May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Now, whenever it is Mother’s Day, I remember when my mother responded to a question I had when I was a kid. “There’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but without us kids, there wouldn’t be either one. Why isn’t there a kids day?” I asked incredulously. And she said, “Because every day is kid’s day.” Dang, I thought.
And, on Mother’s Day, I also think about one of my favorite modern day prophets, I often quote her in the pulpit, the late humorist Erma Bombeck. She once penned this great piece titled, “When God Created Mothers.”
“When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of “overtime” when the angel appeared and said. “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”
And God said, “Have you read the specs on this order?” She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts…all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands.”
The angel shook her head slowly and said. “Six pairs of hands…. no way.”
It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” God remarked, “it’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”
That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel. God nodded.
One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. ‘I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”
God,” said the angel touching his sleeve gently, “Get some rest tomorrow….”
I can’t,” said God, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower.”
The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.
But tough!” said God excitedly. “You can imagine what this mother can do or endure.”
Can it think?”
Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.
There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model.”
It’s not a leak,” said the Lord, “It’s a tear.”
What’s it for?”
It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.” You are a genius, ” said the angel. Somberly, God said, “I didn’t put it there.”
Oh yeah…I know about those eyes in the back of the head thing with mom’s. God sure got that one down. I think for many, this is what we know mothers to be – the sort of Super Mom. But, sadly, for some this is some sort of dreamland image of maternal love, because in their childhood, they either never had a mother, or the one they had was a far cry from what we celebrate today in hallmark cards. And, of course, there are those who cannot have children. That is why I like to think of today as less about Mothers specifically, and more about women – mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, nieces, aunts, and friends. Women who have been a part of our lives – nurturing, mentoring, loving, caring. That is what we really celebrate today.
Now, this Saturday, we will celebrate our new ministry together – all of you and me. And as we move forward, we are called to live out our baptismal covenant. In fact, we will renew our baptismal vows on Saturday, with our bishop. And part of those vows are found in the reading from Acts this morning: “ Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” And on Saturday, the gospel that I selected to be read is the one from John where Jesus gives us his new commandment. It is the one we read on Maundy Thursday, which comes from the Latin for mandate – mandatum – and Jesus tells us to love one another as he loved us.
Love one another as he loved us. That is what the apostles would have been teaching, and what we are to teach ourselves.
So why is it that we seem to limit that love to segments of our population?
See, the sad thing about today is – our devotion to women on this day – all the flowers and chocolate – can ring hollow in the face of what is done to women and girls all around the world. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women reports “Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth. Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Women lack access to decent work and face occupational segregation and gender wage gaps. They are too often denied access to basic education and health care. Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and discrimination. They are under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes.”1
And that comment only scratches the surface. Even today, young girls around the world are mutilated, sold into slavery, or denied education. The very idea that a young girl would be shot for trying to educate herself in Pakistan should be a wake up call to us all. And, we are now faced with nearly 300 girls kidnapped in Nigeria, and threatened with being sold into sexual slavery or given as wives – young girls used a political tool – totally expendable.
And if we think this is something that affects only other countries – think again.
In the US, wage disparity by gender is an on-going issue. While the gap has gotten smaller, it is still appalling that on average, a woman with the same qualifications as a man will earn 25% less. And we still are behind other countries who have elected a female head of state. But more than that, we have around the world, and here in the US, a rate of violence against women and girls that is beyond comprehension. Rape and domestic violence statistics are mind boggling. Why?
Why are women and girls treated like second class citizens, or worse?
I believe it begins with a sense that women are not truly the equal to men. And…I think the church has a role in that.
“Former US President, and a man of deep faith, Jimmy] Carter, [was recently interviewed about his a new book, and he] discussed how quotations from the Bible can be used to argue for both equality and the inferiority of women. “You can pick out individual verses throughout the Bible that show that the verse favours your particular preference, and the fact that the Catholic church, for instance, prohibits women from serving as priests or even deacons gives a kind of a permission to male people all over the world, that well, if God thinks that women are inferior, I’ll treat them as inferiors. If she’s my wife, I can abuse her with impunity, or if I’m an employer, I can pay my female employees less salary,” he said. In ‘A Call to Action’, he writes of how some selected scriptures are interpreted, “almost exclusively by powerful male leaders within the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other faiths, to proclaim the lower status of women and girls”. He continued, saying, “This claim that women are inferior before God spreads to the secular world to justify gross and sustained acts of discrimination and violence against them,”
I would add to his comments that our all male language for God, including changing the Holy Spirit from the feminine that it was in Hebrew and Greek, to the Latin masculine, creates a sense that God, in some way, can only be Father not Mother. As it says on my office door – “God” is not a boys name, and I believe, as do many leading theologians, that this persistent all male language serves to subliminally separate women as being not quite as close to God as men.
And on the former Presidents remarks about the bible, It has long been the case that our beautiful sacred text has been used to justify going against the very thing Jesus commanded us to do, and our baptismal covenant reminds us to teach. The bible has been used to justify slavery, and continues to be used to justify discrimination against women and LGBT people. And it must stop.
Despite it all – the discrimination, the violence, the education denied – women rise up. Women still stand strong. Young women like Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who despite being shot in the face at the young age of 16 by the Taliban, still fights for her right, and the right of all young girls, to be given an education. Women like Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, who endured years of house arrest just for speaking out and fighting for justice, yet refused to back down. Women all over the world who continue to stand firm to claim their equality before God.
You see, the God of Erma Bombeck’s story did complete the mission – women are not the frail, passive, inferior people society would have them be. We are strong, vibrant, and gifted – ready and willing to take on the world, to claim our place as God’s beloved children. But there is so much more to do.
What does this mean for us as Christians? We have to live our baptismal covenant, just as the apostles are doing in our reading today from Acts – to teach what Christ taught us – that we are to love one another. We are to study scriptures and understand the patriarchal society out of which they come, and to reflect on them with the knowledge that all of us – men and women – are created in the image of God. To demean a women is to demean the image of God, in no less a way than it is for a man.
If we can do that – live that – we can begin to create a world that truly honors women – not just with flowers, chocolates, and platitudes, but with genuine love and respect for the beautiful, wise, and strong people they are. That will be a wonderful day indeed when we will really be living our baptismal vows – when we will truly be honoring the women in our lives, and the God that created them, not only with our lips, but with our lives.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Amen.
[Please note: All sermons are as written, not necessarily as delivered on that Sunday]
The Rev. Diana Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
May 11. 2014
Fourth Sunday of Easter – Year A
1st Reading – Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
2nd Reading – 1 Peter 2:19-25
Gospel – John 10:1-10
