UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in Simi Valley
Fourth Sunday of Easter - May 11, 2003 - Mothers' Day
Anne G. Cohen
In Preparation for Worship:
The mother of us all,
the oldest of all,
hard,
splendid as rock
Whatever there is that is of the land
is she
who nourishes it,
it is the Earth
that I sing
Whoever you are,
howsoever you come
across her sacred ground
you of the sea,
you that fly,
it is she
who nourishes you
she,
out of her treasures
Beautiful children
beautiful harvests
are achieved from you
The giving of life itself,
the taking of it back...
- The Homeric Hymns, Greek (c.6500 b.c.e.)
Faces of Love
I met a shepherd once - in seminary. He was tall and weather worn.
A
long dark coat and a pair of heavy boots set him apart from most other
seminarians. The fact of his quiet introversion did not. His eyes
were
kind and his eyebrows were thick.
There were lines along his nose and mouth that were so deep they were
shadowed. Shallower lines creased his skin by the corners of his eyes.
He looked as if his own stillness and stolidity had been carved and
deepened by cold wind and hot sun, driving rain and the passage of
time. He was the visual personification of The Good Shepherd. The
sight of him allowed me to trust that he was ready to stand between
danger and those entrusted to him.
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His name is nowhere to be found on the hillsides of my memory - but the
text for this morning describing The Good Shepherd brings his face to
mind. And because of that mental image, The Good Shepherd - as a
metaphor for Divine Love - works for me - in spite of the lack of
abundance of shepherds in modern, urban society.
Every metaphor does not work for every person. One of the gifts of
scripture is that it contains hundreds of metaphors for how The Divine
works in our lives. And many of those metaphors bring to mind the faces
of love that we have experienced in our own times.
In Genesis, God's procreative powers are described with a feminine
Hebrew word - "Ruah" - which means spirit or breath or wind or air.
In Leviticus God's guiding, sustaining, fiery presence is called
"Shekinah" - yet another feminine Hebrew word.
In Joshua - Yeshua in Hebrew, Jesus in Greek - God is our Deliverer,
Captain of our Salvation.
In the Book of Ruth, God is our "kinfolk-redeemer" - personified in
Ruth
- a foreign woman who remains faithful to her Jewish Mother-in-law,
Naomi.
In the Historical books, God is the source of rain, a burst of flame, a
still, small voice, a miracle.
The Psalms tell us about God the singer and shepherd, refuge and
mountain, a mother eagle teaching her young to fly.
In Wisdom literature, God is "Sophia" - wisdom as woman, lover and
wife.
In Prophetic books, God is a suffering servant, a potter working clay,
a promise of a new covenant, fire shut up in our bones,
a weeping prophet, an interpreter of dreams,
a faithful husband, the source of vision,
the bearer of burdens, a child of righteousness,
a bird rising with healing in her wings.
(See Paul Lance, Sermon for Central Association)
There are so many faces - perhaps one of them fires your imagination and
reminds you of a moment when you and God came face to face.
This was only a smattering of images from the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Christian Scriptures pile metaphor upon metaphor, image upon image,
face upon face - as each writer tries to express their experience of
Divine Love - embodied in Jesus/Yeshua - incarnate in the Holy
Spirit/Ruah.
For many of us the first image we have of Divine Love is the face of the
woman who mothered us - mother or grandmother, sister or neighbor,
teacher or mentor. If you close your eyes you might see that face again
-
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hovering over you with concern and affection, a song or a lap or a
blanket or a meal ready for you and you alone.
We have many of these faces on the altar this morning. I encourage you
to take time after worship to come up and look into the eyes of these
women. Somewhere in these eyes - I know - you will find the light of
Divine Love - shining from within.
There are some forms of love that are foreign to us - so strange that we
don't even perceive it as love - or perhaps we see it as a form of love
of which not everyone is capable.
You may have heard the story told by Dr. Bob Pierce, founder of World
Vision. A woman came to his orphanage in Korea - shortly after the
Korean War ended. She was destitute and wanted the orphanage to take
her newborn son because she couldn't feed him.
It was clear that if World Vision did not take the baby - it would die.
But she was turned away because the orphanage was already bursting at
the seams. They told her that, at the present moment, they could only
take children with no living parents.
Soon after the woman left the orphanage, Dr. Pierce found her beside the
road - dead - lines from her tears still tracking her dusty cheeks. Her
hungry, crying son lay next to her. She had used a broken coke bottle
to slash her jugular vein. Pinned to the baby's blanket was a note:
"Now you must take this baby, it has no living parents."
