Women s Equality Day August 26, 2010 Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of Women in the United States winning the Right to Vote

Transcription

1 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time August 21, 2010 Barbara Clarihew Women s Equality Day August 26, 2010 Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of Women in the United States winning the Right to Vote 1) Announcements and Prayer Requests 2) Call to Worship Water Women by Alla Bozarth We do not want to rock the boat, you say, mistaking our new poise for something safe. We smile secretly at each other, sharing the reality that for some time we ve not been in the boat We jumped or were pushed or fell and some leaped overboard. Our bodies form a freedom fleet, our dolphin grace is power. We learn and teach and as we go each woman sings; each woman s hands are water wings. Some of us have become mermaids or Amazon whales and are swimming for our lives. Some of us do not know how to swim. We walk on water. 3) Song: Be Not Afraid # 434 4) First Reading: Deborah, a warrior, a prophet, a singer, a poet and a worshipper of God. God can raise up wise and capable women to govern his people, to administer God s justice and to speak God s word. In the Old Testament (about 1125 B.C.), Deborah sets the example. She is exceptional in many ways. As God s prophet, Deborah played a significant role in the deliverance of her people from foreign oppression. She was obedient to her calling. Through her faithful obedience in proclaiming the word of God, the Israelites defeated the Canaanites and were delivered from suffering and oppression. Female leadership is not incompatible with the way God works. God calls women to positions of leadership, including civil, military and religious roles. What can we learn from Deborah about Christian leadership? How can we become role models for both women and men in public service? Throughout history, God has always raised up leaders to help his people in times of suffering and oppression. Deborah was such a leader who responded to the divine call. May we learn from her example.

2 5) Second Reading: Hildegard of Bingen The complexity of Hildegard s work is staggering especially for a nun in the middle ages. Abbess/artist/cosmologist/composer/counselor/dietitian/dramatist/epistoler/healer/ linguist/mystic/naturalist/philosopher/poet/political consultant/preacher/prophet/visionary who wrote theological, naturalistic, botanical, medicinal and dietary texts as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and The Play of the Virtues. Headstrong and humble, annoying and comforting, Hildegard was real. She listened to god and followed Him by serving others. In the male-dominated world of the 12 th century and in any world in any century this is the one essential for living an abundant life of compassion. She writes: Shame filled, earth-shod woman untaught and unlettered - remember you ve been illuminated by My light. It ignites in you an inner sun, burning with divine mysteries and secrets. Don t be timid. Tell these. Although you re hesitant to speak out, don t be. Speak of the Fire this vision has shown you. From Hildegard of Bingen, a spiritual reader by Carmen Acevedo Butcher 6) Third Reading: Sojourner Truth Emancipated Slave, Woman s Rights Activist One of the most unique and interesting speeches of the 1851 Women s Rights Convention held in Ohio was made by Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave. It is impossible to transfer it to paper, or convey any adequate idea of the effect it produced upon the audience. Those only can appreciate it who saw her powerful form, her whole-souled, earnest gesture, and listened to her strong and truthful tones. She came forward to the platform and addressing the President said with great simplicity: May I say a few words? Receiving an affirmative answer, she proceeded: I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I can t read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again. Den dat little man in back dar, he say women can t have as much rights as men, cause Christ wan t a woman! Whar did your Christ come from? Rolling thunder couldn t have stilled that crowd, as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated, Whar did you Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin to do wid Him.

