Ya’ll Gonna Listen Today: Stop Blamming Women #ThatsNotWhatJesusWasSaying. A Sermon shared with Holy Family Lutheran Church
Grace and peace to you
My sisters,
Brothers
And siblings in Christ
The WORD is to bring comfort
And not condemnation
The WORD is to give hope
And not heartache
The WORD is for acceptance
And not to aggravate
The WORD
MADE
FLESH
Is
Jesus Christ,
Who never abandons us
Affirms us
Heals our brokenness
And empowers us
To go and do,
That which He has commanded of us
To Love one another
And to live out our faith
Through Action.
Amen.
(pause)
In times of strife
And uncertainty,
Sometimes the Good News
Doesn’t come
From
Scripture.
That may sound strange,
But sometimes
In the hands
Through the writings
And translations
Of this,
Holy
Word
Humanity
Has twisted
And used it
Against
One
Another.
(pause)
That was my struggle,
With last week’s Gospel
Because
Even in those verses,
As in these before us this morning,
They have been misused
And abused
In mistreating
And shaming
Those who are going through suffering
Relegating them
Into silence
For the perceived sin,
That we
Have judged them
To be
Unworthy of God’s Grace.
Apparently,
According to the Fraternal Order of Police
We,
The People who descended from the strongest of Ancestors,
Who endured the violence
And torture
Of enslavement
Of Jim Crow
And taking back
Which was rightfully OURS
Because WE were birthed
Created
From within the Love of the God,
We,
As peoples of African Descent
were supposed to remain silent
And not question
The actions of an officer
Who decided
That Laquan McDonald
Was just another worthless black body,
And his sin
Was simply
Existing.
His sin,
Was not complying
Our sin,
Was asking for justice,
Instead of submitting
To the American Nationalistic culture
Who has nothing but hatred for us
(pause)
In other words
Our Black bodies
Are so sinful
Because we refuse to be subservient
And assimilate
We bring this violence,
Upon ourselves!
(pause)
And this morning,
We hear
That because of flesh,
More succinctly
As Women
With our connection to Eve
Simply because we EXIST
DRESS
Move
Our bodies
As Women
EXIST
And in our refusal to be submissive
We bring shame
And violence
Upon ourselves.
So we,
Women,
Just as equal as men
Supposedly need to be controlled
Through legislation,
Regulations
And policies
(pause)
A dear friend of mine,
Several weeks ago
Posted a joint message
Of her and her husband
As they announced publicly on social media
Their plans to remain dedicated parents
But were separating
As a couple.
She shared soon thereafter,
That a well-meaning friend
Another fellow Christian,
Lambasted HER
About her SIN
Of divorcing!
(pause)
And when I saw the lectionary
For this Sunday,
I got
IRATE!
In everything that lays the sin of society
At women’s feet these days,
WHERE IS THE GOOD NEWS?
(pause)
We have to be honest, right
As people of faith
That no matter how steeped we are
In our faith,
No matter how many times
We come before
The presence of the One
Who forgives
And loves us
Anyhow
That sometimes the relationships
We cherish
We work hard to be fruitful,
Sometimes
Because of our humanity
It
just
Falls
Apart.
(pause)
When we find ourselves,
Arguing
Disagreeing
Falling out of love,
With the one,
Who we committed our lives to
In front of family
And friends
And community!
We are embarrassed
And ashamed
Especially as Women,
Because we are the nurturers,
Right?
(pause)
We are charged to hold the family
Run the household
To be the best cooks,
And housecleaners
And the example for the community
Of how a model, Godly Woman
Is supposed to be!
(pause)
And when our marriage breaks down,
Why is the suspicion
Of whose fault
Pointed
At
Us?
That we should have stayed at home,
That we shouldn’t have taken on that job
That we didn’t make enough time for our man
That we didn’t prioritize everyone else
Before our own self
That we weren’t selfless enough.
(pause)
Have you noticed,
That there barely any support
For women
Who are going through divorce
From the Church?
When people become widowed,
The Church surrounds and loves them,
But when women get divorced
There is this AIR of suspicion
And alienation
And then we wonder why,
People up and leave the Church.
(pause)
Where is the Good News
For those who find themselves,
Not loving the person they committed themselves to?
Where is the Good News,
For those who must leave a marriage
That has crumbled
Under the weight of abuse
And violence?
How are we
Living out the Good News,
By being understanding
And loving
And supporting
To those
Who are struggling
With a new reality
Of not being together
Anymore?
(pause)
“What did Moses command you?
They said,
“Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal
and to divorce her.”
But Jesus said to them,
“Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.
(pause)
Jesus Christ,
Living among us
Living as us,
Saw the fickleness
Of our hearts
And the self-righteousness
Of our understanding of the law
And our wastefulness
Of the gift of love
And our corruptness
When we decide
We cannot submit
To what the Creator calls us to,
The responsibility
Of caring for one another
However that manifests.
(pause)
When We refuse to follow
Jesus’s commandment
We refuse to see
The reflection
Of the One
Who has told DEATH
It cannot have us,
We refuse to see Jesus
In one another
That unmistakable reminder
That we are bonded
And therefore reminding
Of how we are connected,
By the Holy Spirit
Through Jesus Christ.
(pause)
Jesus also saw,
The hardness of our hearts
In the ways we treat one another
Until it becomes a vicious cycle
Until it becomes normalized
Until we just become so individualistic
Until we don’t want to name our own failings
(pause)
And Jesus came,
To teach all of us,
That one commandment
That means so many things!
That we are to love one another
Through understanding,
As we struggle
As we grieve the loss of a relationship,
As we comfort one another.
Through compassion,
When perhaps our paths may have to part,
Even as we continue to travel together
Throughout this life’s journey
In many ways
Through accountability,
But that doesn’t mean excusing poor behavior,
Through forgiveness,
But does not mean we are be someone’s doormat
That does not respect our humanity
Our sacredness.
(pause)
Because when we ignore one another,
And attempt to secure our place
Before Jesus,
Because we think we are more important
Or more righteous
When we push those, who are vulnerable
Out of the way
When we abandon those
Who have been maligned
oppressed
This is when Jesus stands with those
Who are vulnerable
Forgotten
Misused
And reminds us
That Jesus Christ,
Loves
Us
ALL
REGARDLESS.
(pause)
A Colleague,
Posted this on Facebook.
A Ritual of Ending of Relationship,
of letting go.
(for all of us. with love.)
And the beginning of this ritual
Goes like this:
For the marking of endings
and the soulful reaching towards internal peace
in the midst of turmoil.
For the owning of pain and the transforming of trauma.
For the non judgmental work of internal truth telling and the resurrection of hope.
For the evening.
To interrupt the cycles of could-have-would-have-should-have.
For the quieting and comforting of soul.
For you, hurting and picking up pieces and making sense and growing. For me.
(pause)
Isn’t that
The Good News,
Right there?
We need not only prayers,
To heal our wounded souls,
But as the Church
As People of Faith
We need to embody the Gospel of Jesus Christ
In our actions,
Especially as people are hurting.
(pause)
For those of you
Who have gone through divorce,
Or are going through
Or contemplating
Or just sad,
As human relationships and
Friendships will sometimes
Make us,
Know that there is no judgement here.
Know that we will,
As people of faith
As beloved siblings in Christ
Walk with you
Support you
Be with you
Love
You.
Thanks be to God.
