https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiaPnnY6--I
Liturgy with ARCWP priests- Ann Latour and Annie Watson -at St. Jerome Parish in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Our Mother Mary is great, isn’t she. We are so lucky to have such a loving Mother. And yet the church likes to paint her as very passive, meek, and lowly – but this is not the Mary that I know. yet This is a woman that states boldly that God will cast down the mighty in their arrogance and send the rich away empty. God will lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things. This is a woman who knows and understands God. And this is the woman who taught Jesus.
Jesus was not formed in a vacuum – he was shaped to be the man he was by his mother, a woman. This woman who understood what it was like to be poor, to be unpopular, to almost be divorced – rejected by her betrothed. This is the woman who shaped the man Jesus. A man who says, mirroring his mother’s Magnificat:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness – for they shall be filled.
Jesus’ mission starts NOT at the wedding at Canna, it didn’t startat his baptism with John, Jesus’ mission starts with Mary’s fiatwhen she finds herself pregnant with Jesus in the womb and calls out for God’s justice. This is where it begins.
In Genesis, when the “wind” sweeps over the waters of the earth in the creation story, the verb for the wind is the same verb as a hen “Wafting” her wings – it is a feminine God who wafts her wings and brings forth creation.
And now Jesus, too, is likening God to a mother hen, longing to gather up her children under her protective wings, wafting and waiting for her people to see and believe in her.
So today let us rejoice for the all the women who recognize Jesus, in his ministry and in the early church. How often are we told that Jesus was left alone and abandoned - friendless at the cross. Who grew up hearing that? But that is not true – it does not reflect the fidelity of the women Apostles of Christ.
The women Apostles of Christ were there when they Crucified our Lord, they were there when they nailed him to the tree. Andthey were there when they laid him in the tomb. They were there at the tomb waiting and watching all weekend with fidelity and love – love for the Lord, very priestly characteristics. AND, because they were there, they were the first chosen to goproclaim the Resurrection to the world - given the Apostolic mission to “go and tell” – to bring the Gospel to the world.
In the early church there were many women serving God and the community. Phoebe is the only Deacon mentioned in the bible. And there was Mary and the Apostle Junia. Paul fled to Lydia’s house where she had a home church when he got out of jail. Why are these women erased? Why have they been hidden from us? Why is the truth buried in Patriarchal lies?
We’re in Holy Week and Jesus is about to be betrayed. And this is a very personal betrayal to Jesus –it is going to come from one who “dips his hand” into the dish with him – someone so veryclose to him that he that he is basically eating off of the same plate.
But there is a different kind of betrayal, and that is the betrayal of the Patriarchal church and its dismissal of women.
We women in the Church feel unheard, unseen and undervalued. And yet the early church was full of women’s leadership.
Today, we hunger for a Church that welcomes women’s voices at every level –and we are turned away from the fullness of our Baptismal promises - our baptismal inheritance. The very baptismal equality that Paul understands is denied today.
Jesus likens the kingdom to yeast, which a woman hides in three measures of flour. The yeast eventually leavens the whole mixture. This parable suggests that the kingdom's influence can spread throughout the world, transforming it from the inside out– so tonight let us all be that leven.
Let us endure. Let Zeal for Gods house consume us. WE love our faith – we will not be separated from where we abide; where we live and move and have our being – where we sit at table with Jesus and dip our hand into the dish with him. We will not be separated from our Jesus who taught and LIVED inclusivity - however the church might deny that truth. We call upon our foremothers in faith and bring Christ’s Gospel to the world – they did not turn away from Christ’s mission nor will we.
To all my sisters, and brothers, who feel weary, it is time to demand justice. We will not walk away from Christ – we will walk with Christ. And to the church itself, its leaders, it pastors, even its people, we must ask: how long must we wait? How long will you continue to betray your sisters and deny our baptismal equality?
A church that follows Christ must be a church that listens, that lifts up the voices of all - that allows the gifts of all of its member to flourish. As we walk together this week towards the cross, let us remember: Christ’s suffering was for all.
But let’s remember more importantly that His resurrection is for all of us too. And His church must belong to all. So let’s take ownership. We have zeal in our hearts and God’s words on our tongues, and we are not afraid. AMEN.
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