3 7) Fourth Reading: Ina Gittings Do We Want Better Onions or Better Coeds? Ina Gittings was a tomboy and a pioneer of women s physical fitness. She graduated from the first women s physical education program in the nation, then went to Germany to provide physical therapy to the wounded Allied soldiers in World War I. She was working with refugees in Turkey when the UA asked her to establish its first physical education program for women. It was 1920, the same year women won the right to vote. When she wanted to build an athletic field for women right where the campus vegetable garden was, the rallying cry became Do we want better onions or better coeds? One day students and faculty converged on the garden and ripped it out. She had her answer. The women s field was completed on that site the next year.you didn t mess with Ina Gittings. 8) Fifth Reading: Hymn by Charlotte M. Brock - U.S. Marine Corps Veteran I sat outside the hangar on a wood board and sang and prayed. I didn t believe in God, but I opened my mind, my heart, my soul to the universe. I asked for guidance and tried to prepare myself for what I was about to do. I sat, knees pressed on my chest, and sang what I could remember of three songs over and over. They were my favorites from Mass, which I hadn t attended in years, until I arrived in Camp Victory, Kuwait, in February 2004 and went to a catholic serviced out of boredom. By chance, three of the hymns sung in the makeshift chapel that Sunday were my favorites: Be Not Afraid, On Eagles Wings and Here I am, Lord.. Sitting outside a hangar a few weeks later, in Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, on that wood board, I hugged my knees and rocked back and forth and sang out loud. I was about to do something that I was sure would change me forever... :I sat with my back to the hangar, looking out at the desert. Here I am Lord, It is I, Lord. I watched the sky darken. I have heard you calling in the night! I felt the hot air and the board and the sand. I watched the sun and the horizon approach one another, I will go, Lord, if you lead me. There was something magical about that song. It seemed to have been written for this moment, for me. I will hold your people in my heart. Finally we got the call. A team of Marines went to meet the plane.i heard them unzip the bag. I took a breath, made a final decision be not afraid - and turned around. I was looking at dirty combat boots, then his camouflage pants, and finally his utilities blouse. I forced myself to look at his face. He was dead

4 The main job of the Mortuary Affairs unit was to get tentative ID on all US casualties and to prepare the remains for shipment to Kuwait, then to Dover Air Force Base, where DNA samples would be used to positively identify them Time spent in Mortuary Affairs was time spent in a world apart. Nothing mattered like taking care of the people who came to us. It was what gave meaning, significance to my life I was a caretaker, a love giver, the mother of the dead. I was Mary bringing Jesus down from the cross and washing her son s body before laying it in the grave. I was the eternal feminine holding the body of the fallen warrior, who in death is just a little boy. By Charlotte Brock in Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq 9) Song: Here I am, Lord # ) Gospel Acclamation 11) Gospel Reading: Luke 13:10-17 God be with you. And also with you. A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke: Glory to you, O. God Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day. But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day? When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 12) Silent Reflection, Dialogue

5 13) Prayer for the Breaking of the Bread God, by living we learn what creation means That out of love, you fashioned us, human, Meaning that we need each other and you. Our Mother and Father who are within us we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits and we let go. You support us in our power and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us and the celebration among us now and for ever. Amen Miriam Therese Winter, MMS Blow your Spirit through us now And through this bread and wine, Create us all again. In your Son, Jesus, you poured your Spirit on all people For he preached release to prisoners, Strength to the weak, Life to those who had died We remember Jesus with his friends. While they were at supper Jesus took bread, blessed it and gave it to his friends, saying: Take this all of you, and eat; you are my body. In the same way, he took the cup filled with wine. He blessed it and gave it to his friends, saying: Take this all of you, and drink, this is the cup of the new and everlasting covenant; you are my promise. Thus we together become Jesus. We form his body, seen by others. We become one. We grow in maturity In the expression, the revelation of who we are, Each one, together. God, we ask that we may hear your call to proclaim, to celebrate the good news: So that we may go out and bear your message in our lives. 14) Song during Sharing the Bread On Eagle s Wings (# 439) 15) Silent Reflection

6 14) Song during Sharing the Bread On Eagle s Wings (# 439) 15) Silent Reflection 16) Blessing May God who birthed and nurtures us, give us strength...may be rejoice that She dances before us, leading our way...may She renew us daily for long-haul faithfulness...and may She enfold us in her compassionate Heart. Amen! Let it be so! 17) Closing Song - Lord of the Dance # 606