ community, she is puzzled when gay friends of hers, some of them ministers themselves, opt to stay in instead of leaving the church that doesn’t always recognize their equality. As ever NBW gives me food for thought and I am grateful to her for being so honest about her struggles and for sharing her spiritual insights. This might be the kind of book that appeals more to Christians/believers than non-Christian readers, and it absolutely appeals to liberal/progressives, but I still think NBW’s views on life and people and spirituality would be useful for anyone.