(Good News,
Chinese Community Church 1/2000)
If the world were a different place, if human beings were at peace with
themselves and one another and intent on caring for one another - such
faces of love would be scarce - as they would be unnecessary.
But the human condition, the state of our world community - makes such
faces both necessary and plentiful.
They are the faces of those who stand between danger and those who have
been entrusted to them. Sometimes they are the ones who perish so that
others might live. And sometimes they are the ones who perish alongside
of others - so that they will not perish alone.
A Christian holocaust survivor once said that Jesus was in the ovens
with the Jews who were being murdered by the Nazis. This same person
also
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said that if Jesus was in the ovens, he was also outside the ovens -
with the Nazis - not cheering them on - but pleading with them - in the
name of love - to stop.
The faces of love are not always comforting to us - sometimes they are
deeply lined with suffering and outrage, with grief and the radical
actions of social redemption - a form of tough love that is hard to live
out in day to day life.
There were thousands of such faces three years ago at the Million Mom
March - a gathering of women in the streets of Washington D.C., Los
Angeles and other large cities across the nation. It was an action
designed to bring awareness to the general public and motivate our
government to move on the necessity for GUN CONTROL. It was an act of
love on the part of mothers past, present and future - on behalf of the
children of our nation who belong to all of us - children who are being
twisted and killed by gun violence in our culture.
The face of God was visibly begging for love and reason to prevail -
pleading with our gun lobby and the NRA and our congress to stop.
A lot of those faces have been at vigils and rallies recently - standing
grimly between the current U.S. Administration and those who can no
longer be entrusted to its care. These faces have held signs, lit
candles, written letters, become human shields, prayed and risked arrest
- in the face of powers hell-bent on solving problems with warfare.
Women (and men) stood between war and the innocents of the world. And
the face of God wept at the loss of life, the maiming of bodies, the
suffering, the damage to relationships around the world - as bombs fell
- as shock and awe descended upon us all.
If the world were a different place, human shields and protesters would
not be necessary. But they are necessary. And God accompanies every
one of them - keeping an eye on all of her children.
There is one face of love that I am going to leave you with - as I bring
this sermon to a close. It will be a picture in her own words.
Listen
to the sound of her voice. Hear the sharp pain in her heart, the depth
of love she has for her children. And as I read these words - I hope
that you will see the face of someone you know and love - that you will
look into the mirror of your own soul - and find the face of Divine Love
waiting for you.
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In response to many letters to the editor of the Valley News in Vermont
- regarding a ruling regarding civil rights for gay couples, Sharon
Underwood wrote this editorial:
****************************************************
Subject: Vermont editorial
Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD For the Valley News
(White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH)
****************************************************
As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided
people can be. Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning
the homosexual menace in Vermont.
I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and
your
allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating
sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me
of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny. My firstborn
son
started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your
moral,
upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was
physically
and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school
because he was perceived to be gay. He never professed to be gay or had
any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk
or have gestures like the other boys.
He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6. In
high
school,
while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine
labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his
family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the
heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue
living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't
face a life
without dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children
from
the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and
drive
children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that
God
didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone
to
abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time
you
started doing that. At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the
belief
that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of
subculture
out there that people have chosen to join.
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The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours,
and
you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something
occurs
during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only
tell
you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn. If you want to tout
your
own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than
your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you.
If you
disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own
heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on
my
part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever
change it.
For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a
character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a
10-step
program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is
nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at
will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone
else
can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by
outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for
generations. I
am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you
are
speaking for "true Vermonters." You invoke the memory of the brave
people
who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that
they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could
tear
down
the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some
of
the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the
Purple Heart. He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has
had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles,
that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in
the
service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did
find
out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges
from
the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong
companion
and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he
should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to
make
medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing
inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very
existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You
use
religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings.
There
are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant.
God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has
committed no sin.
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The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who
lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have
been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks:
"Whatever
happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we
are?"
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
********
Sharon Underwood lives in White River Junction, VT
********
The face of Divine Love is creased by weather and worry, suffering and
affection. Divine Love stands in defense of those entrusted to her, she
stands between danger and her children. Divine Love works day and night
to keep her living, breathing, beloved children far from the ravages of
racism and sexism, homophobia and classism, gun cultures and warfare,
the sickness that spreads through hatred and intolerance.
May we seek out the many faces of Divine Love - and remember - that we
are made in that same image. May we live our lives in such a way that
the face of Divine Love can be seen in the eyes, in the deep creases, in
the suffering and affection of our own faces.
********************
Pastoral Prayer
Divine Love that fires the sun and burns in our hearts, we come to You
in prayer - this conversation - heart to heart - with the One Who Made
Us.
