Lent - Week Four
LIBERATION LECTIONARY - WOMXN’S HISTORY MONTH
Healing from Sexism and Bigotry
“Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.” Bayard Rustin
Zanele Muholi
In the Bible, people are called men or women, boys or girls. These are gender types and identities. But because God and even the angels do not identify as a gender, we believe that all gender identities deserve to be respected. God transcends all identities and loves everyone! Sexism is when someone is mistreated because of their gender identity. This can look like saying girls aren’t strong, boys can’t like the color pink, or that someone isn’t the gender identity they say they are. This is bigotry, which is being unkind and unwelcoming of someone’s identity, opinions, or choices because they’re not the same as ours. Everyone can identify however they want and have their own opinions and choices as long as they’re not harming someone else.
Daily Readings from Isaiah 53 and John 16
During the Season of Lent, the daily readings focus on the final teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John, and the Suffering Servant prophetic prose from Isaiah’s second scroll.
Sunday: Isaiah 53:7-8 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
Monday: John 16.5-11 But now I am going to Them who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Her to you. And when She comes, She will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
Tuesday: John 16.12-15 “I still have many things to say to you, but you would not understand them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, She will guide you into all the truth; for She will not speak on her own, but will speak whatever She hears, and She will declare to you the things that are to come. She will glorify me, because She will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that the Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Wednesday: John 16.16-20 “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.
Thursday: John 16.21-24 When a someone is in child labor, they have pain, because the hour has come. But when the child is born, they no longer remember the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
Friday: John 16.25-30 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.”
Saturday John 16.31-33 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
Reflection: Healing from Wounds of Bigotry and Sexism
“Your people will be established in justice; you will be settled and safe, far away from oppression, for you shall not fear; and far from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from God; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.” Isaiah 54.14-15
There is a place for everyone who wants to join the movement for freedom. When we build communities, we are making a home and deciding who is welcome there. Some schools don’t allow girls to wear pants or boys to have long hair. Some communities have rules against hair styles that are worn mostly by Black and brown people. There are communities that dictate what love is, and how people should and should not express different kinds of love. In the communities where God is the Builder and chief architect, the rules are summed up in a commandment to love, and a commandment to reduce harm and share wealth.
Artwork from the Forward Together Network
The other spaces described are at risk of setting up a society based on bigotry. Bigotry happens when someone is convinced that a particular group of people must be treated with hatred. This happens often to people who identify as queer or transgender. Sexism is similar to bigotry; it means treating someone badly because of their sex. More often than now, people who identify as women are victims of sexism. When bigotry and sexism are the basis for building communities, we are creating a space where not everyone is welcomed, and where only certain people have power. Freedom Movements that follow God are spaces that change and grow so that everyone feels welcomed and empowered.
Bayard Rustin was an activist and organizer. He was a Christian, gay man who challenged the freedom movements of his day to change and grow so that his entire self would be welcome. Bayard Rustin is our example of healing in history this week.
Civil Rights Organizer and Nonviolent Activist, Bayard Rustin was a key strategist in the movement to win equal voting rights for Black people in the United States. He helped to plan and organize both the 1963 March on Washington and the Freedom Rides. Despite his many contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, Bayard was pushed into the background because of his identity as a gay man. We can commit to healing justice by talking about Bayard Rustin as an honored ancestor. We can show love and respect to our queer neighbors. We can join in the fight for freedom for all Black people, no matter how they live out their desires to love.
Deborah was a ruler in ancient, biblical times, when communities were governed by people called Judges. She was the only woman recorded in the Bible as a Judge. She was also a poet and singer, prophet, and a warrior. It’s exciting to see people like Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson making history right now just like Deborah in the past. And Judge Deborah is our example of healing in the Bible this week.
In the book of Judges, chapters 4-5, we find the story of a great warrior, prophet, leader, and decision maker. This story is about a woman named Deborah. She had the title of Judge, a type of community advisor and ruler whose power came from the people, for the purpose of helping the people to live healthy, loving lives. Deborah fought a major battle for her people, and she prophesied that the hero of the battle would be yet another woman. When Deborah’s friend, the military general named Barak, asked her to bring her expertise to the fight, she told him that she had seen the future of them winning the struggle, but the glory going to a woman. General Barak was humble enough to say that what mattered to him was his people’s freedom. We can see healing in this story because Deborah’s gender was respected and her prophecies, power and decisions were honored as equal.
What a concept! In current Black history-making in the United States, Ketanji Brown Jackson is the President’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice. She has more trial experience than all of the other justices combined, but she is being questioned on what children’s books she might attempt to sneak into the public eye, in order to bend the nation to her own agenda. Judge Jackson is a Black woman whose story represents the consistent self-healing that is expected of us when the world refuses to cease the harm. The way she is being treated is an indication of the kind of people who are trying to hold power in the community of this country.
No Black women have ever held the seat of Supreme Court Justice in the United States. Since the court’s founding, 114 Americans have served as judges, all but six of them have been white men.
We need a new rule in our community. We need a better ruler. We need a Builder who will boldly place power into the hands of Judges who bring more than a different demographic. We need people in power whose hopes include the healing of our nation, and the welcoming of everyone who wants to fight for freedom.
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Links to learn more about Bayard Rustin: From the King Institute // From Bayard’s former Partner
Links to learn more about Deborah the Judge // and about the US Supreme Court