SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN

#108                                                   SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN                                                                          

Scripture Luke 1:46-55; 2:4-7, 33-35, 40 NIV                                                                                             Orig. 5/10/64

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. 5-9-86 (5/77) 

Passage: Luke 1 

⁴⁶ And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

Luke 2

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Purpose:  On the occasion of Mother’s Day, to share with my people a particular understanding of the meaning of Women’s Liberation

Keywords:          Dedication          Duty      Liberation            Marriage              Motherhood                      Special Day

Introduction

                Before allowing Mary to testify to us of a truly liberated woman, may I call your attention to her Old Testament counterpart, named Esther.  History paints a rather dim picture of woman’s place during her day.  There were no feminine aspirations to equality, and the men were intent on keeping it that way. Esther and others like her lived in the crucible of inequality.

                Just before Esther makes her timely appearance, the beautiful Vashti was queen.  But now she has been deposed.  She embarrassed her husband and benefactor, the powerful King Ahasuerus, of Media/Persia and “125 other provinces from India to Ethiopia.”  Vashti had been summoned to come and parade her beauty before the lustful eyes of the lesser princes of the realm.  She refused.  Now there is liberation.  However, the menfolks decided that unless the king acted swiftly, this kind of uppitiness was sure to catch on with their wives.  We are not told that she was punished, only that she was deposed, stripped of her royal estate.  My knowledge of the period is limited, but Vashti would have been better off dead.

                Herein steps Esther.  That’s like following Nixon in the White House, or Edwards in the State House.  Esther, did you learn anything?  Esther, did you learn anything?  Do you know to come when you are called? Otherwise, enjoy yourself in the lap of luxury.

                Esther had an older kinsman who saw her in this new role as a standard bearer for Hebrew liberation.  Perhaps a dark-skinned Joan of Arc.  She just wanted her skin left intact.  Don’t forget that it was Mordecai, the kinsman, who was at fault in this mess.  The Jews were in the hotbox they were in because Mordecai would not bow before and reverence one of the king’s princes.  So, Mordecai challenges Esther, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  It is to the truly liberated women who have functioned with queenly honor in a man’s world that this salute is addressed.

I.             The Liberated Woman’s Devotion of Faith.  Luke 1:46 “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”  It is the devotion to achieve what she can, while she can, where she can, to the glory of God.  You have the privilege of living in the world’s finest hour for women’s rights.  Don’t forget the achievements of your sisters: Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, Mary, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale.  Do those at the forefront today deserve the credit? It was an idea whose time had come.  Many think equality discounts God because He is male.

                The New Orleans Times Picayune printed an article written by a nun about God the Mother.  Did she believe it, or was it cleverness?  We have some right to get away from terms of God’s sexuality.  God the Father still says something that God the Person never will.  He is wholly Other.

                So, we are making peace with old and often outmoded concepts.  There are men who want to keep their women subservient.

Genesis 2:18, King James Version: “I will make him an helpmeet for him.”

Me: “I will make him his counterpart to complement and complete him.”

Society is not dependent on “family as we have known it,” but on family.  In the dimension of faith, if woman chooses equality, she loses uniqueness. 

Statistics show greater equality, also, lung cancer, sclerosis, heart disease. Statistic: Less than 100 of 1000 women between 15-44 are married; babies are having babies; abortion on demand; etc.

Women’s truest liberator and liberation is in the dimension of faith.  Some go for headlines: “Six Woman Basketball Illegal,” “All Boys’ Choir Falls Victim to Women’s Lib.”  But the real discovery is that of Faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”  Therein she becomes the enabler—the Christian mother.

II.            The Liberated Woman’s Detachment for Her Husband.  Luke 2:4, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, . . . unto Bethlehem, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”  The consensus of concern remains that the husband be the provider of sustenance.  It becomes more difficult for one income to suffice.  In either case, the wife becomes the principal enabler.  She is more often the one called upon to make sacrifices to complement her life to that of her husband.  The Biblical record sustains this.

                But the place of authority figure is not the intent.  The first compulsion of God on female or male is faith.  I like what a sainted seminary professor used to say, “The wife submits, not because she has found her master, but because her heart has found its rest.”

III.           The Liberated Woman’s Duty in Motherhood.  Luke 2:7, “She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  She was called upon, as mothers often are, to make fullest use of circumstances.  A cattle stall became a castle under a loving mother’s hand. 

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to begin as early as possible to complement and supplement spiritual instruction. Knowing what they are learning that is potentially harmful is half the battle.  Tipper Gore fought for moral responsibility in popular music. 

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to pray unendingly for God’s sustenance, encouraging them outside the nest while knowing the dangers and counteracting.  Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, . . . in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that from all these, God will bring you into judgment.”  But, you see, this is a happy eventuality when the child has learned that the judgment of God is to be trusted.

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to challenge to seek and follow God’s will as He reveals it.  Liberation for its own right is a basket of summer fruit, rotten and contaminated.  One can make peace with God’s will.

Driving from Alexandria to Baton Rouge, I met a young man on his way west about twenty miles out of Baton Rouge.  He was a rover.  Across his chest was a guitar.  On his back he carried his backpack, complete with a map of his itinerary.  All of this while he pedaled a monocycle.  He claimed liberation.  Some might claim that he was being victimized by this roving spirit.

Conclusion

                Devotion to Christ!  Detachment for husband and family!  Duty!  These are the clarion calls of true liberation.  Someone has said, “When a woman is possessed by Jesus Christ, something more significant happens to her than could ever happen to a man.”

                Khalil Gibran, in his book, “Jesus, the Son of Man,” includes what he interprets to be the feeling that Mary Magdalene had for Jesus.  “Then Jesus looked at her and said, ‘You have many lovers, yet I alone love you.  Other men love themselves in your nearness, I love you in yourself.  Other men see beauty in you that shall fade away sooner than their own years. I see a beauty in you that shall not fade away, and in the autumn of your days that beauty shall not be afraid to gaze at itself in the mirror, and it shall not be offended.’”