We hold many in our hearts - caring for ones that You have entrusted to
us.
We lift them up to you with hopes for Your healing touch.
. Our beautiful child, Kira, awaits a new heart. Hold this child in
your loving arms.
. We pray for our members who have disabilities and are unable to join
us in this house of worship. Let them know that they are in the hearts
of all of us and are beloved of many.
. We pray in particular for those who have lost their mothers - through
death or illness, miscommunication or distance - and ask for healing of
grief and reparation of the breach - reconciliation between parent and
child.
. We pray for mothers who have lost their children - through warfare or
abuse, racism or homophobia, kidnapping or gangs, guns or substance
use. May the unending grief of these mothers be forged into new laws
and policies that stand between danger and all children entrusted to our
care.
Divine Love, be a Mother to us. Look upon us with acceptance and
affection. Stand between us and those things which would harm us.
Guide us, lead us, move us - to protect our children, to work for
justice, to act in ways that others might see Your face in ours.
We pray these things in the name of Christ - Yeshua - the face of Divine
Love that walks with us and among us even now. Amen.
**************
BULLETIN
Music for Gathering Jesus Had a Mama Like
Mine trad/spiritual
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
The 23rd
Psalm (Dedicated to My Mother)
by Bobby McFerrin, Medicine Music
+ Hymn of Welcome Part of the
Family
CSB # 46
+ Invocation (unison)
Almeda Babcock
HaShem, God whose name is Breath and Life,
Wisdom and Flame, Mother and Messiah,
Shepherd and Interpreter of Dreams, Healer and Mirror of the Soul,
Lover and Wife, Wellspring of Life.
HaShem, we call upon Your name - which holds all names -
and ask your presence among us this day.
Let your face look upon us with mercy and delight,
let your face shine upon us with extravagant love.
Let your face be seen in the faces of our Mothers and Grandmothers,
daughters and granddaughters, wives and friends throughout their lives.
May the light in their eyes be the beauty of You alive in them.
HaShem, God whose Name is other than the earth and younger than
eternity,
we ask your blessing upon all women and men, all children of earth
on this beautiful morning which is evidence of your love.
In gratitude we pray and praise your Holy name. Amen.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul
waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress. I will be at peace.
Silent
Reflection
The
Assurance of Good News (unison)
HaShem, your
face looks upon us with mercy and delight,
your face shines upon us with extravagant love.
You have blessed us - with life and with beauty.
May your name be praised!
Sung
Response
"Hallelujah. God be praised!"
Conversation with Our Children
My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
A Russian folktale, retold by Becky Reyher
Reading from the Christian Gospels
Babcock
+ Hymn of the Shepherd God Is My
Shepherd Hymnal # 479
Teaching and Proclamation Faces of
Love Anne Cohen
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to
Prayer Be still and know that I am God Hymnal #
743
Time for
Silence
Our Joys and
Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung
Response
In Solitude Hymnal #521 vv. 1 & 2
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory
Prayer of
Dedication (unison)
Almeda Babcock
Tender Spirit, touch us.
Through our offerings be touched by us;
make us lovers of humanity,
compassionate friends of all creation.
Loving Parent, hear us into speech;
speak us into acting;
and through us, recreate the world. Amen.
Celebration of Holy Communion
+ Communion
Round Be Known to Us in Breaking Bread
Hymnal
#342
Invitation
Sharing the Bread and the Cup
Communion
will be served to you as you remain seated.
Please wait until all have been served before eating the bread -
and again before drinking the cup - to signify our unity with one
another and with all who eat and drink at God's table this day.
Prayer of
Thanksgiving
(unison)
Almeda
Babcock
We affirm the goodness of life and the openness of the future because
our God is a God of life and love. As God comes to us in this act of
communion, so let us go out to others in acts which bring healing,
reconciliation and hope to our world. Amen.
+ Hymn of Love O God, Whose Steadfast
Love Hymnal # 426
+ Commissioning (unison)
Now may the courage of the early morning's dawning
The strength of the eternal hills
The wide open fields, the silent streams
The beauty of flowered gardens
The love of the family which can bring peace to the world
The life that is Christ
The peace of the evening's ending
And of the midnight
Be with you now and forever more
Amen
+ Sung
Response
Hymnal # 236
Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja, Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja,
Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja, Halleluja, halleluja.
+ Postlude
***
WORSHIP NOTES
The cross marks (+) in the order of service are an invitation
for those in the congregation who are able to stand to do so.
The New Century Hymnal or "Hymnal" has a black cover.
The Chapel Songbook is a blue, looseleaf notebook.
Commissioning is by The Rev. Roy Burkhardt, U.C.C., Ohio