LIBERATION LECTIONARY ~ MOTHER’S DAY ~ ANHPI Month

Tender Miracles

“In a time of destruction, create something. A poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.” Maxine Hong Kingston

This Week’s Scripture: Philippians 2

Read the second chapter of Philippians this week. Key Verses: Philippians 2:13-16
“It is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out your God-given purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and corrupt generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world. Hold firmly to the message of life.” Philippians 2:13-16

Lesson - A Tribute to the God Mothers of a Culture

Minister Scholar Jazzy Johnson says “Black Women are tender miracles.” We defy the demands of the empire that dehumanizes and cannot define. We must be held close by each other, encouraged and enlivened by each other. And when we feel our bonds to life’s beauty wearing down, we must speak the language of loving to one another. So that we can remain, not to save the day or run the play, not to lead or to plan, to work or to worry, but to be present, and to be loved.

Our sisters speak divine deliverance into the atmosphere. And that confidence is transferable. You don’t have to possess it in order to trust that it belongs to you.

Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander History Highlight:: Remembering mothers during the Internment.

In Hawai’i, in the 19th century, mothers faced a tough decision: remain in the territory and attempt to eke out a living under the restrictions of martial law, or submit to “voluntary” incarceration on the mainland so that they could be reunited with their spouse.

Women who had the misfortune of losing their husband to the Enemy Alien Control Program, as it came to be known, suddenly found themselves alone in a hostile environment, bearing the full responsibility for supporting their children financially and emotionally. View this moving, tragic and important photo essay on Japanese people - especially mamas - facing the violence of places that the then President himself referred to as “concentration camps.”

Japanese American Mothers During WWII

Artwork from the “Art of Gaman” exhibit. Gaman is a Japanese word which means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.”

Prayer / Poem

“I pray for life for Black women. I believe in Black women. I have faith in our future. I pray that Black women will share our faith in each other. I pray for beginnings and endings. For more sharing our stories. And no more shaming for sadness. For more cries for help. And no more guilt in feeling grief. I pray for beginning to heal, I pray for ending all our hurts. Together.

I pray for a Black woman's worth to no longer be measured by how much pain she can endure. I pray for more than justice. I pray for safe havens for Black women, for blankets and anchors of love, I pray for life - for Black Women.” anonymous

Song: Grandma’s Hands

Experience the video performance HERE

We love the memory of love and strength Bill Withers lets us into through this song. It is both a tribute and a love song - and there are not enough musical reflections on family relationships, unless they are romantic. We need more songs about relationships that shape us, music made for people who deal in the real. Grateful for this reflective prose and poetic song that amplifies the beauty of multi-generational motherhood. Notice how Bill Withers Grandmother is maternal in every space he recalls. What special elements of redemptive love are evident here? How is the grandmother in the story a tender miracle whose majesty causes others to rise?

Grandma's hands Clapped in church on Sunday morning
Grandma's hands Played a tambourine so well
Grandma's hands Used to issue out a warning
She'd say, Billy don't you run so fast Might fall on a piece of glass
Might be snakes there in that grass Grandma's hands.

Grandma's hands Soothed a local unwed mother
Grandma's hands Used to ache sometimes and swell
Grandma's hands Used to lift her face and tell her
She'd say, Baby, grandma understands That you really love that man
Put yourself in Jesus' hands Grandma's hands

Grandma's hands Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands Picked me up each time I fell
Grandma's hands Boy, they really came in handy
She'd say, Matty don' you whip that boy What you want to spank him for?
He didn' drop no apple core . But I don't have grandma anymore

If I get to heaven I'll look for Grandma's hands

Sources & Syllabus

More about Internment Camps from PBS History and from History online

Mothers in Internment Camps from Densho [A note about Densho: this online and touring project documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. This evolved into a mission to educate, preserve, collaborate and inspire action for equity.]

Ascension - Week Two