Liberators

Monday, July 20, 2009 -- Week of Proper 11, Year One
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman, Liberators and Prophets

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 976)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) 44 (evening)
1 Samuel 24:1-22
Acts 13:44-52
Mark 4:1-20


I reset my clock wrongly (changing the alarm but not the time) and ended up sleeping an hour more than usual. Probably needed it.

My mind will be full of General Convention images for a while, I imagine. As I read Mark's gospel passages about the seeds that fall on different soils, producing different results, I thought of all of those resolutions from General Convention. Each of those attempts to articulate a sense of God's word and mission to us today will have a varied history. Some will take root and be fruitful; a few on rocky soil will be non-starters; others will have a brief history and fade away quickly; still others will be choked by various forms of "the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things."

The quick publicity has mostly surrounded two decisions -- C025 and D056 -- reflections on the relationship of the church with our gay and lesbian members. Already thorns have risen to choke and attack those words.

As I read this morning in 1 Samuel of the story of Saul's pursuit of David, it morphed into a metaphor for some of the Anglican Communion's intention to attack and subdue the Episcopal Church. Some see us as enemy, intending to break the Communion, snubbing the instruments of communion and the Archbishop, walking away from relationship. No, no, and no, is our answer. But can that answer be heard?

Paul's conflicts in Acts have some resemblance to our own. Paul was accused of blasphemy by his Jewish brothers because they rejected his interpretation of scripture to support his experience of Jesus as Messiah. He also faced opposition from fellow Christians because Paul recognized the presence of the Spirit in Gentiles, baptized them and laid hands on them for ministry, contrary to scripture and tradition. Throughout his ministry Paul was in continued controversy because of his desire for inclusion of the Gentiles. I see Paul as a patron for those who desire full inclusion for our LGBT neighbors.

Today is our commemoration of four liberators and prophets -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman. Stanton debated the conventional interpretation of scripture and tradition which enforced subordination of women and prohibited them from ordination and from equal access to work and to vote. Bloomer joined the struggle for women's rights to the emancipation movement on behalf of slaves, becoming a latter day Moses. Escaped slave Sojourner Truth proclaimed and claimed her equal dignity and rights as an African American woman. Tubman also escaped slavery and worked personally as well as with the Union Army to free slaves from their bondage.

Today's gay rights movement picks up its banner from the abolitionists, the women suffragettes, and the civil rights movements. It is important to realize that each of these groups had to overcome entrenched interpretations of the Bible which condoned their oppression; they had to overcome centuries of custom and all of the intrenched structures and institutions which felt threatened by the claims of equality.

Abolitionist Theodore Parker claimed that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Martin Luther King, Jr. picked up that phrase, as have gay rights activists. The small steps that our General Convention made on behalf of justice, compassion and love are in a powerful stream of liberating tradition which moves from Moses, through Jesus and Paul, into the movements that have freed slaves and still are bringing liberation to women and people of color. At every step there is conflict and opposition.

I find encouragement largely out of my own story. I grew up in the segregated South. I remember the fear. My friends and neighbors were certain that integration would destroy order and good life. Their fears were unfounded. God's will for ever-expanding justice, compassion and love is an irresistible stream. In the end, love will triumph. As Bishop Maze likes to say, "In the end, there is only God."

Lowell
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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas