Womxn's History Month - Week One
LIBERATION LECTIONARY - LENT
Reverence for the Resistance
I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.' And I did." Claudette Colvin
Aida Muluneh - Local Understanding
Daily Scriptures from Psalm 95 and 96
Sunday: Psalm 95:1-2 Let us sing to the Lord! Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation! Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to the Lord with songs of praise!
Monday: Psalm 95:3-4 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In Their hand are the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains. The sea belongs to Them and is Their creation; Their hands formed the dry land.
Tuesday: Psalm 95:6-7 O come, let us worship before the Lord, our Creator! This is our God, and we are the people of Their pasture, the sheep of Their hand. Today, let us follow Their voice.
Wednesday: Psalm 96:1-2 Sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to Yahweh, praise His name; proclaim God’s salvation from day to day.
Thursday: Psalm 96:3-4 Declare the Lord’s glory among the nations, Their wonderful works among all peoples. For the Lord is great, highly praised, and feared above all gods.
Friday: Psalm 96:5-6 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before The Lord; strength and beauty are in Their sanctuary.
Saturday: Psalm 96:7-9 Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord’s glory and strength. Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of Their name; bring an offering and enter Their courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of Their holiness; tremble before the Lord, all the earth.
Reflection
This week marks the second week of Lent. Last week we were not quite done celebrating Black history, culture, people, futures and love. But we began the season with an Ash Wednesday reflection from Rev. Michelle Higgins on the Festival Center’s devotional materials. We have used a few different devotionals this season so far. Here are some recommendations for reflection and scripture learning through this season.
We Have Fallen Short, this week’s entry from the devotional focused on 50 years of failure, the story of mass incarceration
Justice Unbound: With Creation Lent Devotional - this reflection guide centers creation and climate justice.
Abolition Lectionary, updated weekly, much like this space.
Aida Muluneh - City Life
Music for the Season
Follow along with the Lent / Womxn’s History Month playlist
Claudette Colvin
Mediations for Womxns History Month
On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin boarded a bus home from school. Fifteen years old, the tiny Colvin attended Booker T. Washington High School. She’d been politicized by the mistreatment of her classmate Jeremiah Reeves and had just written a paper on the problems of downtown segregation. On the bus home that day, the white section filled up. A white woman was left standing. The driver called out, and the three students sitting in Colvin’s row got up but Colvin refused. “We’d been studying the Constitution…I knew I had rights.”
The standing white woman refused to sit across the aisle from her. “If she sat down in the same row as me, it meant I was as good as her,” Colvin noted. The driver yelled out again, “Why are you still sittin’ there?” Colvin recalled. “A white rider yelled from the front, ‘You got to get up!’” A girl named Margaret Johnson answered from the back, “She ain’t got to do nothin’ but stay black and die.” - from the Rosa Parks Insitute
Claudette in her own words:
“I always tell young people to hold on to their dreams. And sometimes you have to stand up for what you think is right even if you have to stand alone.” -Claudette Colvin
"It felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing me down on one shoulder, and Harriet Tubman was pushing me down on the other shoulder, saying,"Sit down girl!" -Claudette Colvin
Today’s meditation is dedicated to Claudette Colvin and every Black woman who has ever felt invisible or who has ever been asked to labor on behalf of a movement that did not welcome or celebrate you. Thank you for your service and the way you show up for your people. Today you are seen and appreciated.
Dear God, we are thankful for brave Black women like Claudette. She was written out of the story, and this happens a lot. Help us write her, and others like her, back in. Amen.
Prayer from Plymouth Congregational Church