You can summon lightning in spawn protection, through the use of a trident and a lightning rod

• Start a server and join it
• Give yourself operator permissions
• Set the world spawn to your current location
• Set the weather to thunder
• Place a lightning rod within spawn protection
• Obtain a trident enchanted with channeling
• Give operator permissions to a different player
• Remove your operator permissions
• Throw the trident at the ground within spawn protection
  -No lightning is summoned
• Throw the trident at the lightning rod within spawn protection
  -Lightning is summoned